In the world of Facebook or Twitter, people love to hear feedback about what they’re up to. But sit them down for a performance review, and suddenly the experience becomes traumatic. Now companies are taking a page from social networking sites to make the performance evaluation process more fun and useful. Accenture has developed a Facebook-style program called Performance Multiplier in which, among other things, employees post status updates, photos, and two or three weekly goals that can be viewed by fellow staffers. Even more immediate: new software from a Toronto start-up called Rypple that lets people post Twitter-length questions about their performance in exchange for anonymous feedback. Companies ranging from sandwich chain Great Harvest Bread Co. to Firefox developer Mozilla have signed on as clients. Such initiatives upend the dreaded rite of annual reviews by making performance feedback a much more real-time and ongoing process. Stanford University management professor Robert Sutton argues that performance reviews “mostly suck” because they’re conceived from the top rather than designed with employees’ needs in mind. “If you have regular conversations with people, and they know where they stand, then the performance evaluation is maybe unnecessary,” says Sutton. What Rypple’s and Accenture’s tools do is create a process in which evaluations become dynamic—and more democratic. Rypple, for example, gives employees the chance to post brief, 140-character questions, such as “What did you think of my presentation?” or “How can I run meetings better?” The queries are e-mailed to managers, peers, or anyone else the user selects. Short anonymous responses are then aggregated and sent back, providing a quick-and-dirty 360-degree review. The basic service is free. But corporate clients can pay for a premium version that includes tech support, extra security, and analysis of which topics figure highest in employee posts. Rypple’s cofounders have also launched software called TouchBase that’s meant to replace the standard annual review with quick monthly surveys and discussions. 

Questions 

1. Why are some organizations using social networking–style systems for performance appraisals? 

2. How might the feedback generated from these kinds of systems differ from feedback generated from more traditional performance appraisals? 

3. How might use of these kinds of systems influence employee motivation and performance? 

4. Are there any potential drawbacks or disadvantages of these kinds of systems?