THE Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) describes performance management simply as “the attempt to maximise the value that employees create”, helping to maintain and improve the performance of staff to align with organisational objectives.
Performance management processes are a feature in the workplace, but we are seeing a shift in emphasis from a focus on the organisation’s aims and goals, towards supporting and developing people to become more effective in their work.
Therefore, managing performance and the mechanisms deployed by organisations, needs to fully consider their staff in terms of their individual needs, aspirations and preferences, effectively the ‘whole person’.
This, however, does not diminish from the need to focus staff on the organisation’s priorities and overarching goals. But performance management needs to ensure it is meaningful, flexible, and people centred. Performance focussed conversations need to become broader and not just about a performance rating on a scale.
In essence, performance management needs to be revolutionised!
There is an ever-increasing need for organisations to review and assess their performance management model against the latest best practice. The revolution comes into play and can be realised, if the ‘when and how’ you assess your staff maximises performance.
The CIPD recommends focusing on key outputs of performance reviews separately. For example, it is probably better to discuss support on learning and development separately from decisions on pay and promotion.
It recommends employers reflect on what performance behaviours they want to emphasise and that people managers also need to reflect on the specific competencies, attitudes and behaviours they expect from their team.
These reflections should include, reviewing performance on specific tasks; and the delivery of core activities included in the job; contextual performance: the activities that go beyond the job remit, and what moves the organisation forward; as well as adaptive performance, the ability to respond to unexpected changes, for example, how a crisis was handled or how a problem was overcome.
It is important the managers carrying out performance conversations ask probing and open questions to encourage employees to expand on their performance stories.
Managers need to demonstrate active listening and provide constructive feedback, focusing on evidence and strengths to empower the individual.
Most importantly, performance conversations should be planned and regular, with a clear purpose and agenda.
Furthermore, we know that a manager’s ability to build solid relationships with their team promotes high trust and ensures transparency of the working processes and performance management.
Finally, let us discuss ratings and grades. There are a variety of scales used but. the language used to describe each level is very important, particularly avoiding any that may come across as critical or demotivating.
There is a lot of current debate, about traditional ratings and suggestions that these should be replaced. Current best practice indicates, that the term ‘rating scales’ could be changed to ‘status’ while the phrase ‘meeting expectations’ should be abandoned, for example.
Large organisations such as Google, Airbnb and LinkedIn, use an Objective and Key Results (OKR) process, to measure performance against organisational objectives, including customer engagement and sales targets.
Behavioural-based processes are growing more widespread as well, often linked to organisational values and culture.
Regardless of how you measure up against best practice, managers should always be accountable for their ratings; and always be able to explain them clearly a consistent, transparent and fair basis.
This ensures that the process of managing performance is a holistic one that meets the needs of both the organisation and the individual.
Patrick Gallen is people and change consulting partner at Grant Thornton Ireland
