Ditch the Stress: Making Performance Conversations Easy

This edition is proudly brought to you by Workable, the all-in-one HR platform designed to help businesses attract top talent, streamline hiring, and manage teams effectively. Explore their new Performance Reviews feature today!

A manager once told me, "Your performance isn't meeting my expectations, although I'm not sure I ever told you what they were." Yep! Her exact words. I remember thinking, "She went to Harvard, and I only went to Northeastern University. Perhaps they taught Mindreading 101 at Harvard, which wasn't a course offered at my school."

To say I left that meeting dazed and confused would be an understatement. At that very moment, I decided I needed to get as far away from this manager as I could. I left my company soon thereafter.

Over the years, dozens of people have shared similar stories with me regarding their performance reviews (or lack of them) and conversations their managers had with them about their performance. Yet here we are, and it seems like little has changed in terms of performance management.

According to research from the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a significant majority of employees, around 66%, express strong dissatisfaction with their company's performance evaluations, indicating that many people dread performance reviews. Having been part of this club and as a former head of HR, I can attest to the fact that there are ways to make performance conversations and the review process less stressful.

Here's how HR leaders can help reduce managers' stress when having performance conversations.

Turn manager monologues into dialogues. Many people in management find themselves suddenly in charge and are given little or no training. So, they treat their employees the same way they were treated, with no regard as to whether or not they were managed well. 

Take my former boss. Most likely, her previous bosses never took the time to tell her their expectations. As an experienced mind reader, she didn't need to be told. But that doesn't mean I didn't need this information to be successful in my role.

Leadership training on effectively setting expectations and talking to your people could have been a lifesaver for our relationship. This kind of training should include role-playing what positive manager-employee conversations look like throughout the performance management process.

Continuous conversations, constant growth. Let's face it - performance feedback that only pops up a few times a year? Not very useful at all. But here's the thing: when you're chatting regularly and everyone's laying their cards on the table, that big annual review? It's just a recap of what you've been discussing all year.

Establish regular check-ins as part of your performance management process.  You can help your managers stay on track throughout the year by utilizing real-time performance tracking in HRIS systems like Workable.

Think about it. When an employee and their boss know what's coming in that yearly sit-down, it's like the air gets out of a big, stressful balloon. Everyone can breathe easier.

1.    People actually talk about the real stuff. No more tiptoeing around - they dive right into what's working and what's not.

2.    It's like opening the floodgates. Suddenly, both parties are sharing challenges, dreams, and where they want to go next.

3.    Everyone is using the same playbook. Goals? They line up with the big picture.

4.    Bosses and employees are no longer on opposite sides of the fence. They're building solid relationships, which makes coming to work much better for everyone.

5.    Both parties no longer fear the next performance management conversation. Often, they look forward to it!

Goodbye spreadsheets: Hello, progress. I remember those days, and sometimes nights, where I'd spend hours managing performance management spreadsheets, running down late reviews, and sometimes even bribing people (How about if I buy you lunch?) to get this task behind me. I'm sure I completely stressed my people leaders out every time I swung by to follow up on their progress, yet again.

Performance management doesn't have to be a spreadsheet nightmare, nor does the process have to put additional stress on your managers. Modern HRIS tools can:

·       Automate review cycles

·       Provide managers with review templates they can customize

·       Send timely reminders

·       Track progress effortlessly

·       Free you from bribery lunches

The Bottom Line:

1.    Teach your leaders to set clear expectations from day one and how to have effective performance management conversations.

2.    Leverage tech to automate the grunt work.

3.    Use this newfound time to focus on what really matters—developing your workforce.