Latest Research on Performance Management
Research and insights on performance management systems, reviews, appraisals, and continuous performance practices.
What the evidence shows
- Frequent, lightweight check-ins consistently outperform annual reviews in driving behavior change and improving outcomes.
- Ratings-only systems show weak correlation with actual performance; adding qualitative narrative significantly improves predictive validity.
- Manager coaching capability is the single strongest predictor of whether a performance process produces measurable results.
Common mistakes
- Treating the review cycle as an administrative event rather than an ongoing development conversation.
- Designing systems around compliance and documentation instead of around what actually changes behavior.
- Assuming that a new tool or form will fix a performance culture problem that is fundamentally about manager skill.
Job Performance Reviews Are Outdated and Often Pointless - FlaglerLive
This article addresses the persistent use of annual individual performance reviews despite substantial evidence of their ineffectiveness. The authors — both academics from New Zealand universities — a...
Employee Performance Management Market - Global Forecast to 2030 with Strategic Disruption Through Technology, Patents, Digital, and AI Adoption - Yahoo Finance
This article summarizes a market research report published by ResearchAndMarkets.com projecting the global employee performance management (EPM) market to grow from USD 3.52 billion in 2025 to USD 6.3...
Talent management system: build a people strategy powerhouse
This article, published by Leapsome, addresses the challenge HR teams face in translating people strategy into measurable business outcomes. The authors argue that fragmented HR tools create a structu...
Collecting Employee Feedback at Scale: Best Practices to Follow
This article addresses the challenge organizations face in systematically collecting employee feedback as they grow beyond informal communication structures. The author argues that scaling feedback co...
7 examples of impactful employee recognition programs
This article from Achievers, a commercial employee recognition platform vendor, examines seven customer case studies to illustrate how structured recognition programs can drive measurable business out...
Gallup’s 2026 workplace report: How do we fix the manager engagement collapse?
This article addresses the decline in manager engagement as revealed by Gallup's 2026 State of the Global Workplace report, which records global employee engagement at 20 per cent — its lowest since 2...
AI in performance reviews: what HR needs to know - People Management
The article examines the implementation of AI tools in performance reviews, using JPMorgan Chase's 2024 deployment as a case study. The author argues that while AI offers efficiency benefits like fast...
Peer-to-Peer Feedback: 5 Detailed Examples & Top Tips
This article, published by Leapsome, addresses the growing relevance of peer-to-peer feedback in organizational performance management, particularly as managerial bandwidth decreases. The author argue...
AI Performance Management: Leverage It for Team Success
This article, published by Leapsome, addresses the integration of artificial intelligence into performance management systems. The author argues that AI can materially improve performance management b...
How to Create and Use a Skills Matrix (+Templates & Example)
This article addresses the challenge HR leaders face in gaining visibility into existing workforce competencies for the purposes of workforce planning, succession planning, and training allocation. Th...
6 Areas of Improvement at Work for Performance Reviews
This article, published by Leapsome, addresses how performance reviews in 2026 can be structured to identify and support employee development across six defined focus areas. The author's central argum...
5 Essential Elements of a Modern Performance Review
This article, published by Leapsome, addresses the perceived ineffectiveness of traditional performance reviews and proposes five principles for modernizing the process. The central argument is that c...
25 employee incentive programs to engage your team
This article, published by Achievers, addresses the problem of employee disengagement and its financial consequences, citing an estimated $1.9 trillion annual cost of unhappy employees in the United S...
AI in Performance Reviews: How to Show Impact at Work - Built In
This article addresses the growing organizational practice of formally incorporating AI usage as a metric in employee performance reviews, examining both the employer rationale and the employee experi...
Commentary: Job performance reviews are outdated and often pointless – so why keep using them? - CNA
This commentary discusses the persistence of outdated job performance review processes despite their known limitations. Researchers argue that these systems are backward-looking, distort worker behavi...
Job performance reviews are outdated and often pointless. Why do we still use them?
This article addresses the persistent use of traditional annual performance review systems despite substantial evidence of their ineffectiveness. The authors argue that conventional performance apprai...
Evidence-based AI Reviews, Coaching and Summarization in 1:1s, Compensation Enhancements, and More | Lattice
This article is a product release announcement from Lattice, a performance management software vendor, outlining its Spring/Summer 2026 platform updates. The central argument is that AI, embedded into...
What Olympic coaches teach us about real-time performance feedback - SmartBrief
This article addresses the perceived inadequacy of annual performance reviews in modern, fast-changing work environments, arguing that continuous, real-time feedback is more effective for performance ...
How Fintech PEX Improved Manager Effectiveness with 15Five
This article addresses the performance management challenges faced by PEX, a fintech expense management company, as it scaled its workforce. Authored and published by 15Five, the article argues that c...
Performance Management Trends to Watch in 2026
This article, published by HR software vendor 15Five, addresses the evolving landscape of performance management as organisations move into 2026. The central argument is that traditional performance m...
15Five’s Guide to Goal Setting
This article addresses the challenge of effective workforce goal setting and its connection to employee engagement, retention, and productivity. Produced by 15Five, a performance management software v...
Is Block’s Decision To Layoff 40% of Its Workforce A Bellwether Or Not?
This article examines Jack Dorsey's announcement that Block Inc. would eliminate approximately 40% of its workforce (roughly 4,000 of 10,000+ employees) and replace those roles with artificial intelli...
February 2026 Product Updates: Greater Flexibility in Compensation, Enhanced Performance Workflows, and More | Lattice
This article is a product update release note published by Lattice, a commercial HR software vendor, summarizing new platform features released in February 2026. The piece addresses operational pain p...
7 Signs You’ve Outgrown Your HRIS
This article, published by 15Five, addresses the limitations of Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) as organizations scale beyond their foundational HR needs. The author argues that HRIS platfo...
How to Build a High Performing Team + Tips
This article from Quantum Workplace addresses the question of what distinguishes high-performing teams and how organizations can build them. The authors argue that high performance emerges not from ta...
How AI is Quietly Rewriting Performance Management - IoT For All
This article examines the growing role of artificial intelligence in transforming performance management systems within HR functions. The author argues that AI-powered tools are shifting performance m...
How UW Credit Union Cut Review Setup by 70% and Unlocked Real-Time People Analytics
This article addresses the performance management challenges faced by UW Credit Union, an organization of approximately 920 employees, prior to adopting the 15Five platform. The organization's legacy ...
47 Performance Review Questions to Test Out
This article, published by Quantum Workplace, addresses a widely reported organizational challenge: performance reviews that fail to generate meaningful dialogue or development outcomes. The author's ...
Beyond Employee Engagement Trends: Unlocking Potential
This article addresses a perceived gap between surface-level employee engagement metrics and deeper organizational health signals in 2026. Authored by Quantum Workplace's People Insights team, the cen...
Why employee engagement starts with a culture of genuine support - hrleader.com.au
This article, authored by Cassandra Eastham, Head of People and Culture at Blue Connections IT, addresses the persistent misunderstanding organisations have about the nature of employee engagement. Th...
Why so Many Companies Are Rethinking Performance Reviews Right Now - Business Insider
This Business Insider article examines a broad shift among major employers — including Meta, Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, and Adecco Group — toward revised performance review processes. The centra...
16 Performance Review Templates for HR
This article, published by Quantum Workplace, addresses the challenge of structuring employee performance reviews through the provision of sixteen distinct performance review templates. The authors ar...
28 Strategic Performance Management Best Practices for HR
This article, published by Quantum Workplace, addresses the design and implementation of performance management systems (PMS) for HR practitioners. The author argues that modern organizations benefit ...
Performance Reviews: HR Leader Tips and Best Practices
This article, published by Quantum Workplace, addresses the perceived shortcomings of traditional annual performance reviews and presents a practitioner framework for modernising performance managemen...
What is a Performance Review + Definition?
This article from Quantum Workplace addresses the definition, purpose, and typology of performance reviews within modern performance management systems. The authors argue that performance reviews have...
Performance Management Cycle Defined + Tips
This article addresses the design and implementation of an effective performance management cycle (PMC), arguing that organizations benefit from transitioning away from annual appraisal models toward ...
360 Feedback in Your Workplace: Benefits, Pitfalls & Implementation Checklist - Paycor
This article discusses the use of 360 feedback in performance management processes, highlighting its benefits such as increased self-awareness, enhanced feedback, reinforced values and behaviors, insp...
Want Better Performance Reviews? Change This One Word - Harvard Business School
This article reports on peer-reviewed experimental research investigating whether reframing performance review requests from 'feedback' to 'advice' improves the quality of developmental input. The cen...
‘Please provide examples’: Amazon looks for specifics in performance reviews - HR Reporter
The article examines Amazon's revised 'Forte' performance review process, which requires corporate employees to provide specific examples of accomplishments and growth plans. Academic Christian Cook f...
Turbocharging HR: Improving performance management with AI - wtwco.com
This article addresses the renewed organisational interest in performance management and the emerging role of artificial intelligence in modernising the process. The authors — WTW consultants Charlott...
The Performance Review Process: An Important Guide for HR
This article addresses the design and execution of employee performance review processes, targeting HR professionals seeking structured, legally defensible evaluation practices. The author argues that...
I've given hundreds of end-of-year performance reviews. The strongest employees do these 7 things to prepare. - Business Insider
This article addresses how employees can maximise the value of annual performance reviews, a topic made more consequential by current market conditions including layoffs and budget constraints. The au...
5 Tricky Problems with Performance Reviews: How to Fix Them Now - HRMorning
This practitioner-oriented article from HRMorning addresses five widely recognised problems with traditional annual performance reviews: infrequent cadence, poor timing of feedback, interpersonal awkw...
Performance reviews: What employees don't tell HR - hcamag.com
This article reports on findings from a KickResume poll of 1,365 employees globally, examining honesty and candour in workplace self-performance reviews. The central argument is that most employees en...
Beyond the 13 factors: Performance evaluation and coaching clarity - OHS Canada Magazine
This article addresses the problem of unclear performance evaluation and coaching systems as psychosocial hazards in the workplace. The authors argue that performance evaluation and coaching clarity s...
3 ways to bring balance to employee goal setting in 2026 - HR Executive
This article addresses the importance of performance goals in building talent, adapting to change, and employee wellbeing. It presents data from a broader performance management survey showing that ne...
Netflix CTO Says the Company Has No 'Formal Performance Reviews' - Business Insider
The article examines Netflix's performance management approach as described by CTO Elizabeth Stone on 'The Pragmatic Engineer' podcast. Stone explains that Netflix has eliminated formal performance re...
October 2025 Product Updates: Employee Signatures, Succession Planning, New Permissions and More | Lattice
This article is a product update announcement published by Lattice, a performance management software vendor, detailing feature releases for October 2025. The piece addresses the operational challenge...
Self-ratings and bias in performance reviews - Harvard Kennedy School
This article summarises a peer-reviewed field study published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2025), co-authored by Iris Bohnet, Oliver P. Hauser, and Ariella S. Kristal of Harvard...
HR use of AI in performance management in the U.S. 2024 - Statista
This article is a Statista data page summarizing findings from a 2024 SHRM survey on how HR departments in the United States are using artificial intelligence within performance management processes. ...
Turning goals into growth: How Unilever’s Ilvan Yahdi uses OKRs to drive change
This article addresses the challenge organisations face in translating strategic intent into scalable outcomes, particularly in an era of rapid technological change. The author's central argument, pre...
Stop guessing, start measuring: Why your police department needs OKRs - Police1
This article addresses the perceived gap between traditional police management practices and modern data-driven leadership frameworks. The author, Tim Kucerovy — founder of Lumen Strategic Consulting ...
Reinventing performance management processes won’t unlock human performance. Here’s what will. - Deloitte
This article addresses the persistent failure of performance management systems, citing Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends survey showing that 61% of managers and 72% of workers distrust thei...
What does a (real) continuous learning culture look like? - HR Executive
This article addresses the persistent gap between organizational investment in learning and development (L&D) and actual workforce skill acquisition. The author argues that traditional training-focuse...
Performance Management Statistics By Assessment, Employee Engagement and Facts - ElectroIQ
This article presents a compilation of performance management statistics covering employee engagement, feedback frequency, and organizational practices. The author aggregates data from multiple source...
Zooming in: What data reveals about remote, hybrid, and in-office work - Culture Amp
This article examines common beliefs about remote, hybrid, and in-office work arrangements using data from Culture Amp's analysis of 241,605 employees across 735 companies from July 2023 to July 2024....
60 useful performance review phrases - Culture Amp
This article addresses the challenge of providing effective performance review feedback by offering 60 specific phrases organized by context (self-evaluation, manager feedback, peer review). The autho...
Why Gtmhub Separates OKRs and Performance Reviews
This article addresses the organizational question of whether OKRs and performance reviews should be integrated or kept separate. The authors — Gtmhub's Chief Marketing Officer Casey Carey and Head of...
Why Leadership Development Feels Broken: And How We’re Fixing It - Josh Bersin
This article, authored by Josh Bersin, addresses what it characterises as a systemic failure in corporate leadership development — a market exceeding $14 billion annually yet producing persistent pipe...
The future of work is here: Culture Amp acquires Zugata - Culture Amp
This article is a corporate announcement published by Culture Amp declaring its acquisition of Zugata, a performance management software firm. The article argues that employee engagement and employee ...
Performance Management: Everything You Need To Know In 2023 - Vantage Circle
This article, published by Vantage Circle, addresses the concept, process, and implementation of performance management systems (PMS) in organizational contexts. The authors argue that performance man...
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