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High-performance organizations cannot exist without first embedding a culture of performance improvement.
Organizations that aim to bring together people, processes, and technology to deliver peak efficiency, must focus on developing the right conditions for workers to thrive.
Rather than focusing solely on high performance as an output, the role of performance management and improvement teams is to make sense of the conditions that will encourage development from each worker, and input this into the culture they create.
What does this culture look like in practice? Which structures and mechanisms best support continuous performance improvement? And how can HR aid and abet this work?
It begins with transparency
A culture of continuous performance improvement begins with transparency. For all employees, this takes some getting used to.
Transparently reviewing performance at all levels of the business and circulating learnings throughout the organization encourages teams to collectively learn from mistakes as opposed to hiding them.
“When the entire organization understands the company purpose and strategy, and everyone can see themselves in that strategy through their individual goals, the outcomes and possibilities are endless,” says Liz Moran, VP, Global Talent Management, Expedia.
“People are focused on the right work, engagement levels are high, and the business meets or exceeds their plan,” she adds.
HR leaders should push to create a culture where employees are comfortable sharing and receiving feedback from any colleague, regardless of department, tenure, or seniority.
This, argues Amy Zimmerman, Chief People Officer, Relay Payments, must start with the foundations.
“If you have a culture that truly embodies your values, it gives people a sense of purpose and predictability. If an organization can get that right, it provides a foundation for building a high-performing culture,” she comments.
“We set goals, keep things crystal clear, and share updates regularly,” Zimmerman continues. “Everyone understands how their contributions fit into the big picture and we operate on a “no surprises” basis.”
Embedding feedback loops
Sharing transparent feedback and reviewing metrics that indicate performance can quickly fade into the ether of forgotten emails, meetings, and messages, without structured feedback loops.
Moran argues when performance is celebrated or course corrected swiftly, it allows everyone to do their best work. “Ensure every individual is working on the right work and everyone is asking, giving, and receiving feedback ongoing and after a sprint, not just during formal check-ins,” she explains.
‘Celebration’ or positive feedback loops reward and reinforce positive actions and behaviors. This could range from bonuses when staff hit pre-determined targets, to using software that encourages employees to recognize their peers. Celebrating success is just as important as critically analyzing work.
Zimmerman offers some examples from Relay Payments. “We celebrate the wins, big and small,” she explains. “From peer-nominated "Raves" to quarterly Values Awards, we're all about recognizing the awesome stuff our team pulls off. It's about celebrating impact and inspiring innovation and purpose.”
‘Course correction’ or negative feedback loops encourage improvement actions, such as basing training sessions or service delivery innovation around poor specific customer feedback.
These feedback loops, where possible, should be automated to ensure they are consistently acted on by the relevant stakeholders. This also encourages timely delivery of feedback so employees can see how they are performing in real-time and make adjustments accordingly.
“To enable continuous performance management, we’ve introduced agile goal setting so goals can shift as needed in response to our dynamic business needs,” shares Moran. “We’ve also structured our performance management rhythm to include formal and informal check-ins throughout the year. We are building individual and people leader capability in coaching and feedback to drive a culture of in-the-moment feedback.”
To ensure the company also meet the mark or makes data-driven changes as needed, Expedia also runs pulse checks throughout the year. At Relay Payments, Zimmerman shares that annual performance reviews won’t cut it. “We're all about weekly 1:1 syncs and quarterly deep dives into skills and career development,” she says.
Unfortunately, not all organizations are so comprehensive.
A 2022 Gallup survey found 95% percent of managers are dissatisfied with their organization's review system, largely thanks to the historic annual appraisal model where feedback is not instant.
Without healthy performance management practices, employees become disconnected from their goals and frustrated with a lack of support and direction on skills development that could advance their career.
Measure, build trust, repeat
There are several famous continuous improvement processes. From Six Sigma to Kaizen, choosing the right model or system for your organization can be daunting. Whatever approach you adopt, it must fit with your company objectives and the type of continuous improvement culture you are trying to adapt.
It will also take time to implement, and buy-in from employees and executives will be a challenge in equal measure. Accordingly, it’s important to measure how any changes to performance improvement processes impact core objectives at the individual, team, and organization level.
By clearly communicating how the continuous improvement processes help develop employees; ensuring teams meet targets and receive positive stakeholder feedback; and moving the needle on business-level KPIs, organizations can build trust in this new cultural approach.
Is continuous performance improvement a reality at your organization? If so, how is it embedded in your culture?
