Performance Reviews - tough for employees

go along with it. It’s bad enough when you can call someone into your office to have this chat.

What’s wrong with performance reviews and why do remote employees tend to hate them even more than most other tasks?

Performance reviews are frustrating, time-consuming and usually don’t relate to actual performance throughout the year. Who can remember in December what happened in March–good or bad? Everyone ends up scrambling through their e-mails, trying to recreate the past. Too often, the “annual” performance review becomes a referendum on the past 90 days, not a real evaluation of performance and potential.

It’s especially tough for remote employees. It’s human nature to be more

aware of what we see every day. At performance review time, there’s a real risk that out of sight really does equal out of mind. Remote employees are in a tough situation because the only way they can get good reviews is by spending lots of energy documenting what they did and building their cases. That takes time away from their actual jobs. It can also feel like self-promotion–and a lot of high-performing remote employees aren’t comfortable with tooting their own horns.

How can technology help managers both throughout the year and at performance review time?

Companies have to figure out how to create a culture of constant feedback–without creating a lot of process. Technology provides the tools to give feedback in the moment, when it’s most meaningful. It also lets everyone in the team or company weigh in.

Write it down: When you see people in person, you get more context and cues that help you remember these interactions. Plus, you can read body language and judge whether you understand each other. When you interact primarily by e-mail or phone, it’s harder to remember what happened. Jotting down a confirmation of what you agreed is a great tool.