Americans Want Overhaul of Performance Reviews, Says Globoforce

 According to Globoforce’s Summer 2013 Workforce Mood Tracker, many workers do not feel that their workplace achievements are fully accounted for by traditional performance reviews. Employees noted flaws in how performance appraisals are administered and how employers may go about fixing the problems. The survey found that job satisfaction was heavily correlated with an employee’s level of satisfaction with performance reviews and employees demonstrated a strong preference for peer-to-peer feedback that was positive and timely.

Key insights from the survey include:

• 57 percent of employees reported that the current process for performance reviews was inaccurate as an appraisal of their work.

• 63 percent are most dissatisfied with the review process due to inaccuracies.

• 83 percent of employees who were satisfied with their performance reviews were also satisfied with their jobs.

• Three quarters of respondents both contribute and are informed by crowdsourcing sites (e.g. Yelp, Amazon, TripAdvisor).

• 80 percent think that accurate performance appraisals include crowdsourced input and feedback from their direct supervisor.

• 76 percent think that crowdsourced feedback from recognition would improve performance reviews.

• 83 percent of respondents want feedback from more than just their manager.

• 73 percent prefer unsolicited, rather than forced, feedback.

• 89 percent prefer positive over negative feedback as a means of motivation.

“These results clearly indicate that employees would welcome crowdsourcing to enhance the traditional performance review,” said Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce. “The traditional annual performance review is rooted in what could fairly be termed as a single point of failure. Through inspired and objective feedback across an organization, employees can receive the accurate performance evaluations they have long sought.”