There's been a lot of talk in recent years about getting rid of the traditional performance review, with some experts arguing that yearly questionnaires don't do nearly enough to capture the nuances of an employee's day-to-day contributions. Similar criticism has been levied at employee satisfaction assessments.
But a new survey suggests that there is no single way that employees like to be assessed.
The poll of 1,000 employees by Clutch, a firm that specializes in B2B ratings and reviews, asked workers what factors they would like their employers to emphasize when deciding whether to give them a raise. The four different options were "Behaviors/Attitudes," "Measurable outputs," "Certifications/education" and "Tenure/Seniority."
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A plurality of employees (40 percent) say that their behavior should be the top factor when their employers are considering their pay. Nearly as many (36 percent) say that measurable outputs should be the top consideration. Far fewer say that education (13 percent) or seniority (11 percent) should be the top reason to give a worker a raise.
The distribution of answers varied to a certain degree based on the age of the employee. There were few patterns that are easy to explain, however.
Forty-five percent of millennials as well as 45 percent of those ages 55-64 say that behavior and attitude are the most important factors. But those ages 35-54 or those 65 and above were more likely to rank measurable outputs as the most important factor.
One predictable result: The oldest employees are the most likely to say seniority should be the top consideration. Senior citizens were twice as likely to say so as millennials.
There were also slight differences in how employees respond based on the size of their company. Those at companies with fewer than 50 workers are more likely to prioritize behavior and attitude (45 percent) than those at companies with more than 5,000 employees (34 percent).
Employees at the largest companies are more likely to support using measureable outputs (42 percent) than those at small businesses (34 percent).
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