Think back to the last time you ran appraisals with your team. Did you enjoy trying to remember what happened months ago, then filling in lengthy forms with the details? No? Your team likely didn't either.
So, how do you move away from box ticking to useful, valuable discussions about your team’s performance and development plans?
Moving to a continuous performance management process involves replacing annual appraisals with more frequent, more informal conversations between you and your employees. Because you’re talking more frequently, more relevant objectives can be set, feedback can be more immediate, problems can be picked up sooner, and the whole performance management process is more agile and more responsive to business and role changes.
Sounds great, right? There are a few things to consider before deciding whether it’s the right approach for your business:
Will it actually happen?
Do you have sufficient resource to ensure that more frequent conversations are going to happen reliably and consistently? What does ‘frequent’ reasonably look like in your business? If that’s once a quarter or less, retaining an annual process might be a better way of ensuring that people get a proper full discussion about their performance away from their dayto-day job.
Inconsistency of approach
How comfortable are your supervisors, team leaders and managers with the people aspects of their role? Before implementing continuous performance management, think about any training needs they may have to ensure its delivered consistently – otherwise you may find that while some teams get frequent supportive conversations, for others, busy-ness means that all of a sudden six months have gone by since the last one.
Need for evidence
Having an annual appraisal can provide useful evidence if there is a need to take steps to address performance through a formal process. If you’re thinking about removing it, make sure you’ve agreed how concerns will be raised, support offered, and records kept so that you don’t run into problems if you do need to work through a disciplinary or capability issue.
Why not start 2024 by reviewing how performance management works in your business? Consider what you want to achieve out of the process and identify whether these goals are being met. If you’re keen to try continuous performance management but not sure how, feel free to get in touch for a free, no obligation chat.
Kathryn Rodgers, face2faceHR
07946 330 025