Best Practices for Effective Performance Management

Software is great for helping Managers to keep track of how their team members are performing, what actions are outstanding and how team members are contributing to Organizational Goals. However, there is still a huge amount of responsibility on the Managers to act upon this information and to follow-up on plans that are in place.

Let’s look at some of the ways Managers can best manage performance:

Set SMART Goals

The first step to great performance management is setting the right goals. Goals set the foundation for performance management, but for them to be really effective they need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound).

When there’s a clear objective, people will be more dedicated to reaching their set goal.

SMART goals will help you as a manager to identify, in good time, when goals are too far-fetched and out of reach, thus allowing you to adjust them accordingly.

Put Employees in the Driver seat

An impor­tant part of the process of cre­at­ing a performance plan is allowing Employees to lead while creating their plan. People are more dri­ven to accomplish goals and develop new skills if they set them themselves.

When Managers create plans with input from their Employees while encouraging them to set challenging goals, it secures Employee buy-in, helps push performance, and serves as a motivator for ongoing development.

Link Individual Goals to Organization Goals

Employees will be more effective if they can see how their individual goals fit into the big picture. Link organization goals or functional business objectives to individual goals. This encourages accountability and better performance as individuals grasp the direct impact of their performance.

Adapt goals in real-time

Goals should never be seen as rigid, but instead as dynamic and evolving objectives. One common mistake is setting goals at the beginning of the year, and forgetting about them until a final year review. By doing this, there is no learning or development. Just a rush at year end to meet the goals, one way or another. It can lead to goals being met in as quick a way as possible which could lead to mistakes and errors.

As priorities can change during the year, failing to revisit goals can be demotivating and intrinsically unfair to team members.
That’s not to say goals should become moving targets, but it's ok to adapt and change them as the environment changes.

Ongoing Check-ins

75% of Employees see annual reviews as unfair. This is because annual performance reviews can be subject to a recency bias and the goals that should have been measured may not be relevant anymore.

Managers should have regular check-ins with their Employees. Check-ins are one on one conversations between Employees and their Managers about work progress, goals, performance to date, and plan of actions going forward, held at regular intervals throughout the year.

In WorkCompass you can schedule monthly, quarterly and bi-annual check-ins.

Benefits of Check-ins:

• Identify Obstacles Early: Check-ins allow you to track progress on goals, identify obstacles, and ensure open communication on the next steps to be taken.
• Employee Empowerment: Check-ins allow both the Employee and Manager to be empowered to influence the direction of their work throughout the year and performance expectations.
  Employees don’t have to wait for approval, but instead they engage in the process. 
• Course Correction: Frequent check-ins on progress on projects and overarching goals can identify obstacles and allow for rapid course correction. This will keep Employees working towards a productive goal, and help Managers identify and develop low performers. 
• Build rapport Check-in conversations build a stronger relationship between Employee and Manager. 83% of companies say they see the quality of conversations go up with more frequent check-ins happening. 
• Employees feel valued: Encouraging Managers to reflect on successes and deciding on next steps with Employees demonstrates the value your company places in Employees. This value is open and transparent to everyone at every level. Feedback and conversations amount to more than a “checked box.” You are investing in your Employees.

Note: Check-ins are a formalised, company mandated meeting about goals that should supplement your regular one-to-one meetings. They are not designed to replace regular progress meetings.

Keep it Simple

The final point to note is that doing performance management well is all about keeping it simple!

As Marc Efron, the author from the best-seller One Page Talent Management mentions: "To really simplify performance management all you need to do is set great goals (1 - 4 goals), do ongoing coaching, and ensure managers are providing a fair evaluation of performance at the end of the year".

This is why we recommend 3-5 Goals, Competencies and Development Needs. When you have specific goals with specific milestones to focus on directly, they immediately become more achievable. This allows employees to see their progress themselves over the course of the year.