How to Run Performance Reviews When Your Managers Hate Doing Them
Most managers hate performance reviews because they have been handed a form and no skill, and the fix is to stop treating the review as a once-a-year event and start treating it as the summary of conversations that already happened. If a manager is surprised by what they are writing in December, the problem started in February.
Why do managers hate doing performance reviews?
I have sat on both sides of this table in healthcare organizations: the nurse manager buried in a short-staffed schedule, and the HR leader chasing overdue forms. The complaint is almost never about the paperwork. It is that the review feels like a judgment they are unqualified to deliver, wrapped in a rating scale they do not believe in, with no time to do it properly.
In behavioral health, senior living, and medical practices, most managers were promoted because they were excellent clinicians, caregivers, or office leads. Nobody taught them how to give feedback. Then we hand them a form every fall and act shocked when they put it off until the last week.
What are the real reasons reviews get dreaded?
They have no time. A manager covering call-offs and open shifts will always put a form last.
They have no training. Writing specific, behavior-based feedback is a skill, and we assume it comes with the title.
They fear the conversation. Avoiding conflict is human. The review becomes the one moment they cannot avoid it.
They do not trust the outcome. If ratings are tied to raises that were already decided by budget, managers know the exercise is theater.
They have been burned. One poorly handled review that ended in a resignation or a complaint can make a manager gun-shy for years.
What actually fixes it?
You do not fix this with a better template. I have watched organizations swap platforms and forms three times and keep getting the same dread. You fix it by changing what the review is supposed to be.
First, shrink the review to what matters. A one-page review with three or four questions beats an eight-page rubric every time. What did this person do well? Where do they need to grow? What does support from me look like? What are we agreeing to for the next six months? That is a real conversation, and a manager can prepare for it in thirty minutes.
Second, move the feedback upstream. Quarterly or even monthly check-ins of fifteen minutes take the surprise out of the annual review. When feedback is regular, the formal review becomes a summary instead of an ambush.
Third, give managers the words. Run a short training with real examples and role-play. Show the difference between "you have a bad attitude" and "in the last three staff meetings you interrupted colleagues and rolled your eyes at the schedule change." The second one is something a person can actually change.
Fourth, protect the time. If you want reviews done well, put them on the calendar, take something else off the manager's plate for that week, and stop sending reminder emails the night before the deadline. Time is a leadership decision, not a manager's personal failing.
Should reviews and raises be separated?
Often, yes, and managers know it. When the review is the only door to a raise, every conversation turns into a negotiation and every honest critique becomes a threat to someone's paycheck. Separating the development conversation from the compensation decision gives managers room to be honest. If your budget cannot support merit increases right now, say so plainly rather than hiding behind a rating that nobody believes.
What role does HR play?
HR should make the manager's job easier, not police it. That means short forms, clear timelines, coaching available for the hard conversations, and a quiet review of ratings for consistency before they land. It also means being honest about documentation: a review is part of the employee's record, so the language should be factual and specific, and managers should know when to loop HR in before a difficult conversation rather than after. Documentation habits reduce risk, but nothing guarantees an outcome, and a well-written form will never replace a manager who has been paying attention all year.
I have written before about why the review itself usually is not the real problem. If you want the longer version of that argument, read Annual Reviews Aren't the Problem. How We Use Them Is.. And if your organization does not have anyone owning this work, HR leadership, not just an HR department is usually the missing piece.
FAQ: Quick answers on manager-led reviews
How often should healthcare managers hold performance conversations? Brief check-ins at least quarterly, with a short annual summary. Shift-based teams often benefit from even lighter, more frequent touchpoints.
Do managers need training to write reviews? Yes. Specific, behavior-based feedback is a learned skill, and one practical session with real examples makes a visible difference.
What if a manager keeps putting reviews off? Look at their workload first. Chronic delay is usually a capacity or confidence problem before it is a performance problem.
Mitchell Jeffery, M.A., CDP, is the founder of The Ember Collective, a fractional HR firm serving behavioral health, senior living, and medical practice organizations. This post reflects practitioner experience and is general HR information, not legal advice. Featured photo: Unsplash.
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