Reinvent your Performance Management Process for the Future of Work

Today’s world of work is fast-paced and continuously changing. Is your performance management process keeping up? High-performing companies leverage contemporary performance management processes towards creating a more productive, engaged and aligned workforce. Therefore, the revolution of performance management is in full flight.

Be sure to get on board or else you will end up missing out. This movement will drive organizations to new feats and those that aren't quick enough to catch on run the risk of being left behind in the dust. Enlisting more dynamic performance management processes will contribute to establishing a more robust and adaptable workforce in the face of any adverse altercations.

There are many themes to be explored within the reinvention of performance management. What was once a rigid and conforming methodology for behavior and practices in the workplace has evolved into an empowering tool. This tool is capable of inspiring innovative and collaborative accomplishments. We will discuss four attributes of the performance management cycle that demonstrate the efficacy of implementing such a tool.

A different approach for different groups

Understanding the need for diversity in the workplace is crucial to the development and success of any organization. Managers that maintain the philosophy that one-size-fits-all are increasingly finding difficulties in maintaining employee engagement and motivation. An appreciation for the fact that different departments or teams respond better to contrasting approaches, will assist leaders when promoting improved employee engagement and motivation towards work.

Customizing the manner with which you enlist responsibilities will contribute to higher levels of productivity from the workforce. This approach is supported by a study from Gallup. It reports that only 2 in 10 employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

Taking the time to identify opportunities and respect the importance of embodying different approaches when negotiating with different groups will facilitate a more effective distribution of responsibilities. With clear performance planning and by setting organizational goals, leaders can incite more effective performance management.

Coordinating and managing different teams requires an appreciation for the varying systems and organizational approaches towards delegating responsibilities. In some circumstances, the tasks that employees must fulfill are repeated and resultantly, heavily structured. For these team members, their role is well-defined and therefore requires less direct guidance beyond overall defining objectives.

On the other hand, there are others who work in far more flexible and responsive positions. Delegating responsibilities for these employees requires closer attention and more regular check-ins.

For example, the role of a Sales Development Representative will be focused on converting leads. This is suitable when there are plenty of leads in the funnel, however, if the number of qualified leads falls, then the SDR must adapt. Their focus should turn from closing deals to prospecting leads. This is where performance discussions can promote truly effective and meaningful individual performance.

With a current and up-to-date performance management system, the direction of the workforce becomes more obvious. Delegating responsibilities to employees can be informed through the progression and completion of team or company-wide objectives. This better alignment facilitates more effective and more efficient task management, therefore improving the overall productivity of the organization.

Reflection and goal-alignment throughout the year

In this vein of better informing the tasks and responsibilities of team members. The ability to align goals and reflect on their progression is an extremely valuable tool for any team. Promoting a greater awareness for each individual's contribution to wider company objectives will simultaneously remind them of their personal and social responsibilities to perform well.

Updating goals throughout the year will motivate better employee performance. The planning stage of a truly effective performance management cycle is an ongoing process. By giving team members more opportunities to reflect and refocus on how their responsibilities align with wider objectives will facilitate more valuable work.

Through routine reflection, employees will establish a reflective habit. As such, individuals will become more aware of the results of their actions. You can encourage employees to apply their learning in performance improvement plans that will contribute to better employee development.

Team members that are more considerate of their actions and the results will develop a better understanding of how to work more efficiently. The significance of this is its capacity to inspire more productive and engaged employees.

Reflection and self-analysis is a fundamental habit of the best performing teams and individuals. Learning from reflection will reveal all sorts of work habits that were either unnecessary or inefficient. The result will inspire better performance and will dictate the purpose of your workforce.

Development planning is crucial for realizing strong improvement plans whilst also promoting and ensuring employee development. The performance appraisal can act as a form of tracking such improvements. Fundamentally, by encouraging your employees to set long-term goals, they will be better equipped to identify opportunities for their own growth whilst also considering wider organizational goals.

Rather than maintaining a time-consuming process with annual performance reviews, consider more current check-ins and goal-setting processes. Through an annual process, the files and comments are often put away, never to be seen again.

You must look to use a performance management process that promotes regular interaction and reflection. Through this, you can ensure that any comments made are performed. This also encourages employee development.

Promote well-rounded bias-free feedback

Feedback is essential to the growth of any individual, team or organization. Without feedback, we often miss important learning opportunities that prevent us from making the same mistakes.

Many organizations incorporate some processes for generating feedback, although, oftentimes these methods can be one-dimensional. The approaches used to collect responses are infrequent and may be restricted to prompting the same participants repeatedly. Gathering feedback in this way is unfruitful and disregards the value of harnessing a balanced and varied collection of opinions.

By promoting well-rounded feedback, there are more opportunities for employees to share insightful and constructive responses in feedback forms. Moreover, through gathering a greater spread of perspectives, the feedback is less likely to be biased. By opening the conversation to a greater mix of individuals, it contributes to less prejudiced reception.

This prejudice can be subliminally implanted through group thinking, wherein all those involved in a project might perceive the management of tasks in the same manner. When we open the conversation to allow for more individuals to share their opinions, this can reveal truths that may have been missed by the group directly involved.

Feedback, particularly the 360 approach, involves multiple parties. The effects it has on performance are undeniable, according to Gartner, companies that provide ongoing feedback see performance improve by up to 12%. Evidently, ongoing feedback demonstrates that feedback is not simply a routine procedure of praising or condemning employees.

Incorporating feedback into a collaborative working environment offers clearer guidance and learning potential for employees. At the same time, it contributes to better management and relations between the ranks in the office. Promote a collaborative and constructive workforce by giving everyone in the team a chance to take part in conversations.

Migrate the Performance Management process online

Promoting involvement and collaboration from a remote working environment will be testing for all teams in 2021. Without as many opportunities for face-to-face interactions, there is a sense that cooperative efforts will be hindered. This paints a very pessimistic picture for the year ahead and it really doesn't have to be this way.

In response to the move to working from home, online performance management processes have brought the office online. Despite the barriers between us, these tools are capable of significantly improving performance. Through centralizing the distribution of responsibilities, companies will become far better adjusted. They will be better equipped to create and execute objectives that align with their long-term company goals.

Moving to an online performance management process will enable organizations to standardize and automate the delegation of managers and employees' responsibilities. With live tracking and regular updates, team members can ensure they are fulfilling tasks as they're expected to. Such a platform provides a space for all involved to record a digital log of any conversations, objectives or feedback. Moreover, improving the tracking and regularity of communication within an organization will have significant benefits for improving employee-manager relationships..

The key to the success of any team is good communication. An online performance management process will ensure clear communication, therefore enabling better-informed decision-making. As such when setting goals, employees can better align their own goals. Informed by the current status of wider company objectives, it will be easier to determine supporting goals.

Why Reinvent your Performance Management Process?

The evolution of human resource departments and their role in performance management is continuously adapting. Sudden changes in our experience of work have illustrated how the outdated annual performance process can actually hinder employee growth. This older model can negatively impact business performance.

In contrast, modern performance management tools can empower HR teams to mediate for unexpected results and increased employee performance and productivity. Enlisting such a tool has been reported by Gallup to contribute to a workforce that is 3.2x more engaged and motivated. This is why you should reinvent your performance management cycle. Through them, employees are provided with many more opportunities to receive feedback or give valuable responses that inform better task management.

We are now living and working in the future of HR tech. With an online employee performance management process, there are no more drawn-out review processes. Goal setting is current. It is relevant to organizational goals.

And last but by no means least, 360-degree feedback enables clear and effective communication between all members of the organization.