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Why The LA Times Called Employee Evaluations “A Curse”
In a recent LA Times op-ed,
professor and author Samuel A. Cuthbert called employee evaluations
a “curse.” Cuthbert has some authority on the subject; he teaches at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
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Employee evaluations are a fixture of the modern workplace. If companies get rid of them, how can they evaluate employees? Cuthbert believes the system is flawed, and offers his recommendations on how to fix it.
The Problem with Employee Evaluations
According to Cuthbert,
performance reviews aren’t objective. He compares one employee’s level of objectivity towards another to how a film critic approaches movies.
Furthermore, employee evaluations stifle workers’ freedom of speech. Many employees feel that if they tell the truth on an evaluation, it will come back to hurt them later on.
Cuthbert also believes that performance reviews stymie personal growth. If a worker admits to weakness, that failing could be used against them in the future. The professor points out that if no one ever addresses their shortcomings, they’ll never be able to improve.
Another problem for Cuthbert is that employee evaluations measure everyone according to the same criteria. They don’t take into account that no two people are the same, and as a result, have different strengths.
Cuthbert’s Solution
The UCLA professor recommends doing away with performance reviews entirely. Instead of relying on a supervisor-centric process, Cuthbert suggests doing what he calls “performance previewing.”
Performance previewing focuses on solving problems in the present so they do not worsen in the future. In Cuthbert’s opinion, employee evaluations concentrate on the past, and on blaming the worker for things that haven’t worked in the past.
A performance preview involves the supervisor and the subordinate taking active roles to improve the situation. No one is completely responsible for failure, but both parties are responsible for success.
Another Solution
Some experts would argue that Cuthbert’s proposal is very drastic. It’s difficult to completely eliminate a fixture in North America’s business landscape. Companies will argue that they still need a way to evaluate employees.
Instead of abandoning the employee evaluation process, businesses should seek to overhaul it. One of Cuthbert’s complaints is that performance reviews take place only once a year. Performing more frequent and meaningful evaluations would solve that problem.
Cuthbert’s point that employee reviews are all about assessing the worker’s shortcomings is an important one, but it doesn’t have to be lost or ignored during the evaluation process.
Employees and their supervisors need to keep this in mind whenever the assessment takes place.
Grapevine Evaluations: Providing a Framework for Meaningful Employee Evaluations
Are you looking for a tool to evaluate employees? Grapevine Evaluations 360 Degree Feedback is a web-based tool which allows HR users to easily create, administer, manage and track participation in the performance review process. It’s completely customizable, and you can receive reports in real time.
Contact Grapevine Evaluations today at 1-866-386-2163
to learn how 360 Degree Feedback can make the employee evaluation
process better.
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