From 8 Weeks to 48 Hours: Reimagining Performance Reviews for Real-Time Impact

BY Stephanie Reed | November 25, 2025

The standard performance review cycle is an exhaustive process of manual writing, calibration, and the collection of outdated feedback over a drawn-out 6-8 week period. Disillusioned with the process, people leaders at Remote identified its main obstacles: process bottlenecks, a feedback disconnect, and a fragmented process. The company went on to develop a quicker and more effective process: a 48-hour performance cycle. 

Madeline Grecek, director of global people enablement at Remote shared insights on the innovative process during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s November virtual conference. She shared how new technology can refine or transform traditional HR strategies and encourage more holistic organizational collaboration.

From 8 Weeks to 48 Hours

The traditional performance cycle is flawed despite painstaking effort: there are blind spots, manual writing takes up too much of a manager’s time, and data tends to be fragmented, says Grecek.  

Madeline Grecek, director of global people enablement at Remote, led the session (company photo)

Remote now runs a performance cycle in just 48 hours. The first day is for reviews and promotion requests; the second is for calibrations that lock in promotion decisions. A combination of the company’s AI-powered tool called Perform, monthly Slack reviews, and an HRIS platform that aligns company and culture goals created this substantial shift in time management.  

According to Grecek, moving to continuous reviews is easier than it sounds since monthly snapshots build on time already being spent. “So take one of your one-on-ones. If you have weekly ones, you have four a month. If you have two, you have one a month that you can reinvest into a performance conversation, which you should be doing regularly anyway,” she said. By the end of 6 months, organizations will have saved time and produced more accurate reviews.

At Remote, 95% of employees completed their reviews in one day, says Grecek. This is significant, because effective performance reviews boost employee engagement and productivity. “We saved over 7,000 hours by doing this. It was unbelievable. This is the future of performance management,” she said. 

The Future of Performance Management

The 48-hour performance cycle shifts from the traditional annual review cycle. It is a more systematic process with continuous feedback, real-time insights, and data-driven decision-making. “We wanted it to be a data-driven decision mechanism and an engine that could actually help us understand at any moment in time where our organization was in terms of performance health,” Grecek said. 

Monthly snapshots record ongoing progress, continuous feedback provides richer context, AI facilitates insight-led reviews, real-time performance insights reveal trends, and unified data contribute to a seamless experience. The results are comprehensive and aligned. 

Streamlined workflows facilitate low-effort continuous engagement, real-time pulses hone in on top performers and underperformers to foster proactive intervention, and transparency helps employees always know their progress. A real-time performance engine integrating AI consolidates and corroborates monthly data points and traces the progress of all employees within an organization. It also uncovers trends in data that may be missed with manual data analysis. Managers can then choose what data is relevant and critical in reviews, says Grecek. 

“You can mitigate performance issues earlier. You don't need to wait until performance time. And you can imagine that that does translate into cost savings for a business.” Managers can then predict and forecast promotions earlier and stage early interventions when performance is at risk. 

“We have close to 1,900 employees. We are across 90 plus countries. We are fully remote and we are asynchronous. So you can imagine, this is a lot to undertake, and I feel like, if we can do it in our organization, any organization can do it.”

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Remote, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. 

Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses

(Photo by BartekSzewczyk/iStock)

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