Is now the right time to re-think your performance management?

Now is a time of change for many organ­i­sa­tions. As restric­tions lift and offices re-open, organ­i­sa­tions will be think­ing about what will be dif­fer­ent mov­ing for­ward. For some this could mean imple­ment­ing a flex­i­ble work­ing pol­i­cy, chang­ing their office space, review­ing HR process­es, etc. 

All of this change might be a bit over­whelm­ing for some, too much after a lot of uncer­tain­ty for the last 18 months, and as a result re-eval­u­at­ing their per­for­mance man­age­ment sys­tems might seem like some­thing that can be put off until anoth­er time. 

How­ev­er, we would argue now is the per­fect time to think about if your cur­rent per­for­mance man­age­ment sys­tem is work­ing for you. 

As their work life is chang­ing, employ­ees will be look­ing for some sta­bil­i­ty in their lives, and con­tin­u­ous per­for­mance man­age­ment can pro­vide just that!

Con­tin­u­ous Per­for­mance Man­age­ment in a human resource man­age­ment con­text, is defined as per­for­mance man­age­ment process­es that take place through­out the year on an ongo­ing basis. It is a con­tin­u­al holis­tic process, as opposed to those based on tra­di­tion­al annu­al appraisals. 

As feed­back occurs more often, it feels more nat­ur­al for both man­ag­er and employ­ee, who can devel­op more of a healthy, authen­tic work­place rela­tion­ship. Find out more in our guide ​‘what is con­tin­u­ous per­for­mance man­age­ment?’

With con­tin­u­ous per­for­mance man­age­ment, staff will have check in ses­sions reg­u­lar­ly through­out the year with their line man­ag­er. By hav­ing reg­u­lar con­ver­sa­tions with their employ­ees, man­agers can spot if any­one is strug­gling due to uncer­tain­ties and changes to their work life. This allows steps to be tak­en ear­ly to help get staff back on track and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty to remain high. 

With­out the oppor­tu­ni­ty to express con­cerns and chal­lenges to their man­ag­er, some peo­ple may just strug­gle through in silence until every­thing gets too much. At which point it might be too late to turn things around and the employ­ee may have to go on sick leave to deal with stress, or even leave to find a new job. 

Dur­ing a time where employ­ees are faced with much change and uncer­tain­ty, peo­ple may feel a loss of pur­pose and moti­va­tion. Refo­cus­ing on goals, and ensur­ing that these align to an organ­i­sa­tion can help give employ­ees a sense of pur­pose, by show­ing them how their hard work will take the com­pa­ny fur­ther, and devel­op them as individuals. 

By set­ting short term goals you can keep your peo­ple focussed. By hav­ing a num­ber of check-ins through­out the year rather than one long appraisal annu­al­ly, man­agers and their employ­ees can set goals and actions to be achieved in months, weeks or even days time. This means employ­ees won’t lose focus and can see real time achieve­ments and development.

It also means that dur­ing these time of change, if your organ­i­sa­tions over­all objec­tives shift, the goals of employ­ees can change to bet­ter align with these new objectives. 

Times of change are a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to review what is and isn’t work­ing for you, that way when things even­tu­al­ly sta­bilise and the dust set­tles, these changes will already be an inte­grat­ed part of the new way of working.