From start-up to established organisation, a poorly and ineffectively timed annual performance review is one of the most feared stone-age practices for all. Both, the managers as well as employees hate this process. The reason being that it often ends up stirring fear and demotivates employees.
Unfortunately, a whopping number of employees reported to be dissatisfied with their organisation’s performance appraisal reviews. On the other hand, a majority of employees believe that this process fails to offer accurate information thus, leading to unjust appraisals. Yes, this may be one of the major reasons your performance review process needs an overhaul.
The billion-dollar question. Why does this quintessential part of employment become such a pointless task?
Is it time to kill the archaic process of annual performance review, for once and for all. Let us find out.
Control, Purpose and Independence
Today’s breed of workforce expects independence, mastery and purpose to be an integral aspect of their professional lives. Now for a business leader or manager, these act like table stakes to persuade his/her people intrinsically. These factors instigate passion in people thus bringing out the best talents and strengths in them. When a business treats its employees as cog in the wheel, their strengths and talents are seldom used or go undiscovered.
Evolution of the Manager’s Role
The conventional concept of manager as the boss is an archaic one. Today’s leaders ought to be coaches. They should acknowledge and identify goals, morale levels and skill-sets of their team members. Simply put, the role of today’s leader is to unleash the potential of employees rather than controlling them. Leaders are a lot like custodians. They are responsible to care for the ones they lead.
Transitioning away from Performance Review
If the performance review process becomes obsolete, what should we replace it with? Besides having a performance appraisal system at your disposal, here are other key elements for today’s gen appraisal practice:
- Conduct a predictable series of quarterly and weekly discussions with your employees.
- Keep a tab on employee morale levels on a weekly basis and try to understand the engagement levels.
- Provide your employees with time, say a quarter’s time to mull on their performances and improve.
- Conduct a formal performance discussion every quarter.
- Exclude conversations pertaining to compensations from your performance discussions.
- Align all your employees towards your company’s goal.
A modern performance appraisal approach ought to focus on assisting employees resolve problems that are critical to them and beneficial for the business rather than indulging in vague discussions pertaining to unrealistic career goals.
Understand that it is not a process. In fact, it is a conversation and the aim here is to aid employees turn into an improved version of themselves.
For a number of employees, annual performance review process tends to interfere with their productivity, whereas for some, it is simply irrelevant to their roles or tasks. These handful trends are causing the sad demise of the stone-age practice of annual performance appraisal.
It is no longer about pushing a process or paper that positions leaders as commanders. In fact, the performance appraisal conversation should empower employees to help them improve month by month and not year over year.
To learn how an automated performance appraisal software can end all your woes pertaining to performance reviews, contact us now. You can also write to us at sales@pockethrms.com or simply give us a shout-out on our Twitter or Facebook
