Performance Ratings: A Strategic Driver or an Outdated Practice?
Performance ratings. Just the mention of them can spark a lively debate in any organisation. Are they a valuable tool to drive performance, or an outdated relic from a top-down management era?
In this week’s episode of The Strategic Leader podcast, we interviewed CEO and Founder of OpenBlend, Anna Rasmussen about whether they still have a role to play in modern performance management, read on for more from Anna in this guest post, or listen to the full episode here- Series 4 Episode 2.
At OpenBlend, we’ve spent over a decade working with diverse organisations — from the highly progressive to the more traditional. What we’ve seen is clear: performance ratings aren’t inherently bad. In fact, if used strategically, they can be one of the most powerful tools in your performance management toolkit.
Ratings: A Tool to Drive, Not Just Measure Performance
Many organisations still use performance ratings, but interestingly, most don’t link them directly to pay. Instead, they use them to inform promotion decisions, set performance targets, or structure feedback conversations. When decoupled from pay, ratings can become a meaningful conversation starter — a checkpoint for both employee and manager to reflect, align, and plan forward.
Ultimately, the goal isn’t the rating itself. It’s performance.
As one of our team aptly put it: "Our customers invest in OpenBlend because they want to drive performance — not simply measure it."
That’s a fundamental shift in perspective. Performance ratings should serve as part of a performance journey, not as a once-a-year verdict handed down from above.
The Danger of the ‘Dumping Ground’
Without regular check-ins and timely feedback, the end-of-year performance review risks becoming a dumping ground — a single, often arbitrary moment that fails to reflect the full breadth of an employee’s contribution.
Let’s be honest: how many of us can remember everything our team did in January when we're writing reviews in December?
That's not just unfair — it's unproductive.
Designing Better Conversations
Ratings are only useful when underpinned by regular, quality conversations. At OpenBlend, we talk about performance conversation design — mapping performance touchpoints across the employee journey, from onboarding through to development and reward.
This includes:
Setting expectations early with clear goals and objectives.
Ongoing one-to-ones that go beyond task management — covering wellbeing, motivation, and blockers.
Mid-year reviews to course-correct, not just measure.
Employee self-assessments alongside manager ratings to highlight perception gaps.
Structured feedback that’s regular, specific, and aligned with goals.
When these elements are embedded into the flow of work, ratings no longer feel like an imposition. They become the natural outcome of ongoing dialogue — empowering for both the employee and the manager.
Making Ratings Empowering
Imagine if ratings weren’t something to dread, but something that empowered employees to take ownership of their development.
That’s the shift we advocate. With tools like OpenBlend, employees can track their own progress, understand how they’re perceived, and adjust course as needed. It creates a culture of continuous feedback — where the final rating is not a surprise but a reflection of a shared journey.
Supporting Manager Capability
Let’s not forget the manager. One of the most cited challenges in performance management is manager confidence and capability.
Managers need three things:
Mindset – the belief in the value of coaching-led conversations.
Skillset – the ability to ask the right questions, give good feedback, and navigate difficult discussions.
Toolset – platforms that support them in having consistent, meaningful conversations.
At OpenBlend, we support managers with a simple, effective framework (like the GROW model) and tools that surface the data they need — objectives, feedback, development plans — at the right moment.
This builds trust, improves performance, and makes the year-end review not only easier, but fairer and more impactful.
The Real Question: How Do We Support Performance?
If you’re asking “What do we do about our performance ratings?”, you might be asking the wrong question.
The better question is: “How do we support performance every day of the year?”
The rating at the end is only as good as the conversations that came before it.
Final Thought: Give Performance Conversations the Time They Deserve
If we could wave a magic wand, we’d give managers and employees time — protected, quality time — to sit down and talk. Because when you invest in the conversation, you invest in performance.
So, let’s stop asking whether ratings are good or bad. Let’s ask how we design performance conversations that matter.