Performance Reviews Become Automated
 September 9, 2004

Performance reviews at both the associate and staff level are among the most dreaded of law firm rituals, for both the evaluator and the evaluated. The increased use of 360 degree evaluations has added to the discomfort. Several firms have now introduced web-based programs to ease the process and allow evaluations of each associate or staff member to be compared to all the other evaluations and ranked on a percentile basis. The advantage is complete anonymity and dilution of exceptionally harsh or halo effect evaluations. The initial feed back, especially from global firms with strong cultural differences among evaluators, is extremely positive. A Google search for “360 degree evaluations” will provide a dozen such canned programs but most law firms have opted to build their own on their intranet.