Comment by erhserhdfd

This is spot on. Obviously there is a lot to dislike about performance reviews, but big companies need some process to determine who gets a raise, who gets promoted, etc. Although flawed, performance reviews are the best process for that.

I think the things that companies can do to make them better are:

1. Have well established career frameworks (aka career ladders) ahead of time. These should be as detailed as possible. https://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/

2. Have transparency about the ranking system and distribution to all current employees and future employees.

3. Ensure that some amount of accountability is shared at the department level and also at the team level, so you can have somewhat objective conversations about trade-offs between departments and teams.