According to a great infographic from ReviewSnap (below) 80% of supervisors do not follow up after a Performance Appraisal.
This sucks, right. But you don’t have to accept this! I will tell you what to do if you are one of the 80% whose supervisor doesn’t follow up.
ReviewSnap compiled research to create this great infographic:
The most alarming datapoint is that many employers are going to ‘the trouble’ of reviewing their staff, and then not following up. As if it is just a box-ticking exercise.
If you’re one of the employees whose supervisor is dis-interested in your ongoing Performance Management and development, here is what you could do to turn the situation around. By the way, I fully acknowledge that if you’re in this situation, your supervisor will appear to not care about your performance or development, and that turning this around might be considered as an act of generosity – I prefer to think of this as an act of justifiable self-interest:
- Get a meeting scheduled with your supervisor, and tell him/her that the meeting is to discuss the results from your Performance Appraisal
- When you meet, ask your supervisor for a summarized view of your recent Performance Appraisal, and for their opinion on what the next step will be
- Then, provide your own views on your Performance Appraisal and what you learned through it. Use a holistic approach to describing your performance, as suggested here. The important thing is to begin to frame how your performance impacts your supervisor’s performance and wider organization (this should get them interested…)
- Then begin to ask questions about your role and your contribution in your organization, teasing out the ‘real-world’ benefits and consequences of your development. Have a look at this post where I suggest powerful questions to ask your supervisor about your performance
- Then finish off by making it clear that your Performance Review is important to you and your development. Here is where you should set your expectations on further follow-ups. This is the time to ask for a One-on-One Meeting, if you don’t have one regularly with your supervisor, and any other interventions you wish as a follow-up
- If your supervisor is unwilling to follow-up, after taking the steps yourself, then I strongly recommend that you speak to your HR department and seek their advice
- Don’t assume that just because your supervisor didn’t follow-up that they don’t actually care. There could be other reasons – for example he/she might be inexperienced, new to your organization, or untrained in the Performance Review Process. Give them the benefit of the doubt, at first, but then pursue it and don’t give up until you get what you deserve!
