Annual performance reviews cause trepidation for everyone.
Employees wonder: Will that mistake I made in that video script six months ago make it into the document? Does anyone even know about all the work I’ve been doing to help the social media team? Does my manager ever give top ratings?
Marketing managers fear the time it takes to write the reviews: Do these evaluations really help the employee improve their content and marketing work? Do they help the company? Is it OK to do a bare-bones version so I can get back to updating the editorial calendar for the next quarter?
That dread is backed by hard data. A 2024 Gallup survey of 18,665 U.S. employees found:
Only 20% of employees say their performance reviews are transparent, fair, or inspire better performance.
Less than half (47%) strongly agree they know what is expected of them at work. (That’s significantly less than 61% saying the same thing 10 years ago.)
And, not surprisingly, 56% of employees formally review their performance goals with their manager once a year or less.
Yet, the Gallup survey found some rays of sunshine. Employees who did quarterly progress checks with their managers were 90% more likely to be engaged and more than two times likely to feel the process is fair and transparent.
I can hear the grumbling already. Sure, quarterly check-ins work, but who has the time to do that? I would argue that if you make time, you’ll reap the rewards (and one of them is time).
But there’s a catch to making it work: Don’t follow the same old review process in these quarterly check-ins. Forgo the standard checklist ratings and comment boxes assessing the employee’s hard and soft skills.
(I realize you still might have to follow your company’s traditional annual review process, but nothing says you can't add the quarterly review tactic to your marketing operations.)
Make this the new performance review model
Recently, I noticed a few job postings that outlined what the new hire would be expected to do in 30 days, 90 days, etc. Here’s an example from Willful that spells out what success looks like in the first 90 days for a new content writer.
I love this concept because it grounds the employee’s work in those critical first months. It’s also a concept that could serve marketing managers well for their direct reports: The employees would know what they should do in that timeframe, and the manager knows how to assess the employees’ progress.
The Willful job description explicitly creates a two-way understanding. Most of the elements are specific and quantifiable — launch at least two email campaigns aimed at driving conversions, develop copy for at least two paid social campaigns, and oversee editorial planning and development for the monthly newsletter. It also includes finite but more involved goals — audit all communication and develop an editorial calendar.
Of course, most marketing roles include responsibilities that are not finite or easily quantifiable. In the Willful posting, that’s the requirement to partner with product and CRM stakeholders to improve the early user onboarding journey.
Though your company may not set detailed expectations in your job postings like Willful, use this as practical inspiration for organizing your quarterly check-in performance reviews.
How do you spell out expectations?
Most performance reviews follow a universal form. They speak little of the role or even the department. This new approach requires the evaluation to speak directly to the role.
To do that, analyze the job description and the organization’s marketing and content strategy. The job description spells out the general expectations, while the marketing strategy details the organizational goals, some of which relate to the job under analysis.
Use this information and work backwards to set employee-specific goals. Remember, goals must be specific, measurable, and achievable (i.e., realistic).
Let’s say you’re developing expectations for a social media specialist. The role description says this person is responsible for LinkedIn. The content marketing strategy calls for three posts on LinkedIn every week. So, a specific, measurable, and achievable goal for the social media specialist is creating and publishing three LinkedIn posts every week.
Of course, some marketing roles have responsibilities that aren’t as easily specified or measured. However, just because it's harder doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Let’s walk through an example of how to set a specific, measurable, and achievable goal for the role of an audience specialist.
The manager reviews the marketing strategy. It includes a goal of acquiring new audience segments to grow the sales database by 10% year over year. The manager reviews the job description, which states the audience specialist is responsible for growing the organization’s audience.
With that information in hand, the manager and the audience specialist meet to discuss how to make that 10% database growth goal a reality. Together, they break down the process to acquire new audiences. They create a goal: Identify two new audiences (measurable) within the next 90 days (timeframe).
Then, they break the big goal into mini goals — each is specific, measurable, and achievable:
Audit target audience personas against content- and sales-related analytics within 30 days.
Partner with social media, email growth, sales, and customer service teams to assess the most engaged target audiences within 45 days.
Conduct external research, including content and product competitors, within 30 days.
Winnow new audience segments to four and conduct in-depth research, including focus groups and interviews, within 15 days after completing the first three steps.
Propose the new audience personas in a detailed presentation to the decision-makers in 90 days.
Now, with the mini goals connected to the big goal, the manager and audience specialist will find their quarterly performance check-ins more helpful and easier to execute.
Make the most of performance check-ins
Though quarterly performance reviews should follow those established expectations or goals, they shouldn’t be treated as a checklist. Use the conversation to explore what worked and what didn’t. Focus on the future. Don’t let it devolve into a time for gripes and admonishments. That’s not helpful for anyone.
To make the conversation productive, think in questions, not directives. For example, if a mini goal isn’t complete, discuss what the employee could do or what assistance is needed to ensure that step gets completed soon. Perhaps the mini goal is complete, but it took longer than expected. Center that conversation around what could be done differently. Should expectations or the process be adjusted?
This two-way conversation illuminates stumbling blocks without dwelling on problems or mistakes. For example, the challenge might be company-related, such as another department not giving the employee what was needed in a timely manner. Or perhaps the hurdle relates directly to the employee who says yes to every ad hoc request, giving them less time to complete the documented goals.
By identifying the issues, the manager and employee can identify solutions. For example, the manager might speak to other departments in advance of the employee’s request for information so they’re more likely to cooperate. Or the employee could learn that they should ask their manager about priorities when a new request is made of them.
Get together regularly
Expanding your performance review system to quarterly check-ins can sound overwhelming. But you’ll find the investment pays dividends because content and marketing goals are more likely to be achieved.
That performance review dread will diminish because the employee and manager share a specific understanding of what’s expected and what’s involved in the assessment.
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