All performance feedback is highly valuable for employee growth and development.
But this feedback needs to be communicated well and provided on a frequent, continuous and ongoing basis.
Reviews shouldn’t be a chore or a ‘tick box’ bureaucratic process. Reviews should be a forum for leaders and employees to have meaningful conversations about achievements, strengths, development areas and aspirations to support career plans and success.
Such sessions provide an exceptional opportunity for team members to connect and to understand each other’s changing needs. But the process of performance review remains as stressful for managers as it is for their team.
Many leading organisations are saying that modern corporates should ditch performance reviews because they don’t drive high performance or engagement. The common comment is that it is a subjective process that doesn’t add value to the individual. Others say that the time and energy spent conducting reviews could be better spent on higher-value activity. We say quality conversations are crucial though, as is an agile approach to setting goals across the year.
A quality performance review should be made up with a third of the time spent summarising the year and two-thirds looking forward – planning what needs to be achieved and development. But motivational managers do things slightly different. But critics state motivational managers have performance conversations all year round and cover off recognising achievements when they happen, feedback for improvement at the time the employee can actually use it, removing roadblocks, updating goals and objectives regularly and looking at ongoing development now and for the future. Additionally, they look at the whole picture, taking into consideration what their employee does (goals and objectives), how they do it (competencies, values, behaviours) and the contributions they make to the workplace (roles they play in the team, ideas for improvement, contributions made to other parts of the organisation) and they also use key objective setting tools. At HRC we think that high achievers want to come out of their reviews knowing what challenges are coming up and that their performance has been recognised. Solid performers want to know why their contributions to the team and company are valued as well and want certainty about what they’ll be doing in the coming year. New starters want to feel they’re making progress and are on track and feel motivated to keep on track. Well-run performance review sessions allow for all these contingencies. The bottom line is not so much should you run performance reviews but how should they be designed so that all of these objectives can be met during the full-on activity of the year.
Ross Henderson is a full HR services provider so can meet your needs in any HR area, and not just in employment law or recruitment and assessment.
If you need assistance with any of these or any other HR or employment relations matters, please email Ross or phone HR Contracting on 02 7294 0301.