Further analysis of employee survey data shows several factors leading to a culture where individuals are afraid to share their voice:

• Constant negative feedback from supervisors and leaders
• Leaders perceived as a dissenting voice (shooting-down new ideas out of hand, or ignoring feedback)
• Fear (real or feigned) of demotion or loss of job
• Raising issues draws undue attention to individuals or groups who make suggestions.
• Employees perceive that there is no procedural justice (fair use and application of employee feedback)

Every day, employees make decisions about whether to speak up or remain silent. The problem is that, in many organizations, the majority choose the safety of silence. This denies the organization and its leaders valuable information that could be used to make improvements. While there are ways to address the problem of employee voice, it is strongly recommended that all organization leaders receive training and coaching on how to create feedback cultures where ideas and suggestions are shared, employees are listened to, and appropriate responses to feedback are given. In addition, focus groups exploring antecedents and consequences of employee silence should be conducted immediately following the reporting of survey results. Whatever strategy is used to understand employee silence, the end result should be a culture which encourages the free flow of information and feedback resulting in higher employee engagement and organizational effectiveness.

Here is a simple way to estimate the cost of your performance appraisal process:

Let’s assume the average manager earns $50 per hour (including benefits) and spends an average three hours per review (including gathering feedback, preparing documents, and holding discussions with employees).  Remember, that’s the average; managers can earn much more (and a few obviously earn less).  Let’s also assume that the average employee earns $30 per hour (including benefits) and that they spend about the same amount of time on their own reviews (including preparing a list of achievements, documenting development goals, and meeting with their manager).  To make the math simple, let’s say the organization in question has a total of 500 employees:

The cost for the annual performance review process is about $120,000 just in the value of time spent. Take the number of employees to 5,000, and the cost soars to $1.2 million.

These numbers do not include software or IT maintenance costs associated with implementing and maintaining an online system.  Nor have we included costs for the HR resources used to orchestrate the process and consult with managers.  Nor have we included any group management meetings wherein relative performance and rankings are discussed and finalized.  And the list could go on with opportunity costs associated with focusing on the performance review cycle instead of attending to opportunities that could boost organizational profitability or other success in the market.

Is it worth it?

To justify the cost and time of this annual process, you would think that an organization could easily recognize the results the process produces. We’ve found that it’s the rare organization that actually tracks –or even knows how to track- the impact of performance reviews and conducts a cost-benefit analysis.  Instead, organizations tend to only measure participation rates, adherence to guidelines, and completion of documentation. 

How does your organization measure the effectiveness of its performance review process?

Do you measure how much the process costs and how much impact the process has on increasing company performance?

Think about your own experience. When you’ve been part of a performance review process, either for yourself or for those who report to you, have you experienced the time spent as producing high value? Did you have the unusual experience of walking away feeling understood, appreciated, capable, supported, motivated, and energized? Or, were you with the majority who have walked away feeling misunderstood, unappreciated, surprised (or blind-sided), disenchanted, disheartened, stressed out, or frustrated?

What if the performance review process could actually improve employee morale and productivity? What if the annual event was something everyone looked forward to because it was the time for celebration of accomplishments and preparation for next year’s success?

For people to give their best effort on behalf of their organizations, they need to be fully engaged at work. The annual performance review process could go a long way toward engaging them. In these conversations, with acknowledgement of past contributions and with a focused view of the future, managers and employees can connect their day-to-day work with the organization’s purpose. They can feel a sense of belonging and that others care about them and their development. They can figure out how to get the tools and resources they need to do their jobs right. They can come away feeling respected, invested in, and important.

The performance review cycle is a perfect time to give and receive feedback that will help the individual, manager, and organization improve. If done with an eye to motivating engagement and future performance, the money and time spent will prove worth the investment.

As a leadership coach, I often have the opportunity to work with high-performing leaders who are interested in infusing their employees with a passion for results and openness to feedback that will help them become increasingly capable.  I remember the precise moment when I became an advocate for people to have the opportunity to receive their own feedback in order to use it as a development tool.  Today I’d like to share that experience with you.

For more than 10 years, I worked for a high-tech company that had a well-defined, well-orchestrated performance management process that allowed managers and employees to document achievement against specific objectives.  The manager was responsible for the process – setting objectives, setting up meetings with employees, following up on progress, gathering feedback from key stakeholders, writing the reviews, obtaining employee signatures, and allocating associated bonus funds based on performance.  It was clearly a top-down, pay-for-performance culture, and despite its inherent flaws, employees were accustomed to the process.

Then my company merged with another company of similar size – a high-tech consulting firm that approached performance management in a vastly different way. I found out about it when a newly acquired employee let me know that the time was approaching for her annual performance review.  She wanted to give me a heads up that she would be preparing for that discussion by contacting her internal customers for feedback on her performance.

Say, what?  She was personally going to start her own performance review process.  I didn’t know what to think, and I’m sure she saw my bewilderment.  Rather than impose my process on her, I had the presence of mind to stop, listen, and learn.  I asked her to tell me more about the performance review process as she knew it, and she explained how at the acquired company, the employees owned the process.  They drafted their own objectives, met with their managers to discuss and confirm, followed up and gave status reports, sought their own feedback, wrote their self-reviews, and then set up a meeting to discuss with managers their achievements, areas for development, and aspirations.  The managers contributed by guiding objectives, giving timely feedback, and writing comments, and they allocated bonus money based on both individual and team performance.

The idea that people would seek their own feedback was new to me and a bit unnerving.  You mean you just ask people for feedback directly? You ask them to tell you straight out what you did well, what you could have done better, and if you exceeded their expectations?  Yes, she said.  That’s pretty much it.

Isn’t that stressful?  I wondered aloud.

She answered with a question that changed closely held belief.  Isn’t it stressful for YOU to have YOUR MANAGER reach out for feedback that you should be getting directly from the people who are impacted by your work?  Shouldn’t you have built the kind of relationships that allow other people to give you the information that will help you improve your level of service, your interactions, and your effectiveness?

She was right – it was stressful to have my manager initiating and engaging in the performance feedback conversations that I should be having. I should be the one finding out about the perceptions of others regarding my behavior, attitude, competency, communication style, and follow through.  After all, I’m the only one who has the ability to change anything about me or about my performance.

I learned from this employee’s explanation and example, and mustered my courage.  From that moment on, I took responsibility for my own development.  At my level in the organization, I certainly didn’t need my executive vice president to provide parental supervision; nor did I need him to hold me accountable for my responsibilities.  I set out to acquire the taste for authentic feedback, and I was astonished by how immediately empowered I felt as a result.  When I received direct positive feedback, I savored it.  When I received redirecting feedback, I knew where it was coming from and developed a sense of what I could do to change that would have immediate impact.

During the ensuing years, I have shared this pivotal moment in my leadership learning with the many other leaders who I’ve coached.  Usually we start with a 360 assessment with the leadership team demonstrating to the employees how to respond to feedback without becoming defensive.  We follow up with conversations designed to help both leaders and employees understand how to communicate in a way that increases trust and empowerment.  And then we build the capacity for giving and receiving candid feedback in a virtuous cycle that promotes employee engagement and high performance.

In such a group, you’ll also hear a few individuals speak up who’ve had a different experience with feedback – used more like a mirror than a hammer.  They will tell you that their most valuable feedback has been difficult to hear but has produced outstanding results.  The feedback may have caused them to plan more carefully, communicate more openly, or become more assertive.  They now make better decisions, inspire more commitment from their employees, or take well-reasoned risks that have catapulted their organizations to new performance levels.

At DecisionWise, we specialize in turning feedback into results, and so we have a lot of experience working with leaders and managers to make good use of 360-degree feedback surveys (as well as other data).

Here are a few of the most-cited reasons people dread feedback, and why they need it anyway:

1.       We’re afraid of what we don’t know:

We think of ourselves as self-aware, and it’s disturbing to consider that others may have different perceptions of how we perform and the value we add.  We don’t want to put ourselves in a position of potential embarrassment when we find out about something that’s obvious to others that we totally missed.

We need feedback precisely BECAUSE we don’t know what we don’t know.  We need to find out how we are perceived by others, so we have the option of changing.  With new knowledge, we can choose to start doing things that would make a difference.  We can also choose to change things that would make a difference if they were working better.  And, we can stop doing things that either aren’t making a difference or are getting in the way of achieving our desired results.

2.       We think people will blast us:

We have the impression that most feedback is negative.  We believe that if given an opportunity to be candid AND anonymous, people will rant about whatever annoys them.

While it’s true that some people may jump at the chance to vent, especially if they have pent-up frustrations, they are not the majority.  Most people take feedback opportunities quite seriously.  They tend to give well-considered feedback they believe will be helpful to the individual seeking it as well as to the organization and/or the team.  The real problem is not those who vent; it’s the apathetic or disengaged who don’t respond at all.  Many of these individuals do not want to waste their time giving feedback that won’t matter.  In some cases, people withhold feedback because they fear the consequences of being open with their opinions and perceptions.  Different strategies are required to address each of these challenges, and it is well worth the effort to create an environment where feedback is encouraged and valued.

3.       We’re worried the information will be used against us:

We suspect that HR or management may have a hidden agenda to use anonymous feedback against us – as part of a performance review process or as evidence that we shouldn’t receive the promotion we’ve been working toward.

The far more likely scenario is that negative perceptions, if any exist, are already at work.  The problem is they are not in the open where the individual can address them.  The reality is that when a leader or manager demonstrates openness to receiving feedback and working on issues identified, he or she is almost immediately perceived as a better leader.  So in truth, a healthy feedback process actually promotes positive perceptions of leadership.

4.       We doubt our ability to keep our composure under fire:

We don’t know how surprised we’ll be by the feedback and if we’ll be able to digest it in the moment without becoming overly emotional.  We don’t want to overreact with anger, frustration, insecurity, tears, or any other unprofessional outburst.

Responding appropriately during stressful situations is an important leadership competency, so it’s important to pay attention to when and how feedback is delivered.  I recommend setting up a process that allows the individual to receive and process the data in a supportive environment.  Generally this means receiving a 360 Feedback Report to read through individually, and then approximately 24 hours later, meeting with a third-party coach.  The coach will provide a debrief to help the individual process the data, look for patterns in strengths and areas for development, and create a reasonable yet high-impact action plan.  In this way, any surprises can be dealt with privately, and a personalized follow-up strategy be put in place.

5.       We know that some kind of behavioral change will be expected, and we don’t know if we’ll be able to meet expectations.

We doubt our ability to change specific behaviors of which we were previously unaware or that seem to be just part of who we are.  We may even have heard similar feedback before and made unsuccessful attempts to change.  Hearing the same feedback again and again makes us feel like failures.

This is an important concern.  Participating in a 360 Feedback Process infers that the individual is open to change and will use the information they receive in a positive, productive way.  In this situation, where individual attempts to change have not worked, a coach can help.  My best coaching experiences have been working with leaders and managers who have had a strong desire to change yet have so far been unsuccessful in making that particular change.  Desire is the key – the tools, tips, and accountability can be learned.

If after reading this blog, you’re still dreading feedback, then let’s talk.  (I’m here all week.)

Linda Linfield is director of Talent Assessment at DecisionWise, and her first love is Leadership Coaching and Development.  You can read more about her and the DecisionWise team at www.decision-wise.com