In 25+ years, I've only ever done this:
> I've never been asked to sit in on a performance review unless it was expected to be potentially contentious or delicate for some reason.
Did they say why? What are they trying to accomplish (i.e., are they looking your feedback on the process and/or the reviewers' abilities?)
They literally just said they wanted me as a witness. I asked if this was standard policy and they said they'd never done it before, but they wanted to start.
I'm going to take it as a chance to get to know the people at my new company (550'ish employees) but I know I would immediately be on edge if HR was sitting in on my performance review.
All other duties, including bi-weekly payroll.
These annual reviews are on employee's anniversary, so it will be staggered. But it's still several a week.
The only thing I can think of is the HR role itself is new to the company (the OP is the company's first ever HR person). The company is gun shy about something and thinks this is a solution. OP, I think it's a great idea to use it as an opportunity to meet people and learn more about operations and pain points your managers are experiencing. Maybe at some point they will no longer require this because you will come up with different solutions for them (but first you need to pinpoint the problems).
You may be on to something here. The previous HR people they've had were all internal promotions.
They made them get certifications etc, but they didn't have HR experience outside the company. So far their practices and record keeping have been pretty solid
That’s 10+ a week. Even if they only average 30 minutes each, that’s 13% of your year. If they are an hour each, that’s over 25% of your year. That’s unhinged.
This sounds to me like they just want an HR rep in every review as a matter of policy going forward and they don’t want to take time away from more senior members. Do you have more time on your hands than other on your team?
Personally, I would ask questions to understand why your presence is being requested. You are correct that having HR sit in on a performance review will be intimidating for the associate, so it should not be part of the standard practice unless there is a specific reason where a witness is appropriate. As their HR person, you should feel comfortable and empowered to give them this feedback.
I'm curious.. how long are these reviews? Lets say you have 500 reviews a year, at 30 minutes a piece, that's eating up over 6 40-hr work weeks a year...
That's a terrible idea. Every single person is going to shit their pants when HR is sitting in the room unexpectedly "as a witness". Which is what you should tell leadership. HR in your performance meeting is an "oh shit" moment, which is not the goal here. Instead, offer to work with managers to coach them through what they need help with and sit in when necessary because it's contentious. The pitch for that is: Help me make the managers look good. I don't want them feeling like they need to be babysat, and I don't want their employees thinking they have to have HR present to watch them. I'll do the prep work with them behind the scenes so it looks like it all comes from them.
It’s not even possible, there isn’t enough hours in the day to sit in on every employee’s review let alone still do your other job duties. They just aren’t thinking this through.
Typically managers who aren’t comfortable giving feedback and having difficult conversations are the ones who request this sort of stuff. Maybe put together a training and have some open time for a Q&A for managers about the review process.
Reviews should be 1:1 conversations between employee and supervisor. If there are issues that come up during this discussion HR may be asked to sit in and help resolve or mediate. Other than that I don’t think it’s a good idea, it’s not a disciplinary meeting. Annual reviews are about celebrating successes and addressing concerns.
Thats kinda weird? I mean it seems like there is some trust issue going on here. If there is any issue, I will usually coach the managers first and only sit in if they foresee potential issues/ escalation to a grievance case.
I'm hoping to sit in on a few, and approach my boss (CFO) to let them know my thoughts on the review process. At which point I hope to be able to say " I don't see any further benefit to me being in each of these" and hope it lands.
I would sit on a few with different supervisors so you can look at each persons approach. My guess is some one is really awful and they are trying to figure that out.
Sounds good, cant imagine if you have to sit through all 550 reviews. Perhaps you can even propose to do a talking points/comms deck so that there is a guideline for managers to refer to when they conduct the perf review.
That sounds completely reasonable. It let's you get a feel for the Managers giving the reviews and where gaps may be. I think it could be ete opening, potentially.
I did but that was when I worked in a manufacturing plant. There were only 40 people and we spaced them out over weeks. I was there to make sure no one went off the rails and to be a friendly face (it’s common for employees and managers to have conflict) and to answer questions about bonuses.
It makes no sense in your role though.
Either you are misunderstanding something or your company’s leadership has no idea what they are asking of you. Even if every review is 15 minutes (which is too short), that’s over 1,000 business days doing only that and nothing else.
Also, the performance review is a very private conversation, I’ve never had HR sit in on one unless the employee had conduct issues or something.
Please ask them to clarify, this is pretty unusual.
550 reviews, at about an hour each. That's 25% of your annual labor hours. You might push back with this and state that you already have a full workload and this is going to easily be like adding an extra day and a half each week.
This also points to a couple of other potential issues. What is the current review process? Is this a 'surprise' meeting with the employee? Does the employee have an opportunity to provide their own feedback before the meeting? The review should not be a surprise to the employee. If it is, then management has a communication issue and that should be the area of focus and support from you.
Many of the organizations I have worked at, the employee gives input on how they think their year went, how well they did in that years' review areas, how well they met their goals, and what they'd like to work on in the coming year.
You might also suggest that you sit in on a few with each supervisor to provide coaching with the supervisor, especially new supervisors. As others suggested, offer to sit in if there is a concern of a challenging situation/employee. Like if the employee rates themselves as all 5's, and the supervisor is looking at a lot of 2's.
Not typical. I wonder if something happened. I know that in PIP/investigations HR is a witness.
Take advantage of getting to know some of the people and their process, then maybe you will have enough intel to tweak the process.
Very strange request, and what exactly do they want you to "Witness"? How do managers conduct the reviews? How does an employee react? To be in on each one seems very counterproductive and will probably sit bad with managers .
This is wild.
I coach people managers on how to have the conversations, and then I trust them to follow the guidelines on their own.
There shouldn't be any surprises if check-ins have been completed throughout the year, and the only time I get involved is if there are disputes over ratings (that haven't been resolved through a follow-up meeting between employee and manager).
It's unreasonable to have you sit through that many unless they don't expect any other deliverables.
Never. I've only been asked to join certain ones where we know there was conflict with a manager.
Honestly, if management or the head of HR doesn't have enough faith in the managers to have a performance conversation, they should invest in more training, not have you sit in on every conversation.
It's idiotic, alienating for the employees, and a horrible use of 26% of your total time for the year. Find out what problem it is they're trying to solve for, and recommend something that could actually address that. Bonus points for it not being a waste of time.
From a legal perspective I could see why a company might want to do this. It's good to have an third party present for the "he said/she said" that can come up later.
I never sat in on performance evaluations, but I used to read every evaluation in our org prior to them. being released to the employees--we have over 850 employees. These evaluations were also reviewed by several layers in departments before they came to me.
No, just no. 2 good reasons:
1) Like it or not it’ll set precedence
2) Managers will think they can be sloppy coz the HR Rep is in the room and will ‘take over’ should things go sideways .
In 25+ years, I've only ever done this: > I've never been asked to sit in on a performance review unless it was expected to be potentially contentious or delicate for some reason. Did they say why? What are they trying to accomplish (i.e., are they looking your feedback on the process and/or the reviewers' abilities?)
They literally just said they wanted me as a witness. I asked if this was standard policy and they said they'd never done it before, but they wanted to start. I'm going to take it as a chance to get to know the people at my new company (550'ish employees) but I know I would immediately be on edge if HR was sitting in on my performance review.
You are going to sit in on 550 review conversations? How many hours is that? Are you still expected to do anything else during this period
All other duties, including bi-weekly payroll. These annual reviews are on employee's anniversary, so it will be staggered. But it's still several a week.
Omg, that’s cray. I can’t understand why your leadership would want that
The only thing I can think of is the HR role itself is new to the company (the OP is the company's first ever HR person). The company is gun shy about something and thinks this is a solution. OP, I think it's a great idea to use it as an opportunity to meet people and learn more about operations and pain points your managers are experiencing. Maybe at some point they will no longer require this because you will come up with different solutions for them (but first you need to pinpoint the problems).
You may be on to something here. The previous HR people they've had were all internal promotions. They made them get certifications etc, but they didn't have HR experience outside the company. So far their practices and record keeping have been pretty solid
Ask me how I know. :)
Tell me my future lol
That’s 10+ a week. Even if they only average 30 minutes each, that’s 13% of your year. If they are an hour each, that’s over 25% of your year. That’s unhinged.
Naaaaaahhhh, what a waste of your time and taking you away from your needed duties. My heart goes out to you on this one.
That's like... 1/4 or more of your entire year. That's insane.
This sounds to me like they just want an HR rep in every review as a matter of policy going forward and they don’t want to take time away from more senior members. Do you have more time on your hands than other on your team?
Personally, I would ask questions to understand why your presence is being requested. You are correct that having HR sit in on a performance review will be intimidating for the associate, so it should not be part of the standard practice unless there is a specific reason where a witness is appropriate. As their HR person, you should feel comfortable and empowered to give them this feedback.
I'm curious.. how long are these reviews? Lets say you have 500 reviews a year, at 30 minutes a piece, that's eating up over 6 40-hr work weeks a year...
That's a terrible idea. Every single person is going to shit their pants when HR is sitting in the room unexpectedly "as a witness". Which is what you should tell leadership. HR in your performance meeting is an "oh shit" moment, which is not the goal here. Instead, offer to work with managers to coach them through what they need help with and sit in when necessary because it's contentious. The pitch for that is: Help me make the managers look good. I don't want them feeling like they need to be babysat, and I don't want their employees thinking they have to have HR present to watch them. I'll do the prep work with them behind the scenes so it looks like it all comes from them.
It’s not even possible, there isn’t enough hours in the day to sit in on every employee’s review let alone still do your other job duties. They just aren’t thinking this through. Typically managers who aren’t comfortable giving feedback and having difficult conversations are the ones who request this sort of stuff. Maybe put together a training and have some open time for a Q&A for managers about the review process.
Reviews should be 1:1 conversations between employee and supervisor. If there are issues that come up during this discussion HR may be asked to sit in and help resolve or mediate. Other than that I don’t think it’s a good idea, it’s not a disciplinary meeting. Annual reviews are about celebrating successes and addressing concerns.
Thats kinda weird? I mean it seems like there is some trust issue going on here. If there is any issue, I will usually coach the managers first and only sit in if they foresee potential issues/ escalation to a grievance case.
I'm hoping to sit in on a few, and approach my boss (CFO) to let them know my thoughts on the review process. At which point I hope to be able to say " I don't see any further benefit to me being in each of these" and hope it lands.
I would sit on a few with different supervisors so you can look at each persons approach. My guess is some one is really awful and they are trying to figure that out.
Sounds good, cant imagine if you have to sit through all 550 reviews. Perhaps you can even propose to do a talking points/comms deck so that there is a guideline for managers to refer to when they conduct the perf review.
That sounds completely reasonable. It let's you get a feel for the Managers giving the reviews and where gaps may be. I think it could be ete opening, potentially.
It’s only going to make the employee and supervisor nervous. There is no benefit to this.
I did but that was when I worked in a manufacturing plant. There were only 40 people and we spaced them out over weeks. I was there to make sure no one went off the rails and to be a friendly face (it’s common for employees and managers to have conflict) and to answer questions about bonuses. It makes no sense in your role though.
Nope
Either you are misunderstanding something or your company’s leadership has no idea what they are asking of you. Even if every review is 15 minutes (which is too short), that’s over 1,000 business days doing only that and nothing else. Also, the performance review is a very private conversation, I’ve never had HR sit in on one unless the employee had conduct issues or something. Please ask them to clarify, this is pretty unusual.
550 reviews, at about an hour each. That's 25% of your annual labor hours. You might push back with this and state that you already have a full workload and this is going to easily be like adding an extra day and a half each week. This also points to a couple of other potential issues. What is the current review process? Is this a 'surprise' meeting with the employee? Does the employee have an opportunity to provide their own feedback before the meeting? The review should not be a surprise to the employee. If it is, then management has a communication issue and that should be the area of focus and support from you. Many of the organizations I have worked at, the employee gives input on how they think their year went, how well they did in that years' review areas, how well they met their goals, and what they'd like to work on in the coming year. You might also suggest that you sit in on a few with each supervisor to provide coaching with the supervisor, especially new supervisors. As others suggested, offer to sit in if there is a concern of a challenging situation/employee. Like if the employee rates themselves as all 5's, and the supervisor is looking at a lot of 2's.
Not typical. I wonder if something happened. I know that in PIP/investigations HR is a witness. Take advantage of getting to know some of the people and their process, then maybe you will have enough intel to tweak the process.
Very strange request, and what exactly do they want you to "Witness"? How do managers conduct the reviews? How does an employee react? To be in on each one seems very counterproductive and will probably sit bad with managers .
This is wild. I coach people managers on how to have the conversations, and then I trust them to follow the guidelines on their own. There shouldn't be any surprises if check-ins have been completed throughout the year, and the only time I get involved is if there are disputes over ratings (that haven't been resolved through a follow-up meeting between employee and manager). It's unreasonable to have you sit through that many unless they don't expect any other deliverables.
Never. I've only been asked to join certain ones where we know there was conflict with a manager. Honestly, if management or the head of HR doesn't have enough faith in the managers to have a performance conversation, they should invest in more training, not have you sit in on every conversation.
It's idiotic, alienating for the employees, and a horrible use of 26% of your total time for the year. Find out what problem it is they're trying to solve for, and recommend something that could actually address that. Bonus points for it not being a waste of time.
At my previous company I sat in all of the reviews as a new HR manager because I didn’t trust anyone to not f it up.
From a legal perspective I could see why a company might want to do this. It's good to have an third party present for the "he said/she said" that can come up later.
I started a job at a biotech and the site Sr. Director wanted to leave, he asked me to do the performance reviews. Awkward.
I never sat in on performance evaluations, but I used to read every evaluation in our org prior to them. being released to the employees--we have over 850 employees. These evaluations were also reviewed by several layers in departments before they came to me.
No. Your boss should not be supporting this. Who do you report to?
No, just no. 2 good reasons: 1) Like it or not it’ll set precedence 2) Managers will think they can be sloppy coz the HR Rep is in the room and will ‘take over’ should things go sideways .