Chapter 16. Appraisals and agile don’t play nicely
Appraisals, performance reviews, 360 feedback, evaluations—call them what you will—have been present in organizations in one form or another for over 100 years. Over this time, the process has taken a number of different forms, depending on the current trends and the size of the organization.
I personally have experience with written evaluations where the employee has no input, various rating systems where both employees and managers get to rate the individual, and written appraisals where the employee makes comments on their own performance that are used as the basis for further discussion. Some systems have been directly linked to pay and promotion opportunities, whereas others have been explicitly decoupled.
One thing they all have in common is that they focus on the individual, their performance, and what they’ve accomplished since the last review period. They encourage the individual to take credit for themselves and to compete against the other people on their team for recognition and a limited pot of money when it comes to bonuses and salary increases.