I have a fledgling thought about the merits of separating the annual performance appraisal process from any personal development work that comes out of a competency based feedback process – such as 360 degree feedback.

The thoughts come from the different mindset that I have seen in people when they are being assessed – particularly with a link to pay, compared to how they approach a conversation about their personal development.

I suspect that to make this effective you would have to separate that development that is linked to targets/goals and that development that is linked to personal capability or competence on a broader level. The former will often fall out of an objective setting exercise whereas the latter tends to fall out of 360 feedback.

We notice a number of clients making 360 feedback part of the performance appraisal process – some during the annual review but many deliberately at a different time of the year. I am coming to favour the two processes not being linked.

Brendan
Brendan Walsh