by Imagine that you need to teach a kindergarten class to read. You divided the class into two groups and used a different strategy for each one.
A group of children had hands-on time with a teaching assistant several times a week. They discussed all the learning materials in depth, exploring what they enjoyed, what they were struggling with, and what additional support they needed to develop a love of reading.
The other group just got their workbooks and watched some lessons. They had a big exam at the end of the year, and that was the first time they ever talked to his teacher!
It is obvious which children would become better readers.
Poor and outdated performance management, like giving feedback only at an annual review, means treating your employees like the second batch of kindergartners. It means expecting them to constantly improve on their own, without any tangible support, resources, or even knowledge of how they’re doing.
Great performance management is about building a culture where all he always strives to become his best professional version. It means promoting open communication, continuous feedback and career-long learning as organizational values.
What is performance management?
Performance management means looking at how people work in an organization and how they can learn to work better.
It is the practice of proactively monitoring and evaluating team results and processes, and coming up with actionable goals and insights they can use to improve.
Performance management is not just about fixing problems, and you should never signal that an employee is in trouble. All employees can benefit from paying close attention to their performance, no matter how talented and successful they are.
Effective performance management has much in common with coaching. Managers must work with each employee on an ongoing basis, finding out what their career goals are, how they align with those of the organization, and what are the practical steps to achieve them.
Data-driven performance management
‘Performance’ is simply how people work, something inherently human and subjective. How might the data and metrics capture what makes someone a special employee?
But as part of a thoughtful, ongoing feedback strategy, HR metrics and analytics help managers understand and bring out the best in their people.
They also equip HR leaders to make informed decisions about their workforce more broadly, even without the personal knowledge of each employee.
Metrics distill one-to-one qualitative insight into hard data that can be easily shared, analyzed, and tracked over time. That means a smarter, more informed people strategy that drives better results across the organization.
Main performance management metrics
- Target attainment rate: what percentage of the set targets are actually met? How close is the employee to achieving these goals?
- Values Demonstration: To what extent is the employee putting company values into practice through the way they choose to work?
- Demonstration of Competence – To what extent does the employee display the skills, attributes, and characteristics necessary to be successful in their role?
- Registration Completion Rates – How often do employees and managers complete regular one-on-one registrations? These meetings are crucial to building strong relationships that improve performance.
- Employee Engagement Score: Engagement is not strictly a performance metric. Still, it’s crucial to understanding someone’s experience within your company and role and is often found through engagement surveys or questions during regular 1-1’s.
Learn more about employee performance metrics in our guide, The Complete Glossary of Performance Management KPIs.
Ingredients for excellent performance management
Done right, performance management means really understanding how a workforce is performing and improving it in an intentional and focused way.
A thoughtful performance management plan, integrated at all levels of the organization, is the only way to achieve this at scale.
But that level of performance management is surprisingly hard to come by. Many companies resort to cursory performance reviews and engagement surveys. These are often administered only once or several times a year, a source of stress for employees, and don’t even translate into action.
Improving performance is a team sport
Nobody works in a vacuum. People cannot improve or deliver better results without support, tools, and resources.
Every time employees are assigned a new goal or area of focus, the question should be: What do you need to do this?
Expecting more and more productivity without contributing more resources, or deprioritizing other tasks, is irrational, harmful and a recipe for burnout.
Make feedback part of the way you work
Don’t let people wonder and guess how you’re doing; Aim for ongoing feedback, not annual or quarterly performance reviews.
Annual performance reviews feel intimidating, overemphasize the past, and often don’t translate into significant improvement. Instead, make feedback an integrated part of the workplace experience.
15Five’s check-in and 1-on-1 tools make it easy and realistic for managers to make feedback a part of ongoing daily workflows.
Set goals clearly
People need to know what they are working for, and managers need to be able to measure whether they are achieving it. That’s why clear, time-based goals are such an important part of effective performance management.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are 15Five’s preferred framework for setting goals. Because this system translates broad goals into smaller, measurable results, it’s easier for everyone in the organization to understand what they’re working toward.
With 15Five’s OKR Tool, it’s easy to set and track your company’s top goals and create OKRs that unify your team and inspire you to work towards the right goals, so everyone moves forward together.
Make it personal
Employees will not be inspired or motivated by performance management if they do not feel personally significant.
Instead of focusing on employee weaknesses as “opportunities for improvement,” duplicate their strengths. What do they really shine at and how can they do more of that?
Development efforts must also be connected to people’s own goals. Where do you see your career going, both inside and outside your organization? How can they improve their performance in line with those objectives?
Recognize growth, success, and hard work.
Make sure people feel seen and appreciated when they accomplish great things and elevate their work.
Regardless of where they start, it takes commitment and dedication to reach new heights and develop professionally. Even if employees’ efforts aren’t yet translating into measurable results, acknowledge how hard they’re working to get there.
Employee recognition shows people that they’re not just a cog in a machine—they’re supported on their career path, and their success means something to other people.
15Five’s High Fives feature makes it super easy to recognize employee contributions and the impact they’ve made.
People-Centered, Data-Driven Performance Management
It used to require a lot of time and resources to provide continuous feedback at scale. That has changed with 15Five’s performance management software.
Quickly and easily set up a review cycle and start analyzing performance in our holistic system designed for fairness. HR teams can assess employees without bias and make equitable workforce decisions that fuel professional growth and improve the entire company.
Get a demo and make flexible, insight-based performance management a reality in your organization today.
