Performance Management is going through an Evolution — Here Comes the Revolution

Rethinking performance management is a top business priority for many companies today, leading to an evolution in the process of annual or quarterly performance reviews. This is the result of a growing body of literature which agrees that such reviews demotivate employees, waste time and perhaps most importantly, nobody likes them.

According to respected HR experts Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis: “With their heavy emphasis on financial rewards and punishments and their end-of-year- structure, [performance reviews] hold people accountable for past behaviour at the expense of improving current performance and grooming talent for the future, both of which are critical for organizations’ long-term survival.”

Consequently, a large proportion of major multinationals have already done away with periodic performance reviews altogether, instead favouring more frequent, less formal check-ins between managers and employees with instant feedback and in some cases small weekly bonuses.

One problem, however, is that these pioneering companies are trying to refine, what is at its core, a very human and subjective process which remains highly depends on the ability of the manager giving the performance appraisal. This comes with all the associated shortcomings including bias, opinion and so on. Whilst this evolved method is indeed an improvement, it remains flawed and time-consuming.

Take for example what Former CEO of GE, Jack Welch, wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2013: “As a manager, you owe candour to your people, they must not be guessing about what the organization thinks of them.” In principle this rings true and could perhaps be considered the perfect situation, however, in practice this can prove difficult as managers do their best to motivate, encourage and ultimately retain their staff, adapting their approach according to what they feel is best. Despite shortening the feedback cycle and making the process less formal, even the newly evolved performance appraisal methods remain highly dependent on the ability, or candour, of individual managers.

Another important issue is that not all companies are part of this evolution, with the majority instead content to continue going through the motions year after year, not knowing how to improve or how to really push for change.

Whichever camp your company falls into, everyone agrees that there is room for improvement in the performance management process, but nobody knows what the next step is.

One reason for this is simply because there has been a lack of “killer apps” available to HR to fix this problem. Whilst other departments such as marketing, finance and sales have all gone through their own transformations, embracing newly available digital tools that have now become fundamental to their roles, HR and performance management in particular largely still relies on Excel and Word documents. This has further contributed to making HR processes appear out of sync with modern ways of working and technology expectations in the workplace.

This presents a confluence of trends just waiting for a solution, one that was unavailable until now …

Introducing the Revolution in Performance Management

Introducing a revolutionary new cloud-based HR application called Peoplewave which reinvents performance reviews by providing continuous feedback and data-driven decisions.

Peoplewave answers questions such as: How well am I doing? What does great look like? Is this employee ready for a promotion? Rather than keeping this information secret, the Peoplewave application makes this transparent to everybody.

Instead of annual performance reviews, they become monthly. Instead of the manager being the only reviewer, Peoplewave opens it up to the people that matter such as an employee’s team, the people below them and their external customers.

Most importantly, Peoplewave captures crucial information about every employee’s hard and soft skills, their achievements and even their likeability. This feedback is then summarised into an easy to read dashboard and put in context of their team and the entire company, providing easy to read information detailing who an organisation’s top performers are, as well as areas for improvement for all its employees.

This information is collected using the Peoplewave app and takes just one minute to complete. Once collated, it is available for everyone to see, meaning no more surprises. It also means that when it is time for a formal or informal performance review, the manager has all the information they need to have a guided conversation.

According to Damien Cummings, CEO of Peoplewave, “Whilst we cannot entirely eliminate bias or subjectivity in performance reviews, we can make the data transparent and available to everyone. Second, by collecting feedback from all stakeholders, instead of just sucking up to your direct boss to improve your chances of a pay rise or promotion, Peoplewave incentivises sucking up to the people who matter, internal stakeholders and external customers.”

Since Peoplewave is cloud-based, it works on any device and is available anywhere, anytime. It is intuitive, easy to setup and is scalable, meaning it is suitable for organisations of any size from SMEs to MNCs. So for companies looking to revolutionise their performance review process, reducing appraisal time, efficacy and overall productivity, the ideal solution has finally arrived.

Click here to learn more about Peoplewave or click here to sign-up for a free trial.