To Make Your Employees Happier, Lose This HR Policy

Employee reviews are meant to be helpful and constructive, but many workers say that they have the opposite effect.

Alina555 | Getty Images

In fact, a recent study commissioned by Adobe found that 80 percent of office workers would prefer on-the-spot feedback rather than periodic formal reviews. Researchers surveyed 1,500 U.S. office workers and found that nearly two-thirds of employees and managers believe performance reviews are an outdated practice.

Related: 4 Ways to Avoid the Worthless Annual Performance Review and Give Valuable Feedback

For one, they take a lot of time to organize. The researchers found that managers spend an average of 17 hours planning for each individual employee's review. Talk about a waste of time -- especially when more than half of employees say that reviews have no impact on how they do their work.

Performance reviews are also pretty rattling for employees. One in five workers admit to crying after a review, 37 percent say they have looked for another job and 20 percent say they have quit. To avoid the stress and heartache, more than 60 percent of millennial workers say they would switch to another company with no performance reviews.

Related: 5 Positive Ways to Constructively Critique Employees

Both office workers (55 percent) and managers (66 percent) say it's time to change or get rid of reviews. By doing so, workers believe there would be more flexibility, happiness and collaboration in the workplace.

Adobe no longer conducts performance reviews with its employees in favor of informal "check-ins." Other companies that take a similar approach include General Electric, Accenture and software startup RetailNext.

Should you change up your company policy on reviews? Check out the infographic below to help you decide.