Many years ago, I was working for a company that didn’t do performance reviews. When I joined, I spent time with the managers understanding their teams and their pain points. A common request from the managers was “we want goals and performance reviews”. My first thought was, “awesome, let’s get on to that, I can have an impact early in my new job”. But then when I looked a bit closer, I questioned why managers hadn’t just taken the initiative to do it themselves. Sure, I could provide them with a comms plan, performance review templates and provide training on goal setting and giving feedback. But I couldn’t help wondering whether a system would provide value, and how much buy-in there would be from managers and staff. So, I parked it.

Fast-forward, and our parent company took the decision about whether to implement a program off my (our) hands. We were obliged to adopt the performance review process of our global parent company. Phew, I thought, I’ve now got a real mandate to do this.

So off I went, understanding the whole process in the context of the company, rolling out a communications plan, learning how to use the technology, developing guides and other resources, training managers and staff, monitoring the process to make sure deadlines were met, and providing help and assistance to managers and staff through to the deadline imposed by global HR.

Sounds easy, right? Wrong!

While the managers said they wanted this, getting people to participate was hard work. They found the whole process too hard, too time consuming, heavy on the admin, and there were differing opinions about whether to give people performance ratings. And for me, after reading the manager comments on my performance review, it felt like getting my school report.

It got me thinking. How could I implement a performance review system, when they didn’t even have a culture of giving regular feedback? One on one meetings (if they took place) were a check-in on workloads and ensuring everyone was on track to deliver on the projects and pieces of work that were in front of them then and there. As well, people were complaining that there was no strategic business plan to draw goals from. And let’s be honest – ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS SUCK. Yep, that’s coming from an HR/People & Culture mouth.

If I was to do it all over again, here's how I'd do it

First things first, because annual performance reviews suck, let’s just not call them performance reviews. Let’s not call them performance evaluations. I prefer to call them ‘reflections’ and make the whole process a lot more subtle. OK now I’ve got that off my chest …

My first piece of advice, if you are thinking of implementing such a process, is to think about why you are doing it in the first place. Is it to improve individual and/or company performance? Is it an employee engagement tool? Do you want to do it so that you have some concrete information on which to base salary increases? Or is it a combination of things?

Second, look at your culture. Specifically, how are people experiencing their one-on-one meetings (if they are happening at all)? Is it just a check-in to understand workload and check that people are on track to complete projects and tasks on time? Do you have a culture of giving feedback? Do your managers even know how to give feedback, both positive and developmental? How do you know if people are performing at their best? Have you provided an environment in which people can do their best work and be proud of it? (Hint: 360-degree reviews can help with this, or we can help design relevant pulse surveys as part of our employee culture and engagement services).

It starts at the top: senior leader buy in for your performance development programme

I was using this experience recently when putting together some performance review training for a client and I was reflecting on the 10+ reasons why this rollout was so hard. It dawned on me that the number one reason was that the CEO thought that performance reviews were a waste of time. Then the penny dropped even further, and I realised that what the managers were asking me for, wasn’t a performance review system. They were really asking for CEO buy-in, and to be able to set goals of their own with the CEO supporting them and holding them accountable.

So, if you don’t have that, then that’s your first priority.

Work collaboratively to set performance goals

Often a barrier to setting goals is ‘we don’t have a business or strategic plan’. That’s no excuse. Every organisation has customers or stakeholders to delight, expenses to control, revenue to grow, processes to improve, relationships to nurture, some sort of compliance requirements, and a reputation to uphold. Everyone should be able to find a goal that relates to at least one of these things.

Also think about how you measure goals. Some are easy, actual costs, actual revenue, clients retained, number of new clients, deadlines met. To understand how goals are met, you might need to think outside the box. You might need to start gathering data that you didn’t think of, or you might need to implement new initiatives, such as asking for customer feedback.

From there, make sure it’s not ‘set and forget’. Add reviewing goal progress to the regular catchups, discussing barriers to goal achievement, what is being learned along the way, and what is needed to set each person up for success. Don’t be afraid to adjust goals along the way, if you’re going to keep them SMART (specifically, the A for ‘achievable’ and R for ‘realistic’). Things change – business priorities, clients’ minds, the law, the weather) and goals need to flex with those changes. Throughout the year, new goals will come to light, so add goals as you go along, and don’t be afraid to cancel any goals that are unachievable or unrealistic.

Improve managers ability to run effective one on one and performance review meetings

Training and coaching for managers to run effective meetings is also critical. Make meetings employee-led, which might take a while to use to and might take a few goes. This means that the employee must come prepared for goal review meetings, and they should do most of the talking (check out the Magic Meetings module of our team leader training). Managers must polish their active listening and questioning skills and understand that their role is to remove barriers to support their team members to goal success.

Only after all of this is running smoothly, should you think about your annual reflection, or wrap up. Or, if the process is going really well, ask yourself … do we even need to do an annual reflection/review/evaluation? If you’re not using the information for a company-wide salary review, an annual reflection might just be an administrative burden that your managers don’t need.

Do you even need end of year performance reviews?

If you’re not doing anything with your annual performance review outcomes (eg salary reviews, promotion decisions), then an end of year performance review might be a waste of time. This is especially true if you’ve embedded a coaching culture and have an ongoing or cyclical goal setting and review process. That said, we do recommend at lest an annual reflection where you just, well, reflect on the year gone by. This means not bringing in any new feedback (unless it’s super fresh) or dredging up past mistakes. Like regular goal review meetings, make it employee-led, so they must prepare for these meetings rather than going in and waiting to hear what you have to say. If you’re going to do this, ask your employee to reflect on what they’ve learned, what new skills were used, and barriers overcome. What are their proudest moments? Crucial though is to use this reflection as the springboard to move on, and plan for an even more successful next 12 (or six) months. Now you’re back to goal setting – both business goals and development goals.

Designing and rolling out your performance review process and tools

Yep it’s a big process and often this means some form of culture change. Taking baby steps is crucial for success. You don’t have to go it alone! We can help you to design a program that works for you and support you through implementation and we do this by working through a one day performance development process training with your leadership and/or HR team. Or maybe you just need to build some relevant skills in your managers and team leaders, which is where our team leader development program comes in.

Contact us to find out how we can help you to boost performance and engagement in your organisation, with accompanying training on designing and deploying performance development programmes. We can help you to design a performance review system, or provide on-demand support for performance and disciplinary issues.