How many of your employees can’t wait for their next performance evaluation? Chances are…not many. And those who are pining to be reviewed are likely in a situation where they are hoping to turn their positive performance into reward – in essence, they’re using the review as a justification and acknowledgement of their great work (they’re like the golden retriever employees – they know their great…and hey, I’ll take a treat now).
Check out this article which details effective employee engagement. I think in many ways its right on – and it accurately portrays what successful organizations are likely already doing when evaluating employees. But here’s what it doesn’t say…and what most organizations aren’t doing:
Conducting employee performance evaluations and linking performance management to…wait for it…the actual employees! I’m not talking about abandoning benchmarks or company/dept wide metrics…I’m talking about honing in on performance evaluation in a way that makes sense for each employee.
And that goes to individually understanding employees. Do you expect that an employee with a Conceptual thinking style is going to approach stated goals the same way as a very Structural, process-driven person? Probably not…so why evaluate them the same way? Here’s the key:
- Don’t evaluate the process – different employees are going to get there different ways.
- Provide reachable (yet stretched) goals for each employee - that means a deep discussion around how they work and what will provide satisfaction and business results
- Connect goals and performance to an individualized plan – tie goals to their personality and strengths – not yours or the organization’s.
Think about how these steps can take your employee performance evaluation to a more productive level.
Mark E. Miller – Director of Marketing
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Mark,
Very timely information, indeed. Another fundamental key to successful Performance Management is to provide continual learning opportunities regarding the purpose of performance management, the definitions of the rating and an overview of the stages of the Performance Management Process. Although most organizations conduct two formal sessions, Mid-Year and Final, Performance Management is not an event, it is a process. Our organization has seen a positive difference (engagement-level) since we have invited our leaders and their associates to learn more about the process. Although our goal isn’t for everyone to love “PMP Time”, it certainly isn’t as dreaded as it once was. Another piece of information that has been helpful for all associates to providing this statement: Our PMP form and/or process may change, however the purpose of Performance Management will always remain the same: Serve as a ONE feedback mechanism to create and maintain trust between associates and leaders, (as it is imperative that leaders provide timely and effective feedback year round), recognize associates for performance results, provide clarity on areas of improvement and ensure business objectives are met.
We also spend a lot of time and provide a lot of support developing skills to create goals.
It truly has paid off.
In the Spirit of Developing Others,
Marsha Graesser
Hi Marsha,
Thanks for your response – it is really helpful to get that perspective from your own experiences. Your action around working to ensure leaders and employees can become more engaged in performance management as a process and as a purpose is excellent, and as you say, can help create a more trustworthy atmosphere.
Continual learning certainly is key in performance management and other elements of employee engagement. Continual learning, in our experience, has been instrumental in taking training or performance management of any kind from the idea of being a 1-time dictated task or issue and made it into a productive, ongoing goal.
Thanks – great dialogue!
Mark