Annual Review

PDCAT

Hi Folks

Wondering if anyone may be able to provide me with some information.

I work for a large US Multinational company.

I recieved my Annual Review for 2012 in February. I am unhappy with this and have appealed this review through the three levels within the company. At each of these level's the companies view is that the review is fair and accurate. They have admitted to some gaps in the process.
I still feel that there are issues that have not been resolved, gaps in the way the review process is managed and mistakes have been made during the year by my manager which has led to me recieving this review.

Is there anywhere i can go outside the company to look into this. Or do i have to accept the companies view on this?

Thanks for your help.

Richard571

I think taking it outside the company would ruin any future prospects you have with that company - you would be seen as a trouble maker. The fact that it's gone through three reviews means that they will not change their review now.

My advice: take it on the chin, identify what areas they gave you negative feedback on (rightly or wrongly) and make sure to improve in these areas. Show your boss how you have taken on feedback and changed and next years review should be much more positive.

the world wonders

PDCAT wrote: »

Or do i have to accept the companies view on this?

You do not have to "accept" the review, you are free to state that you do not agree with it.

Usually with annual reviews there is a sign-off at the end of the process -- there is no obligation on you to sign a review that you do not agree with.

Eoin

It's a performance review, not a disciplinary procedure (which must follow certain rules by law), right? Or have disciplinary procedures been initiated because of it?

Are you being asked to sign it to just to complete the process, or agree with the decision?

PDCAT wrote:

Is there anywhere i can go outside the company to look into this.

If you're looking at this sort of option, then maybe you just need to look for work elsewhere. Could be that you and the company just aren't a good fit for each other, for whatever reasons.

the world wonders wrote:

You do not have to "accept" the review, you are free to state that you do not agree with it.

Usually with annual reviews there is a sign-off at the end of the process -- there is no obligation on you to sign a review that you do not agree with.

That's most likely covered by their policies, not the law.

cml387

The fact that the company have three levels of appeal indicates that they really do have a strong HR policy and procedure.

Really,really op you have to forget about it and move on, and try to address whatever issue your supervisor had in your review.

Don't fight city hall, as they say.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Echoing other posters:

(1) Nothing you can do about it except take the review as a learning process, make the required changes and move on. But it does not sound like you are planning to do so OP.

(2) Most review processes in multi's don't ask you to accept or agree with the process, they ask you do you acknowledge the review or confirm that it took place. Even if many companies tout their review process as a two way street, the fact is that most of the feedback goes in one direction.

(3) You have probably embarrassed your boss significantly, even if your appeals were turned down as it would be seen negatively that he could not handle your issues himself and resolve them without escalation.

(4) Unless you are an invaluable/irreplaceable member of staff, your career progression has probably reached a dead end with this boss. He probably sees you as a troublemaker, someone that does not respect him and may even be making plans to manage you out of his group.

(5) If I were you I would make plans to move on either to another group within your company if possible or out of the company. You ma be wasting your time there, particularly if you do not accept the review and develop along the lines that the company needs for you to be successful.

bbam

As someone who was a middle manager in one such MN much of the advice above is good...

My advice is work the system for yourself..

• Sign to acknowledge it was delivered but add a note that you were unhappy with the result..
  
• sit down with your manager and explain that you want a better outcome next year and wish to plan immediately to make that happen.
  
• document the plan and both sign.
  
• Rather than the usual quarterly review of progress I'd recommend requesting monthly reviews of the progress, immediately correct any deviation from the agreement. If you cant get the monthly reviews have an e-mail trace of requesting them and any reply.

the devil is in the detail regarding reviews..
you need evidence to prove..

• you did the core job excellently
• you did enough work to be recognised above the core job.
• you made no mistakes
• you have no other issues, tardiness etc..

As a previous poster said you may have already hurt yourself by pushing the appeal so far, you only option is to work the system as above..

As for transferring to a new manager, it is hard to get an excellent review the first year under a new manager in MN's as they may have already decided who is getting looked after next year..

Work their systems.. its your only hope.
And as an FYI, your review was probably signed off all the levels up before being delivered to you, they had already agreed to it, it is extremely unlikely you can over turn EOY reviews. Its a real failure for a manager to fall on this one.

LimeFruitGum

It is supposed to be a 're-view' of the year and not a time to spring a whole load of bad feedback on the employee.

I had a little bit of that last year where my then-manager was around the bend with stress, left the company at the end of the week she gave me the review(the joy of long hours and office politics). I had always done well in reviews with her and other managers, but last year was exceptionally crazy for the dept and she wrote some very personal comments that were uncalled for.
I didn't get a single monthly one-to-one meeting with her that year; she had cancelled them all because she was "too busy, but you're fine aren't you?" So that was certainly unfair and the new manager flagged that up, in fairness to her.

However, you're stuck with the manager you have for now and even if you think they made loads of mistakes, what are you doing to make their job easier and sort things out apart from escalating to HR? Is this your first review at the company? Are there measurable targets/objectives that they were applying to the review?

PDCAT

Thanks for the feedback above lads. Some excellent points made and general consensus seems to be to leave it be and just make sure i work the system to ensure a better result next time.

- I suppose my main gripes were that i had no verbal or written negative feedback all year from my manager. Not one clue that i wasn't going to achieve expectations. To find out that i hadn't met expectations on the day of the delivery of the review was a shock to say the least. During my mid year review, no mention was made of any issues. If i had known, that there was an issue at this time, i could have done something about it.

- My manager also mentioned during the review that feedback from a manager who's line i support was similiar to her own view of my performance. She provided none of this feedback verbally or written to me. She never documented any of this feedback and i still don't know what the actual feedback was. I recieved an award from this manager during the year for my continuous excellent contribution to his line. This seems to be at odds with this feedback.

- Also there are no specific expectations with regard to what targets i needed to meet at the start of the year. At the end of the year, there are still no specifics key deliverables that i have not met. After three review's i still have not proper reason given to me of the specific's of what i could/should have done differently.

In my previous role, i was a manager (30 people) for another US Multi National company (a world class company - of a higher level than my current company) and HR would never have allowed me to deliver a negative message to an employee without clearing setting out expectations at the start of the year, constantly giving feedback at all 1/1's, informing employee during the year how they were performing against their targets. Also any feedback sought from others was delivered to the employee.

Anyway, i don't think i will take this any further, but the reason i've taken it through the levels is because the manager's i've been dealing with don't seem to think their was a real problem with how the review was conducted or the issues i raised above and it stick's in the throat a little...
There are some poor managers in this current company whom don't really get a lot of training in people management, plus the culture of how it treats it's employee's wouldn't be as good as i had been used to.

THanks agains folks for your replies. Good to get other's views on it.

Bandana boy

Is your issue with the feedback or that you recieved the feedback in your review "out of the blue"

You need to seperate the two issues ,Your manager can have been poor in providing you feedback through the year but is correct in his appraisal now.
If having explained why your review was negative and it has been backed up by 3 other Managers you continue to fight this you have probably ended your prospects in this company.
I would sign the review and leave it at that.

If on the other hand the reasons he gave you for the poor review do not stack up or are simply not true. Then you could appeal it again ,my worry would be that with 3 other people agreeing with the review your are clearly not getting your point across in a meaningful manner.
I would probably sign the review outlining in a clear manner why you disagree with it.(staying clear of how you recieved the feedback and concentrating on what in the feedback is inaccurate )

bbam

Bandana boy wrote: »

Is your issue with the feedback or that you recieved the feedback in your review "out of the blue"

You need to seperate the two issues ,Your manager can have been poor in providing you feedback through the year but is correct in his appraisal now.
If having explained why your review was negative and it has been backed up by 3 other Managers you continue to fight this you have probably ended your prospects in this company.
I would sign the review and leave it at that.

If on the other hand the reasons he gave you for the poor review do not stack up or are simply not true. Then you could appeal it again ,my worry would be that with 3 other people agreeing with the review your are clearly not getting your point across in a meaningful manner.
I would probably sign the review outlining in a clear manner why you disagree with it.(staying clear of how you recieved the feedback and concentrating on what in the feedback is inaccurate )

Appealing this again would be futile, it would demonstrate that OP has no regard for or faith in company procedures (maybe he hasnt but that should be kept to himself).

Sign it, draw a line under that review and put efforts into getting the next review lined up so it goes the way you want.
My father had a saying, "you cant look forward if your always looking back"