Dive Brief:

• When many companies are beginning to shift away from the annual performance review, Facebook is telling a different story. According to Facebook HR leaders in the Harvard Business Review, 87% of workers wanted to keep performance rankings. In response, they've adapted their system.
• Facebook uses a number of techniques to try and avoid bias, including peer evaluations, relying on multiple people to make decisions, tapping outside analysts to ensure bias isn't built in, and a formula for compensation that managers "don't touch."
• Facebook is somewhat unusual in announcing it is keeping traditional performance reviews (one every six months) instead of switching to "real-time" reviews, which is what many legacy employers have been doing. All changes on both sides of the spectrum tend to be made in the interest of transparency.

Dive Insight:

The annual performance review debate continues. New technology has enabled powerful change in performance management, and many legacy companies are switching to a more "real-time" system — even the tech-makers — in response to studies that claim annual performance reviews cause mental duress and anxiety within employees.

But no solution seems to be 100% acceptable for every company. While Facebook's group clearly wanted to keep some semblance of the old system, IBM polled its employee population and found that its employees wanted to focus more on short-term goals and quarterly review periods. 

Goals and company culture must be top of mind when making changes to performance review programs. Poor use of the technology could actually lessen employee interaction with managers.