Performance Reviews Under Siege

New Yorker writer Vauhini Vara finds something like the performance review as far back as 3rd century China. They’ve always been subject to criticism, but what’s going on today amounts to a trend. Some major companies – Microsoft, Gap and Accenture, among them – are either reforming them, tweaking them or getting rid of the altogether. High cost, financial and otherwise, and the tendency of managers to inflate ratings are among the reasons cited, but probably most telling and potentially explosive is the recognition that evaluations largely reflect the beliefs and biases of the evaluator. But performance evaluations exist for a reason, so the next question becomes how to reform the process, or what you put in its place.