Continuous feedback

Continuous feedback is a performance-management approach in which feedback is exchanged frequently and lightly — weekly check-ins, post-project notes, peer comments, manager 1:1s — rather than concentrated in an annual review cycle. The shift is driven by research showing that annual reviews suffer from recency bias (employees recall only the last few weeks), idiosyncratic-rater effects (reviewers consistently differ from each other), and inflated ratings (managers smooth scores upward to avoid difficult conversations). Deloitte's widely cited 2015 internal review of its own performance system found that 58% of executive time spent on reviews produced little discernible signal about actual performance.

Continuous feedback works when it is structured (anchored to specific principles or behaviors, not vague traits), psychologically safe (anonymous where appropriate), and tied to action (1:1 topics, growth goals, or coaching, not just collected and filed). It fails when it becomes constant low-grade evaluation pressure, or when "feedback" is one-way critique with no upward channel.