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In addition, the performance management process is often time-consuming, with managers rummaging through old e-mails to inform the evaluation. And if you’ve ever worked at a startup, a young, eager CEO might have instituted extensive 360-degree employee reviews, which required everyone to spend days developing in-depth evaluations of people up, down, and across the organization. Meanwhile, some startups use no employee evaluations or performance assessments at all. Regardless of the approach, the COVID-19 pandemic left people and managers without direct interaction for months, making it hard to imagine any kind of effective system for performance reviews in the current business landscape. That’s why it’s time to put conventional thinking in the rearview mirror.
The performance management process consists of a series of stages where managers and employees manage goals, monitor performance, and assess outcomes. Traditional performance management systems follow a typical cadence of quarterly, bi-annually, or annual reviews. A continuous performance management model is about using performance technology to set and track goals in an open and efficient way in real time and to support ongoing coaching, feedback, and alignment as priorities shift over time. The process is ongoing. Once complete, existing and new employee goals are identified and the cycle begins again.
Performance assessments can be of great value to everyone since a robust and integrated system can increase employee engagement and therefore improve business processes and outcomes. It’s just a matter of rethinking performance management not as an atrophied muscle to flex once every six months, but one that can be exercised all the time and, ultimately, make everyone in the organization stronger. That starts not with rethinking performance reviews, but with the entire concept of performance goals. Goals should cascade down from the top and be visible to everyone. In other words, a manager might have a set of goals and each direct report will have a set of objectives that ladder into each of the manager’s goals. In a system of continuous performance management, when a person completes a goal it’s simply checked off in the system, so colleagues and the manager know that that piece of the goal puzzle is complete. Cascading goals can be updated or adjusted depending on a change in strategy or response to disruption. And, best of all, come review time there’s quick and full visibility in terms of who accomplished what and when. In other words, improving performance management shouldn’t be so much about reinventing the process of reviewing, but the process of setting and accomplishing goals. Help ensure employee and team goals are aligned with overall company objectives to maximize organizational success.
Of course, evolving performance-review thinking isn’t accomplished overnight. Here are 10 straightforward tips for how to improve the performance management process. Evolved thinking and embracing a new, effective, agile process requires a system that can support it. The alternative of using outdated, ineffective, and inefficient systems – or doing nothing – isn’t a viable option either. Companies that can tie a better performance management system to better business results will quickly separate themselves from those who chose complacency over the status quo.
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Performance management is the process of a manager and direct report aligning on a set of goals, as well as how the employee should be measured against those targets. As such, it’s critical that a person’s goals be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) and that the manager and employee meet regularly – quarterly, every six months, or annually – to determine how effective the person has been at reaching the agreed-upon goals. It's also important that, when goals have not been met, both the manager and employee agree on what changes need to be made to improve performance. Along with regular meetings and agreements on goal setting and adjustments, employees and managers should review and agree on specific tactics that should be taken in order to achieve each goal. It helps when goals clearly ladder up to larger corporate objectives so people understand what they’re working toward and why. Perhaps the most important element of the performance management process is the review, at which time an employee is assessed against their goals. It’s critical that brief assessments occur at regular times throughout the year, with a full employee review taking place after 12 months’ time. Along with a measurable assessment, other factors should come into consideration as well, such as agility, creativity, and collegiality. Another key element of the performance management process is to set new objectives for the future after the year-end review is complete. As with the previous year’s goals, the new set of objectives should be SMART.
Technology is essential to the performance management process in three key ways: transparency, efficiency, and equity. It’s also scalable and flexible over the long term. That is, as the organization’s broader objectives evolve over time, a technology-based performance management process can evolve with it. Technology also allows for malleability, meaning that the framework for performance management in the IT and marketing divisions might be the same, but the metrics and types of goals assessed might be different. A technology-based performance management process allows organizations to meet the needs of individuals and functions alike, all while maintaining those key elements of transparency, efficiency, and equity along the way.
A performance management system tracks the performance of employees in a manner that is consistent and measurable. The system relies on a combination of technologies and methodologies to ensure people across the organization are aligned with – and contributing to – the strategic objectives of the business.
A continuous framework to performance management is about using performance technology to set and track goals in an open and efficient way in real time and to support ongoing coaching, feedback, and alignment as priorities shift over time. Learn more about this performance management strategy. Back to top |