Is it Time for the Daily Performance Review?
Greg Moran
Multi-Exit Founder | High-Performance Startup Coach | Author, “The Adaptive Innovator” | Founder @ The Founders Collective I Venture Investor
Was driving to the airport listening to an NPR report on a Financial Times article on Accenture’s decision to end the traditional annual performance review (https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8e3ae550-3166-11e5-8873-775ba7c2ea3d.html). A lot has been made of this decision that allows Accenture to join the thousands of other companies who long ago decided this practice made no sense. I guess it just took a big brand who has, as part of their HCM practice, sold this performance management service for many years.
There is just nothing new here … the annual performance review has been dead for years, it’s just that there hasn’t been a suitable replacement. Technologies have been available for some time but their actual application often ends up as a replacement for the more manual review process, except a machine was reminding managers and compiling the info.
Why is any replacement necessary and does the performance review actually matter any more in a time of extreme self-quantification? Consider your personal health. Chances are you are probably wearing a fitbit or using the Health app on your iPhone (or some other similar technology) to track your steps, exercise or whatever you do for fitness and well being. You likely have some app to monitor you calorie intact (or you are thinking you should start). Aren’t these just simple measurements of the things we know are critical in our lives? We are looking at them daily because longer than that is too long.
Job performance seems the same. In any role, there are only a few recurring actions (habits) that really matter to individual success. Yes, I know some roles are harder to quantify than others, but you can. For those “hard to measure” roles consider the actions, if not taken, that would lead to eventual failure. If you truly cannot figure it out, than why employ someone to do in the first place?
Once you figure out those daily actions, shouldn’t we be tracking them in real time or at least daily? There is so much research about the power of habit that govern our success. Successful habits (exercise, meditating, ongoing education/learning, etc.) correlate to future positive results and negative habits (gossip, negative thinking, smoking, obesity) correlate to future poor results. This is not a surprise. So what are the daily habits for each role in your organization and track them (or have your team self-quantify) daily to make the small, incremental changes necessary to grow.
Seems like a much more rationale and personally productive way to develop your team and yourself for long term success.
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I am Greg Moran, President and CEO of Chequed.com and Assess Systems. We couple data-driven talent selection and development technology supported by world-class experts in HR and I/O psychology. If you like what I have to say, please hit the Follow and Like buttons and we can stay in touch. You can also follow me on twitter @CEOofChequed.
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Talent Acquisition Leader- EdTech
8 年“Even when you have an organization brimming with talent, victory is not always under your control. There is no guarantee, no ultimate formula for success. It all comes down to intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.” (Bill Walsh)
Well said Greg... I couldn't agree with you more. Traditional annual performance are becoming obsolete as many are not often relevant/inline to the goals of the organization and to the development of the employee. I believe many of my HR counterparts would agree that this is merely a time consuming "box checking" exercise that rarely ads value. Identifying and measuring the reoccurring actions that must take place for individual success truly benefits both the employee and the organization as a whole. It is certainly more strategic from both a performance and a developmental perspective. I believe we will continue to see more progressive organizations moving in this direction. Thanks for sharing.