15Five’s Performance

Review Playbook

The
Comprehensive
Guide to Designing
a Fair, Valuable,
and Efficient
Review Process
Introduction
Over the years, performance reviews have experienced a steep and steady decline in popularity. And more
recently, as the workplace has been totally reimagined, it only makes sense that there is an increasingly pressing
need to reimagine how we think about and conduct performance reviews.

Performance reviews and performance management are crucial to fostering the growth and development of
your people, while driving the business forward. But year after year, HR leaders are struggling to design and
implement performance review processes that are fair, valuable, and efficient.

Doing so is now more important than ever. Why?

Reviews are critical for your organization Reviews are often overly and
and your people. unnecessarily complicated.
Reviews help your organization recognize and Many organizations layer new processes and
reward your people fairly and equitably, identify skill questions on top of existing processes rather
gaps and opportunities for improving performance, than curating the experience to its most valuable
and invest in and retain the right people. elements. Every element of your review process
- each question, activity, and conversation -
Reviews also help people receive the recognition should align directly with your organizational and
and rewards they deserve, understand their employee needs. Otherwise, people will think
opportunities for improvement and growth, and the conversations are irrelevant “HR work” that
explore possible directions for their career. doesn’t matter to them or the organization.

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People managers play a critical role in the
fairness and value for your review process, both
It’s time for
for your organization and your employees. organizations to
Many organizations do not define and prioritize review their reviews.
the responsibilities of people managers. Critical
responsibilities for all people managers include 15Five’s Performance Review Playbook guides you
identifying and rewarding high performance, through the process of designing fair, valuable,
coaching employees for increased performance efficient reviews.
and growth, and helping employees see possibilities
Here’s what we’ll cover:
for their future. Managers should be having
meaningful conversations about performance, 1 Your review goals
progress, and growth with each member of their
Why does your organization conduct
team at least twice per month. Specific practices
reviews? What do you want to accomplish
such as the Best-Self Kickoff increase the likelihood
for your organization and for your employees?
of a trusting, high-quality relationship between
managers and the people on their teams. However,
reviews act as a summative, formal process to 2 Principles for designing a
ensure your organization and your employees have fair, valuable, efficient
their needs met. review process
We’ve distilled conversations with strategic
Unfair reviews can be costly. HR leaders, a recent survey of over 1,000
A lack of fairness and perceived fairness introduces strategic HR leaders, and a thorough
risk into your organization. These risks include review of academic and industry research
avoidable, regrettable turnover, often of high- into 5 principles to keep in mind as you are
performing, hard-to-replace employees who want designing your review process.
recognition, rewards, and growth opportunities
aligned with their contributions. Your employer 3 Review design decisions
brand can be significantly damaged by a negative and tradeoffs
public review of your organization, highlighting
Every organization has different goals and
practices that are perceived as unfair. Lastly, a
context to consider when designing reviews.
frustrated employee may pursue legal recourse
We’ll walk through decisions, options,
against your organization when inequity exists or
and tradeoffs.
is perceived to exist.

L E T ’S GE T STA RT E D.

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Table of
Contents
I . Understanding Your Review Goals

II. Principles for Designing a Fair, Valuable, and Efficient Review Process

III. Discussing Review Design Considerations and Tradeoffs

IV. Getting Started

V. How 15Five Perform Can Help

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I. Understanding Your Review Goals
Reviews almost always serve multiple purposes. Here’s a list of common goals for
review processes that 15Five hears from our customers and prospects. Which
ones apply to your organization?

I N FORM COM P E NSATION AND AC C E L E RAT E T E A M ME MB E R GROW T H

B ON US DECIS IONS
Provide feedback on wins and opportunities
Bonus allocation Create individual development plans
Merit increases Identify low performers for additional action
Calibrate compensation Help people see their blind spots and
Compensation adjustmentions hidden strengths

Show possible career paths

I N FORM PROMOTION DE CISIONS

Promotion decisions I N C RE ASE P E RF ORMA N C E AT T E A M ,

D E PA RT ME N T, A N D ORGA N I Z AT I O N LEVELS
Succession planning
Understand team, department, and
Calibrate performance
company performance

Identify themes to inform design of People/

I N CREAS E RET E NTION
HR programs
Identify high performers Identify skill gaps within teams, departments,
Identify rockstars (high performance, modest and the organization
growth) and superstars (high performance,
high growth)

Identify flight risks

Most organizations select many – if not most or nearly all – of these goals for their reviews. Reviews can
accomplish multiple purposes, including providing your organization with valuable information that informs
downstream decisions.

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II. Principles for Designing a Fair, Valuable,
and Efficient Review Process
AL O NG S IDE YOUR GOALS FOR THE R E V I E W, H E RE A RE F I V E P RI N C I P L E S TO K E E P I N M I N D AS
YO U D ES IG N YO UR R E V IE W P R OCE SS.

1. Fairness first 4. Empower your people managers and hold

them accountable
2. Honor organizational and employee needs
5. Simplify - less is more
3. Design with decisions and actions in mind

Fairness First
B E F O RE YO U R REV IE W
Ensure role clarity and standardize your roles, performance agreements, and competencies. Ensure that
people understand what’s expected for their role and why it matters to the organization. Double-check that
expectations are clear across managers for similar or identical roles. If your organization uses competencies,
ensure that they are relevant to organizational and individual success, as well as clearly described and
prioritized. Role clarity can also increase psychological safety, a fundamental need for your people.

Clarify and communicate the following to your organization:

• Your review process, including timelines, roles, • How often compensation is benchmarked
and responsibilities and reviewed

• Your compensation philosophy and decision- • When conversations about compensation

making process will occur

• Your promotion philosophy and decision-

making process

Make what matters clear to everyone involved in the review process. Many organizations review what
we often call the what and the how. The what often involves outcomes, results, contributions, goal
achievement, and organizational impact. The how often involves demonstration of organizational values
and behaviors that an organization wants to encourage - for example, proactively seeking feedback.

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MI NI MIZE BIAS W ITH TE CHNOLOGY, E DUCAT I ON , A N D P ROC E SSE S.
Everyone is susceptible to a variety of biases, which is why intentional actions to minimize bias are a
necessity.1 Here are a few examples of bias and how to possibly minimize them:

Idiosyncratic rater bias - Oftentimes, assessments Contextual performance / organizational

of performance including ratings reveal more about citizenship behaviors - Focusing on “above and
the rater than the actual performance of the person beyond” behaviors beyond their work goals can
being rated. Minimize bias by asking specific and influence review results.2 Minimize by formally
future-focused questions. defining how these behaviors should be considered
during reviews, possibly through competencies or one
Recency bias - Focusing on recent events rather of your values.
than a full view of performance. Minimize by
gathering data and feedback from throughout the Power - As a person’s power increases, they often
entire review period using practices, such as notes rate themselves higher and others lower.3 Minimize
from check-ins and 1-on-1s. Use technology to by defining expectations for each role and level within
provide the right data during reviews rather than your organization. During calibrations, ensure that
relying on managers to remember performance. managers are incorporating people’s roles and levels
into their reviews.
Primacy bias - Focusing on your early or first
impressions. Minimize by reviewing performance Implicit person theory / personal growth mindset -
against objective standards, such as goals When raters don’t believe people can change, their
reflecting the quality, quantity, complexity, and ratings can become fixed to their earlier impressions. 4
impact of someone’s work. Use technology to Minimize by educating your people on personal growth
facilitate ongoing conversations about goals and mindset and how people can learn and grow throughout
progress. Hold managers accountable for the their entire lives. Also, be explicit on what should be
frequency and quality of these conversations. incorporated into each review cycle — for example, how
should historical performance be considered?
Affinity bias - An unconscious tendency to get
along with others who are like us. Minimize by Effects of a manager’s own review - The way a
reviewing your performance, compensation, and manager is evaluated has a large impact on others.5
promotion through a DEIB lens. Also, use practices Minimize by conducting your reviews in parallel so a
such as 15Five’s Best-Self Kickoff to facilitate manager’s review is not revealed until the reviews of
deeper conversations and connections between their people are final or nearly final.
managers and their members. Celebrate individual
1
Cognitive Biases Codex
differences throughout your organization. 2
CEBMa Rapid Evidence Assessment on Performance Appraisals (2016)
3
CEBMa Rapid Evidence Assessment on Performance Appraisals (2016)
4
CEBMa Rapid Evidence Assessment on Performance Appraisals (2016)
5
CEBMa Rapid Evidence Assessment on Performance Appraisals (2016)

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Purpose of the review - The purpose of the review Triangulate and validate your review results
influences ratings; for example, people rate with participation, technology, and processes.
differently for compensation and growth.6 Minimize Incorporate self-reviews for fairness and peer
by ensuring everyone knows the exact purpose reviews for triangulation and development. Use
of the review so the context is consistent. Also, calibrations to understand whether any inter-
consider having different reviews throughout the manager inconsistencies exist.
year with different purposes.
Review your review data. Look at your review data
The biases listed above are only a few of many. Follow to see trends across your organization, as well as
the guidance above and incorporate new research within departments and teams, in relation to how
on bias into your performance management and your organization is performing. It’s important
review processes. to investigate potential inconsistencies. For
example, are customers raving about your support
DU R I N G YOU R REV IE W team even though the performance of many
Use evidence, not just manager opinion. Whenever individuals on the support team has been rated
possible, incorporate objective data about the as low? Is your whole organization rated as “above
quality, quantity, complexity, and impact of expectations” even though your organization
someone’s work. Base as much feedback as you hasn’t achieved its most important objectives?
can on objective performance data. Refer back to Have leaders and managers of underperforming
wins and challenges from throughout the entire departments received high ratings?
review period, not just what’s happened in the past
couple months (recency bias). Incorporate questions Ensure that people know who to go to with questions.
about team member strengths into reviews and have Also, create and maintain an FAQ document
conversations about strengths-based development related to reviews to ensure that your responses
to support long-term engagement. to questions are consistent and up-to-date.
6
CEBMa Rapid Evidence Assessment on Performance Appraisals (2016)

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 Speaking of organizational needs, reflect on your
reviews and annual employee experience as they
relate to other processes such as budgeting.
For example, when and how often do you plan
to review and update compensation? Have
you allocated sufficient funds for out-of-cycle
promotions and compensation adjustments for
when one of your top people receives an offer for
a 30% increase to leave?

What are your employee’s needs? Fair

compensation and total rewards, career
A F TER YO U R REVIE W paths (plural on purpose), growth and learning
Ask employees and stakeholders to provide opportunities, recognition, encouragement, and
feedback on your reviews. Provide an anonymous coaching are common employee needs.
option for providing feedback as well. Thank people
for their feedback and take action as appropriate. We recommend creating a list of organizational
and employee needs, then determining whether
Conduct a retrospective or after-action review to your reviews and other employee experiences
capture your learnings. support those needs.

Before your next review, provide specific feedback Design with decisions and actions
to managers about what worked and what needs to
be improved during this review cycle. in mind.
Understand your downstream decisions and
actions that are informed by reviews. Examples
Honor organizational and employee
may include compensation adjustments,
needs. bonuses, promotions, performance improvement
Reviews can - and should - provide value to both plans, and L&D investments.
organizations and employees.
Involve your downstream stakeholders. For
What are your organization’s needs? These should example, do leaders and managers get what
be reflected in the goals for the review that they need from reviews to decide on bonuses
you noted before. Organizational needs often and give helpful feedback to their team? Do your
involve rewarding people equitably, retaining the compensation counterparts receive the data
right people, providing guidance on increased they need so people are rewarded and promoted
performance and accelerated career growth, and equitably? Ask people what they need and ensure
coaching up people who need help and support. your reviews support their needs.

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As emphasized below, less can be more. Remove everything that doesn’t support your review goals and
downstream processes. Don’t keep doing things just because you’ve done them before.

Empower your people managers and hold them accountable.

Many organizations do not properly equip their managers with the right technology, education, and coaching
to support equitable reviews. Ensure that your managers understand your review goals, why they are important
for your organization and for your people, and all of the tools, training, and support they have access to.
Your managers should communicate and support your compensation, total rewards, and promotion policies
when interacting with their people. Your managers should also keep your job descriptions and performance
agreements up-to-date as expectations for roles naturally increase over time. Give managers a specific go-to
person on your HR team for questions and help with their reviews, such as an HR Business Partner.

Hold your managers accountable for equitable reviews by including the accountability in their performance
agreement and gathering feedback from their people on the quality of their feedback and reviews.

To support this accountability, use practices like 15Five’s Best-Self Kickoff and regular, meaningful 1-on-1s
to develop deep, trusting relationships between managers and their team members. The Best-Self Kickoff is
a two-way conversation between a manager and team member that can be helpful even for people who have
had the same manager for years. It reveals team member and manager strengths, values, and needs, which
are foundational for effective people management and reviews. The relationships between managers and
their team members are too important to leave to chance.

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Simplify — less is more.
Only include activities and questions in your review process
that have a clear purpose, such as informing a downstream
decision. This sounds obvious, but unfortunately many
organizations add to processes such as reviews without
ever removing anything. We strongly encourage you to
review every question, email, conversation, and activity
through the lens of “how does this help accomplish our
goals for this review?”

THERE A RE A F EW R E ASONS TO SIMP LIFY:

Efficiency and focus: Keeps you and your people focused on what matters most.

Avoiding overwhelm: You and your people can only act on so much feedback and data
at once.

Allows for more frequent reviews: Many organizations are stuck in one review per
year because the process takes four months. If they attempted to add a second review
without changing their process, more time would be spent in review cycles than outside
of them. People want meaningful feedback more than once per year.

More information does not always lead to better decision-making: As popularized in

Malcom Gladwell’s Blink, extensive science suggests that more information increases
our confidence in decisions without increasing the quality of those decisions.

An example of “less is more” thinking for individual contributors would be focusing reviews
on feedback on their what (contributions) and how (organizational values), opportunities
for improvement and growth, and possibilities for what’s next (career paths).

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III. Discussing Review Design Considerations
and Tradeoffs
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to performance reviews. Each organization has different goals and context
to consider when designing reviews, and what works for one organization may not be effective for another.

In this section, we will walk you through decisions, options, and tradeoffs you will encounter as you design
your review process, and share best practices. As you read, think about the review goals you identified, and
use those goals to inform the decisions you make.

Frequency
WHAT IS IT?
Frequency is how often you conduct reviews - for Other options include twice per year or four times
example, one, two, or four times per year. per year, often aligned with quarterly business
results and goal setting.
WHY IS IT IM PORTANT?
Frequency is important to organizations because Consider different types of reviews throughout
it ensures that conversions and decisions related the year. For example, a longer review may focus
performance, progress, and growth are happening on performance and growth as an input into
frequently enough to support organizational goals. your compensation and promotion decisions,
Frequency is important to individuals because reviews accompanied by a shorter review every 3 or 6
should provide valuable feedback on performance, months to ensure that conversations about
growth, and possibilities for what’s next. growth and development are happening as
frequently as people would like.
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS
Many organizations conduct reviews once per RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
year. However, In today’s faster-than-ever What are the goals for your review or reviews?
workplaces, once-a-year reviews may not be
enough for organizational and individual needs. Consider aligning your review process with your
Organizations need contributions from their financial year to understand organizational
people and an understanding of who is performing and individual performance, your budgeting
above expectations and who isn’t. Individuals want process to ensure that reviews are an important
frequent feedback, not only to be reminded of input into your compensation decisions, and
their value and contributions, but also to support your goal-setting processes to incorporate clear
their career and growth aspirations. expectations and objective data into your reviews.

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Timeline
WHAT IS IT?
Your review timeline ensures that people have Encourage your people to not wait for the deadline
enough time to complete their reviews without by reminding them about the value of reviews
stretching your review process out unnecessarily. for them.

WHY IS IT IM POR TANT?

If you add peer reviews, give people one week to
Your timeline holds various stakeholders accountable, nominate peers during self reviews and the two
emphasizing the importance of reviews for your weeks afterwards for peers to complete the reviews.
organization and individuals within it.

RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS
Publish your review timeline at least 3 months in
We typically recommend two weeks for self and upward advance to give people an opportunity to plan ahead.
reviews, two weeks for manager reviews, two weeks
for calibrations, and two weeks for manager debriefs, Avoid conducting reviews during the last month of
totaling eight weeks. Two week are recommended for a quarter, company holidays, or major marketing
each phase to accommodate vacations. events such as your customer conference.

Share the status of review completion with your Schedule manager education sessions for the
executives, leaders, and managers on a weekly basis different phases and calibrations sessions are
throughout the process. Ideally, use a technology early as possible to identify conflicts.
that allows for automatic reminders and reporting.

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 Upward Review
W H AT I S I T ?
An upward review involves an individual contributor
reviewing their manager

W H Y I S I T I MP ORTA N T ?
Since your managers are accountable for
managing their team, gathering feedback
from the people on their team is an important
Self Review part of evaluating their performance and
W HAT IS IT? individual development. This helps the individual
Self reviews allow individual contributors to answer contributors in your organization feel seen,
questions about themselves. heard, and valued. It also provides managers
straightforward feedback on ways to better
W HY IS IT IM PORTANT? support their people.
Science suggests that self reviews increase perceived
fairness and help employees feel their voice is heard. 7 K E Y C ON SI D E RAT I ON S
Plus, self reviews allow individuals to remind managers • Including upward reviews or not
of their contributors during the review period. Self • Questions within upward reviews 8
reviews allow for the identification of potential blind
spots (where the self review describes a strength RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
that the manager doesn’t agree with) and hidden Upward reviews can help you evaluate the
strengths (where the manager describes a strength performance of people managers and make
and the individual contributor doesn’t). downstream decisions about whether they
are ready for promotion to higher levels of
KEY CO N S IDERAT IONS management and leadership.
Including self reviews or not
Are your managers prepared to receive feedback
R E C OM M EN DATI ONS from their direct reports? Many people fear
We recommend including self reviews, as they feedback. Some may even retaliate in illegal ways.
facilitate participation in the review process, giving Ensure your managers understand that receiving
individual contributors a voice. feedback with empathy is part of their role.

That being said, your self review can be much shorter

than your manager review (e.g., individual contributors
do not complete the Private Manager Assessment). 7
APA PsycNet Direct
8
Default question templates for Best-Self Review

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Does upward feedback align with your organizational
culture and geographic norms? In certain cultures,
giving feedback to someone higher in the
organizational hierarchy is uncomfortable or even
considered improper.

Strongly consider providing anonymous, confidential

ways for individual contributors to provide feedback
about their managers. Even in fantastic organizations,
it’s dangerous to assume that every person feels safe
sharing their opinion on every topic with every person
at all times.

Peer Review
WHAT IS IT? RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
Peer reviews involve people providing reviews of Allowing employees to nominate their own peers
their peers, although “peer” may not always mean can increase perceived fairness, which increases
someone at the same level within the organization. the likelihood for a successful review.10
Another way to think about peer reviews is
“stakeholder reviews.” Ensure that people know who to request as peer
reviews and how many people to ask. A simple
WHY IS IT IM PO R TANT? recommendation might be one person who
People have different stakeholders throughout reports to the same manager as you and one
organizations beyond their manager. Gathering person you interact with on a weekly basis.
feedback from how well you co-elevate and deliver
value to those stakeholders is useful for evaluating Ensure your people understand how to deliver
performance and identifying opportunities for growth. useful feedback that aims to assist their peers.

K E Y C O N S IDERAT IONS A common pitfall is asking peer reviews to

• Whether to include peer reviews complete the same exhaustive list of questions,
competency ratings, and more as a self-review or
• Number of peer reviews (Research suggests that
manager review. Ensure the length of the review
3-5 peer reviewers is effective.)
and content of the peer review matches the
depth of the relationships.
10
What you wish you knew about employees’ responses to performance reviews

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Questions
W HAT IS IT? RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
Questions are what you ask individual contributors Evaluate the value of each question using
and managers to respond to. Questions and their the following:
responses are the foundation of reviews. 1. How does this question influence fairness?

2. How does this question inform our review goals?

W HY IS IT IM PORTANT?
Questions significantly influence the content 3. What downstream decisions does this
and quality of your reviews. The right mix of question inform?
quantitative data and qualitative data ensures that 4. Does this question give us the data we need for
organizational and individual needs are met. those downstream decisions?

5. How does the question help our individuals

KEY CO N S IDERAT IONS
• We have separate sections on ratings and the
achieve their goals and grow?

Private Manager Assessment below, but we

recommend using a mix of performance questions
and developmental questions to facilitate robust Ratings
conversations about performance and growth.11
W H AT I S I T ?
• Questions about overall performance, promotion
Ratings summarize people’s performance into a
readiness, and perceived flight risks provide
single question or set of questions.
actionable data that can easily be analyzed and
acted upon at organizational, departmental, and
W H Y I S I T I MP ORTA N T ?
team levels.
Ratings allow for valuable reporting and insights.
• Qualitative questions about an individual’s
However, people’s performance shouldn’t be reduced
most impactful contributions and greatest to a single rating or word, such as “competent”.
opportunities for growth add richness to calibration
conversations, manager debriefs, and downstream K E Y C ON SI D E RAT I ON S
conversations about bonuses and promotions. Options include a single overall rating, as well
• Questions about career growth can help identify as ratings on different facets of performance.
strengths, values, passions, and potential career Options also include balanced and imbalanced
paths. Focusing on and developing people’s scales. Note that ratings are susceptible to bias,
strengths can lead to long-term engagement. which can lead to biased downstream decisions
such as compensation and promotions.

11
Default question templates for Best-Self Review

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R ECOM M EN DATI ONS
Many organizations use a balanced, 5-point rating
scale for overall performance. Unfortunately, many
organizations receive results that reflect that nearly
all people are a 4 or 5, which is wonderful if true and
also not always helpful for analysis and downstream
decision-making.

Consider an imbalanced scale to provide more

accurate assessments and actionable data. Here’s a
version supported by Gallup’s research: Exceptional,
Outstanding, Above Expectations, At Expectations,
and Below Expectations. Above Level, At Level, Below
Level, and Needs Attention would be another example.

Sharing rating results with employees can increase

transparency and reduce uncertainty. Uncertainty for example, the what (contributions) and the how
about performance can lead to frustration and other (values) against expectations for this individual
strong negative reactions. based on their role and goals. Use objective
measures of results as often as possible.
Create ways to check whether ratings are being
“gamed” - for example, people giving themselves Do not use forced distributions for ratings (e.g.,
higher ratings for a more favorable overall rating or we can only have one top performer on the team
a manager giving their people higher ratings so they and someone needs to be our low performer). It is
look better for a promotion. extremely unlikely that performance is distributed
this way across your organization and teams, so
Do not use numbers as ratings without definitions. forcing this distribution most likely perpetuates
Ensure that your rating descriptions are clear and unfairness and game-playing.
align with your organization’s values and culture,
your performance management philosophy, and your Do not use forced rankings (i.e., this is the number
expectations for individual performance. If possible, one performer on the team, number two and so on),
gather feedback from leaders, managers, and which demotivate and foster competition between
individual contributors on the clarity of the ratings. employees rather than collaboration. Forced
ranking processes can also ignore levels and roles
Do not use a single rating in isolation. Unpack what (e.g., comparing a senior employee to an entry-level
contributes to the overall rating in your organization; employee because they are on the same team).

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Private Manager Assessment
WHAT IS IT? *Q5: Given what I know of [Name’s] performance,
The Private Manager Assessment is a set of questions if my team member got a job somewhere else, I
intended to provide HR with the actionable data it would feel…
needs to make decisions and unpack a traditional single • Distressed: I would do everything I could do to
performance rating into valuable parts. The Private keep [name]
Manager Assessment can replace or supplement
• Anxious: [Name] would be really hard to replace,
ratings, aiming to reduce bias and increase fairness.
so I would try to convince them to stay

WHY IS IT IM POR TANT? • Neutral: [Name] does a decent job and gets the
HR needs actionable data to inform downstream work done.
conversations, such as calibrations and succession • Accepting: I can find a better replacement
planning, and decisions, such as merit increases,
• Relieved: [Name] could do their best work elsewhere
bonuses, and promotions. Also, minimizing bias and
increasing fairness are foundational to equity.
RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS We advocate strongly for the Private Manager
The Private Manager Assessment in 15Five’s solution Assessment because it’s valuable for HR decision-
is inspired by research from Deloitte and highlighted making and helps managers differentiate the
in the April 2015 Harvard Business Review article, contributions of their employees. It also aims to
Reinventing Performance Management, by Marcus reduce bias and promote more fair and objective
Buckingham and Ashley Goodall. *Note that question assessments of performance.
four is adapted and question five is our own.
The Private Manager Assessment results can be
Q1: [Name] is ready for a promotion today (Y/N)
viewed through 15Five’s Talent Matrix, which allows
Q2: [Name] is at risk for low performance (Y/N)
leadership and HR to identify high performers,
Q3: Given what I know about [Name’s] performance, opportunities to retain valuable employees, and
and if it were my money, I would award this person the possible adjustments to your succession plans.
highest possible increase and bonus.
(strongly disagree - disagree - neutral - agree - strongly agree) It’s worth ensuring that each question and response
option aligns with your organization’s culture,
*Q4: Given how well I know [Name] works with others,
context, and review goals.
I would always want them on my team
(strongly disagree - disagree - neutral - agree - strongly agree)

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Objectives
WHAT IS IT? Ensure that people who are setting goals
Objectives should reflect the most important ambitiously aren’t penalized when the goals aren’t
results and contributions an individual makes to an achieved while people who set less ambitious goals
organization’s objectives. and complete all of them are rewarded for 100%
goal completion.
WHY IS IT IM POR TANT?
Objectivity influences fairness and perceived fairness; Also, consider context and change that may have
objectives can help managers review performance and happened since the objectives were created.
contributions objectively. Priorities can shift rapidly and people shouldn’t
be penalized because they made important
Objectives focus effort and energy, and clearly show contributions that weren’t part of objectives that
an individual contributor what is most important for are outdated.
them to work on.

Evaluating results and progress against objectives Competencies

over time helps reduce recency bias.
W H AT I S I T ?
Competencies are behaviors that are relevant
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS
to individual performance and growth, as well
Including Objectives within your reviews or not
as organizational performance and, sometimes,
organizational culture.
R ECOM M EN DATI ONS
Reviews should include as much objective data as
W H Y I S I T I MP ORTA N T ?
reasonably possible. Including objectives provide
Competencies can reinforce which behaviors are
a way to evaluate performance and contributions
most important for your organization, such as
against agreed-upon standards.
values, or a particular role. When getting started
with competencies, fewer is better. A smaller set of
A consistent foundation for goal-setting helps
competencies keeps your people focused on the most
increase fairness. Does everyone in your organization
important behaviors and is easier to keep up to date.
understand your organization’s goal-setting
philosophy? For example, how ambitious someone
K E Y C ON SI D E RAT I ON S
should be in goal-setting? How aligned individual
• Including organizational competencies
goals should be with organizational goals? How
to create goals that yield objective data on • Including role-based competencies
performance? How do managers and their team
members work together to co-create goals?

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R E C OM M EN DATIONS
Reviews should include as much objective data as reasonably possible. Including
objectives provide a way to evaluate performance and contributions against agreed
-upon standards.

A consistent foundation for goal-setting helps increase fairness. Does everyone in your
organization understand your organization’s goal-setting philosophy? For example, how ambitious
someone should be in goal-setting? How aligned individual goals should be with organizational goals?
How to create goals that yield objective data on performance? How do managers and their team members
work together to co-create goals?

Weighting
WHAT IS IT?
Emphasize objective data whenever possible by
Weighting is calculating a score based on the relative
giving it significant weight in your calculations.
importance of different elements within a review, such
Demonstrate the relative importance of your
as goal completion, manager opinion, and competencies
values and competencies in alignment with your
organization’s desired outcomes and people
WHY IS IT IM PORTANT?
strategy. It might be worthwhile to ask your CEO
Weighting can help organizations make consistent
and other leaders to share their opinions on the
decisions during performance reviews and downstream
relative importance of these different elements.
from performance reviews. Weighting also
demonstrates the relative importance of different
A simple weighting recommendation could be
facets of performance, such as the what (results and
40% goal completion, 40% manager rating,
contributions) and the how (values and competencies).
and 20% organizational values as measured
by competencies. Another organization with
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS
• Including a score that requires different elements
a greater focus on goals could decide on 60%
goal completion, 20% manager rating, 10%
to be weighted for calculation
role-specific competencies, and 10% values as
• Which weight to give each element
measured by competencies.

R ECOM M EN DATI ONS Including self-review results in your weighting

Using weights for different elements can standardize may increase perceived fairness. Ensure that
the overall score or ratings your people received self-reviews are also grounded in objectives and
compared to relying on manager discretion. results as well.

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Remember to double-check that goals and performance against those goals reflect the most important
contributions for each role. Also, ensure that people at the same levels within your organization have similar
expectations for results and contributions.

Calibrations
WHAT IS IT?
Calibrations are conversations involving Everyone in the organization should be calibrated.
management, leadership, and HR to increase the Bias, inconsistent expectations, and the benefits
fairness of reviews and accomplish other goals for of detached perspectives exist at all levels within
reviews. organizations, including the C-suite.

WHY IS IT IM PORTANT? Calibrations should involve as many layers

Calibrations aim to ensure that people are of leadership and as many peer managers as
evaluated fairly. practically possible in your organization based on
its size. If calibrations are conducted in a single
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS session, organizations typically calibrate individual
• The major decision is whether to calibrate or not. contributors, then ask team leads to leave, then
calibrate team leads, then ask managers to leave,
• Other decisions include calibration timing, who is
then calibrate managers, and so on.
calibrated, and who is involved in the calibration.

HR’s involvement in calibrations creates a valuable

R ECOM M EN DATI ONS
perspective alongside the managers involved.
Calibrations can help ensure fairness within and across Double-check coherence (e.g., modest performance
teams, increase visibility of individual performance for combined with a ready for promotion designation?)
leadership and HR teams, and add valuable detached and accuracy (e.g., 50% of a department with a ready
perspectives on individual performance. for promotion designation?). HR can also help ensure
consistent standards for performance are upheld
Note that some research suggests that calibrations across the organization.
can unfairly increase the importance of manager
influence and advocacy compared to team member
results and contributions. Calibration conversations
should be grounded in objective data and results.
Calibrations should occur before managers share
final review results with individual contributors, so
learnings and adjustments from the calibration can
be included in the review conversations.

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Manager Conversations
WHAT IS IT?
Manager conversations happen between managers performance and growth helps people avoid
and individual contributors following the completion of thinking about when the manager is going to talk
reviews and calibrations. about the raise during the whole conversation.

WHY IS IT IM PORTANT? Importantly, conversations about performance

Your manager’s conversation with an individual should rarely include any significant surprises as
contributor provides an opportunity to recognize managers should be providing feedback in an
achievements, share opportunities for growth, ongoing way using practices such as check-ins and
discuss career paths, and answer questions about 1-on-1s.
what’s going well and what can be improved.
From an HR perspective, separating the
K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS conversations allows for your compensation
Manager debriefs are an essential element of decision-making processes to happen without
your review process. Different options include extending your review cycle for another 4-6 weeks.
having conversations about performance, growth, This reduces the pressure on your HR team, as well
compensation, and promotions simultaneously as on your managers. Regarding compensation, we
or separately. recommend engaging with a firm that specializes
in compensation and uses accurate, up-to-date
R ECOM M EN DATI ONS benchmarks.
The real-time conversation that happens after
the review may be the most important part of Provide your managers with specific guidance on
the process for each of your team members. We what to discuss and what not to discuss during your
recommend having two separate conversations: manager debriefs to align with your organization’s
one about performance and growth, the other philosophy. In addition, encourage your individual
about compensation, bonuses, and promotions contributors to ask questions and engage in a
(as applicable). Separating conversations about dialogue about their performance and opportunities
performance and compensation reflects that review for growth.
results are only one input into your compensation
decisions, alongside market conditions, organizational Your managers should also follow up with their team
performance, your promotion policies, employment members afterwards to see if there are additional
market conditions, attrition risk, and more. questions or unmet needs.
In addition, a separate conversation about

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Compensation
WHAT IS IT?
Manager accountability: Are you holding your
Reviews are often an input into compensation managers accountable for the objectivity and
decisions, which include merit increases, bonuses, quality of their compensation decisions?
and promotions.
Flexibility: How well does your compensation
decision-making process handle unexpected
WHY IS IT IM POR TANT?
market changes and individual exceptions?
Even though “whys to work” like meaning and
community are more important than ever, you can’t Individual contributor impact: Do you ensure
pay the bills with meaning. Compensation matters to that individual contributors understand how
your team members and to your employer brand as an compensation decisions are made at your
equitable workplace. Unfair compensation decisions organization and how these decisions relate to
introduce significant risk into your organization. their performance?

K E Y C ON S IDERAT IONS
RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
Stating the obvious, compensation is complicated. Use high-quality 3rd party benchmarks to
Here are a few key considerations: understand how your total compensation
Benchmarking: How fair and competitive is compares to similar companies, and continuously
your compensation? improve your compensation decision-making
with up-to-date benchmarking data, evidence-
Incentives: How well are you influencing and
based best practices, feedback from your team
rewarding the right results and behaviors leading
members, and ideas from your HR community.
to those results?
Be sure to review your compensation against
Legal involvement: How well does your process benchmarks at least once or twice each year
comply with relevant laws and regulations? Does it to make adjustments. Continuously evaluate
introduce risk into your organization? the impact of different incentives you have
Transparency: How proud are you to share how implemented, such as variable pay and bonuses,
compensation decisions are made in your organization? and consider organization-based or team-
based incentives related to organization and
Continuous improvement: How well are you
team performance. Also, establish a consistent
using current benchmarking data, evidence-based
decision-making process for out-of-cycle
practices, and feedback from your team members
requests, such as when someone receives an offer
and peers at other organizations to improve
from another organization.
your processes?

23 | PERFORMANCE REVIEW PLAYBOOK 15FIVE.COM

Get managers more involved — hold them RE C OMME N DAT I ON S
accountable for objective, informed advocacy for Communication is essential for a fair, effective,
their people’s needs related to compensation. efficient review process. Ensure that your
Furthermore, separate performance conversations communication is tailored to different audiences
from compensation conversations, to emphasize and, importantly, describes what’s in it for them.
that individual performance is just one input into
compensation decisions. At a minimum, your communications should
describe the following:
Make your compensation decision-making process • What’s in it for them
transparent, documenting the different factors
• Who needs to complete the review and who
that influence compensation decisions (e.g.,
doesn’t (e.g., all full-time employees starting
economic factors, organizational performance,
after a certain date)
talent market dynamics). Involve your Legal team to
ensure compliance and equitable practices. Finally, • The different phases of your review process
partner with an organization that specializes in • Deadlines and why they matter
compensation whose technology connects to your
• A link to an FAQ about reviews
performance management technology.
• A link to your recorded trainings about reviews

• Who to contact with questions

Communication Ask your leadership to reinforce the importance
of reviews and deadlines during team meetings.
WHAT IS IT?
Update your leaders and managers about review
Communication includes emails, education, FAQs,
progress, including percentage of reviews
and information shared using your review technology.
completed, on a weekly basis.

WHY IS IT IM PO R TANT?
Remind people who haven’t completed reviews
Communication describes the goals of your review
one day before each deadline to help your review
processes and what’s expected from leaders,
process stay on time.
managers, and individual contributors throughout
the process.

K E Y C O N S IDERAT IONS
Clear, consistent communication is essential for an
effective review process. The decisions regarding
communication are who will send each message
and when.

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IV. Getting Started
You might be wondering how to get started. Of course, we’re here to support you, so please reach out. In
the meantime, here are a few recommendations from our conversation with customers about performance
management and reviews.

• Gather your HR team members to discuss and document your review goals and downstream decisions
that depend on reviews

• Have a retrospective about your existing review process, candidly discussing “what’s going well?” and
“what can be improved?”

• Gather feedback on your current review process from a representative sample of your team members
and managers using surveys or interviews

• Start working on your “what’s in it for them” messaging for your executive audience to create partnership
and buy-in (e.g., retaining top talent, proactively identifying flight risks, promoting the right people)

• Start working through this playbook step-by-step and ask 15Five for support when you need it

WAN T TO L EA RN AND GR OW ALONGSID E A

CO MM U N ITY O F STRATE GIC HR LE ADE R S?
Consider sharing your questions and ideas in the
HR Superstars Community.

Read on to learn more about 15Five’s performance management solution.

25 | PERFORMANCE REVIEW PLAYBOOK 15FIVE.COM

V. How 15Five Perform Can Help
15Five’s easy-to-use platform was created to help HR leaders design a performance program from the
ground up and take action. Our research-based platform can be customized to suit your organization’s
needs so you can drive performance aligned with your company’s culture, market dynamics, and technology
stack. Each of our features, such as performance reviews, 1-on-1, Check-in, Objectives, High Fives, and
more, work together to help HR leaders conduct review cycles that are not only convenient and user-friendly
for their people but also effective at driving change.

By managing performance on 15Five, HR leaders can create a holistic measure of performance and receive
helpful insights to inform talent decisions, from people development and promotion to compensation. To
create a fair assessment of performance that suites your company’s needs, 15Five offers a variety of review
types and questions: self reviews, manager reviews, upward reviews, competency reviews, objective reviews,
and peer reviews, along with guidance from our available research-based question bank, further reducing
uncertainty and manual work for HR leaders. Each of these elements enable a more fair and objective
measurement of an employee’s performance, and identify skill and perception gaps, while also enhancing
transparency in the review process.

When you partner with 15Five to revamp your people and performance
practices, you’re able to:

1 Design a fair performance measurement process that suits your organization’s needs and take a holistic
approach to developing your people

2 Use our easy-to-use platform to manage performance from A to Z without getting buried in manual work
such as tracking progress, managing spreadsheets, and sending follow-up reminders

3 Gain visibility into performance and engagement data (and offer strategic training opportunities to
improve it), and

4 Leverage across our product suite to drive change, creating a highly engaged, high performing organization.

Learn More

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Sources:
Cognitive Biases Codex

CEBMa Rapid Evidence Assessment on Performance Appraisals (2016)

Re-Engineering Performance Management by Gallup

Participation in the performance appraisal process and employee reactions: A meta-analytic review of field investigations.

by Cawley, Brian D.,Keeping, Lisa M.,Levy, Paul E

Default question templates for Best-Self Review® by 15Five

Can multi-source feedback change perceptions of goal accomplishment, self-evaluations, and performance-related outcomes?

by Manuel London and James W. Smither

What you wish you knew about employees’ responses to performance reviews by Emilia Wietrak

About 15Five
Founded in 2011, 15Five equips HR leaders to play a strategic role in
their company’s growth. HR leaders use 15Five to combine engagement,
performance, and OKRs on one platform so they can make insightful
decisions and take strategic action. Unlike other ‘command and control’
performance systems, 15Five uses the latest in people science to turn
managers and employees into self-driven owners of performance and
engagement. To further the impact of talent on company growth, 15Five
also provides education, coaching, and community for HR leaders,
managers, and employees. HR leaders at over 3,200 companies, including
Credit Karma, Spotify, and Pendo, rely on 15Five’s software and services to
make their talent a growth driver.

To learn more, visit www.15Five.com