This article reflects information as of 2020. For the latest details, please contact us.

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How tentus Runs Performance Reviews

2020.10.16

This article reflects information as of 2020. For the latest details, please contact us.

Written by: Tomohiro Koizumi, tentus inc.

There's a phrase I always say at our performance reviews.

"Come in aiming to earn the top grade, SS."

This isn't a story about always working with high intent or grinding without sleep — it's about the mindset I want people to bring when they sit down for a review.

What do I mean by that?

The perspective of the one being evaluated

Back when I was a salaried employee, I was evaluated many times. There were all kinds of evaluation axes — from the common standard where a department head evaluates you and HR makes the final call, to 360-degree surveys where you're evaluated by your bosses, subordinates, and peers.

In the 360-degree survey, I received the mysterious feedback "you should do something about how you drink" from all 360 degrees, but in the end that was the one thing I never fixed.

Now, what I was careful about when being evaluated in those salaryman days was to 【interpret everything in the way most favorable to myself, with all my might】.

Of course, you can't claim you did something you didn't. But even if the things I'd worked hard on didn't bear fruit, there's always some good point in there. I made a habit of framing that good point as though it had been on the extension line of the goal I'd set at the start of the term.

Written out like this it looks a bit self-serving, but ten years on, now that I'm the one doing the evaluating, I still think the same way.

The perspective of the one doing the evaluating

Ever since I became the one doing the evaluating, I've actually looked forward to review meetings.

I tell the members every time: think of filling out the evaluation sheet and making your case as a game to get your salary raised.

Even if the goal was to bring in 100 million yen in sales, there are many paths to get there, and I think there are plenty of cases where external factors — like this time's COVID — make it unachievable.

That's exactly why I want them to squeeze out, even forcibly, the things they worked hard on and the achievements they can point to.

"I couldn't hit 100 million yen! Sorry!"

But you know — I want them to make the case: "I worked hard on this, and got this result, right?"

Of course I don't accept all of it, but this is a game. You can't join the match without playing your cards, right? I want them to play the best card in their hand.

As a result, there will be times they lose the game (the salary doesn't change much). But by re-examining the points they worked hard on, I think it becomes clearer what to do next.

"I didn't hit 100 million in sales. I'll do my best next term."

A review like that is not the least bit interesting from the evaluator's side, so when everyone reading this fills out their evaluation sheet, why not write it a little on the generous side — enough to feel slightly embarrassed by your own self-promotion?

Performance and process

Performance is a concrete achievement standard that can be expressed in numbers.

For example, "bring in 100 million yen in sales" is a clear performance standard.

Process, by contrast, is the so-called effort standard, like "make 100 cold calls every day."

For newcomers, the evaluation weight is mainly on process, but as your grade rises, evaluation comes to look only at performance.

But think about it carefully.

Performance simply lies at the end of process, so the two are actually the same thing.

If, as a result, a process doesn't produce much performance, then you just review that process.

For that too, reflecting on the process becomes very important.

If that reflection tries to hunt for reasons you couldn't do it, it won't be a very effective reflection.

By searching for the good points within the process you carried out — even forcibly — you can do a positive reflection on the process, and that in turn feeds into setting the next process.

So please, everyone, make your case with all your might at your review.

To make that case, look back on your own process and search for the good points.

They're definitely there.

Because you worked hard, after all.