Making performance reviews work for HR: from annual ritual to strategic decision engine

Making performance reviews work for HR: from annual ritual to strategic decision engine HR Tech Summit 2026 | 21 min

Most performance reviews don't fail because of the tools. They fail because nobody agreed on what performance means in the first place. Assessio's CPTO, Thibault Vilon, and organisational consultant, Alban Romer, explore how to turn the annual review from a compliance exercise into something that genuinely serves employees, managers, and the business — and why that starts long before you open your performance management platform.

You'll take away:

• Why unclear definitions of performance are the root cause of most review processes that don't work
• How to address the three main sources of subjectivity: unclear definitions, inconsistent managers, and lack of calibration
• A practical framework for frequency, structure, and follow-up that doesn't make the process feel like a burden
• Where to start if you want to modernise your performance framework in 2026