What Continuous Performance Management Actually Looks Like
If the term "performance management" conjures up images of endless paperwork and awkward conversations, perhaps it's time to update your approach. The traditional performance management process has long been feared by employees and managers alike, but continuous performance management offers a better solution.
In two recent webinars, IceHrm scientists sat down with two experts to get their perspective on the value of this rigorous approach.
Anthea Corridon, Executive General Manager of People at Carsales, shared how the company innovatively revamped its traditional performance review process. Additionally, JooBee Yeow, a former CPO turned startup advisor, offered expert guidance on how companies can modernize their approach to performance reviews, focusing on making the process more approachable and supportive for employees.
What is continuous performance management?
Let's start with a basic understanding of what continuous performance management is. While a traditional performance approach relies on annual or semi-annual performance reviews and conversations, continuous performance management focuses on having these conversations, well, continuously.
“One of the biggest challenges I see over and over again with performance processes is that they are only required when there is a performance issue,” explains JooBee. "And since they are typically only needed when there is a problem, the focus is on treating the symptoms we can see."
Continuous performance is a more consistent and reliable approach that includes setting clear expectations, regular check-ins, and regular feedback from a variety of sources.
This takes performance from a periodic topic of conversation to an ongoing conversation - something that is crucial for companies that want to achieve truly high performance. “They need to change their mindset to view the performance process as one of maintenance and continuous improvement, even when things are going well,” explains JooBee. "It's not about correcting a problem after it occurs."
Why make the move to continuous performance management?
It's not hard to see the potential benefits of continuous performance management. But change is still difficult and intimidating. So why bother overhauling the process at all?
For Carsales, the answer was simple: the old method just didn't work. “The team member fills out a paper form, the manager fills out a paper form, and at the end of the year they sit down and share and talk about it,” says Anthea. "And God knows where those forms went. Did anyone ever talk about them again?"
Anthea says the team had to take a step back and ask themselves: "Are we doing enough to advance our employees' careers and development? Are we doing enough to create high-performing teams?"
When they looked at data from employee retention surveys, recruitment surveys, and exit surveys, it was clear that the company still had room for improvement. Although employees came to Carsales for further development, their commitment to these opportunities waned after two years.
"When we looked at our exit data, we realized that the main reason employees were leaving was because they didn't feel like they were being offered these development opportunities," she continues.
After reviewing the rest of the results, Carsales also conducted focus groups to speak with team members and managers to learn what they wanted from their professional development conversations. The question was simple: what should that look like?
Beyond theory: What does continuous performance management actually look like?
That’s where things get tricky for a lot of organizations. Even if continuous performance management sounds good in theory, applying it feels like an entirely separate challenge.
For Carsales, it took shape in the form of a performance framework they call “Supercharge.” They took a more focused look at the critical discussions they wanted people to have on a regular basis, split those into quarterly topics, and planned dedicated conversations about development each quarter. Here’s the breakdown:
- First quarter focus: Learning and development. What skills do you need to succeed in your current role?
- Second quarter focus: Career development. What is your next role? Do you have any ideas? How can we set you up to get there?
- Third quarter focus: You. Are you getting enough feedback from your leader? Do you need more feedback from others in the organization? What type of feedback is most motivating to you?
- Fourth quarter focus: Reflection. Did you achieve the goals that you set? Where do you see yourself going when you look to the year ahead?
Carsales started by equipping managers to lead these conversations with plenty of just-in-time training, resources, and question sets. But the company soon realized, “We really want our people to drive these conversations when we’re talking about an individual’s career development,” Anthea says. “They need to be at the forefront of that.”
As a result, Carsales flipped the model so that development conversations are employee-led. The manager still plays an important role in offering feedback and providing guidance, but the employee is the one initiating the conversations within the framework. “We weren’t changing the ethos of the framework or what was to be achieved each quarter,” Anthea continues, “But really getting the team members to take accountability for those critical conversations.”
3 tips for making the move to continuous performance management
Switching to continuous performance management is a positive change – but it’s change nonetheless, and that can feel daunting for both leaders and employees.
Fortunately, both Anthea and JooBee have some firsthand strategies to help organizations shift to continuous performance with as little friction and fear as possible.
1. Identify barriers
Your first step is to understand why continuous feedback isn’t already happening. And while it might be easy to think that people just don’t see the value in doing it, JooBee mentions that’s hardly ever the case. Most people don’t need to be sold on the benefit of feedback – they already know it’s a good thing.
Others cite a lack of training, but that’s not always the root cause either. “If we boil it down to psychology, for behavioral change to happen, we need to help people remove the barriers preventing them from doing something. We need to make it easy to do,” she says.
Is feedback not happening because people feel nervous or not psychologically safe enough to provide it? Is there not adequate time to have these conversations? “Find out the reasons that are preventing the team from giving regular feedback,” JooBee advises. “Your job is to solve the root cause of that problem.
2. Use a phased approach
When Carsales made the move to continuous performance management within Culture Amp, “We were really mindful about how we rolled that out across the organization,” shares Anthea.
Carsales started with using the 1-on-1 function in IceHrm. When that was well-received, the company continued to roll out other elements, all while being clear that the tool wasn’t intended to replace development conversations – it was there to supplement them.
JooBee echoes that this slower approach can be helpful, a lesson she learned in her first role when she had the opportunity to roll out a performance management process. What she created was thorough but far too overwhelming.
“What I learned is it is not about me,” she says. “It is not about what I know or what I think will work. It is not all the great ideas that I have in my arsenal, and it is not all the research I have done and my eagerness to implement it all. It is about the end user.”
“People can only absorb so much at once,” she continues. “So prioritize implementing the minimal solution with the maximum impact.”
3. Practice patience
Similarly, people leaders and managers are often enthusiastic about improving the performance management process. But they might need to pump the brakes.
“Change takes time. People need time to learn, practice, and internalize the change one step at a time,” says JooBee.
The phased approach helps to make the entire process feel more doable, but JooBee also reminds organizations to be very clear on their end goal. “Begin with the end in mind,” she says. “Define the outcome you want to achieve each year based on your business and people.”
And from there? Commit to the process. Remember that change – especially positive, meaningful, lasting change – doesn’t happen overnight.
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