Leadership | UK Performance Management Report 2019: The conundrum of the manager-coach

Our UK Performance Management Reports 2019 is now live. We asked HR leaders, people managers and employees a series of questions so we could understand how performance management works in the UK.

One of the questions we didn’t ask outright (but wanted to understand nonetheless) was this: who is responsible for performance management?

It sounds like a rhetorical question. The answer depends, to a large extent, on the purpose of performance management in your organisation. If it’s based on pay, or ranking, or succession planning, it’s a process that serves HR. If it’s developing performance (as was the case with only 39% of the HR leaders we surveyed) then it becomes a more democratic institution.

If performance management is to become performance development, it needs to be a process that serves everyone. It needs to start with the employee prompting their manager to have check-ins and to receive feedback. It needs to continue with the manager aware of their employee’s concerns, challenges, strengths and needs. HR gets the data they need. Senior management can see their people growing, developing and being rewarded for their efforts with greater responsibility, autonomy… you name it.