Performance Review via Facebook?

March 31, 2009 -
Posted by Marnie E. Green

We're all getting into the social networking thing these days. It's fun to use Facebook to reconnect with old friends. Twitter is allowing me to follow Lance Armstrong's attempt to reach the top of the cycling world once again. But can we use this hip new technology for something as mundane as performance reviews? Jena McGregor in this week's Business Week says it's being done.

According to McGregor, private firms, including Accenture, have developed a Facebook-like application which allows employees to post status updates and weekly goals. Managers can pose questions and comments related to employee performance. It's real-time feedback that today's employees crave and this technology provides the tools--supposedly. Accenture is hoping to sell its software to outside clients once its ready. They say the software is more about motivating employees than about evaluating them.

But could something like this work in the public sector? Most of the performance management systems I see are form-driven events that are more painful than developmental. Managers avoid giving feedback until they have to (if at all). Employees have learned that "no news is good news." Could a real-time review system using today's web-based tools be the answer to these long-standing problems with performance evaluations in the public sector?

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Absolutely this could work.

Submitted by BryanB (not verified) on April 2, 2009 - 7:24am.

Absolutely this could work. Free and employer-controlled technologies like Ning and Yammer are making possible a whole new way of thinking about performance management that isn't limited to the public sector. These tools can exist in parallel with existing forms and processes and can actually make them much easier and more effective.

There is no question that

Submitted by Marnie E. Green (not verified) on April 2, 2009 - 8:01am.

There is no question that performance management technology exists and will continue to improve. In fact, electronic tools have been available to support performance management for years. Still, few public agencies have moved in this direction. Many still struggle with the basic process of setting clear performance expectations, delivering timely and meaningful feedback, and maintaining adequate documentation. Certainly there are agencies that perform these functions well. In my experience, most public managers lack these skills and there is little incentive to develop or use these skills.

Even with technological assistance, are public managers likely to become better performance managers? I doubt it.

I don't think public managers

Submitted by joe lunt (not verified) on April 3, 2009 - 7:21am.

I don't think public managers have any more lack of skill or incentive than anyone else when it comes to performance management.

The problem is not, IMHO, the tools or technology, it's the fact that virtually everyone abhors telling another human what they really think about them.

Couple that with (barring intoxication) the inescapable fact that most people know on an instinctual level how well they're doing, or not doing.

If there is a difference in this between public and private sectors, it's more to do with the nature of jobs, and how those lend themselves to more sophisticated measures and means.

I totally agree with Joe

Submitted by Jenifer Lang (not verified) on April 5, 2009 - 1:20pm.

I totally agree with Joe Lunt. In addition to his well stated point, we have to consider the preferences and methods that will best reach all of the now 5 generations in the workplace.

Ironically, the generations that are most adept at Facebook and other social network communications are also the most interested in receiving personal attention. They were the children of the boomer "helicopter parents", who from very early on have received praise and suggestions about how best to approach whatever their current endeavor. They seek the same from their bosses as they received from their doting parents, and give employers enormous value when we respond to what at times can be perceived by other generations as neediness. They've brought an entirely new meaning to the term "face time"!

Every generation has a group of introverts who would love to hide behind email, a user name or other way of avoiding face to face communication. There's nothing new in having either a supervisor or a worker ask to make the meeting as short as possible and agree to anything so long as human contact is kept to an absolute minimum. Often when these personalities encounter each other, they arrive at a manner of achieving understanding that transcends most of the rest of our attempts to impose communication on others, and accomplish more with less discussion than anyone else! For them a Facebook or other automated system is ideal and it's about time we recognized their interests. However, I don't think that was the intent of the article.

Finally, as a public sector manager now for more years than I ever was a professional/technician, I have to say that public managers are some of the very best at providing timely, relevant and communicative feedback and performance review. They also shift to recognize the diverse manners in which employees respond. That is not a form of "striving for mediocrity" as I've already been criticized for pursuing. Rather, its a way to ensure we coach, motivate and set examples for staff to achieve optimal performance. Performance management systems are not "one size fits all" processes. The concept is as complicated as the humans it's designed to motivate and recognize. The public sector is at least as good as the private in meeting that challenge.

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