ALT-7 Should Employee Performance Reviews be Abolished – No
In a job environment where performance determines eligibility for a raise or promotion, absolutely not! And for most companies, their size does not allow for an organized process to evaluate employees to be abolished - a system to do it is a necessity for anyone to be recognized.
Although a performance review can be a routine, boring, and awkward process where your boss sits with you and discusses your accomplishments (and shortcomings) over a given period of time (usually the last 6 months or year), many companies require a certain rating or score on such a review to determine if you deserve a pay increase or more responsibility.
Different work places will have different agendas behind these reviews. Some employers use them to set new objectives for the employee to keep their job challenging and interesting. Some will use this time strictly to set fresh goals depending on their current needs. And in some cases, reviews are just a formality that is irrelevant to whether you get promoted or moved up the chain.
In companies where employees are merely ID numbers (because of how large they are), a review is actually ALL the hope you have at moving forward, because your name, face, and individual contribution cannot, and do not, be recalled as vividly and specifically as you would like them to be. A performance review is your chance to have a record in a file or database somewhere, documenting your scores over time and showing a record of increased experience when you need your boss to look it up as proof that you are ready for the next big thing. As impersonal as it sounds, that is a valid and practiced way to remember which employees are worthy of advancement in today's world.
I have even seen corporate information systems that automatically add a certain percentage to your electronically generated paystub at a given time every year, if your logged performance scores meet a certain standard. A system where those little numbers that are so boring to talk to your boss about are the direct trigger for your higher salary.
Generally speaking, a review can be beneficial regardless. If anything, it's a personal checkpoint to see how you are doing so far. It may be a wake-up call to evaluate if your position sounds promising enough or a dead-end. Or it may be just the boost you need to keep doing exactly what you are doing because someone took the time to pat you on the back with specific details on the giid things you have done.
We all need a certain degree of reassurance from time to time, a confirmation that we're okay.
Without any checkpoints, encouragement, suggestions, and constructive criticism, I feel that we would not grow and would eventually lose direction.
