I don't consider myself a performance management expert per se, but like most of my cohorts, assignments often require that I get involved in performance management program review and design. Can't create and implement effective reward programs in isolation from the performance management process, at least not in most cases. So circumstances nearly always demand that I at least understand it and sometimes require that I put reward work aside and lead an effort to reimagine and redesign it.
While not a performance management expert, I know this much is true: You do not begin the design effort with a form or a system choice. Yet I am frequently hit with requests, from HR and compensation pros who are sophisticated enough to know better, noting that they are embarking on a redesign process of their own and asking for an example performance form to consider.
Because I am a pain in the neck, I typically shoot them back questions rather than the item they have requested. You know, to help me better serve them and all.
What led to your decision to redesign performance management? Where and in what ways is your current program/process failing?
What objectives are guiding the redesign? What are your organization's top employee performance imperatives - what things must happen with employee performance and the management of employee performance in order to drive success for your business?
What challenges do you face -- culturally, structurally, capability-wise, etc. -- in meeting these identified objectives and creating a performance management process that will truly drive business success?
Given the above, what type of performance management process (steps, activities, roles, timing) will best position you to meet your identified objectives? What types of oversight, support and intervention will be necessary for the success of that process?
Where, in what manner, at what stages and by whom should performance management conversations, agreements and feedback be documented?
I conclude by saying that if they can just bring me up to speed on their redesign effort by answering these questions, I will be in a much better position to suggest a direction for a performance form.
In some cases and because this is a conversation that typically begins over email, the response is silence. In other cases, this is where the requester picks up the phone and calls me -- and we begin a deeper and more thoughtful discussion of what is driving the redesign decision as well as how best to approach doing that work. And an acknowledgement that the form is not the system, it is just a place to document the results of a process whose design should be carefully tailored to the needs and circumstances of their specific organization.
Performance management itself is increasingly the subject of controversy and experimentation. This is all good; if we pay attention and attempt to honestly/openly consider the lessons offered by the debates and the experiments, we will likely move the practice to a better place going forward. That aside, however, it remains important that our design efforts in performance management begin with an examination of what is necessary in our organizations to create systems that set employees up to succeed, in the manner that our businesses require.
That's what I think. You?
Ann Bares is the Founder and Editor of the Compensation Café, Author of Compensation Force and Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group LLC, where she provides compensation consulting to a range of client organizations. Ann serves as President of the Twin Cities Compensation Network (the most awesome local reward network on the planet) and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Compensation & Benefits Review. She earned her M.B.A. at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, is a foodie and bookhound in her spare time. Follow her on Twitter at @annbares.
Creative Commons image "Climbing the Bricks Factory" by Yogendra Joshi
Perhaps I have a novel approach to a performance management and review process...
Q1. Did the EmployeeA perform well this year?
Yes / No
Q2. Explain what you meant by your answer to the previous question.
Q3. Come on! If you had to explain it to someone who didn't know EmployeeA how would say they did when compared to a someone better and some worse
Q4. I know this is hard, but seriously, how about when compared to what you had hoped for versus what you feared.
Q5. How do you think this should apply to EmployeeA's pay, given the fact that we haven't spent much time explaining each of the possible elements of pay or given you a solid merit budget?
Q6. How are you feeling about this process?
Q7. Do you wish we had planned a bit more strategically for this and perhaps spent some time and money putting the right programs, processes and training in place?
Q8. Who's up for a couple of drinks? I'm exhausted and feeling a bit frustrated,
Posted by: Dan Walter | 05/16/2014 at 12:04 PM
Dan:
That's wonderful. Probably not so novel as you suppose, may in fact be the norm in many places. Anyway, Q8 sounds good on a Friday afternoon ....
Posted by: Ann Bares | 05/16/2014 at 12:06 PM
Dan's quick illustration showed many of the elements of the Mager/Pipe Performance Analysis Model. As Ann often says, if you don't know where you are going, any old direction will do. Me, I also favor the "ready, aim, fire, score, adjust, repeat" approach.
Posted by: E. James (Jim) Brennan | 05/16/2014 at 01:06 PM
As always, I am happy to help!
Posted by: Dan Walter | 05/17/2014 at 12:36 AM
Thanks Ann for sharing your thoughts and experience - This is a great topic and it frustrates many organizations in the private sector and public sector as well. I agree with the strategic questions you raised before sending the "SAMPLE" form. I find that in some cases there are attempts to make performance management a transaction or a checklist to do and get done with it. Seeing all the attention on paying for performance, I think the way performance management is conducted should mirror the organization culture. Of course, this leads to another question around what culture do we want to promote? I do not think that "SAMPLE" performance appraisal forms will answer that question for us!
Posted by: Saado Abboud | 05/20/2014 at 11:41 AM
What you describe is the predictable outcome when performance appraisal systems exist simply to document and justify a priori decisions about the distribution of "merit pay". Inevitably, both sides of the transaction are corrupted.
Posted by: Tony Bergmann-Porter | 05/20/2014 at 06:06 PM
Jim:
Funny, when I first read your comment, my eyes initially saw "Magic Pipe model" in reference to Dan's approach, which seemed entirely apropos... Anyway, always appreciate someone reinforcing my Cheshire Cat.
Saado:
Well said. I am always puzzled by the great number of organizations and HR professionals who wish to kill performance management yet pay for performance. Good luck with that!
And yes, those seeking to begin their process with a sample form often do see performance management as a transaction or "check the box" activity. Not the road to adding value or influencing business results.
Tony:
Exactly right. And then they point to their corrupt process as proof that all performance systems should be killed.
Thanks all for the conversation!
Posted by: Ann Bares | 05/20/2014 at 08:16 PM