Getting performance management right can unlock outcomes for employees and organisations, by ensuring people have clarity on expectations, and giving them the feedback and reflection time to improve their performance at work.
We all know horror stories about bad performance management. Irrelevant feedback, inappropriate comments, embarrassing conversations and mismatched experiences are sadly still happening and many individuals will be able to summon up a story from their past where an appraisal, review or feedback session struck them with horror and stayed with them for years to come.
Doing performance management well is something that many managers and businesses seem to struggle with. We know that the best way for a person to develop is to understand their strengths and how they can best utilise these, alongside feedback on steps they can take to further develop – yet many businesses still rely on formulaic approaches to performance management that often raise more questions than they answer.
We also find that employees and employers report very different experiences of performance management, with employees generally reporting greater dissatisfaction with the process. Given the variance in performance perspectives, HR’s strategic role is critical in bridging these gaps and guiding effective management practices.
Understand what a performance related conversation looks like
There are often disagreements between how often managers say that they have performance management conversations, and how often employees say the same. This could be because of a miscommunication over what constitutes a performance related conversation.
It’s likely that most managers are indeed having regular conversations with their team members – but the question is whether or not these conversations are really meaningful for the employee. Are these chats actually helping the employee do better? Are the outcomes of these conversations recorded and referred back to? Are managers getting to the heart of underlying issues and setting clear and realistic expectations with their teams?
Without managers’ training in best practice performance management, the answer is ‘probably not’ – so in that case, what’s passing for performance management in these organisations?
Why performance management is important
Good performance management is about allowing every employee to improve their performance at work and grow their skills and impact. It’s a simple concept – by giving regular, useful feedback along with clear goals and access to training to support development, managers can develop their teams to align people on outcomes, ensure successful execution, and help people reach their potential.
Not only that, but good performance management can support workplace satisfaction, lower stress levels, better management processes and greater visibility over the workforce direction. It helps support productivity and profitability, and requires little more than an investment in time to deliver.
Bring in new technologies
It feels like the acronym ‘AI’ is everywhere we turn at the moment, but that’s because the possibilities associated with it are so vast. In a performance management context, we have been honing AI to support the giving of feedback with a tool that standardises feedback which is given in note form. This helps to consolidate approaches throughout an organisation – making sure everyone has a similar experience of performance management – and helps managers properly log feedback, actions and timescales. One of the reasons managers find performance management challenging, is knowing how to craft performance feedback in a way that will yield the best results. AI can help managers with this.
HR leaders should look into new technologies and understand how they can use these to improve their feedback processes.
Best practice in performance management
The most impactful performance management approach requires three core steps:
- Setting good quality, relevant goals.
- Providing access to coaching and training.
- Giving constructive, quality feedback in the moment.
Without these three core components, performance management won’t fulfil its true potential, yet many performance management approaches don’t deliver the complete approach. How often have you seen performance conversations stumble after the first hurdle?
It’s important that budgets and time resources are made available for coaching and traininindividually relevantg to help people develop, particularly if they are being told they need to improve in a certain area in order to progress.
However, it’s most commonly step three which is missing. That can be for many reasons, but cultural norms is a major factor. If it’s not usual to give and receive regular feedback in your workplace then the first step is to work towards making this the case.
Receiving feedback from multiple stakeholders – managers, peers, customers and direct reports – is a really important part of developing self awareness. Oone of the main issues with receiving feedback is how closely it’s linked to our self-image. Pitched wrongly or unconstructively, feedback can trigger resentment, defensiveness and upset.
The first step, then, is to foster a supportive environment where giving and receiving feedback is the norm and it’s done in a fair and constructive manner. Getting senior buy-in and role modelling this through the organisation is paramount.
Can ‘feedback circles’ help?
Feedback is far better received when it’s given with context, which is why instantaneous feedback works so much better. In addition, people tend to respond better to feedback from people they trust and respect.
Interestingly, this is one of the key arguments against anonymous 360 degree style appraisals, which deliver out-of-context feedback, given weeks, months or even years later, making it very difficult to absorb and act upon.
It’s far better to develop a system of regular feedback where the employee can seek out the timely opinions of the people they respect, no matter their level or role. This is termed a ‘feedback circle’. Feedback circles are a way of delivering regular feedback among trusted colleagues.
Employees can request feedback at any time, sending direct requests to their colleagues to get a sense of how they are perceived and how they can improve. They get in the habit of requesting, giving and receiving frequent feedback, empowering them to take an active role in their own personal development and reframing feedback as a positive influence on their progression.
Importantly, the employee is in control in this scenario, and this makes a big difference to how well the feedback is received. Actively seeking out feedback and receiving it from people who are respected and valued means that the employee is far more likely to take it on board, making this a much more valuable exercise than formal appraisals or anonymous feedback.
Evolving your performance management approach
Making long-term changes to a performance management approach is not an easy process. While software can be deployed quickly to help with the administrative side of performance management, changing the culture around performance conversations takes more time.
HR teams will need to normalise the culture of giving and receiving feedback by making the process easy and accessible to all, and by demonstrating the value of said feedback. This process can be time-consuming, but it is the only way to deliver a true evolution of performance management.
By making it usual for people to ask for and receive feedback – not just from their managers, but from all sides – you can create a supportive and helpful environment where people understand that feedback is given to help them develop and not to criticise.
For this to happen, managers need to be supported by making time and budget available to them to roll out performance management processes. There is no point in giving regular quality feedback if there is no access to training, development, coaching or mentoring that will help the individual progress – whether formal training or simply freeing up internal time to dedicate to personal development. Managers need to be able to give feedback and provide helpful next steps, including goals to work towards and training to help the employee get there.
Feedback should be positioned as a way to help everyone do better at their jobs, with all the perks and benefits that come with that. Better job satisfaction, opportunities for greater impact, career development and potential pay increases are all good examples of how quality performance management can improve an employee’s life.
As HR leaders, the opportunity to enhance your organisations performance culture is in your hands. Now is the time to step forward and champion the adoption of feedback circles and cutting-edge technologies. By doing so, you will not only unlock the full potential of your workforce but also drive meaningful changes that can lead to improved job satisfaction, productivity, and ultimately, profitability. Evaluate your current performance management practices today and consider how integrating these innovative strategies can bring about a transformative shift in your workplace. Let’s make performance management a dynamic and integral part of our organisational success.
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