Employees in Hong Kong find Annual Performance Review demotivating
17 July 2018: New research by global professional services recruiter, Morgan McKinley found that employees in Hong Kong are not satisfied with the traditional, annual performance review adopted by their companies.
Findings show that there is a disconnect between what employees need and what organisations are providing.
78% of employees feel that they are not reviewed accurately while 66% disagree with their managers’ feedback during the annual review. 72% of managers also admit that they experience disagreement regarding feedback and scores given. Feedback from employees regarding this practice include “Relying on the annual review doesn’t allow us to solve problems timely”, “It needs to be more frequent”, “This is based on recent performance rather than overall performance”.
Employees prefer continuous performance management over annual review as they feel the latter limits collaboration and communication with their managers. 65% of employees said the annual review was not motivating to them while 55% were unhappy with the amount of daily feedback they receive from their managers.
In contrast, 44% of employees said continuous review improves collaboration with their managers and allows them to solve problems quickly. Also, 62% of managers stated that this practice allows them to have a two-way communication with their team members and coach them so they could improve throughout the year. However the biggest challenge for managers is to the time taken to conduct this practice which can be even more difficult when managing bigger teams.
Reina Cheng, Managing Director, Hong Kong, Morgan McKinley commented: “The purpose of performance management is to promote and improve employee effectiveness. Through this process, managers can provide feedback, acknowledge achievement and provide recognition. However, regardless of performance review style, clear goals must be set and performance reviewed against metrics. Managers need to be trained or they would fail to meet team members’ expectations on running the process.
“Our survey revealed that one of the biggest issues faced within performance review was defining clear metrics and measuring performance against those. Employees feedback include “Goal alignment is not clear”, “Direction and requirements change quarterly”, “Certain performance index do not relate to performance”.
“Ultimately the performance review process must be approached from the perspective of building engagement. Managers must be trained on communication, review process and defining clear goals. HR managers are also advise to drive this process and guide both managers and employees to ensure employees are kept engaged and motivated.”
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Notes to editors:
The research was conducted in September 2017 among 353 professionals across a variety of sectors including financial services, accounting and finance, technology, insurance, sales and marketing human resources and office support.
About Morgan McKinley
Morgan McKinley is a global professional services recruiter connecting specialist talent with leading employers across multiple industries and disciplines. With offices across Ireland, the UK, Asia and Australia, the company’s professional recruitment expertise spans banking & financial services; commerce & industry and professional services. Morgan McKinley is a preferred supplier to many of the major employers in its specialist sectors and thousands of smaller local firms.
Morgan McKinley APAC provides specialist recruitment services across the APAC region, including Australia, Mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, working with clients and candidates to deliver local knowledge as well as global reach.
