In my last LinkedIn article, “Despite the flaws, don’t just stop your annual review”, I shared 5 articles and 3 books that explain why “everyone” hates the annual review process, BUT I cautioned just dropping this all together.
When companies stopped their performance review process, managers gave less feedback and employee performance dropped 10%! (Wharton article)
So how can you give your team feedback in a positive way, that they enjoy, and that will ultimately achieve the intended goal to improve performance and engagement?
I am glad you asked!
Let me introduce you to “ongoing performance management.”
This process takes the best aspects of the annual review (yes there are some beneficial aspects), and combines it with weekly coaching and feedback, with a dose of training and development planning thrown in for good measure.
Such a hot topic – as I was writing this I received an email quoting a study by the Brandon Hall Group that showed that “organizations that made ongoing performance management a collaborative, strategic priority had better business results than those who didn’t.”
Companies who adopted ongoing performance management saw these improvements:
- 70% reported an increase in revenue
- 72% noticed a decrease in voluntary turnover
- 54% experienced an increase in customer satisfaction
How did they do it?
Organizations are adoping three new methods:
- ongoing feedback- usually weekly or monthly “one on ones” between managers and each employee individually
- “ratingless reviews” – without the focus on employee rating on a scale from 1 to 5
- “crowd-sourced feedback”- input and feedback from peers and direct reports (if a manager) are included, not just an employee’s boss
Companies who saw the best results didn’t stop the annual performance discussion, they shifted the focus to more of an overview of key learnings and jointly created development goals for the next year.
This is what employees want to know– “how can I learn, grow, and perform better next year?”
When companies ADDED these three methods (together) to the annual discussion between an employee and manager, they saw improvements in strategic alignment, developing a performance culture, support of company values and strategy, and yes, increased company performance.
This combination of “cutting edge” practices provided more focused and useful feedback, while increasing both manager and employee experience with the performance management process. [See graph]
Said another way, people like this process better and feel it is more effective on the things that matter– improving employee and company performance.
For more information on how this process works, visit our website page for more resources:
