Embracing Modern Performance Management

You've been searching for a good reason to keep the employee interview as part of the performance management system. You know that the measurements from the evaluations are important for improving the business, but unfortunately, your managers and employees are not so enthusiastic about the persistent practice.

Performance appraisal software lay the foundation for good performance by employees (and thus also in the organization), and you must conduct them regularly in order to be able to develop and follow up on goals. How can you make them better for both managers and employees? Let's look at some ways you can make the process more efficient from a tertiary standpoint.

Talk less about yourself

You've probably heard the cliché that it's not about you, it's about me? Well, research shows that managers can tend to have a self-evaluative undertone in the conversation during employee interviews. Steven Scullen, professor and associate dean at Drake University, explains that much of the traditional evaluation process is personally colored. In fact, 65% of the variance in ratings can be attributed to personal bias and idiosyncrasies of the individual rater. (A little tip: Stay on track and eliminate bias with an employee interview template). Scullen continues:

"One person can, for example, give you poor marks on strategic planning. But that does not mean that another assesses the same. A large part of the variation is due to the assessors having different perceptions of how important strategic planning is, their own skills in strategic planning or other personal factors that have nothing to do with the work you have done."

Focus on progress

Performance appraisals all too often focus on the wrong aspect of the evaluation. Yes, for performance evaluations to be successful and effective, there must be a similar process each time to be able to measure progress. However, this should not be the very heart of the conversation - progress is the fundamental focus of any effective and valuable employee interview. More than a pay rise, employees want to know where they are heading in their careers.

Give them tips on how to improve their performance, but also give them an insight into where they can grow and develop at work. Congratulate the employees on a job well done, but at the same time emphasize that there is always room for improvement, whether it is a different angle on a project or to finish a project of the same quality more quickly.

Plan for development

Some organizations make planning professional development the fourth part of the employee interview. By using employee engagement to tap into employees' ability to grow and their drive for career development, companies can create talent pipelines within the company, allowing them to create a robust plan for success. Nicole Dubbs, former vice president of organizational effectiveness at Teach for America, notes:

"What motivated us to build something really robust was the fact that we wanted to start having a system where the senior leaders in the organization could get a better understanding of what our talent looks like across the board... Leaders at on a one-to-one, case-by-case basis had to feel responsible for constantly knowing where employees are and what they need to stretch and grow."

Instead of focusing on past achievements, the employee interview should be about professional development. Although past performance is important, it is not necessarily decisive for whether performance will improve. Collaborate with your employees to create a professional development plan, so you can help them advance in their careers.

Your organization can still use employee interviews to measure internal performance standards, all you need is a little tweaking so that everyone agrees on how effective they are. Reflect less on your own abilities and rather focus on progress and development, so that the employee interview becomes more holistic and effective from everyone's perspective.

In reshaping performance management, IceHrm empowers organizations to focus on employee progress, reduce biases, and prioritize professional development for lasting success.