Ah, the annual performance review process. A much debated, time-honoured tradition meant to accelerat
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January 30 · Issue #42 · View online
Feeding the Passion for Transformation: Be it Talent, Culture, Work or HR
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At its core, the performance review process is not a bad idea because it requires a manager and employee to discuss throughout the year:
- what are the most important things coming up for the employee’s area of responsibility
- what they need in terms of support to make that happen,
- then at the end of the year, to compare the results with what actually happened throughout the year so that the next round of performance improves/builds on the great things from the previous cycle.
Well, that is not good. To add perspective though, back in the day, personally I was excited about joining a company that had a strong criterion-based, competency-driven (with research-based supports for constructive feedback!) process based on learning agility, the job now and how I wanted to continue to develop for my career.
Why was I so excited? Because during my previous work experience there was nothing… dead-air… Along the lines of figure out which these are your tasks and get to it, if you need something, ask a colleague for help. How do these tasks fit in to the overall picture? They just do. Regular feedback? Only if something goes wrong.
Truly my experience was not uncommon - which is why when I implemented performance management globally for the organization, most folks were on-board ala something is better than nothing, right?
Well, then yeah. I am the first to admit the process became cumbersome, tool and documentation heavy, especially after our compensation team thought it would be awesome to align the evaluation directly with pay increases. We could no longer fool ourselves into thinking that the focus was on constructive discussions throughout the year because the process morphed into a high- anxiety, high-tension stakes game of completion rates and securing comp, which resulted in the middle-of-the road performance ratings, little quality feedback and frustrated participants. No matter how awesome the coaching supports were - they did not outweigh the drawbacks. So, how do we get the magic back into an open constructive discussion between employees and their managers? By understanding what the real problem or need is - and not assuming that one already knows. If we were to design performance consulting on a blank sheet of paper, would it look like the standard performance review process?
Heck no! So let’s see what comes onto that blank sheet of paper. For example, together with my colleagues and key leaders derived what would be most critical to longer-term success of Talent Development:
- Grow and place the right talent for today and tomorrow
- Development is employee-owned, manager-led and organizationally championed
- Everyone gets the development they need
- Deepest learning comes from experiences— diverse, challenging and global are best
- Development is enabled through honest, personal and purposeful conversations
- What do you expect of all managers?
- What do you expect of your manager?
- Tell me about the best manager you’ve ever had?
- “We thought that people would have the same expectations for all managers, their own manager, and the best managers. We were surprised to find that these were completely different.”
- “In every group of interviews, conversations were key components of what made managers successful. Managers need to be able to have alignment, growth, and connection based conversations.”
This is consistent with the results that HR industry analyst Fosway Group’s CEO David Wilson shared around the group’s latest research on what employees want for professional development and in performance consultancy: job satisfaction (36%), being better at my job (30%), working towards a pay raise (28%), building my CV (21%), personal growth (30%) and preparing for my next role (21%). Meaning focus on today 1st, growth and career 2nd. These are facilitated via meaningful, constructive conversations and actions. Here is to getting the magic back!
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Our way of working has changed - how we approach performance conversations needs to keep pace.
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The History of Performance Management - The Josh Bersin Academy
A bit jazzy, and, at times, creepy this 3 minute video teaches how performance management came to be, and how to think about it for today and the future. A good quick summary to get on the same page
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Three reasons why your annual appraisal process is failing your employees | HRZone
“If your organisation waits a whole year to give detailed feedback to its employees, you could be in danger of losing them altogether.” Yep. And also not having an actual influence on their performance at all. 3 simple but true arguments around why the process doesn’t work.
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We still measure employee performance like it’s the 1930s. Here’s how to change. HRD
“Get Squiggly Wit It” Big Willy style?
Almost! Kerri Hollis from Microsoft talks with Helen Tupper, CEO and author of Amazing If, about how we are all now in the squiggly career setting. Where “everyone is moving in their own direction, at their own pace, toward their own goal. Your employees have more options for how and where they work. Instead of moving up a corporate ladder, they’re more interested in developing their unique skills, to add value to the business in their unique way.” Its not about the hours worked - it is about the value and impact added.
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Performance Management for a 21st Century Organization (SHRM Conference, 2015)
Dr. Edie Goldberg kicks off her SHRM (Society Human Resource Management) Performance Management talk with the question to the HR leaders in the room “how many of you would say that your performance management system is key to driving performance in your organization and motivates employees to be the best they can be?” As you can imagine, the room was quiet. Her presentation highlights factors impacting organizations and the implications performance management, influential bodies of research and emerging trends. She touches on Dr. David Rock’s SCARF model from your brain at work. If you are an HR leader, I recommend you watch this video.
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Is It Time to Put the Performance Review on a PIP?
“More companies are replacing the traditional numbers-based performance review with a more qualitative approach.” This is a good summary for all HR folks as to the WHY we are having problems with the process e.g. fight or flight responses, way of working, how one ranks performance etc.
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Performance management in agile organizations
“For truly agile performance management, companies with an agile operating model need to adapt traditional practices.” An article filled with pretty graphs and simple but important things to consider if you have an organization that has gone agile, respectively when you are considering team goals first.
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Employee Development or Bust - David Wilson from Fosway Group BridgeCon Europe 2019
If you go to the post-event link page, there are the Key Note speeches from the event. Fosway’s David Wilson shares the latest HR industry research insights as to what employees are looking for and how at the end of the day for organizations it truly is “employee development or bust”. (Side note for HR folks - at 32:55 you can hear me ask about the skill-gap discussion and the 6 B’s of talent and automation. David advises not to be carried away by the skill-gap narrative and to see the multidimensionality of the problem.)
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Employee Development Conversations Managers Need to Master | Bridge Blog
“Employee-manager relationships are crucial to employee retention, and managers can make or break these bonds with how effectively they communicate.” This is a blog post from Todd Ericksen highlighting the aboveforementioned conversation types. If you want to there is also an employee development guide for download.
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This edition has been a long time coming as I am often asked by employees, HR and managers on my opinion and recommendation for performance management. Personally, I think most folks acknowledge that the current process is not working. I think the hesitancy to change is because the performance management process is a bit of a sunk cost fallacy issue. Meaning we have spent so much time, money with IT tools etc - “should we really throw the baby out with the bathwater”? I hope this edition helps think about better, alternative approaches that support performance consultancy, foster employee development and what one personally wants to get out of it. If you would like to talk more about your unique situation through with me, just hit me up. I will be glad to talk through with you what might work better for your team and organization. Wishing you all the best wishes for a continued happy and healthy start to 2020! Liz
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Elizabeth Lembke, Transforming Talent Consulting: www.transformingtalent.co and www.transformingtalent.de
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