Revamping performance management in light of the often ineffective and dreaded year-end reviews are a big topic within my profession right now. Here’s the DL on what’s being discussed:
Crafting once a year goals are too “batched” for real-time and conversations about year-end ratings are less valuable than conversations conducted in the moment about actual performance. Couple that with the amount of time employees are spending completing the forms and holding meetings, and a truly inefficient and ineffective process results.
The conversation is being shifted away from ratings and past performance and toward employees’ performance and future potential.
Deloitte is asking managers to respond to four future-focused statements about each team member:
- Given what I know of this person’s performance, and if it were my money, I would award this person the highest possible compensation increase and bonus (measures overall performance and unique value to the organization on a five-point scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”).
- Given what I know of this person’s performance, I would always want him or her on my team (measures ability to work well with others on the same five-point scale).
- This person is at risk for low performance (identifies problems that might harm the customer or the team on a yes or no basis).
- This person is ready for promotion today (measures potential on a yes or no basis)
Ultimately, this shows managers what they would do with each team member rather than what they think of him or her.
Here’s each of those statements as action-items for you:
- Work like your boss is paying for you out of his own pocket.
- Have goal that you want to be a stellar team member, not just an exemplary employee.
- Identify areas in your professional portfolio that need fine-tuning and request professional development in those areas. Or, talk with your boss about areas of opportunity for you on a quarterly basis and come back to him/her with opportunities to improve those skills.
- Shift your mindset from wanting to do good work today to the goal of getting promoted tomorrow. Ask yourself with every task you do how it will move the needle, taking the organization to the next level.
Has your organization done away with traditional performance reviews? I’d love to hear about any positive (or negative!) results!
