Articles: Performance Reviews: Why Bother?, Zappos Gets It Right – Again. How a Performance Appraisal Process Should Work

There’s a reason why 95 out of 100 employees are unsatisfied with their company’s work evaluation system. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the practice of annually rounding up the workforce and grading their workplace skills out of 5 no longer adds value to the company and should be discontinued. I would entirely agree with this suggestion as, after several classes on HR in Comm101, I now understand the concept and importance of organizational culture. The typical annual performance review merely comes across as a generic grading strategy similar to schooling. The fact that it only occurs once a year doesn’t help in bettering the company as a whole as “managers should address issues when they arise, not six or eight months later.”

Compare that to a company like organizational culture-rich Zappos which, instead of evaluating their employees on generic work skills like punctuality or how well they accomplish tasks, actually reviews their employees on how well they fulfil Zappos’ 10 core values. Such a method ensures that the company is comprised of a workforce suitable for its aims. As markets expand and competition increases, I believe it is imperative for companies to shift from treating the employee as just “another guy at the office” to instilling him within an actual work community built around the company’s core values. After all, organizational culture is also reflected in the way the public perceives the company.

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