It’s that time of year where organisations are undertaking their annual performance appraisal discussions. Often, a time dreaded by managers, and feared by employees. Interestingly, since I originally wrote this post there has been new research from PwC that shows that “..two-thirds of large companies are considering revamping their appraisals process, with one in 20 looking to scrap formal evaluations entirely.“
Here’s more from the People Management article:
“Alastair Woods, director in PwC’s reward team, told People Management that technological advances and requests for more immediate feedback from younger generations, combined with economic recovery, meant employers were re-evaluating their performance management processes.
“There’s a real sense employers are thinking, ‘how do we get productivity, how do we drive competitive advantage?’ and performance management is an enabler to unlocking that,” he said.
Employees also said that they wanted more regular feedback, with 68 per cent saying they would like feedback half-yearly, quarterly or more frequently.
“What our research also said was that employees appreciate the conversation where it’s done right,” explained Woods. “Where it’s rushed, formulaic and it’s in quick messages that haven’t been thought through, that doesn’t work. But where there’s preparation and there’s been thought behind it and intent, it’s really positive.”
This research definitely accords with my experiences and those of my clients.
Speaking with one client recenlty, she was talking through the response to the upcoming appraisal process from some of her staff and it’s fair to say that it was not what you’d call enthusiastic and that’s before the process even started.
We were talking through how to make the process one where all parties involved can feel like there is some value in the process and the time spent. Here are some thoughts from that conversation:
- Performance discussions aren’t a one a year event. Feedback on performance should happen all the time. It’s when it is a one off event that it becomes confronting and takes on a life bigger than its own.
- Effective is not the same as mediocre. In many performance systems, the “effective” rating is the middle rating, and basically means you are doing your job — exactly as it is meant to be done — properly and effectively. It doesn’t meant that you “average” or “mediocre”. Many people equate the performance appraisal rating system with the school rating system and think than an “A” is what we should be aspiring to (or exceptional performance). The reality is that in organisations, exceptional or high performance is something that doesn’t happen every day. Most people are effective. That is, they perform their job how it is meant to be performed.
- Talking about the process at the same time as discussing the results is bound to result in people not listening. They’ll be too busy engaged in their own dialogue about where they are at from a performance perspective (and the fairness or unfairness of the result). The process should be talked about and understood well in advance. People should actually understand what each rating means. What does effective look like? What would highly effective look like?
- Prepare, prepare, prepare. We talked about the manager who literally spends 2 minutes on the performance appraisal. That doesn’t do their employee justice, nor reflect well on their own management and leadership style.
- The performance appraisal is not about the completion of the form; it is about the conversation. HR departments should spend less time on making the form pretty and more time on coaching managers on how to have a worthwhile conversation with their employees.
- Remember that where pay is linked with performance, you need to explain the link. One organisation I know of had a strong link between the two, but then paid the same pay increase to those with effective and highly effective performance. Remember that money is not a motivator, but it is a dissatisfier.
There are some organisations who do this stuff well. And generally those are the ones where there is a culture of continuous and fair feedback and where there aren’t any surprises at the end of the year.
What do you think? Have you come across somewhere that does it well? What do they do?
Until next week, happy reading.
