Let’s Finally Relieve Our Managers in Performance Reviews
Let’s be honest for a minute. As a manager, one of the worst responsibilities to have is handling performance reviews.
Employees complain because they don’t receive specific, helpful feedback. Then your HR department complains because it doesn’t believe that the rating provided gives an accurate picture of an employee’s performance. On top of that, it can be a struggle to evaluate a year’s worth of performance without giving undue weight to recent events. While this tendency, called “recency bias,” is a natural part of human nature, this can combine with the already flawed model of performance evaluations to really demotivate your staff.
Given all of that, it’s no wonder that 95% of managers report being unsatisfied with the traditional process. How can we expect them to provide high-quality feedback to numerous employees after 12 months of performance? Most of the time, we can’t even remember our own accomplishments over a time horizon longer than 2–3 months.
While managers surely deserve to take some of the blame, it doesn’t change the fact the current process fails them miserably.
It’s time for a change.
A Simple Transformation
The solution is so simple that it might seem too good to be true: Transform performance reviews from a yearly event to a continuous process. The concept of continuous performance management is based on the idea that the most helpful feedback comes from real-time interactions. Whether the feedback is encouragement or constructive criticism, offering it in the moment allows managers to give higher quality assessments of an employee’s performance.
Implementing a continuous feedback model can also significantly reduce the stress and administrative burden placed on managers when the yearly reviews do come around. Because you have already spent the entire year providing timely, specific and actionable feedback, all of the documentation for it is readily accessible and easy to organize. This not only lightens their workload, but it also allows managers to spend more time having a one-on-one conversation that focuses on coaching, mentoring and truly helping their employees develop and deliver on the organization’s top priorities.
Another important aspect of the continuous performance management structure is peer-to-peer feedback. This applies to all employees at all levels. Receiving useful and specific guidance in the moment from their peers is a great way to keep the team consistently reaching further and helping each other. Managers benefit this exchange as well as they enjoy a much more comprehensive picture of their employees’ performance.
Proven Impact
Agriculture giant Cargill has implemented this approach with a great amount of success. Their “Everyday Performance Management” program has received positive feedback from managers, including:
“The simplified process made things much easier so we could spend more time on the things that mattered.”
“I am having more candid discussions during the year, focusing on accomplishments and future plans.”
“This process has given me more time to spend talking with my people rather than do paperwork.”
Adobe is another big name that has successfully transformed their employee reviews into an efficient, ongoing process. Their managers report a reduced cognitive load with this approach because they no longer have the burden of remembering talking points and coachable moments over an entire year.
Adobe further reported that the opportunity to share more timely and relevant information through continuous feedback also resulted in increased application and impact for employees. A win for managers, employees and the organization.
Make the Shift From Task Manager to Coach
The continuous performance model for management has tremendous benefits for not just supervisors but for workers too. Managers are no longer expected to perform the impossible task of remembering every employee’s actions over an entire year, and employees are not left with hurried, vague reviews that offer no helpful guidance.
When feedback and information regarding employee performance is shared on an ongoing basis, it shifts the role of a supervisor from “task manager” to “coach.” Because managers are able to collect a more complete picture of data, they can now have brief, meaningful conversations that are focused on setting immediate goals and working towards the future. Making performance review a continuous process frees up both the time and mental capacity for managers to help their employees reach their full potential.
Let’s make it happen.
If you’re interested in learning more about how your company can apply this approach in practice, feel free to contact us. We’re offering a cloud-based application that enables continuous performance management for the future. We’re a lightweight solution enabling ongoing, real-time feedback among employees and frequent conversations between managers and employees. The result is a continuous process that engages, empowers and aligns your employees to deliver on your organization’s top priorities.
