Is Performance Management Hard To Deliver Or Simply Good Management Practice?

How integral is performance management in your business? If done correctly, it can make a marked improvement in the way your business operates. However, the days of annual appraisals may be coming to an end.

Short Term Discussion vs. Annual Appraisals

Annual appraisals can often feel like a chore to prepare for, implement and track which can often lead to them being rushed, incorrectly utilised or even forgotten about for much of the year. This is mainly due to the annual nature of them. A year between reviews is too much of a gap, especially when much can change in an organisation within a week, let alone a full calendar year.

An incorrect appraisal scheme will result in an organisation failing to maximise the positive impact that a well put-together and thoroughly thought out annual appraisal can achieve.

In fact, many blue-chip companies are now starting to move away from annual appraisals, in favour of more regular contact and discussions with employees, creating an always-open relationship which allows employees and management to share viewpoints and ideas on a more regular basis. This more regular contact isn’t just a fad though, it has for the past twenty years been the principal of good annual appraisals – the check-in or regular informal session to review. So why is the recent move to stop annual appraisals so popular? It seems many organisations are starting to see the benefits that this can have in helping them to identify issues, more easily see consistently good work and help to nurture fresh ideas far more efficiently than an annual appraisal would allow and besides everything in life is quicker and more instant than say 20 years ago so why would performance also not be viewed in the same way?

Don’t Risk Your Productivity

By ignoring performance management techniques, you risk the opportunity of maximising the efficiency and productivity of your employees, both of which can have a drastic impact on your bottom line.

A year is a long time to wait between appraisals, instead, you must treat performance management as a series of sprints as well as a marathon. Setting achievable goals in the short-term should, in theory, build to a sustained long-term goal for your organisation. In the age of social media and instantaneous ‘likes’, a year-long objective usually fails to inspire employees. Short-term goals will increase productivity as it gives employees tangible and real feedback, and allows for more regular gratification and an update on their progress.

By having a more regular review process you’re able to focus your employees, create more flexible targets and also have an opportunity to reset the clock on what good performance looks like - especially if your company objectives or aims change throughout the year.

Performance management in this manner will also allow you to provide employees with targets that can be rewarded with a bonus or commission. Having achievable goals will reward work that has been completed, perhaps quarterly or even monthly in some cases.

A more lengthy review process has a tendency to stunt how much work gets done. Instead, take advantage of short-term performance management techniques and reap the rewards of higher productivity and efficiency from your employees.

Work Smarter with ProAction HR

Performance management is a key part of any organisation looking to increase productivity, improve efficiency and enhance business growth.

With ProAction HR, you can discover the right way to implement performance management into your organisation. We’re at the forefront of people change and have a long history of delivering winning strategies that help you to take action, enable people and move your business forward in the right way.

To find out more, call us on 01962 217338 or e-mail us [email protected].