I don't particularly like managing people, and it's easy to slip into a lazy management style where you avoid confrontation, but the truth is that I've found people respect honesty and a chance to course correct.
For example, my annual reviews aren't so much about setting and discussing goals as it is about how the year actually went, both from a professional and personal standpoint. We talk about projects we finished or didn't, how the company and team is doing overall, and big strategic decisions made by execs that we don't really have control over but impact us in one way or another. Goals are generally set pretty frequently and are achievable. I have 1on1 with my leads every 2 weeks and we exchange pretty blunt but constructive feedback on how we are doing.
That's a management fail, to be honest. The first time someone hears they aren't keeping up should not be because you started paperwork on them.
Seriously. That's alarmingly bad management.
Even in clear cases of misconduct it's common enough to simply terminate.
If you run a company you know this, but for the uninitiated: there’s a lot of work to fire someone in the US. Technically most employees are at-will, however companies need to have non-sueable reasons for terminating employment.
If they fire you because of race, sex, or some other protected class, that’s illegal. The employee can file for unemployment and that makes your company’s rates go up.
So before terminating someone, companies get a lot of written paperwork in order. This is typically called a performance improvement plan (PIP). That usually starts at the Annual performance review - they’ll say you have poor performance in specific areas and write it down in traceable documents.
The employee tries to “improve” sometimes, but if the company is adamant on terminating someone it’s really just a matter of time.
Their goal is to have a strong case (aka paperwork) demonstrating poor job performance so that when you sue (or file for unemployment) they can push back with a 6 month history of documented issues.