Annual Performance Reviews? Why Wait? Try Once A Week

Integrated Project Management, a Burr Ridge, Ill., project-management firm with 80 employees takes a unique approach to employee reviews.

Instead of just banging out written reviews once a year, managers sit down with each direct report individually every week to discuss performance and how the employee can improve.

In this Wall Street Journal interview, Integrated Project Management's Chief Executive Richard Panico talks about what makes the company’s review process special.

Actually, the practice is more common than it might appear.

In the award-winning book Six Disciplines for Excellence, (by veteran CEO Gary Harpst) a step in Discipline IV. Work The Plan is called "Review Individual Plans (IPs) Weekly."

This step in the Six Disciplines methodology is designed to encourage every team member AND team leader to review progress toward quarterly goals on a regular basis, preferably weekly.

This process (a standard templated report that takes less than 15 minutes to complete, and can be reviewed in 5 minutes) makes it clear whether the team member is focusing their daily activities on the agreed-upon goals.

This process leads to much better communication and understanding, and perhaps most importantly, identifies problems/errors early, allows for course-correction early, reduces risk and increases alignment.