The End of the Performance Review: A New Approach to Appraising Employee Performance

I came across this book while searching for an alternative to traditional performance reviews. Our growing company of physicians needed something to improve conversations and communication between leadership and new employees. Expectations needed better definition. We have also been searching for content and structure for a mentoring system for new group members. The mentoring project just never seemed to launch. As I read through the book making notes I suddenly recognized that The Five Conversations Format was the content and structure we needed. Dr. Baker includes forms in the book to facilitate collection of data from the "conversations." We have extended the concept to include established members and are now conducting small group conversations after first getting individual responses from members. The Climate Review worked particularly well since we kept the identities hidden of individuals who had given written comments thus allowing everyone to chime in during the group discussion. One member said "I believe in building people up rather than breaking them down. This (The Five Conversations Format) is perfect for mentoring." The project is rather time consuming and there is definitely a learning curve but I believe the process will lead to better communication, better teamwork, an incentive to develop career rather than just do a job and will allow our company to tap talent that was lying dormant, etc. I will post an update in a year.

I had the opportunity to explain the book’s main ideas to a group of managers from different organizations. Although they liked the approach, they didn’t consider it practical. One manager said: we have a lot of managers with more than 10 direct reports. It’s impossible for our managers to devote so much time talking with each employee every month. Another said: it’s not realistic to perform every meeting in 20 minutes since we have a lot to do and is difficult to have a conversation without being interrupted, and finally one manager said: I don’t like this approach because isn’t numerical. We need numbers to manage performance instead of meetings …. I guess every organization will have to adapt the system to its own realities.

This model provides a process for employers to create a more collaborative and innovative approach. I expect to see a more highly engaged and productive staff as a result of implementing this. It removes the barriers that are created by the typical assessment process.

Baker's new approach - the Five Conversations Framework shifts the emphasis from assessment to development of the employee. His five conversations are: Climate review, Strengths and talents, Opportunities for growth, Learning and development, and Innovation and continuous improvement. An original and comprehensible alternative to the old performance appraisal system.

Book in really good condition.

Worth a read.