4 ms·

Formal appraisals are a waste of resources in a startup. Focus on addressing issues as they come up as a team or let them go.

cmdrfred 10y ago
I work for a company that doesn't do performance reviews. Thus, there is little incentive to perform well as nobody will even notice. Everyone just works hard enough to keep their jobs.
- hnhg 10y ago
  Maybe the lack of performance reviews and lack of motivation are probably causatively linked to a wider, underlying issue?
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    I think it's management that thinks an attaboy can pay a mortgage.
- sshrinivasan 10y ago
  Wow, thats just sad. If the only way employees at your company can get their performance noticed is in a yearly performance review, you need a better job.
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    It will be noticed (you might get a "good job") just not rewarded in any monetary way as there is no process for that to happen (outside of finding a new job and demanding a raise to stay). The person who has the authority to give me a raise (and I suspect even he'd need approval to do that) lives in another state and I've spoken to him twice. I'm getting married in a few months. I'm going to look at other jobs when I get back from my honeymoon.
- dingaling 10y ago
  If everyone "working hard enough to keep their jobs" isn't sufficient to enable the company to succeed then there's something wrong with the company.
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    I wrote software to automate about half my job. I'm certainly not going to tell them about it as it can only result in a loss of income for me and my coworkers. Incentives matter I don't care what the management gurus say.
geori 10y ago
First, I do weekly 1x1s with my directs and give feedback and regularly do career planning in them. You can't wait to have these types of conversations only once or twice a year. Performance Reviews were definitely not a waste of time and a very important carrot that motivated the company. they were great when things were going well and my startup was growing, but when we started to have churn and laid off half of the company they were less important. They were even less important when we had another round of layoffs after that. I would send very mixed signals at an annual review if I couldn't give anyone a raise and couldn't offer them a way up the corporate ladder, even for top performers. E.g., "You're doing awesome work but all we can do is let you keep your job." Furthermore, equity grants would have been meaningless. I had multiple employees say tell me they didn't think the stock was worth anything, since the odds of an exit had dwindled. Growth had stalled, so they cared purely about salary and career path. I spent a lot of 1x1s talking about what they wanted to do after working for me and helped them plan it out and make progress towards a new goal.
tedmiston 10y ago
I'm surprised you're getting downvoted. Having worked at several well funded startups and mentored or been involved with many more through founder friends around the accelerator in town, I completely agree. Especially at the early stage startups just don't have time for these formalities. Regular 1:1s are pretty much the best option.
- tmlee 10y ago
  There might be a threshold for the number of employees before the formalities kick in? What would that be? 1 on 1 is definitely ideal until you find yourself not being able to spend time with everybody and so are the managers. Even more so when everybody keeps getting more other priorities to work on.

cmdrfred 10y ago

I work for a company that doesn't do performance reviews. Thus, there is little incentive to perform well as nobody will even notice. Everyone just works hard enough to keep their jobs.

hnhg 10y ago
Maybe the lack of performance reviews and lack of motivation are probably causatively linked to a wider, underlying issue?
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  I think it's management that thinks an attaboy can pay a mortgage.
sshrinivasan 10y ago
Wow, thats just sad. If the only way employees at your company can get their performance noticed is in a yearly performance review, you need a better job.
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  It will be noticed (you might get a "good job") just not rewarded in any monetary way as there is no process for that to happen (outside of finding a new job and demanding a raise to stay). The person who has the authority to give me a raise (and I suspect even he'd need approval to do that) lives in another state and I've spoken to him twice. I'm getting married in a few months. I'm going to look at other jobs when I get back from my honeymoon.
dingaling 10y ago
If everyone "working hard enough to keep their jobs" isn't sufficient to enable the company to succeed then there's something wrong with the company.
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  I wrote software to automate about half my job. I'm certainly not going to tell them about it as it can only result in a loss of income for me and my coworkers. Incentives matter I don't care what the management gurus say.

geori 10y ago

First, I do weekly 1x1s with my directs and give feedback and regularly do career planning in them. You can't wait to have these types of conversations only once or twice a year. Performance Reviews were definitely not a waste of time and a very important carrot that motivated the company. they were great when things were going well and my startup was growing, but when we started to have churn and laid off half of the company they were less important. They were even less important when we had another round of layoffs after that. I would send very mixed signals at an annual review if I couldn't give anyone a raise and couldn't offer them a way up the corporate ladder, even for top performers. E.g., "You're doing awesome work but all we can do is let you keep your job." Furthermore, equity grants would have been meaningless. I had multiple employees say tell me they didn't think the stock was worth anything, since the odds of an exit had dwindled. Growth had stalled, so they cared purely about salary and career path. I spent a lot of 1x1s talking about what they wanted to do after working for me and helped them plan it out and make progress towards a new goal.

tedmiston 10y ago

I'm surprised you're getting downvoted. Having worked at several well funded startups and mentored or been involved with many more through founder friends around the accelerator in town, I completely agree. Especially at the early stage startups just don't have time for these formalities. Regular 1:1s are pretty much the best option.

tmlee 10y ago
There might be a threshold for the number of employees before the formalities kick in? What would that be? 1 on 1 is definitely ideal until you find yourself not being able to spend time with everybody and so are the managers. Even more so when everybody keeps getting more other priorities to work on.