As associate and staff retention becomes a larger part of law firms’ core business strategies, the performance evaluation function takes on even greater importance. But, in many firms, the most sincere intentions are sabotaged by insincere implementation. That is, we are learning that a department director or practice group leader who “goes through the motions” of performing evaluations may have a more detrimental effect on the people firms are trying to keep than not doing evaluations in the first place. 

This is becoming particularly noticeable in firms that have adopted 360 degree evaluations. We performed a highly anecdotal survey of six law firms that take great pride in their performance management systems and, particularly, their evaluation program. We found a direct tie (in fact it was virtually predictive) between overall employee dissatisfaction and attrition, and the effort placed by supervisors (for staff) and practice group leaders (for associates) in preparing and delivering performance evaluations.

The primary negative concerns were:

1.       Lack of sincerity and enthusiasm (one practice group leader reportedly started the evaluation by saying, “I think this is a worthless exercise but I won’t get my pay check unless I do it.”).

2.      Lack of preparation (an employee got ten minutes into an evaluation when both she and the supervisor realized that the evaluation was for a different person).

3.      Superficiality (upon being told that she was not careful enough in her work, a paralegal asked for an example and was told, “I don’t know, it’s just a general impression I have.”).

4.      Lack of importance placed on the process (the evaluator taking phone calls and responding to blackberry messages during the evaluation interview).

5.      Lack of constructive criticism. A frequent complaint is the lack of any suggested remedial actions for areas of deficiency.

One Practice Development Director commented that if he were putting together a PD program from scratch, the first thing he would do is provide ongoing training for anyone with responsibility for doing evaluations.