It’s safe to say that very few employees love annual reviews. Manager feedback is often fraught – and sometimes less than objective. Lydia Dishman, senior editor for growth and engagement at Fast Company, shared startling statistics during From Day One’s September virtual conference.

• Women get 22% more personality feedback than men do.
• Black and Latine workers get 2.4 times more feedback that is not actionable than their white and Asian colleagues do.
• People over 40 are three times more likely to be described as unselfish than younger workers.

Age, gender, race, and other demographics can subtly influence a manager’s interpretation of an employee’s productivity. “There is a heightened focus on productivity now. And that's because we're seeing the lowest levels of productivity we've seen in 75 years for in-office work,” Dishman, the panel moderator, said. “It’s so important to get feedback right, so that it shapes [an employee’s] experience going forward in a more positive way.”

At a time of renewed focus on productivity, how can managers become more equitable in evaluating their workers? How can they be trained to be more inclusive in their give-and-take with diverse teams of employees, including older workers? Panelists addressed these key questions, offering advice to build more progressive pathways for feedback in an ever-changing workforce.

Measuring Performance in a Hybrid Workplace

Remote and hybrid offices pose challenges to more traditional metrics of performance measurement. “People are still really focused on if I can't see it, I can't manage it,” Dishman said. Matt Poepsel, VP of enterprise solutions at talent optimization software The Predictive Index, says that in an office environment, managers can absorb an employee’s performance non-verbally, and intuit more nuance through visual and social cues out in the open. 

In turn, employees sometimes find it easier to learn policies and adapt to office culture through observation. Remote work presents challenges in terms of performance and evaluation. Casual but meaningful hallway conversations have been replaced by scheduled and sometimes awkward Zoom meetings. But given that remote work is here to stay, managers and workers must learn to adapt to the new system.

“How do we move performance from something that is implicit to explicit?” Poepsel posited. He recommends “two-way transparency.” Managers need to be transparent and specific about their expectations, and employees need to use new technologies and systems to share their work in such a way that their accomplishments will be fully understood, appreciated, and recognized, he says.

Dishman also notes the stigma that remains around remote workers – once they’re off Zoom, they’re considered not to be “at work.” The mindset that equates being visible at a desk eight hours a day with a good performance still needs to shift. Employers must learn to trust their teams, who, after all, they hired for a reason. “We need new mechanisms to be able to do the same work that we used to do, because it's never going to go back to what it was,” Poepsel said. “If we force employees to return to the office, and they say, ‘Why?’ and we say, ‘Because we don't trust you,’ That is not a relationship with your employer that's going to last anyway.”

Making Performance Reviews Easier

Performance reviews have a reputation for being awkward and even scary. Carly Porter, global VP of Citi markets learning advisory at multinational bank Citigroup, says the words “I have some feedback for you” can trigger our natural fight-or-flight response. At Citi, Porter says, managers try to focus on situation, behavior, and impact – sticking to the facts.

Porter shares an example of fact-based feedback: “You were in a meeting yesterday, you spoke over Gordon, and the impact was Gordon spoke less in that meeting. What was going through your mind?” This last part is key, where the manager expresses empathy, recognizes that most people have good intentions, and allows the employee to try to explain what went wrong. “You're going to get a lot more out of the conversation by assuming positive intent rather than being accusatory,” Porter said.

Timing and frequency are also important. Frequent and early interventions can save careers, Porter says, preventing poor behavior from snowballing. Ensure that any negative feedback is provided away from the heat of the moment, allowing the employee an opportunity to make positive adjustments.

Always remember that “there is a power differential in a room. [The employee] is always going to be a little less open and a little less direct [with a manager].” Using language that puts you as the manager on the same side of the table as the employee, rather than the opposite side, can empower the conversation and help the employee move forward, says Porter.

Ensuring Feedback is Inclusive

Gordon Trujillo, VP of enterprise learning & development at kidney care company DaVita,  points out there is just as much meaning in feeling seen as there is in being seen. “A lot of competency behavior systems have been written for a particular physical proximity system,” Trujillo said. But in the modern workforce, with a (hopefully) more inclusive culture, corporations should also be focused on the moments within the organization where there is an opportunity to use language that is more inclusive of all employees’ experiences, and to tailor feedback processes so that it is more meaningful to the worker.

When it comes to interacting with workers of different ages, Heather Tinsley-Fix, senior advisor of financial resilience at AARP, said it’s important not to “put people in generational buckets, it’s reductive.” That said, there are some definite trends that managers should observe to make all generations feel included and respected.

Because workplaces have generally become less hierarchical and more informal, younger generations are more comfortable speaking up – and managers need to be prepared for that interaction. “They expect to be heard, and they expect that you're going to want to know what they have to say,” Tinsley-Fix said. “Make sure you invite that dialogue.” Millennials and Gen-Z especially, Tinsley-Fix shares, expect feedback quickly and aren’t beholden to the traditions of annual performance reviews that are rote for older workers. She implores managers to have patience with these younger workers, who may not have had as many years in a professional setting and whose first jobs and internships may have mostly occurred during pandemic-era working conditions.

With older employees, Tinsley-Fix advises always acknowledging their experience, even if they haven’t been with the company for a long time, and to not be overly prescriptive as they will want to bring their own ideas to the table. Don’t assume that they’re not interested in career growth and development. Tinsley-Fix shares that according to AARP research, eight out of ten employees over 40 “find that development is a key aspect of their jobs.”

Feedback Aimed at Growth

The best feedback should allow employees to identify gaps where they can build the skills they need to move forward. Developing a growth mindset in a workplace means that teams should be encouraged to give feedback to one another as needed, says Shivani Dhir, assistant dean of digital learning at New York University Tandon School of Engineering. “There's no need always for positional authority to give feedback. Building that culture for communal self-assessment, even within teams, is incredibly important, because people are more likely to learn in the context of how they're collaborating with each other on a project,” Dhir said. This is particularly helpful with practical and tactical guidance on what can be improved in the moment. Then managers can use more formal annual reviews to focus on greater individual development plans.

It’s also key, Dhir says, to use the feedback process to assess whether it’s the individual that’s not performing well, or if it’s the system that is the problem. That distinction can contribute to the overall growth of the company. Being mindful of the system extends to incorporating a more holistic view of the team when giving feedback. For example, Poepsel says, an introverted person might get steamrolled by more outgoing colleagues during a meeting, then later be critiqued for not speaking up. Managers must recognize when an employee is not being set up to succeed and try not to judge them for it. “I go into every performance conversation with the mindset that we should be crafting plans, ideas, outcomes, potentially even roles to help support that individual growth,” Trujillo agreed.

By using inclusive language and positive reinforcement, and recognizing and incorporating the individual strengths and circumstances of each employee, managers can support a constantly evolving and improving workforce that drives a company’s mission forward.

Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Honeysuckle Magazine, and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.