Performance Reviews: The Dos and Don'ts
Few things in a workplace generate as much dread as the annual performance review. Managers scramble to remember a year of work in the days before the meeting. Employees brace for surprises. Done badly, a review damages trust more than it builds anything. Done well, it is one of the most useful conversations a manager and employee can have. Here are the dos and don'ts that make the difference.
Do: Review Regularly, Not Just Once a Year
If the only time you discuss performance is once a year, you are relying on memory for twelve months of work. Regular check-ins, even short ones, make the formal review a summary of things already discussed instead of a surprise. Nothing said in an annual review should be new information to the employee. This shift toward frequent, development-focused conversations is a big part of why Harvard Business Review has described a "performance management revolution" away from once-a-year appraisals.
Don't: Save All Feedback for the Review
Stockpiling feedback and delivering it all at once is unfair to the employee. If something needs to change, say so when it happens, not months later when it is too late to fix. A review should reinforce patterns already known, not introduce them.
Do: Use OKR Results as Context, Not a Scorecard
If your team uses OKRs, the quarter's results are useful input for a review. They show what the employee focused on and how ambitious their goals were. Bring that context into the conversation.
Don't: Punish Every Missed Key Result
This is where many organizations go wrong. Good OKRs are meant to be ambitious, which means some Key Results should not be fully hit. If missing a Key Result routinely hurts someone's review score, people will quietly stop setting ambitious goals. They will set targets they know they can hit, and the whole point of the framework falls apart. Judge the effort, the learning, and the quality of the work, not just whether a number was reached.
Do: Be Specific
"Good job this year" tells someone nothing they can act on. Specific examples of what went well and what could improve give the employee something concrete to build on. Vague praise feels nice for a moment and is forgotten by the next day.
Don't: Make It a One-Way Conversation
A review is a conversation, not a lecture. Ask what support the employee needs, what is getting in their way, and what they think went well. Managers who talk for the entire review miss most of the useful information a review could surface.
Do: Connect the Review to What Happens Next
A review that only looks backward is half a review. End with a clear sense of what happens next: new focus areas, adjusted goals, or specific support the manager will provide. If you use a tool like Easy OKR to track quarterly goals, this is also a natural point to reset or refine OKRs for the next period, so the review feeds directly into what comes after it rather than sitting disconnected from daily work.
The Bottom Line
A good performance review is not about grading a person. It is a structured way to reflect on the past period and set direction for the next one. Keep it regular, keep it specific, and keep goal misses from turning into punishment. For a research-backed look at what actually drives performance in the workplace, Gallup's ongoing work on employee performance and engagement is a useful reference point.