We Never Had An Annual Review Problem. We May Have A Different One.

 

What our quarterly rewards system taught me about the real gap that frequent feedback doesn't close

By Rasiah Keerthana | MBA Batch 37 | Jul 2026


“Feedback that doesn't wait twelve months to matter.” Source: [Nataliya Vaitkevich] Pexels (2021)


We don't have an annual performance review problem, because we never really had an annual review. Feedback at Asia Pacific Group happens close to the moment it is earned, after a call, after a case closes, and every three months we formalize it with cash rewards and certificates for the people who consistently delivered.

That rhythm maps almost exactly onto Kolb's (1984) learning cycle: a concrete experience (the client call, the visa decision), immediate reflection (informal feedback), a quarterly step back to form the bigger pattern, and staff testing what they learned in the next quarter's cases. An annual review completes this cycle once a year; ours completes it roughly four times, with a fast, informal loop running continuously in between.

Ali and Opatha (2013), studying the Sri Lankan apparel industry, found that a systematic performance appraisal process was positively linked with business performance; the word “systematic” matters here. Our informal feedback is fast and genuine, but it is not a documented, comparable standard. Two managers encouraging staff after a difficult call may read the same situation quite differently, and neither conversation necessarily leaves a written trail.

SHRM (n.d.) cites research showing more than nine in ten managers globally are dissatisfied with how their organization runs performance reviews. Our staff would likely never say that, since encouragement happens naturally and rewards are visible quarterly. But avoiding one failure mode, the useless once-a-year form, does not automatically avoid the other. Informality without documentation, applied unevenly across managers, risks becoming its own quiet unfairness, invisible until someone eventually asks why one person's dedication was recognized and another's, doing equally demanding work, was not. Appogee HR (2025) and HRD New Zealand (2022) both describe firms moving toward lightweight, frequent check-ins as the fix for outdated annual cycles, but neither source spends much time on what replaces the paperwork the annual review at least forced someone to produce.


“Different floor, same blind spot: recognition without a record.” Source: [Pavel Danilyuk], Pexels (2021).

The same tension would show up in any client-facing team running on manager discretion rather than a shared rubric: a bank branch, a hospital ward, a sales floor. Frequent feedback solved our motivation problem. It has not yet solved our consistency problem, and it turns out those were never actually the same problem to begin with.

So here is my question to you: if two of your best people were recognized differently for equally hard work, would you actually have a record to notice it or only a feeling that something felt off?



Watch: Kolb's Learning Cycle Explained with Example

Further Reading: 5 TED Talks to Watch Before Giving a Performance Review, Culture Amp


References

Ali, M.H. and Opatha, H. (2013) 'Performance appraisal system and business performance: an empirical study in Sri Lankan apparel industry', Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management, 2(1), pp. 74–90.

Appogee HR (2025) Death of the annual performance review. Available at: https://www.appogeehr.com/blog/death-of-the-annual-performance-review (Accessed: 21 July 2026).

Code Lucky (2026) Performance Appraisals Explained: A Guide for Managers and HR. [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbTza-1wn_A (Accessed: 24 July 2026).

Culture Amp (2025) 5 TED talks to watch before giving a performance review. Available at: https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/ted-talks-performance-review (Accessed: 24 July 2026).

EPM (2020) Kolb's Learning Cycle Explained with Example. [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rycjUldMl3k (Accessed: 26 July 2026).

HRD New Zealand (2022) Annual reviews are dead. This is the future of performance management. Available at: https://www.hcamag.com/nz/news/general/annual-reviews-are-dead-this-is-the-future-of-performance-management/400321 (Accessed: 26 July 2026).

Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

SHRM (n.d.) Is the annual performance review dead? Society for Human Resource Management. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/annual-performance-review-dead (Accessed: 27 July 2026).

Comments

  1. Dilrukshi DissanayakeAugust 2, 2026 at 5:19 AM

    An interesting perspective on performance management. I agree that frequent feedback keeps employees engaged and supports continuous learning. At the same time, I think documentation and clear evaluation criteria are just as important to ensure fairness and consistency. Finding the right balance between flexibility and structure is key.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rasiah KeerthanaAugust 12, 2026 at 8:14 AM

      Thanks for the thoughtful pushback; you are right that flexibility without documentation just trades one risk for another. My concern with leaning too heavily on structure and criteria, though, is that this is precisely what the annual review model already tried, and it didn't prevent inconsistency; it often just formalized it once a year instead of addressing it in real time. I did argue the fix isn't more documentation for its own sake, but making the criteria transparent and applied consistently within frequent feedback, rather than reverting to a rigid framework that gave structure without necessarily giving fairness. So I did push back slightly on "balance" as the goal; it's less about splitting the difference and more about which problem (frequency or fairness) we are actually solving for first.

      Delete
  2. Nethmi RathnayakeAugust 2, 2026 at 8:10 AM

    Really sharp post. Most writing on this topic stops at "annual reviews are dead," so it's refreshing to see someone ask what quietly disappears when the paperwork does.
    Your line about recognition without a record is the one that stayed with me. Informal feedback feels fairer in the moment, but without documentation there's nothing to check it against later. Excellent read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rasiah KeerthanaAugust 12, 2026 at 8:17 AM

      Thank you, that line is really the crux of the piece for me, so I'm glad it landed. I did push the point a step further, though: informal feedback feeling fairer in the moment is exactly what makes it riskier, since recency bias and who happened to talk to the manager last week can masquerade as genuine signal when there's no record to check it against. But I did caution against treating documentation alone as the fix; a record only helps if there's also a consistent standard behind it, otherwise we're just archiving the same inconsistency instead of removing it. So the "different problem" isn't really paperwork versus no paperwork; it's whether we ever agreed on what we're measuring in the first place.

      Delete
  3. Bathiya RathnayakeAugust 2, 2026 at 9:50 AM

    This is a well-written and thought-provoking blog that offers a fresh perspective on performance management. I liked how you explained that frequent feedback and quarterly recognition can improve motivation but may not always ensure consistency and fairness without proper documentation. The connection to Kolb's learning cycle and the use of relevant HR literature strengthen your discussion. Adding a brief practical recommendation on how organizations can balance continuous feedback with standardized performance records would make the blog even more impactful. Overall, it is an engaging and insightful read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rasiah KeerthanaAugust 12, 2026 at 8:19 AM

      Thank you, really glad the Kolb connection was useful, and that's a fair ask. I held back from giving one fixed recommendation on purpose, because a single "best method" can end up as rigid as the old annual review, just in a new form. In practice, the right mix probably depends on team size and how fast things move; a shared feedback log may work better for some teams than a formal template for others. So the real advice may just be: agree on a light, simple structure everyone will actually use, and keep it open to change.

      Delete
  4. Bhagya JayarathneAugust 4, 2026 at 8:52 AM

    Thought-provoking article emphasizing continuous feedback. Regular communication builds trust, improves performance, and supports meaningful employee development throughout the year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rasiah KeerthanaAugust 12, 2026 at 8:20 AM

      Thank you, I agree that regular communication builds trust, but I did add one caution: it only builds trust if it's applied fairly, not just often. Frequent feedback without any way to check it later can end up feeling inconsistent, even when everyone means well. So the real value isn't just talking more; it's making sure what's said holds up the same way for everyone over time.

      Delete
  5. Manishi Samarakoon - E311706August 4, 2026 at 11:29 PM

    I agree that frequent feedback improves employee development, but organisations also need consistent documentation to ensure fairness and transparency in performance evaluations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rasiah KeerthanaAugust 12, 2026 at 8:22 AM

      Thank you, that's a fair point, and it comes up a lot in the comments here. My hesitation is that documentation on its own doesn't guarantee fairness; it only helps if the criteria behind it are clear and applied the same way for everyone. Otherwise, we are just writing down the same inconsistency instead of fixing it. So the real question isn't feedback versus documentation; it's whether we have agreed on what "fair" actually means before we start recording anything.

      Delete

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