Adobe’s check-in: guidelines for better performance management

Let's look at a case study, and in particular, let's look at Adobe's "Check-in" process. Now this has been written about quite extensively and it's useful to look at this particular instance because it tends to suggest the way in which performance management can be done more effectively in a wider range of organizations. In 2012, Adobe decided to abolish its performance reviews for a number of different reasons. Firstly, it felt the process itself was overly complex, bureaucratic and paperwork heavy, and was eating up thousands of hours of management time. Rather than delivering benefits, as such, the commitment of time and effort wasn't being matched by the outcomes of the process. But it also created barriers to teamwork and in innovation since the experience of being rated and what they call "stack-ranked", ranking employees in terms of their performance for the benefit of allocating them compensation or pay or bonuses, left many employees feeling undervalued and uninspired. Essentially, it was having a detrimental effect both on employee morale but also on the ability of managers to do their particular job because so much effort was being put into performance reviews. So Adobe introduced "Check-in", which they felt was a more informal, ongoing dialogue between managers and their direct reports that has employees feeding more engaged and empowered. The point I made earlier about this continuous process of coaching employees through performance improvements and through individual learning, becomes central then to the way that Adobe conducts its performance management now. In particular, "Check-in" was designed to involve forward-looking conversations that make employees feel valued and supported, and that encourages real teamwork and improved productivity. At the heart of "Check-in" was a self-directed approach to employee development. This became a central focus of all the dialogue between employees and managers with an explicit focus on balancing the aspirations of employees and the needs of the organizations.