Before I try almost anything new I check the online reviews. New restaurant? I open up yelp. Heading to a new business in town? I open up Google Maps. Purchasing something? I open up Amazon. The reviews are simple, easy to read and extremely reliable. I’ve never been led astray! It’s a quick way for me to gather a lot of data that I find valuable and helps me make a more informed decision.
Accessing this information via our computers is easy but thanks to smart devices we have information at finger tips, whenever and wherever!
Businesses and consumers are already familiar with this type of system. In fact, many business owners even solicit reviews from their customers because of the importance that are placed on them. Job seekers and employers are familiar with this concept as well thanks to popular websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, CareerBliss and Fairygodboss that maintain employee based reviews on working at the company … but what if we expanded the idea?
What if we applied the concept to employee performance reviews?
Remember, all the information in this blog post is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. I am not an attorney, nor do I provide legal advice. The information provided is my personal opinion and not that of any organization, business, company, agency or other individuals. The author is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this article. If you need specific legal advice, consult with an attorney who specializes in your subject matter. Any action you take upon the information you find on this website (www.hrraw.com), is strictly at your own risk.
Penny Horton | September 20, 2018
Ok, so before you freak out and envision a world like the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” or the movie “Rated”, hear me out.
Never have I met anyone that is happy with or even satisfied with the performance review process. Throughout my entire career I repeatedly hear comments such as:
“It’s just a check the box exercise.”
“I don’t have enough time to do these!”
“The feedback I receive isn’t helpful.”
“Our performance review process is broken.”
The topic has gotten a lot of attention over the past several years. We have seen best practice shift from a very structured and rigorous annual process to abolishing performance reviews altogether to recommendations for more frequent and ongoing performance feedback sessions. It seems as if no one can really agree on how they are best done.
Yesterday I attended a presentation for leaders and human resources professionals on the topic of performance management. Insight into how a person’s brain hears, receives and reacts to statements was the primary focus of the presentation. We were given advice on how to frame both verbal and written statements to help the performance discussions be more interactive and motivating versus directive and task oriented. The information was insightful and included good solid advice, but it got me thinking about the entire spectrum of performance management and not just how we deliver the feedback or set a goal.
I see performance management as a program, holistically comprised of 4 elements that are all necessary in order to be successful.
A 4 legged stool if you will, represented by:
- The process itself
- The system or tools used in the process
- The actual delivery of the feedback (includes both the verbal conversation as well as the written information) and
- The overall effectiveness.
For the sake of brevity, this blog isn’t going to touch on Feedback or Effectiveness. Those are topics for another day.
What I want to focus on today is why I think an app like Yelp could be the ideal solution to simplifying both the process and the system of performance management.
Imagine if you will, co-workers, leaders and customers alike, with the immediate ability to go online and rate each other immediately following an interaction, a transaction or receipt of a good or service as quickly and easily as we rate our experience at a restaurant.
The system would compile that real time feedback on an ongoing basis for each employee. Each “rating” would consist of a date and time stamp and give the “rater” the ability to identify the interaction or deliverable, rate the interaction (based on a pre-determined range such as 1 to 5) and give comments.
There are obviously pros and cons to this proposed process but I think the pros would more than outweigh the cons.
Some of the pros include immediate feedback, feedback from multiple raters, ease of use, data driven, straightforward, simple and efficient. The ability to combine this type of data with other data based performance metrics (such as on-time delivery rates, first pass yield, sales revenue, turnover, etc.) would give organizations a much better picture of individual performance than what most track today.
How the data is handled, how people react to the feedback, the level of professionalism that is exhibited as well as the responses and actions leaders take based on the feedback are all important considerations for the success of this type of system, but aren’t those considerations already important components of performance management anyway?
What I’m proposing is really just a different tool that lends itself to spreading the workload out amongst the many, simplifying the method, helping dissipate rater bias and truly holding employees accountable to everyone they interact with rather than placing the sole burden on the immediate leader all in a manner that still allows us to document performance (to satisfy HR and legal) without making it as cumbersome as it is today for most organizations.
Of course, how we deliver that data to the employee, how it drives goal attainment and whether or not it helps the organization achieve its strategic objectives all still need to be addressed but making at least one leg of the performance management program less time-consuming and burdensome will help everyone focus their efforts on more valuable activities.
Reality Check
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