5 Ways to Improve Your Performance Management Process for Better Results

Performance management is key to driving employee performance and company success. A recent Bersin report found that adopting effective performance management practices can lead to an average 35% increase in organizational performance and a 25% decrease in costs related to new hire training and onboarding processes. Performance management should not be something you check once a year or when someone leaves. It should be part of your day-to-day work as a leader. But for most employees, performance management comes up only during annual reviews, if at all. This lack of feedback is a problem because research shows that frequent and repeated conversations about performance are crucial for driving improvements over time. With that in mind, here are five ways to improve your performance management process for better results.

Set Clear Expectations for Employees

The key to building a solid relationship that is built on trust is setting clear expectations from the start. Employees need to clearly understand what is expected of them and how their performance will be measured. Make sure you include this information not just in your employee handbook but in your performance management process. Don't just say you want employees to be more engaged and productive; describe the concrete steps you will take to get employees engaged and producing.

Incorporate Frequent Feedback

Most performance management processes offer annual or semi-annual feedback. This feedback frequency might have been a good idea in the past, but in today's knowledge-based economy, where people are creating new things and solving problems continuously, it's not a very useful metric. Indeed, research indicates that feedback frequency is directly linked to a person's ability to improve over time. The more regularly you give feedback, the more likely you will see performance improvements. Researchers have found that feedback given less than once a month is too infrequent to be effective. It's better to provide feedback weekly and even better to give feedback more than once a week.

Use Data to Guide Decisions

The best way to guide your decisions about performance is to use data. You can look at individual employees' data to see their strengths and weaknesses, but you should also look at data for the whole team and across the organization so you can see if you have the right people in the right jobs. Data can help you identify gaps in your talent that need to be filled and where you have employees with strengths that can be transferred to other roles or team members. Data can also help you see if you are creating the right conditions for your employees to succeed. For example, you may need to provide more training, or your employees may not know the right tools or techniques for the job.

Have Clear Paths to Growth and Development

Most employees want to grow and develop. But what's even more important is that they want to feel that their organization has their back, they can learn new things, and get promoted when they are ready to move up. One of the best ways to show your employees that you care about their development is to communicate the paths for growth and development that are available to them. At the same time, make sure you are bringing people along at the right pace. If someone is burning out or not making progress, you need to intervene and provide support and coaching. You don't want someone to get stuck and feel like they can't progress.

Conclusion

Performance management is key to driving employee performance and company success. For most employees, performance management comes up only during annual reviews, if at all. This lack of continuous feedback is a problem because research shows that frequent and repeated conversations about performance are crucial for improving over time. The best way to improve your performance management process is to start by setting clear expectations for employees, incorporating real-time feedback, using data to guide your decisions, having clear paths to growth and development, and ending with a plan for regular and consistent communication about performance. You'll see a measurable performance improvement over time if you follow this process consistently for your entire team.

Go out and Lead!

#leadership #leadershipdevelopment #performanceimprovement #performancemanagement