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Why Hongkongers find performance reviews frustrating

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Are your employees satisfied with the performance review process? According to the latest research by global professional services recruiter, Morgan McKinley found that employees in Hong Kong are not satisfied with the traditional, annual performance review adopted by their companies.

In fact, findings show that there is a disconnect between what employees need and what organisations are providing. The white paper showed that;

  • 78% of employees feel that they are not reviewed accurately
  • 66% disagree with their managers’ feedback during the annual review.
  • 72% of managers also admit that they experience disagreement regarding feedback and scores that are given.
Some feedback from employees regarding this practice includes; “relying on the annual review doesn’t allow us to solve problems timely”, “it needs to be more frequent”, “this is based on recent performance rather than overall performance”.

Employees prefer continuous performance management over annual review as they feel the latter limits collaboration and communication with their managers.

65% of employees said the annual review was not motivating to them while 55% were unhappy with the amount of daily feedback they receive from their managers.

In contrast, 44% of employees said continuous review improves collaboration with their managers and allows them to solve problems quickly. Also, 62% of managers stated that this practice allows them to have a two-way communication with their team members and coach them so they could improve throughout the year. However, the biggest challenge for managers is to the time taken to conduct this practice which can be even more difficult when managing bigger teams.

“The purpose of performance management is to promote and improve employee effectiveness," said Reina Cheng, managing director, Hong Kong, Morgan McKinley. "Through this process, managers can provide feedback, acknowledge achievement and provide recognition. However, regardless of performance review style, clear goals must be set and performance reviewed against metrics. Managers need to be trained or they would fail to meet team members’ expectations on running the process."

“Our survey revealed that one of the biggest issues faced within performance review was defining clear metrics and measuring performance against those. Employees feedback include “Goal alignment is not clear”, “Direction and requirements change quarterly”, “Certain performance index does not relate to performance”.

Ultimately the performance review process must be approached from the perspective of building engagement. Managers must be trained on communication, review process and defining clear goals. HR managers are also advised to drive this process and guide both managers and employees to ensure employees are kept engaged and motivated.”

ALSO READ: Five tips for conducting your next performance review

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