Research: Performance Reviews That Actually Motivate Employees | Harvard Business Review

Performance management and performance reviews are critical for driving business results. However, a new article highlighting a study in Academy of Management Discoveries reveals that review format significantly influences how feedback is received. Involving simulated reviews with 1,600 U.S. workers, the study found that narrative feedback—rich in context and personalized analysis—was viewed as the fairest, particularly for employees with room to improve. Narrative feedback allows managers to highlight strengths and development areas, fostering understanding, while numerical ratings tied to bonuses are also seen as fair for their clarity on performance-reward links. In my experience, many organizations already combine ratings with narratives; in fact, The Talent Strategy Group’s 2023 Global Performance Management Report found that 90% of companies use ratings. As organizations continue to improve their performance management capabilities, they can focus on driving excellence in the fundamentals, such as helping employees and managers set a few challenging goals, articulating why those goals are important to the organization and how they help to deliver stakeholder value, using quality metrics to measure progress, and providing high-quality ongoing feedback that drives goal achievement. Regarding ongoing feedback, I’m resharing an infographic with 24 questions managers can draw from to enable more effective one-on-one performance check-in discussions with direct reports.