Performance Reviews

Performance reviews fail most often because one meeting is carrying three purposes that work against each other.

Development. Requires honesty about weaknesses, which requires the person to feel safe admitting them.

Pay and progression. Requires a defensible rating, which gives the person every reason to present their best case and concede nothing.

Documentation. Requires a written record that will hold up if the relationship ends badly, which makes both parties cautious.

Run together, the second and third crowd out the first. Nobody discusses a genuine weakness in a meeting that determines their pay.

Separating them helps a great deal. Hold the development conversation at a different time of year from the rating decision, keep different notes, and say clearly which one this meeting is.

The Fair Work Commission considers what was documented and when. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s performance review software and performance management system.