Is a Movement Afoot to Eliminate the Performance Review?

I'm not one for hand-wringing about the latest people management or career development fad. For instance, I couldn't disagree more with bloggers who say a résumé—even a CEO résumé—shouldn't exceed one page. I've never used the word poppycock, but to them I say: poppycock!

But one of the people management ideas emerging recently is that of basically nixing the annual performance review. And let's admit it; annual performance reviews are a headache for everyone involved. Sometimes overdue or overlooked. 

Three days ago, I caught Liz Wright's less than subtle Fortune.com article: "Five Stupid Rules That Drive Great Employees Away." Rule #2 on Liz' list: insulting performance review processes. Follow Liz on Forbes or LinkedIn, if you don't already. Her ideas are worth consideration.

Here's a snippet of her recent Forbes article:

Forbes contributor Liz Wright suggests that the performance review process is passé.

Then yesterday, a member of the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) list on LinkedIn posed this question: 

LinkedIn Groups question to SHRM members about the relevance of performance reviews.

Evidence of this question abounds with just a few Google searches. Indeed, Lisa Quast—another Forbes.com contributor—penned "How to Make Performance Reviews Relevant" in 2013, in which she wrote: 

Forbes contributor Lisa Quast reveals a possible harbinger on the topic in a January 2013 article.

Interesting: when I reached this point in this post, I googled "organizations ditching performance reviews," and folks, we may have a movement afoot.