Research shows that 75% of employees say they don’t receive feedback frequently enough to improve their work performance. Statistics like that have created a feedback fever in organizations, all on the premise that more feedback equals more performance. But are organizational feedback loops really serving their purpose? And are performance management systems really aiding organizations in improving employee and organizational performance?
In this article, we’ll help you get an overview of the correct performance management process, best practices, and how state-of-the-art talent management systems can help you optimize your performance management.
What is Performance Management?
Performance management is a continuous process by which organizations align all their employees with the organizational strategic objectives to ensure that all employee efforts converge to achieve these objectives. The strategic objectives are accordingly used as a basis to set individual employee goals and assess individual performance.
The Process of Performance Management
The traditional performance management process is usually done on an annual, semi-annual, or quarterly basis. The shorter the timeframe, the better. However, select the timeframe based on the cadence of environmental change within which your organization works. The faster the pace of change in an organization’s environment, the more suitable a shorter timeframe would be. Here are the steps of the process from beginning to end.
1. Set organizational objectives
It is important for senior management to set the organizational objectives in order to kick-start the process. Avoid the temptation of having individual functions set separate functional and operational objectives without waiting for the overarching organizational objectives. This is like putting the cart before the horse.
Remember, at this phase, to select the goal-setting frequency more suitable to your organizational environment. You could set quarterly, semi-annual, or annual organizational objectives.
2. Cascade the organizational objectives
Once the organizational objectives are set, ensure you cascade them to all functions so that functions can engage in their departmental goal-setting with the big picture in mind. It is important in this phase that departments pay special attention to how their departmental objectives link to the organizational goals.
Moreover, try not to fall prey to a top-down goal-setting approach. It is best practice to look at goal-setting as a brainstorming activity. Encourage managers to have team-wide brainstorming sessions where employees can share their ideas regarding how their department can best contribute to the organizational goals and use the results of these sessions as the basis of departmental and individual goal setting.
3. Ensure individual buy-in
Ensure as you assign individual goals that all goals are SMART, aka specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Moreover, once individual goals are set, take the time to ensure individual employees understand what is expected of them and gain their commitment to their individual goals. Talent management systems can make this process a piece of cake with their automated notifications and report generation.
4. Conduct frequent performance check-ins
One of the worst mistakes a manager can make is to set objectives at the beginning of the performance management cycle, keep them lying there, and only revisit them at the end of the cycle. In fact, research by Gallup points out that the team members of managers who provide weekly feedback instead of annual are 5.2 times more likely to strongly agree that they receive meaningful feedback.
For optimal results, it is better to schedule weekly check-ins both on a team level and an individual level. In team meetings, it is better to review the team’s progress toward the departmental goals; in individual meetings, it is better to take the opportunity to have a two-way feedback conversation with individual team members.
5. Conduct the all-too-dreaded performance appraisal
At the end of every performance management cycle, it is standard practice that managers conduct appraisal meetings with their individual employees to evaluate their cycle performance. However, managers and employees alike shouldn’t simply view the appraisal as an evaluation but rather a feedback conversation about the employee’s performance.
It is also important to not only focus on the ‘what’ but also on the ‘how’ of individual performance. In other words, managers need to evaluate their employees’ performance, not only on what goals have been achieved but also on their behavior as they were working towards the goal achievement.
When it comes to performance appraisals, there is a rule of thumb: the employee should never be surprised! If the employee hears any feedback for the first time in the appraisal meeting, it simply means the manager did not conduct check-ins with sufficient frequency or clarity. Bearing this rule of thumb in mind removes all the dread from the performance appraisal meeting.
The Award-Winning Talent Management Platforms that we offer
Talent management platforms come with a myriad of modules, all designed to help your organization with its talent management processes. Performance management is one of the standard modules in almost all of the world’s top platforms.
1. Cornerstone OnDemand
With more than 25 years in the business, Cornerstone OnDemand boasts a comprehensive AI-based talent management platform known as Cornerstone Galaxy. Cornerstone Galaxy is formed of three main modules: Cornerstone Learn, Cornerstone Elevate, and Cornerstone Transform.
With Cornerstone’s performance management module, part of Cornerstone Elevate, you can help your employees stay aligned with personal and organizational goals and drive their continuous growth throughout the year. Powered with feedback and check-in tools, Cornerstone’s performance management module can help you set goals, coach employees, receive feedback, guide development, and give recognition.
Moreover, the module goes beyond performance management and seamlessly links performance and skills data with internal learning opportunities to enable employee-driven, manager-supported growth.
Here are the top benefits of Cornerstone’s performance management module. It helps you:
- Align your people to organizational strategy goals.
- Gain a global view of your workforce.
- Assess employee capabilities to build critical competencies for your organization.
- Manage complex succession plans.
- Conduct more frequent or continuous appraisals.
- Design a sustainable compliance process.
- Automate the performance review process.
- Create objective-based development plans.
- Crowdsource feedback and gamify the experience with badges.
2. Totara
Established in 2011, Totara is also one of the world’s top talent management platforms. Also comprising three modules, Totara Perform, Totara Engage, and Totara Learn, the platform gives you the all-in-one solution to your talent management needs.
Totara Perform, in particular, frees your organization from rigid processes, giving you the ability to set your own course and tailor practices that suit your unique work environment. Powered by a flexible approach, it enables you to select both traditional and continuous performance management processes. It also has built-in tools to help you build a coach-mentor culture with check-ins, reviews, and fast feedback.
Even more, Totara Perform helps you identify and close skill gaps across the entire workforce. With its insights, you can prescribe actions and content that align with the goals of your people and organization. When coupled with Totara Learn, it helps you connect competency management to critical learning requirements.
With Totara Perform, you can enjoy:
- A performance review workflow builder
- Continuous performance management tools
- Open-source and flexible frameworks which allows the application to be extended and customized to meet your organizations’ specific needs if additional functionality is required
- Frequent and flexible performance check-in tools
- Traditional and modern performance management workflows
- Skills and development tracking
- A 360-degree feedback tool
- Intuitive detailed reports
- Flexible hosting options – on-premise or in-country managed hosted using AWS and STC.
How XpertLearning Can Boost Your Performance Management
Performance management is a key pillar in any organization’s journey towards success. Do it right, and you reap a lot of benefits! Do it with high-tech AI-powered talent management platforms, and you reap the benefits in no time and with minimal effort. Reach out to us at enquiries@xpertlearning.com if you’re looking for more insights on implementing or optimizing performance management at your organization.