Focal Point Reviews Benefits and Challenges
The differences between focal point reviews and anniversary date reviews are significant, and many HR professionals struggle to decide which method is ultimately better for handling employee evaluations. The truth is that there is not necessarily an objectively better method -- each company’s needs are unique, and both approaches have merits and challenges that are likely to shape your organization in different ways.
While focal point reviews have managed to eclipse anniversary date reviews in popularity, it is best to choose the performance review cycle that works best for you -- we’ve laid out some pros and cons to help you do just that.
Focal point and anniversary date: What are they?
Focal point reviews, also referred to as common date reviews, are performance evaluations that occur all at one time for all employees within an organization. These reviews can occur once, twice, four times a year, or even more frequently. Salary adjustments and performance evaluations are conducted on a fixed date for all employees, or segmented groups such as executives and front-line employees.
Anniversary date reviews are scheduled in such a way that each employee is reviewed in cycles that are based on a date specific to that employee (like a hire date). Employees are reviewed and compensated at the same interval, but not the same date. This system usually makes it so that a company is conducting individual performance reviews year-round, rather than at one time.
The benefits of focal point reviews
The advantages to focal point reviews are numerous -- so much so that they have become the favored review approach among many of today’s companies. Organizations that have chosen to implement focal point reviews have found that they are easier for HR to coordinate, as the review process can be completed in a single one-to-two month time frame rather throughout the full year. Synchronizing performance reviews across the organization allows companies to establish corporate goals before beginning the process, ensuring that individual and organizational goals are linked as employees approach performance reviews.
Focal point reviews also give managers the opportunity to compare and contrast employee performance, making it easier to distinguish top performers and to pinpoint low-performing employees. Many companies have found that this approach helps managers to distribute fair and consistent feedback, as well as compensation adjustments that are unaffected by changing business cycles.
The challenges of focal point reviews
Some managers might consider focal point reviews to be a dream performance management strategy; but to others, one-to-two months of non-stop performance evaluations is a nightmare.
A significant amount of time and dedication is required to complete a review process that spans across the entire company, especially for managers with a large number of employees. This might require management to neglect other tasks for as long as it takes to complete the process, which has the potential to hurt organizational growth and development -- not to mention it has the potential to seriously exhaust your managers.
Another downfall of focal point reviews is the inadvertent, but significant disadvantage that it places on newer employees. Employees that are new to an organization will not have a full year of performance to be evaluated, and often, companies make no plans to address partial-year reviews.
These challenges are what have motivated some companies to continue practicing an alternative method -- namely, anniversary date reviews.
The benefits of anniversary date reviews
One of the appeals of anniversary date reviews is that evaluations are distributed more evenly for managers. This ensures that management does not become overloaded with reviews during a brief season. It also gives them the ability to spend more time and attention on each evaluation.
Proponents of anniversary date reviews claim that the evaluations have the potential to be of higher quality, since more time can be spent on each individual employee’s review. This approach also allows all employees to be evaluated based on one full year of work, placing new hires and seasoned employees on a level playing field when it comes to reviews.
The challenges of anniversary date reviews
While the spaced-out nature of anniversary date reviews can make it less stressful for managers to handle evaluations, it can also cause some difficulty in a manager’s efforts to keep organized in the review process. With so much data to keep track of, reviews can easily become delayed or postponed -- not to mention the potential recurring issue of retroactive salary increases.
The evaluation process can also become jumbled due to ever-changing data that can evolve over a year’s time. Reviews can become difficult to administer, and managers may find it challenging to gather accurate performance metrics and to make improvements to the review process.
How to choose
Ultimately, the main goal of your decision making process should be to choose the review cycle that works with your organization. The choice between focal point and anniversary date reviews should depend on the size and needs of your company, and should be implemented with other customized evaluation tools to maximize your performance reviews.
Focal point reviews may be the better option if your company is focused on maintaining organizational excellence in your performance review system. They can also be helpful to managers that wish to evaluate employee performance using a comparison and contrast method.
On the other hand, some organizations wish to evaluate individual employee performance against established standards rather than against fellow employee performance. In such cases, anniversary date reviews work well to objectively analyze an employee’s performance exclusively as it relates to the goals and standards set out by the company.
Focal point reviews allow managers to schedule reviews and salary adjustments according to the timeline that fits your organization’s overall growth, from quarterly to annual reviews. However, anniversary date reviews can be better suited to fast-growing companies that are hiring at an ongoing, consistent pace because they ensure that every employee is rated equally.
If you’re still having a hard time deciding, never fear -- some companies choose to combine the two approaches, transitioning from anniversary date reviews to focal point reviews after the first few years.
Regardless of the performance review cycle your company chooses, the most important thing to remember is to implement the process in a consistent way. The best thing that you can do for your organization and your employees is to lay the groundwork for effective and constructive performance review feedback.
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