Performance reviews vs. continuous feedback: What's the difference?

In today’s increasingly competitive market, people skills and performance management are becoming valuable commodities for any successful business. 

That said, performance reviews and continuous feedback can often feel like a tick-boxing exercise–for you and your employee. However, when done right, they can offer valuable insights that help you make informed decisions about capabilities, workload, skills, and interests that align with business priorities.

Managing employee performance helps employees understand what aspects of their role they’re doing well and identifies areas for improvement–for themselves and those around them. 

But is there a difference between performance reviews and continuous feedback?

This article will help you understand the difference between each of these so you can apply the proper process for your organisation. Learn about the pros and cons of each–allowing you to take a proactive rather than reactive approach to performance management.  

We’ll cover:

• What are performance reviews?
• What is continuous feedback?
• Pros and cons of performance reviews and continuous feedback
• The benefits of continuous feedback
• How Appogee HR can help you with performance management

What are performance reviews?

A performance review is a two-way meeting between an employee and a manager. Meetings are held monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on the needs of the employee and organisation.

Performance reviews evaluate an employee's work by identifying strengths and weaknesses, celebrating achievements, and setting shared goals.  

Meaningful performance management helps improve the employee experience by making staff feel valued and appreciated. Performance reviews aim to:

• Provide valuable feedback to help staff members develop and improve their skills
• Discuss organizational priorities, targets, and expectations
• Explore promotions or pay raises and agree on the next steps
• Help employees feel accountable for their work
• Address any issues of concern, such as punctuality or attendance
• Recognize and celebrate achievements
• Collaboratively plan future goals and targets 

In contrast, performance reviews are also used as evidence of poor performance during the firing process. Information that evidences the reason for dismissal, such as continued poor performance and absence, can be evidenced over a given period.

What is continuous feedback?

Continuous feedback, on the other hand, is done quite differently. 

Although performance review meetings are held at specific intervals, continuous feedback is much more flexible. Employee feedback is given by an ongoing cycle in which employee strengths and weaknesses are openly discussed systematically. The feedback cycle ensures that the information is understood, implemented, and repeated. 

An advanced performance management solution from Appogee HR will help you gather all the information you need to prepare, for example, employee ratings, periods of absence, or disciplinary actions.  

Continuous feedback allows you to implement corrective action to address employee performance quickly. 

As continuous feedback facilitates regular communication between everyone in the workplace, early identification of needs and remedial action for employee weaknesses are dealt with swiftly. 

Let’s put that into practice and say a staff member has gaps in knowledge about closing a sales call positively. Continuous feedback allows employees to develop their customer care skills and confidently end a customer sales call. 

Ongoing feedback helps you to analyse the results of training programs, for example, and measure them against expectations. Remember, feedback is continual, so you may need to repeat or change some actions for employees to achieve their goals. 

What are the disadvantages of employee performance reviews and providing continuous feedback? 

Although there are many benefits of carrying out performance review meetings and providing continuous feedback, it’s worth noting there are some disadvantages to each. 

1. Performance reviews take time and effort

Let’s face it, preparing for employee performance reviews takes time. Gathering information, completing paperwork, and setting time aside to meet with employees take a toll on your workload. Managers spend an average of 210 hours yearly on performance discussions with their employees.

A first-class HR solution like Appogee HR Success can help you significantly reduce the amount of time needed to prepare for performance reviews.

• “We’ve only recently implemented this section [advanced performance management] of the platform, but already we have much better staff engagement through a thorough performance management structure. Running reviews is so easy for managers, so they no longer dread doing one to one’s!” –Flora Oram, former Head of People & Culture at Computeam

Although meaningful performance reviews take time and effort, they allow organizations to reflect on the past and focus on the future. 

2. Continuous feedback could damage relationships

People at high-trust companies report 106% more energy at work and 74% less stress, according to a study in the Harvard Business Review.

Continuous feedback can do more harm than good. Employee relationships can be negatively affected by unskilled managers. Continually using insensitive language or poor communication skills can affect how feedback is received–resulting in a lack of trust and productivity. 

Continuous feedback should be constructive, honest, and fair. Skilled managers open up discussions about the problem and how best to overcome it. 

Let’s say an employee is struggling to meet deadlines. Unskilled managers may tell staff how often a deadline has been missed along with a consequence, such as a delay in a pay rise. 

On the other hand, constructive feedback, such as asking employees what they think is getting in the way of achieving targets or asking them to track their time, is much more proactive and restorative.  

As you can see, continuous feedback is a collaborative process built on trusting relationships. Find solutions to tackle employee performance and create a work culture built on trust and transparency.

3. Getting the timing wrong

Have you ever waited for a manager to give you feedback on a work task and waited months? If so, you’ve probably forgotten about it!

Continuous feedback should be given as soon as a goal or behaviour has been noticed. Managers shouldn’t wait to share information until a performance review meeting–that could be months away! By this time, you and your employee likely wouldn’t remember the detail enough to have an in-depth conversation. 

Equally, providing continuous feedback when an employee is just about to head off on annual leave is just as detrimental. Employees cannot off-load with colleagues or have the time to put any real action in place.

Getting the timing wrong can make the continuous feedback process pointless. But get it right, and it allows you to share insights about performance that you both remember.

4. Employees don’t value performance reviews 

Do your employees view performance reviews as a tick-box exercise?

Given that reviews and continuous feedback create real opportunities to improve employee performance, only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve. 

Even more, over half of employees felt performance reviews hadn’t had a positive impact on their overall performance at all.

Source

Get buy-in and encourage employees to value meaningful performance reviews by:  

• Making it a two-way process. Give employees dedicated time to complete any documentation in advance. Encourage them to take ownership and set their own goals, for example, a promotion or learning more about customer service.
• Agreeing on three priorities together. Avoid overwhelming employees with a long list of goals. Not only is this overwhelming, but it’s also counterproductive!  

• Discuss and update regularly. An annual performance review meeting won’t keep your employees motivated. Keep their performance and feedback on your agenda by reviewing actions frequently and sharing regular feedback.

What are the pros of employee performance reviews and providing continuous feedback? 

There’s no doubt that performance conversations benefit employees and managers. Discussions help align employee goals with strategic priorities–creating a clear path for success for both. 

Let’s look at the top five advantages of employee performance reviews and providing continuous feedback.

1. Improved employee performance

Employee performance reviews and continuous feedback allow ample opportunity to share and review performance. 

Employees want to learn about the difference their making in terms of their performance. What’s more, you can boost employee performance by helping them identify their strengths and areas for development.

Set realistic goals by understanding capabilities and capacity levels. Provide time-tracking tools and get a complete picture of how long tasks take to complete. Tracking time can also help identify who might be working too many hours on projects and, as a result, needing to take more time for learning and development. 

Plus, continuous feedback generates ideas for team working. Studies have shown that collaborative goal-setting influences proactive behaviour, helping to keep people inspired and productive. 

2. Increase employee engagement

An overwhelming 87% of engaged and satisfied employees are less likely to look for a new job than those who are dissatisfied. Plus, regular feedback makes employees almost three times more likely to be engaged in their work. 

Take it from Carolyn Seet, VP of Operations at Energi Core Ltd, who purchased Appogee HR Success and reported a big increase in employee engagement. She said, “Using the Goals module to set objectives and key results (OKRs) has helped all teams collaborate and know how they’re contributing to the bigger picture when it comes to our company’s success.” 

Increase employee engagement with honest, transparent, and regular conversations that build trust. Continuous feedback creates a healthy workplace culture by regularly making employees feel comfortable discussing their strengths and weaknesses.

3. Improves employee experience

Performance reviews and continuous feedback are the driving forces behind the employee experience. It’s why an overwhelming 92% of employers are making employee experience a priority, according to Willis Towers Watson’s research.

Businesses prioritizing efforts to improve employee experience reap the rewards, such as higher retention and job satisfaction. People who report positive employee experience are eight times more likely to want to stay at a company.

Performance reviews and continuous feedback allow organisations to engage with processes and tools that offer a great work experience. Simple and effective performance management documentation makes the process easier. Appogee HR can provide an intuitive, user-friendly employee performance management platform that offers a great employee experience.

4. Retain top performers

Considering recruiting employees costs over £5000, it makes sense to retain the ones you already have. Not only that, a study here found that the average cost of losing an employee is a massive 33% of their annual salary.

Although performance reviews create ways for managers and team members to address issues, sometimes swift actions are needed to speed up the process. 

That’s where continuous feedback comes into force. The cycle is far quicker than annual performance reviews. Continuous feedback can help you identify employees who may be considering leaving–allowing you to make immediate interventions that persuade them otherwise.

The benefits of continuous feedback and employee recognition in the workplace 

Almost eight in ten people who leave their jobs said that lack of appreciation is the reason for quitting. Developing a transparent process for recognizing employee achievements is critical to promoting growth and success at your company. 

Employees who consistently receive praise tend to be more engaged, productive, and motivated. Still, almost a quarter of employees who felt they hadn’t received recognition from their manager in the past fortnight recently interviewed for another role.

Provide continuous feedback by giving your employees the recognition they deserve with shout-outs. Our comprehensive software enables your employees to provide feedback to each other–great for team building and motivating staff to do their best. 

Source

360-degree feedback is another process for continuous feedback. Rather than giving feedback to employees solely from a manager's point of view, 360-degree feedback provides managers with a complete picture of an employee. It allows managers to gain valuable and honest insight into how staff are performing–from the viewpoint of other employees, managers, and customers.

How Appogee HR can help you with performance management 

Don’t waste time on performance-related tasks that you can streamline. Give employees and managers the tools they need to inspire, engage and value the performance management process, whether that’s a performance review meeting or giving continual feedback.

Appogee HR Success can provide your organisation with:

• Robust processes for 360-degree feedback. Our short video here will walk you through how to get everyone’s opinion. Allow employees to get an accurate understanding of their role within your organisation.
• Self-assessment features that make team members feel involved in their performance review. Allow employees to identify their strengths and areas for improvement.
• Complete visibility with OKRs aligned with your business strategy–helping to propel your business forward. 
• Customisable performance review templates that create fairness and consistency amongst all team members–essential when dealing with any disciplinary action.
• A range of pre-built performance management templates, such as interim reviews, end-of-probation reviews, quarterly reviews, and more.
• A safe and secure space to keep all your employee review data in one place. Our cloud-based HR software allows managers and employees to view performance-related information at the touch of a button. 

Ready to learn more? Start your 14-day free trial to see our advanced performance management solution. Alternatively, book a demo with a member of our team.