Recently I was sharing with an HR leader some of my experiences with people and organisations and she asked “Where have you implemented a successful performance management system?” My answer was that I haven’t - she was surprised, but I explained that the success (or failure) is really dependent on the capability of your people leaders
Let’s put that in context
Generally performance management systems have been implemented in organisations to drive a level of business outcomes beyond standard expectations. The conversations had by people manages with their teams and the goals which they set are to drive a higher level of performance than was considered to be possible with the resources that are available. - that's the reason for incentives, to reward an outstanding and above norm performance!
Firstly people leaders struggle with setting stretch goals. We tell them to make them SMART but when it comes down to working this through with their team - creating an objective level playing field across the team is tough. An organisation I have recently worked with has seen an opportunity to support their people managers and created centrally Team Based Objectives (TBOs) that are then applied down in to the organisation
This overcomes the problem experienced by so many organisations when they cut their targets down to a menu of small sub-tasks. This reduces the focus, there's so many people running around after small bits of achievement not focusing or understanding the big things that need to be done to deliver a step change
Secondly, having a performance conversations a challenge for a lot of managers because we have not invested the time in helping them engage and coach their team. Adopting a growth mindset, one that focuses on what is possible, on what is yet to come!
How do we do this?
We have regular, ongoing conversations
We build capability within our people leaders and coach them
We tell the story and create the vision of where we want to get to as an organisation
We focus on “how” people achieve outcomes and not just what they have delivered
Next as HR professionals we need to simplify our processes. Remember we’re doing this to create superior performance across the organisation - often we create a highly administrative and compliance orientated environment, with that our complexity leads to a loss of productivity rather than adds value
We need to have a systems and process that are light touch, drives high performance while improving behaviours and is clearly understood by everyone – delivering a great employee and people leader experience. We need to promote a framework that can be easily actioned by people leaders, is not time consuming and doesn’t distract from the essential drivers of business growth and customer satisfaction
Success in performance management can be seen in employees growing in confidence and capability as they have purposeful conversations about their contribution to the business goals, and as they understand how their efforts can help exceed company targets. It can also be seen with the growing capability of people managers to provide regular, informal feedback to their teams on how they are progressing