Question 2Which is best and fairest: anniversary or focal reviews?
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Josh Bersin says
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Either way is fine, but ideally the appraisal process should be ongoing and continuous. Once a year is not nearly often enough. ...more |
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Peter Cappelli says
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The reason for doing focal reviews is the need for relative comparisons – forced ranking systems or allocating merit pay increases. It’s impossible to do the former unless you do them all at once, and allocating a fixed pot of money across individuals is really tricky to do fairly without doing it all at once. ...more |
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David Creelman says
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Focal reviews are much fairer than anniversary reviews because the fortunes of a company go up and down. You don't want some employees being reviewed in bad times while others are reviewed in good times. ...more |
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Kris Dunn says
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I had to look up focal. I thought at first that was the term for cats that are too wild to be kept as pets. ...more |
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Richard Hadden says
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Under the principle that a review that gets done is far better than one that doesn't, or that's months late, I'd say that the decision to do anniversary or focal (common timeframe) reviews depends largely on which is more likely to result in getting the reviews accomplished in a given organization's environment. Having said that, I have a general preference for the focal review, for several reasons, most of which are related to the consistency that comes with doing things in the same general timeframe. ...more |
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Lance Haun says
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If you are terrible at giving feedback throughout the year, then focal reviews have an advantage because everyone will be evaluated from the same body of work. If you are doing constant performance feedback throughout the year, then it doesn't really matter. ...more |
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Sharlyn Lauby says
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Without completely going off topic to psychoanalyze the meaning of “best and fair”… let me say I’ve worked in organizations that have done both anniversary date and common date reviews. There are pros and cons to each. ...more |
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Ed Lawler says
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Anniversary reviews make little or no sense in an era when you should be tying reviews to business outcomes and business strategy. They also make little sense if you are trying to make reasonable judgments on pay and performance based on the relative performance of individuals. ...more |
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Libby Sartain says
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If you used a system like I described in questions 1, the anniversary would be the best time to have discussion. But once a year is not near enough. ...more |
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