Appraise on the Quality of the Work, Not Only the Hours Billed
Hours billed are easy to count, so many firms end up appraising on utilisation and little else. We help you build an appraisal that also looks at the quality of delivery, review standards, client feedback, supervision of juniors and growth in the role. Partners keep the final word on ratings; we give them the formats, the evidence and a calibration step so that a rating means the same in every practice.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsThe starting point
Does Your Appraisal Reward What the Firm Says It Values?
A firm may say it values judgement, client care and the development of juniors, and then reward whoever bills the most. Appraisals happen once a year, in a hurry after the busy season, written from whatever the partner remembers of the last three months.
We help you appraise on evidence collected through the year, with a calibration step before ratings are final.
You may be experiencing:
- Appraisals that depend on utilisation figures because they are the only numbers available.
- Associates rated by partners who saw only one engagement of the year.
- Ratings that are generous in one practice and strict in another, with no step to compare them.
- Review quality, such as first-time-right drafts or the number of review comments on a file, noticed only when it goes badly.
- Client feedback arriving informally and never reaching the person it is about.
- Managers who are good at billing and poor at developing juniors, with nothing in the appraisal to show it.
- Promotion and variable-pay discussions that begin from memory rather than from a record.
What we can help with
Our Performance Management Services for Professional Services Firms
Role-Level Expectations
A short statement for each level of what good work looks like: technical quality, client handling, supervision, business development and contribution to the firm. Written with the practice heads.
Goals and Measures by Role
For fee earners, support staff and practice leads, agree a few goals and the evidence that will show them, mixing delivery measures with quality and development ones.
Balanced Use of Utilisation
Place utilisation, realisation and billing in context. Decide how much weight each carries by level, and how leave, training, internal projects and bench time are treated, so the number is read fairly.
Engagement-Level Feedback
A short feedback form completed at the end of each substantial engagement by the supervisor, so that evidence accumulates through the year and does not depend on a year-end memory.
Client and Peer Input
Decide when and how client comments and peer or junior views are gathered, who sees them and how they enter the appraisal.
Review Cadence
Set a mid-year conversation and a year-end appraisal, with dates that avoid the firm's heaviest weeks, and a format that takes the people involved less time than the present one.
Calibration Across Practices
A meeting where practice heads compare proposed ratings against the level expectations, so that ratings are comparable across practices before they are communicated.
Improvement Plans and Recommendations
A clear route for concerns about performance: written expectations, support, a review date and a decision, with partner approval for outcomes that affect pay, promotion or continued employment.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, you receive:
- A statement of expectations for each level.
- A goal and measure framework by role.
- Appraisal formats for the mid-year conversation and the year-end review.
- An engagement feedback form for supervisors.
- A guide to reading utilisation and realisation alongside quality.
- A rating scale and a calibration method.
- An improvement plan template and decision route.
Step by step
How We Work
Understand What Is Valued
We ask partners what they reward in practice and what they want to reward, and look at the last appraisal cycle for what it actually recorded.
Define Expectations
We draft level expectations and role goals with the practice heads and test them against two or three recent appraisals.
Design the Formats and Cadence
We prepare the feedback form, the appraisal format and the calendar, keeping the paperwork lighter than before.
Set Up the Calibration
We agree the rating scale, the evidence required and how the calibration meeting is run and recorded.
Run a Cycle and Adjust
We record a baseline, support the first cycle, including training reviewers, and revise what did not work.
The difference
Appraisals That Hold Up in a Conversation
A balanced appraisal system helps the firm to:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering the share of appraisals completed on time, the spread of ratings by practice and the evidence attached to each, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Show people what each level expects of them.
- Base ratings on evidence from across the year.
- Read utilisation alongside quality and development.
- Compare ratings fairly across practices.
- Pass client and peer feedback to the person concerned.
- Start promotion and pay discussions from a record.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Firms Appraising on Hours Alone
Where utilisation has become the whole conversation.
Multi-Practice Firms
Where ratings differ in strictness from one partner to the next.
Firms Preparing Promotion Cycles
Where evidence is needed to support decisions on levels.
Architecture and Engineering Consultancies
Where design quality, coordination and delivery on programme need to be weighed with billing.
Staffing Companies
Where recruiters and account managers are measured on placements and need quality and client measures added.
How it usually shows up in professional services
Performance in professional firms is usually judged by partners who have worked with the person on certain engagements and not on others. Utilisation and billable hours are the clearest measure, so they carry too much weight, and the quality of the work is judged by impression. Review comments, rework and client feedback exist in engagement files but are not pulled into the appraisal. Different practices use different forms and scales, so ratings cannot be compared and calibration rarely happens. Associates are appraised once a year, often after the busy season, and learn their rating late. Contribution that does not bill, such as mentoring juniors, writing precedents, helping with proposals and training, is neither measured nor rewarded. The result is that the people who help others carry on doing so quietly, and the ones who guard their chargeable time are rated higher.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in professional services
Hours outweigh quality
Utilisation is counted exactly and the quality of the work is judged by impression.
Engagement evidence is unused
Review notes, rework and client comments sit in files and never reach the appraisal.
Practices rate differently
Different forms and scales mean a rating in one practice cannot be compared with another.
Non-billable contribution is invisible
Mentoring, precedents and training help the firm and cost the person chargeable time.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Set role-level expectations
For each level, a short list of what delivery, quality, client handling and contribution look like. The performance management process builds these.
- 02
Collect evidence through the year
Engagement-end feedback from the supervisor and, where suitable, the client, recorded when the work finishes.
- 03
Balance the measures
Utilisation sits next to review quality, deadlines, client feedback and contribution, with the weights stated.
- 04
Calibrate across practices
Partners meet to compare ratings and agree what each rating means before they are given.
- 05
Review twice a year
A mid-year conversation outside the peak, so that nothing in the annual rating is a surprise.
What to check this week
- Read the last round of appraisals and note how much of each rests on hours.
- Ask whether review comments from files were used in any rating.
- Compare the rating spread between two practices.
- Ask an associate when they last heard how their work was seen.
- Look at who in the firm is credited for mentoring and precedent work.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies depends on your establishment, your state and your sector, and it changes. This page describes a practice; it does not state a legal position.
What this looks like in professional services
The parts of performance management that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Performance and Appraisal
Measured on more than hours billed.
What this coversHide
Performance and Appraisal
Measured on more than hours billed.
What this coversHideDelivery
- Utilisation
- Quality of work
- Deadline adherence
- Client feedback
- Review comments
- Technical accuracy
Growth and contribution
- Client relationship building
- Business development support
- Knowledge contribution
- Mentoring juniors
- Training completion
- Firm citizenship
Questions on this, in professional services
It usually has a place, because it reflects how the firm earns. It should sit beside quality of work, client feedback and development, and be read with the context of leave, training and non-chargeable work, so that it does not become the only measure.
Through written level expectations and a calibration meeting, where practice heads compare proposed ratings against the same descriptions and adjust. We help structure and record the meeting; the partners decide the final ratings.
We aim to reduce it. Short engagement feedback forms collected through the year replace long year-end writing, and the calibration meeting replaces several separate conversations about ratings.
Yes, if the firm chooses. We design how it is collected, who sees it and how it is used, so it is handled with care in a small team where people are easily identified.
The level expectations can describe different routes, such as an expert track beside a client-leadership track. We help you decide what each level requires and how the appraisal reflects it.
Yes. Goals, feedback forms, review dates and approvals can be configured as workflows and records on the GullyHR platform or in your own system, with reminders for pending reviews.
Use a mix of utilisation, quality of work, deadlines, client feedback and contribution to the firm. Weight them by level, so seniors are judged more on leading and developing others.
No. It tells you how much was billed and not how well, and it penalises people who spend time training others. Use it as one measure among several.
Ask the engagement partner for a short structured note at the end of each major engagement, and use client survey comments where you already collect them.
Without it, one practice's strong rating may be another's average. Calibration makes promotion and bonus decisions defensible.
Make Appraisals Fairer and Lighter
Tell us how people are appraised today and what you would like the appraisal to recognise. We will discuss how to build a system that fits a partner-led firm.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Discuss Your Appraisal Approach
Share a few details about how appraisals run in your firm.
The general method — what performance management covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the performance management process page. What is above is the part that differs for professional services.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see performance management software.
Other HR topics for professional services
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for professional services, or another industry.