Dive Brief:
- Dick Grote, founder of Grote Consulting Corp, a performance management firm, told Bloomberg BNA that managers should keep performance talks with employees separate from discussions about pay. By talking about pay and performance in separate conversations, employees aren’t distracted by thoughts about their pay when they should be listening to feedback on their performance.
- Gerry Ledford, senior research scientist at the University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations, disagrees. He told Bloomberg that separate conversations about performance and pay don’t work because employees will “wait for the other shoe to drop” worrying about pay increases in conversations solely about performance.
- Ledford recommends that employers have one conversation about performance and pay, and tell employees how their performance affects pay based on an actual dollar figure. Grote agreed that separate conversations about pay and performance might not be suitable for all employers.
Dive Insight:
Employees won’t all greet a discussion about pay and performance the same way, whether in combined or separate talks. Performance evaluations and skepticism about pay increases create stress for some employees. Managers might need to tailor discussions based on how well employees receive them.
The nature of performance reviews and evaluations has been up for debate in recent years, with some adopting a more informal system with regular talks between managers and others keeping a more traditional annual or semi-annual review system. But product creators have begun to switch to tools that allow reviews to happen more often, pointing to potential trends in the space.