Performance Management: A Positive Force in Your Company Culture
Employee-Centric Performance Management is Effective Performance Management
The first step in changing how performance management is perceived in your organization is to shift its focus. If employees feel that performance management is just an excuse to squeeze more work out of them, they won't respond well.
Employees have unique needs, aspirations, challenges, and aptitudes. Traditional performance reviews often try to force varied individuals into one-size-fits-all solutions. Effective performance management considers each employee's individual factors and helps them feel cared for and invested in.
Below are elements of individualized and effective performance management strategies that will help you enhance and maintain a positive organizational culture.
Clear Expectations
People fear the unknown, and your employees are no exception. Perhaps the reason employees dread performance management is that they do not understand how their performance is rated or perceived. It's difficult to hit a target you cannot see. Increased transparency will help employees meet expectations and know where they stand. To make expectations effective:
Tip: Outline Expectations: Ensure that expectations are clearly outlined and described for every team, role, or individual. This way, employees understand exactly what their performance is being measured against between reviews.
Tip: Be Constructive: No employee will meet every expectation all the time. Use the expectations to set goals with employees to improve between reviews. Provide feedback on which expectations need improvement, so they know what to work on.
Tip: Give Recognition: Employees should be aware of the expectations they exceed, not just the ones they fail to meet. A BambooHR study found that 40 percent of employees only receive recognition a few times per year or less. This is concerning, as the same study found that 94 percent of employees who receive daily recognition are satisfied or very satisfied with their organizations. Never miss an opportunity to praise employees, especially when trying to change their perspective on performance management.
Open Feedback
Pointing out a weakness in the workplace can be dreadful for both the critic and the criticized. Changing your organization’s relationship with feedback is critical to improving your culture. Here are a few feedback tips to encourage and adopt to make feedback a comfortable and valued element of your performance management and company culture:
Tip: Establish Trusting Relationships: Giving and accepting feedback is a vulnerable experience that requires trust. Show employees that their feedback is appreciated. Managers should build trusting relationships so employees feel secure enough to accept help and offer feedback in return.
Tip: Receive Gratefully, Give Genuinely: When receiving feedback, do so humbly and express gratitude. Genuinely care about the success of those you give feedback to. When others know your feedback is intended to make them more successful, they’ll be more grateful for it.
Tip: Make It Actionable: Feedback should lead to improvements. Encourage constructive and actionable feedback. Ask questions to understand the best way to take action.
Tip: Take Action, Follow Up: When others provide feedback about the organization, take demonstrable steps to address concerns. Follow up to see how changes are progressing and provide compliments on improvements.
Efficiency
No one likes a time suck. A few ways to increase performance management efficiency and save employees time include:
Tip: Simplify: Time-consuming performance management practices (like forced rankings and lengthy appraisals) do not help people improve or provide useful performance information. Evaluate the performance of each aspect of your current process and eliminate unnecessary steps.
Tip: Increase Frequency: Instead of an end-of-year ordeal, consider adopting more frequent performance management and review sessions. Quarterly reviews make the task less overwhelming and more accurate.
Tip: Automate: Performance management automation software makes the process easier and more effective. HR professionals can set up requirements, questions, and frequency, then employees and managers receive email reminders. Many tools provide analytics and reports to make results more useful.
Succession Plans
Employees have career goals and interests. Participating in those goals helps organizations fill needs internally, build leadership pipelines, and show investment in each employee’s success. To make succession planning part of your performance management:
Tip: Gauge Interests: During performance reviews, discuss the careers and experiences employees want in the future. This makes it easier to coach, mentor, and provide opportunities aligned with their goals.
Tip: Help Employees Achieve: When employee goals align with organizational needs, managers should actively look for opportunities to develop the necessary skills and experiences.
Tip: Fill Needs Internally: Filling organizational needs with existing employees results in a win-win situation. The organization saves time and money, and employees are given opportunities to meet their career goals. Internal hires tend to be more satisfied, loyal, and productive.
Performance management does not have to be a burden for employees, managers, or the organization. By creating an individualized and thoughtful performance management strategy, it can become a valued and positive aspect of your organization’s culture.
