HR glossary
Performance review
A performance review is a formal evaluation of an employee’s work over a set period, usually by their manager.
A performance review is a scheduled look back at someone’s work, usually once or twice a year. The manager assesses results against goals, discusses strengths and gaps, and often gives a rating that feeds pay decisions.
Nothing in a review should be a surprise. If the first time someone hears about a problem is in their review, the manager waited too long.
Many companies now pair a lighter annual review with frequent check-ins and self-reviews, so feedback arrives when it’s still useful.
What the research says
Gallup surveyed 135 Fortune 500 CHROs in mid-2023, and only 2% strongly agreed that their performance management system inspires employees to improve. A separate Gallup panel of 18,665 US employees found that just 22% strongly agree their review process is fair and transparent.1
Frequency is a big part of the problem. In the same panel, 56% of employees said they formally review their performance goals with their manager once a year or less. Employees who had quarterly progress checks were 90% more likely to be engaged and 2.1 times as likely to feel the process was fair and transparent.1
Shuffl · HR by the numbers
Employees who trust their review process
Employees who trust their review process: 22% of US employees strongly agree their performance review process is fair and transparent. Source: Gallup, May 2024.
An example
A 220-person food packaging manufacturer used to run one annual review each January. Managers wrote them from memory, and most of the comments covered the last six weeks. The company kept the year-end review but added a 30-minute goal check every quarter, with a few lines of notes saved each time.
At year end, employees wrote a short self-review first. Managers then pulled from four sets of quarterly notes, and the plant’s eight managers met for two hours to compare ratings before anything was shared. In the old process, 11 people had formally disputed their rating. In the first year of the new one, 3 did.
Common mistakes
Most review problems come from what happens, or doesn’t, in the months before the meeting.
- Rating the last few weeks instead of the whole period. Notes from regular check-ins fix most of this.
- Raising a problem for the first time in the review.
- Vague comments like “needs to communicate better” with no example of when or how.
- Skipping calibration, so the same work gets a 3 from one manager and a 4 from another.
- Treating the review as the only time goals get discussed.
Common questions
- How often should performance reviews happen?
- Once or twice a year is typical, with ongoing feedback in between.
- What is a self-review?
- A self-review is the employee’s own assessment of their work, written before the manager’s review, so both views are on the table.
Sources
Read on . Numbers change as new studies come out, so check the source before you quote it.
- Gallup, 2% of CHROs Think Their Performance Management System Works, May 2024. Gallup CHRO Roundtable survey of 135 Fortune 500 CHROs (June 26 to July 8, 2023) and Gallup Panel study of 18,665 US full- and part-time employees (August 9 to 24, 2023), margin of error ±1.1 points at 95% confidence.