Performance Management Do it Right or Not at All!
Reviews are unpopular and for good reason.
Performance reviews get a bad rap especially when a manager blindsides an employee with a ten-month old gotcha blast from the past. Reviews play a key role in merit increases, bonuses, promotions, training, and recognition. So why is a process with the potential to do so much good, despised by so many?
Performance Management Isn't the Problem - It's the Practice
How does a legacy review go from a top down, stressful, and inaccurate one to a collaborative, stress free, accurate one? Digitizing a paper form and automating a flawed once a year review workflow simplifies and streamlines the administration side of reviews without gaining the primary benefits of accuracy and improved performance. Garbage in, garbage out comes to mind.
Failing to regularly take advantage of the system's real time interconnectedness between manager and employee undercuts the primary benefits of the system.
The under-utilization of a?Tier 1 system?is a leading cause of inaccurate, stressful reviews. It's the equivalent of driving a Ferrari in first gear. Over the past 20 years of helping clients improve review practices I’ve observed that most problems are related to one or more of these three issues:
1 Under-utilization of their current system
2 Lack awareness of review best practices
3 Acquired a system incapable of best practices ?
They typically approach the technology with a once-a-year review,?paper mindset. It should be noted that not all systems are?Tier One level or robust enough to conduct multiple review periods, but that is another issue.
领英推荐
Many organizations fail to define performance management best practices from the git go. The time to do it is before seeking a new system.
"We purchased an automated system to rid ourselves of the cumbersome, unproductive stressful, once a year paper review, thinking attitudes would improve, and review stress would dissipate. But they haven't changed, so we are thinking of getting rid of reviews and replacing them with frequent regular employee manager conversations." Sound familiar?
The reason poor attitudes and results haven't changed following the software acquisition is because the practices surrounding the review haven't changed. Automation applied to an inefficient process magnifies and automates the inefficiency.
More employee/manager performance related meetings are needed for sure, as long as they are bilateral and the employee and manager are collaborating versus a top-down micro managing approach. Keep in mind these meetings need to be documented and a Tier One system is still the best alternative.
If the only review you do is an annual one then stop, not only is it a waste of time it is sure to be stressful, inaccurate, and demoralizing.