You may already believe that assessing employee performance takes too much time already. However, you’d be surprised at what one major company discovered when it examined its employee evaluation techniques. Read on to learn more.

Deloitte is a consulting firm with over 150 years of experience in the field of accounting. Since its humble beginnings in Britain, the company has grown to over 65,000 employees.

Until recently, Deloitte did things much the way other companies did: it set objectives for its employees at the beginning of the year, and after the completion of a project, each person’s manager rates the employee’s performance. They factor those ratings into a single figure at the end of the year. Managers arrive at these ratings during lengthy meetings. Counselors represent employees at these meetings.

Deloitte’s leadership decided to examine the process in closer detail. What they discovered was that completing the forms, holding the meetings and creating the ratings took up nearly two million hours per year. Where was most of the time being spent? The majority of the time, business leaders discussed ratings.

The executives at Deloitte asked themselves, “Wouldn’t those two million hours be better spent talking to our employees about their performance and career paths?”

They decided to redesign the way they evaluate employee performance. As they researched how to improve the process, decision makers discovered research that shows ratings can be biased. So, the team in charge of redesigning the assessment process decided to change the questions. Instead of asking managers what they think of an employee, reviewers have the choice of what they would do with the employee. Would they give the employee a raise? Would they keep that person in their department?

Managers must ask themselves these questions at the end of every project, or at least once a quarter for longer projects. Over the course of the year, Deloitte aggregates this data. Once a quarter, the organization’s leadership can decide what to do with employees who should be promoted. Now, Deloitte doesn’t just have a set of facts about employee performance – it can take action based on data.

Always make sure that your employee performance assessments are holistic, clear, and take into consideration the fact that your employees are human. If you find that your current evaluation tools don’t allow you to ask the right questions, then maybe it’s time to consider 360 degree feedback.

See our Overview of our 360 Assessment Software tool.