Should You Abolish Employee Reviews?

Want to save your employees some stress and yourself some time? According to Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins, co-authors of Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead (Berrett-Koehler), those pesky annual employee appraisals aren't even very accurate, let alone worth the headaches they cause. Instead, Coens and Jenkins suggest keeping ongoing, two-way feedback among employees regarding the company as well as the individuals themselves. Basic appraisal functions such as feedback, coaching and career development have proved far more successful, and leave both employers and employees more fulfilled.

Excerpted from Entrepreneur magazine, May 2001