Get performance reviews right, and they can shift from a tick-box formality into a powerful tool for surfacing truth, building trust, and shaping the future of your workforce.
EMA HR consultant Celena Harry has over 20 years’ experience helping leaders create thriving workplaces. As Chief People Officer at Mitre 10 New Zealand, Celena led major initiatives in performance management, HR technology, induction and training, and leadership capability.
In our recent Hire to Retire HR webinar, presented in partnership with Strategic Pay, Celena led an interactive discussion with live Q&A—helping EMA members drive meaningful conversations and strategically align their teams. Here, Celena shares her expert perspectives on a selection of questions from members.
How do you shift the mindset of leaders who still prefer a traditional annual review process?
A helpful starting point is acknowledging that annual reviews made sense in a different context, when work and roles were more stable. The conversation isn’t about saying the old way is wrong, but exploring whether the process still fits the way work happens today—and whether your performance system delivers real benefits to your team and organisation.
Leaders and employees will often highlight frustrations with the current system. Use that feedback to make small adjustments rather than changing everything at once. Consider promoting monthly one-on-one conversations as a first step—this adds structure to discussions leaders and teams are already having, with minimal impact on time. If you’ve seen these changes work elsewhere, use those stories to illustrate the benefits.
How do we support managers who find regular feedback uncomfortable?
Reframe feedback as a regular part of good leadership, rather than something reserved for challenging situations. Management is performance management—it’s core to the role.
Some leaders may feel uncomfortable not because they’re unwilling, but because they haven’t been supported to build the skill. Providing light structure—guiding questions, short and regular check-ins, and an emphasis on “feedforward”—can make conversations feel more natural. As managers gain confidence, discomfort usually decreases.
The SBI model is especially helpful for managers building skills and confidence, as it removes judgment from the conversation.
SBI Model: Situation–Behaviour–Impact
Situation: Define the specific context. Example: “During this morning’s team meeting…”
Behaviour: Describe observable actions, avoiding assumptions. Example: “You interrupted Sarah twice.”
Impact: Explain the result of the behaviour on the project, team, or yourself. Example: “This made her lose her train of thought, and we missed her key points.”
We’re a small business and don’t have time—is this really necessary?
Clarity and alignment are particularly important for smaller organisations, where there’s less margin for confusion. Regular check-ins help everyone stay focused on top priorities.
One-on-one time with a manager is proven to engage team members and make them feel valued. These conversations don’t need to be time-consuming or complicated—brief, well-focused check-ins can prevent issues from escalating and save time in the long run. Keep it simple: take a few notes and make it meaningful.
What’s the real cost of keeping a traditional annual review model?
A common risk is that performance issues or shifts in priorities aren’t picked up early enough. People are usually working hard but may not have clear signals about how they’re tracking.
Over time, if reviews feel disconnected from day-to-day work, employees may disengage from the process altogether. When that happens, the system tends to deliver compliance rather than genuine performance support. Without an effective performance system, teams and individuals can become misaligned, making it challenging to achieve organisational goals.
Our system uses a performance matrix perceived as convoluted. What if HR doesn’t want to change it but leaders do?
Focus on the purpose of the system: supporting performance and helping the business succeed.
If a tool or framework isn’t serving the needs of leaders and teams, it may need revisiting. Look for supporting data—feedback from culture surveys, or discussions with HR leaders. Stay curious about why one team prefers not to change—there may be common ground to be found.
If you move to monthly or quarterly check-ins, should HR sit in on them?
No. These are routine conversations between managers and their team members. Check-ins aren’t formal, nor should they be forums for formal performance interventions like PIPs.
HR adds the most value by designing the framework, supporting managers to build capability, and being available when guidance is needed.
If we adopt a new approach, what indicators can we use to measure effectiveness?
Don’t wait for an engagement survey. Seek feedback early and simply—a focus group or quick survey is often enough. This allows you to adjust the system as you go and demonstrates your commitment to building something that works.
Early indicators usually appear in behaviour: richer conversations, fewer surprises, and greater confidence in addressing issues. Over time, you may see reduced formal performance management, clearer goal alignment, and stronger capability development through everyday work.
Do bonuses help people achieve goals, or should they be built into salary?
Organisations with strong performance systems emphasise fair pay, meaningful work, and ongoing development, with incentives playing a supporting role.
If a bonus exists, ensure objectives align with performance and organisational goals. Avoid sending conflicting messages—for example, promoting collaboration in performance systems while rewarding purely individual KPIs, or encouraging customer experience improvements but incentivising sales numbers only.
What’s one small change managers can make right now
Simply asking one additional open question, genuinely listening, and agreeing how you can support someone can change the tone of a conversation. Questions focused on impact or learning often move discussions beyond tasks. Examples include:
Do you feel your knowledge, skills, and experience are being fully utilised?
What is holding you back from doing your best work?
If you were the manager, what changes would you make?
What’s the single best thing I can do to make your job better?
What are your long-term career goals, and how can we support them?
What would make your job more satisfying?
We’re here to help you get it right—from hire to retire. If you missed the webinar with Celena Harry, you can download the recording and browse all upcoming Hire to Retire events.
Why Hire to Retire?
From the 30,000+ people who receive our monthly HR newsletter, and the hundreds of AdviceLine calls each month, we know our members lead people, drive workplace culture, and carry responsibility for policies and procedures.
With 2,000+ cases appearing before the ERA annually, and Employment Court damages reaching up to $50,000, getting HR right at every stage of the employee lifecycle is crucial. That’s where the Hire to Retire series comes in.