[About the author] should implement employee annual reviews

At [Company] , we take pride in our hard work and learn from our mistakes. While our performance issues and triumphs are mentioned on a casual level in conversations with our supervisors, our staff does not have access to formalized annual reviews and therefore cannot internalize this feedback properly. Additionally, the lack of formal performance reviews makes criteria for raises difficult to parse, leaving staff confused as to whether they will receive performance incentives or not.

Performance reviews don’t just benefit high-achievers. They open lines of communication between management and staff about training needs, help identify what each employee may need to improve on, and provide transparency across [Company] about the needs of both management and staff alike. By implementing annual reviews, top performers (and those who strive to emulate them) will know exactly the value of their hard work and employees who fall short will have guidelines on how to improve. By linking performance bonuses to reviews, there will be full transparency about raises and bonuses, which will ward off suspicions of favoritism.

We are requesting that management:

• Create a raise structure linked to performance benchmarks and present them to staff ASAP.
• Hold annual reviews for employees who have been at [Company] for over a year within the next quarter.
• Schedule reviews for employees who have been at [Company] for less than a year to coincide with their year anniversary on staff.
• Begin scheduling reviews with new hires ASAP and inform them of the review process.