Performance management seeks to find the best performance possible from employees, while everyone is responsible for achieving their goals. It is proactive management and creates better relationships between professionals, becoming the basis of a high-performing organization. Traditionally, performance management has not achieved its goals, as many organizations still rely on an annual performance appraisal process rather than an ongoing training and feedback process.
An ideal performance management system, on the other hand, encourages setting expectations, providing informal feedback on a regular basis, and also enables employee development and success. When done with planning and monitoring, a performance management program contributes to employee success and organizational compliance.
A major point of frustration with the top-down method, for example, is that each rater needs to remember what his direct reports have done over a long period of time, typically a year. You need to remember which ones were successful, which challenges each faced, which alternative solutions they needed to implement to achieve the proposed objectives. In this method, it takes a lot of time and preparation for the appraiser to do a performance review safely.
On the other hand, as employees have not received regular check-ins based on performance throughout the year, they have to rely on the performance evaluation against the targets set at the beginning of the process. They need to base compensation adjustments off goals, which can become irrelevant after a few months, without taking into account the new goals that the employee focused on achieving because those new goals were more strategically valuable to the department and the organization at large.
With an ongoing performance management approach, weekly, biweekly or monthly check-ins determine what needs to be tweaked and what needs to be provided to the employee to enable them to perform well and achieve success. That way, it focuses on ongoing development rather than outdated annual rankings.
A well-implemented ongoing performance management program improves employee performance and promotes effectiveness. Collaborators at various levels work as a team, planning and reviewing goals frequently. Some advantages of frequent check-ins, in addition to increasing productivity levels and promoting satisfaction and well-being at work:
Employees become more engaged
With a well-implemented performance management system that generates employee satisfaction, the organization will most likely reduce its turnover, as they become less likely to change organizations. Feelings of commitment, passion and empowerment engage employees and motivate them to support the organization's mission. In addition, frequent conversations to review goals also allow employees to suggest improvements in the processes in which they are involved, resulting in innovations that can accelerate processes and/or reduce their cost.
Employees better understand their professional responsibilities
An effective performance management system also increases employees' understanding of their job responsibilities. When an employee receives tips on how to improve their performance or positive feedback when succeeding in a task, they become more aware of their mistakes and successes. That's why it's important for HR professionals to get directly involved in the performance management process, because they become a resource in monitoring the employee's progress. They can help with goal planning and individual development, and provide training to sharpen skills, which frequent feedback also points to as necessary.
Skills and behaviors are recognized more clearly
A continuous performance management system allows evaluators to better understand the skill levels of employees, enabling them to more effectively help them improve. Regular check-ins bring a closer look at the trader's strengths and weaknesses. Technical and behavioral skills can always be trained and improved, bringing motivation to the employee, when he realizes that the organization cares about his professional and personal growth. Frequent feedback on their performance leads employees to increase their self-esteem, as they feel recognized and valued. Hence, it is important for the organization to develop training resources to encompass elements of ongoing training and feedback.
The benefit of a performance management program affects everyone involved in the process. As a result, organizations develop a reputation that people want to work for. With their more positive work environment, they can attract, develop and retain employees.
If your organization has a performance management system in place, but measures it annually, it's time to reassess your resources and consider transitioning to an ongoing performance management process. It doesn't take sudden changes or high investments to start seeing improvements. Small modifications, such as asking managers to meet with their direct reports at least twice a year to talk about performance, are a good place to start. And then next year, you can ask them to meet once a quarter. This helps ensure slow but steady progress.
It is important to find support in leadership members to champion these changes. When an organization's leaders are aware of the benefits of transitioning to a continuous performance management process, small changes already result in a positive impact. With leadership buy-in, developing a larger, long-term ongoing performance management plan is just a matter of time.
Outside help is also available for organizations with time constraints and resource availability. This ranges from helping managers develop their training resources, running a performance management process, and reviewing the HR department to assess current processes and how and where to start making changes.
An external organization can also do team assessments to help managers better understand strengths, weaknesses, impulses, and behavioral preferences. Assessments help leaders understand what strategies and actions they should use to increase their impact and how they can improve engagement.
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