Many managers "hate the performance review process"—that's according to Ben Eubanks, author of this month's cover story. No wonder so many companies are making tweaks to their performance management processes. Are tweaks enough, though?

Managers apparently don't like leading the often once-yearly performance conversations, employees dread hearing about their deficiencies of the past 12 months, and companies try to make the ratings scale equitable. There are issues all around, some may say. The problem is that a fool-proof solution is hard to come by, and what works in one organization may not work in another.

However, while companies can choose from numerous approaches, many high-performing organizations have certain practices in common when it comes to performance management. Eubanks identifies those practices, which companies should consider employing as part of a larger performance management overhaul. At the top of his list of suggestions is allowing employees to take ownership of their development.

"That is the critical first step before considering any other major change in the approach," he writes. "If you attempt to fix the process without fixing this issue, your results will always be hampered by employees who feel like they don't get a say in their own growth."