You’re Losing Your High-Performers
Performance Management in the modern workplace is broken, and leadership needs to fix it before their high performers test the free-agency waters like LeBron every three years.
Employers: here’s the truth, if you want to hear it. Your employees roll their eyes HARD behind management’s back when performance management reviews are brought up every year. Many organizations large and small are still using ineffective, cumbersome processes originally created 100+ years ago as a way to “more scientifically appraise employee’s performance.” Appraise? What are they, friggin’ classic cars?! It sure feels that way if you work for a company that offers lifeless annual or semi-annual performance reviews in 2018, and it needs to end now.
Keep Pace
The speed at which organizations are evolving in today’s tech-driven workplaces is only accelerating. Therefore, it should be an executive priority to match that pace with a simple, versatile, always-on way to gauge the real-time pulse of any given employee or team.
Where’s All That Damn Feedback Going?
Make no mistake about it, the performance management industry is a huge money maker. According to a recent Gallup poll, companies spend anywhere from $2M to $35M per year on their performance management! Before you cut one more damn check to the software company housing your perpetually unused data, take a look at what you’re actually aiming to accomplish.
Do you need a simpler, more frequent feedback tool and modern methodologies? Get out of your bubble to see how other top companies leverage employee feedback to create new opportunities, build training around said feedback, and how they position positive sentiments to validate promotions. This information should be used to actually develop career paths, not sit in a folder!
Career Dialogue Needs To Be Priority in Performance Management
Confident leaders can facilitate this process naturally, without any technology, by offering two-way dialogue that aligns with the individual’s actual career goals. If you don’t know how that process even begins, hire someone who does.
If you require more scalable performance tracking to support career development, look into something simple like pulse surveys, or here’s a real rule breaker, just hire competent leadership that knows how to shut up and listen to their teams informally via 1:1 conversations. Word of warning — trends like pulse surveys can create great, usable feedback in short bursts but, employees may begin to unreasonably assume all of that feedback will be implemented into decision making processes. In addition, these can produce survey fatigue.
Stop Focusing On The Negatives
Lastly, do not harp on the negative, instead leverage the positive attributes, skills, and accomplishments of your team! We spend WAY too much time as a corporate society trying to fix what someone sucks at, rather than building up & enhancing what they’re great at!! It’s 2018 – don’t overthink it. The last thing your team needs is another complex, layered process that takes them away from their actual work.