New performance appraisal strategies for innovative companies

The current performance appraisal methods have been hardly criticized in the last years, especially in the era of agile and continuous innovation. In the following article we will share some ideas and tips on how to adapt to your specific company culture.

Performance appraisals are the most common performance measurement strategy. A performance appraisal is a systematic and periodic process that assesses an individual employee’s job performance in relation to certain objectives.

Neverthless, several studies have been showing that the effectiveness of the current methods is not clear, as employee’s habits and company cultures have been changing and need different incentives to work better.

What are the main cons of a performance appraisal?

• Frequency: Performance appraisals are usually done annually or quarterly. The frequency of feedback should not be defined by a standard, should be defined based on the specific need of the employee and his/her supervisor.  Periodic evaluations usually generate more frustration that satisfaction to the employees because as it’s based on past performance and it’s general, they don’t help to actually change behaviors. Millennials expect continuous feedback on each situation that helps them improve performance and be able to see results immediately, as opposed to next year.
• Specificity:  appraisals tend to be general as they are the only opportunity throughout the year to formally discuss how we are doing. Clearly many items cannot be discussed, so supervisors tend to choose only a couple of hot topics, very good or very bad based on the general evaluation. So they really don’t tackle specific strategies for improvement, but simply try to confirm what we already know: we are in the top 10 percent, or just out of it. So 90% of the employees just get frustrated, while the other 10% get anxious about keeping the top for themselves on the next review.  
• All the employees have the appraisals at the same time, so instead of a real opportunity to improve, it becomes another item on the supervisors To Do lists, which they have to do as quick and neat as possible. While for the employee, it may be the opportunity they have been waiting to showcase their results or received some praise for their work.   
• A performance appraisal is usually focused on individuals, without considering the system or the team. Agile organizations are more prone to work in teams, so individual measurement may be counterproductive. It may impact team collaboration and promote competition instead, to achieve the individual results agreed in the individual discussion.  
• Subjectivity: No matter how well defined the dimensions for appraising performance on quantitative goals are, judgments on performance are usually subjective.
• There are always winners and losers: When salary increases are allocated on the basis of a curve of normal distribution, which is in turn based on a rating of results rather than on behavior, competent employees may not only be denied increases but may also become demotivated. Performance appraisals turn to be unfair trying to fit everyone in the bell curve.

New strategies to have a succesful performance appraisal

As peter Scholtes says in Total Quality or Performance Appraisal: Choose One, “Improvement efforts should focus on systems, processes, and methods, not on individual workers. Those efforts that focus on improving the attentiveness, carefulness, speed, etc., of individual workers — without changing the systems, processes, and methods — constitute a low-yield strategy with negligible short-term results”.

Continuous feedback

Annual performance appraisals are pretty standardized, not very much open to discussion and done only once a year. They are usually time-consuming and generate a stressful situation supervisor-employee, so doing it just once a year “looks great”. But real coaching for behavioral change should be short, continuous and spread throughout the year based on the need. It can be positive or negative, but for sure it should be based on recent situations that allow the employee to take action immediately.  Innovative companies should count on that to be able to adapt quickly to the changes in the environment.

Leadership training

Many leaders say they don’t have the time in this high-pressure economy for the tedious work of teaching people and helping them grow. On the opposite, the one main task for leaders should be to facilitate their employee’s growth, and there should be no specific time for it, should be part of their day-to-day. Leaders tend to have a lot of work when they have an over dependent team. become demotivated work should not be done by them even if they can do it better, they should help their people to learn and do it better, that is their job. Leaders should be trained to develop habits that make their team owner of the tasks, autonomous and therefore more engaged.

RECOMMENDED COURSE: Leadership

Fact-based

Continuous feedback doesn’t need to be based just on impressions or feelings, it can also be based on facts and data. Depending on the type of operation, leaders can use different tools to help employees ask for help or solve problems on the go, instead of hiding issue to avoid bad appraisals. Manufacturing companies can use run charts and graphics to evaluate trends and identify issues. Charts can show if the issues are systemic (all the lines are having delays due to inadequate maintenance) or individual (an employee is not well trained). In some companies, we suggest to do monthly audits with scores and detail action plans, to provide not only a fact-based measure but also a means to improve.

On demand

The best way to provide feedback is making sure the employee knows it before the supervisor, and before it’s too late. Timely feedback can be done when the information and the performance are online and accessible to everyone involved. Measures can be done by the employee himself, or through IT. For example, online retail agencies can provide to employees with online information about customer satisfaction, delays or errors so that employees can adjust the service accordingly.   Many companies have 5 stand-up minutes to talk about issues and potential solutions.

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Win-win

performance measurement should be a tool to improve the team and organizational performance, not to blame employees or justify layoffs. It should help to know why a process is failing and what can we do about it, no matter who. So every measurement should not be used along with a root cause analysis and follow-up method.

Feedback at the gemba

A performance appraisal tends to be so formal that is never done on the work floor but inside an office or meeting room. As it is not the normal workplace for the employee, it can be more stressful. If it is done on the workshop, it allows for a more direct discussion. It allows for a psychological safety for the employee, which promotes more innovation and reduces the sense of failure. You can even find more solutions on the floor than in a meeting room or a cold management report. As Edwards Deming would say, successful companies must also manage what cannot be measured (the data-invisible elements).

A performance appraisal or any type of measurement is not bad per se, what matters is what you do with them. Good luck!!

Lu Paulise

luciana@biztorming.com

@lupaulise

Biztorming Training & Consulting

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