Why ‘Meets Expectations’ Never Does: A Manager’s Guide for a Productive ‘Middle Rating’ Conversation | The Talent Strategy Group

Organizations continue to express concern about employee retention risk. However, firms’ tactics to mitigate these risks are discussed less often and sometimes limited to obvious retention approaches. But with many firms getting ready to deliver employee performance evaluations, the performance review discussion presents an untapped opportunity for influencing employee retention. To explain how performance reviews play into employee retention risk, I draw from a quote in Leigh Branham’s book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: “Employee turnover is not an event — it is a process of disengagement that can take days, weeks, months or even years until the actual decision to leave occurs.” Said differently, employee turnover is a deliberation process that occurs over time and is informed by various events or “triggers,” such as a change in manager, being passed over for a promotion, and even return-to-office dates, to name a few. These triggers culminate into a worker’s decision to stay with or leave an organization. The performance discussion is one of these triggers, so managers who deliver these reviews must be thoughtful about messaging and delivery. With this as the backdrop, I am sharing this article by Marc Effron that provides tips on delivering performance feedback, particularly to those employees meeting performance expectations—which is most of an organization.