UK 
United States
Without regular performance reviews, employees can feel lost. Their achievements throughout the year can be forgotten and their unique triumphs diminished, leaving employees feeling demotivated and off-track.
For performance management to be truly successful, employers should monitor and track each individual’s progress throughout the year. This is crucial to the long-term success of an individual’s progress and their input to the growth of the business, and will ensure that individual objectives are in alignment with overall business goals for a holistic approach in organisational target achievement.
To implement a modern performance management system, you will need to be able to justify why it is necessary to the success of your organisation; read more to find out why you need to transform your performance culture.
The past
As performance management systems have frequently been seen as cumbersome and administratively difficult, many HR teams and line mangers limit their use to once a year to reduce the time spent battling the system.
As a result, managers are spending their limited available time on outdated systems, or even manually updating spreadsheets. Both result in less time spent on meaningful conversations, leading to the importance of regular employee/manager communications not being appreciated.
With 41% of employees stating that they only meet with their managers once or twice a year to receive feedback and recognition on performance, the infrequency of performance reviews means that they are not time relevant, and key achievements can be forgotten about with their unique triumphs diminished by time.
The present
Organisations are increasingly recognising that paper-based processes and outdated systems are hindering performance management.
With regular recognition of objectives and personal development plans, comes positive influences on the business, teams’ development and individuals’ job satisfaction as goals are achieved.
Making performance-related conversations needn’t be lengthy; if broken down, they should be simple and effective, focusing on key events and allow for continuous development. Employees can recognise the direct link between rewards and measured performance if feedback is provided quickly and regularly, providing them with an understanding of the transparency and incentives consistent with a high-performance culture.
Benefit your business
Effective performance management systems can lead to better performance within an organisation; furthermore, the costs of people churn are reduced when an effective performance management system is in place as skilled employees are retained.
The return on total remuneration investment improves with the increase of operating performance, made only possible with effective performance conversations between managers and employees.
Furthermore, senior management and HR will benefit from a modern performance management system as it provides clear visibility to performance across the organisations reducing the amount of administrative paperwork, and flags up any potential issues, allowing for remedial action to be implemented.
Benefit your staff
When employees are shown how their performance directly impacts the success of the business, they gain a sense of loyalty which allows them to feel emotionally connected to the prosperity of their workplace. It also engages employees to take ownership of their performance at work, therefore empowering them in their development and feelings of belonging within the business.
By feeling better connected to the organisation’s goals and objectives, employees show more willingness to do more to help it succeed and prosper.
Furthermore, more regular reviews provide employees with a more positive outlook of the organisation – employees can continue to work on their goals throughout the course of the year, with actionable suggestions given to them by their managers to keep them on track. If performance reviews are not held regularly, employees are encouraged – perhaps negatively – to reflect on past performance when it is too late to make a change.
How will an online tool help?
Online performance management systems allow for:
- Employees to constantly access their personal objectives, keeping them on track for the year
- The ability for reviews and development plans to instantly update with managerial changes
- The ability to add or edit comments, keeping managers informed of any activity and progress
An online performance review is an enabling tool that helps to provide a platform for information to be recorded in real-time, tracking progress and any issues are they occur. This is a positive step that allows for remedial action to take place as a continuous development programme.
To find out more about how performance management can benefit your business, and how to build a business case, download the eBook.
