What have you done for me lately?
That's often the unintended message managers send in their performance reviews.
Managers (even most professionals) are often so forward-thinking that we forget what happened months ago. When it's time to prepare performance reviews for our team, we recall the most recent events and give them disproportionate weight in the process.
This is an example of recency bias and performance reviews are the most common and helpful example to illustrate it.
Performance reviews should contain no surprises. Your directs will remember the big win they secured early in the year, even if you don't. They'll also feel slighted if you allow a recent setback to overshadow 9 months of strong performance.
I've even seen individuals place a majority of their focus on the final months of a review cycle after realizing that timeframe as the most critical to their success. Those individuals were only paying attention to the signals the organization was sending, but it creates an avoidable scenario that rewards gamesmanship over results.
Today's guidance addresses recency bias in order to arrive at performance assessments that are more thorough, consistent and fair to all…
Regular check-ins
The first step in addressing recency bias in the review cycle starts at the beginning of that cycle. That's because the most obvious way to combat recency bias is to capture performance throughout the entire review period.
Your weekly one-on-ones are a great place to do this. As your direct is bringing their agenda to their one-on-ones, you'll naturally get glimpses into different aspects of their performance and development. This is the opportunity to have smaller but more frequent performance discussions. Talk about what's working and what's not. Discuss the goals they are trying to achieve. This should be a true conversation between the two of you and not a performance read-out that normally accompanies formal reviews. Aim to have these conversations at least once a month.
If you wait to capture these things during formal reviews, as most managers do, you'll forget a lot of relevant information. Instead, take brief notes of these performance discussions. They don't have to be detailed, just small reminders of what to include when you do sit down to write the official review.
Stakeholder input
As you're having these conversations, your direct will likely share when they've wrapped up large projects or initiatives.
This is the time to seek input from those impacted stakeholders, when it's fresh in their mind.
Too many managers don't bother getting stakeholder input at all when assessing performance. Even the ones who do it make the mistake of waiting until the end of the review period.
The problem with that approach is twofold. First, those stakeholders are also in the middle of their own performance reviews and will have less time to provide helpful input for those not on their team. The second problem is that by waiting, you invite the same recency bias that we're trying to combat.
Take the time to ask for feedback when a large initiative wraps up. You'll catch those individuals when they are not inundated with reviews and you'll get more relevant feedback. Share this feedback with your direct in your weekly one-on-one and document it so that it's all in one place when it's time for you to write your reviews.
Self-assessments
Regardless of how consistently you document performance throughout the year, you're bound to miss something. Having ten directs means your capturing performance data for ten individuals in addition to your own. That's a lot of moving pieces to track.
This is one of the benefits of having employees capture their own self-assessments as part of the performance review process. It allows them, in their own words, to talk about their achievements and challenges.
While I don't believe that self-assessments should solely be relied upon to complete a manager's assessment, I do think they can be a helpful tool for capturing things you have either missed or forgotten about. And unlike the weekly one-on-one suggestion, you can also begin this recommendation immediately, regardless of where you are in the performance review cycle.
Open notes
When the time comes to actually complete your performance evaluations, review all of your notes from the resources above. All your one-on-one notes, relevant feedback from key stakeholders and the individuals own assessment of their performance.
All of this information together will give you a more accurate perspective on the individual's performance over the entire review period. From there, you can pull the prevailing themes and incorporate them into an accurate but concise summary of their performance. That's a topic for another day.
This Week's Action Items:
Have a brief performance discussion with each of your directs in their next one-on-one.
Reach out to a major stakeholder of a recent initiative your team was part of. Request performance feedback for your directs.
Have your employees write self-assessments near the end of the current performance review cycle.
During your next performance reviews, use the notes from all of these action items to capture a more holistic performance assessment.
