We are delighted to share a guest post this week from Jamie Pennington of Pennington Hennessy, a behavioural change consultancy working within the Professional Services sector; always thought-provoking, here Jamie challenges law firms to re-think performance appraisals.

Think about the feedback you got at your last appraisal.  Would you have been willing to pay £1000 of your own money for the valuable career-feedback you received?  How about £100?  £10?  Or would you have been willing to pay a large sum to have avoided the meeting and associated paperwork?

In investigating this question I have found very few lawyers who would have paid for their appraisal.  So why is it so universally unappreciated?  Why, in a society which craves feedback and a profession in which the “jury of ones’ peers” is taken seriously, is feedback not lapped up voraciously?

Let’s be clear, it’s not the appraisal process.  Even though some firm’s forms and associated procedures may be cumbersome there are few complaints about the areas that are covered.  Most firms ask the appraise to reflect on their own performance before the meeting,

The problems come because:

• Lawyers don’t like giving feedback.
• Lawyers don’t like confrontation.
• Lawyers (on both sides of the appraisal) are unclear on the usefulness of the appraisal.
• The outcome is usually indistinct.
• Nothing seems to change.

Meanwhile at HR Central the team is usually too occupied counting how many performance appraisals have been completed to wonder about their quality. 

So what should be happening?

Your appraisals are supposed to be a measure of how suitably skilled and motivated your firm’s personnel are to deliver the firm’s business plan.  A plan that cannot be delivered by your firm is no use, regardless of how great the plan might be.

A proper performance appraisal process is therefore the underpinning of the training programme; it indicates where we currently are, and where we need to be.  Coupled with a competency framework (go on – ask your HR team if you’ve got one. Many of you will find out that you have :-) ) the appraisals should provide the evidence-base for the investment in the systematic development of the workforce. 

I know this sounds a bit like management-speak, but it answers the question “How do I know if the money we spend on training is worthwhile?”  Without proper appraisals, you don’t.  If people aren’t doing more of what the business plan requires them to do, the training is wasted, and performance appraisals are the systematic way to find out.  

So don’t think of your appraisals – whether you are the appraiser or the appraised  – as individual pieces of nonsense.  Since you are a people-business the combined appraisals indicate how fit you are to deliver the plan. 

So this is a call for honesty, transparency and simplicity in appraisals.  What do you think of our chances of success?

Jamie Pennington, Director, Pennington Hennessy

I was reading an article in Business Week : Pointless Management Practices to Nuke . The list is "Forced Ranking Exercises", "Key Performance Indicators", "360 degree feedback programs", "Engagement Surveys", and "One-size-fits-all performance reviews".

The article falls for the age old trick of saying ... look at these poorly implemented practices - we should stop doing them.  I agree with nearly everything in the article other than the conclusion.  If you use 360 feedback to allow people to say things they wouldn't say to someones face then you may have an issue.  If you design a performance appraisal system that doesn't reflect what the employees/staff want from performance appraisal then again you will have an issue.  Don't nuke the practices - nuke the way you are doing it.

If you take great care on your 360 feedback design and make it an open, inclusive process;  if you build a performance review process that balances the individual's requirements equally with the organisation's needs; then you will find you have great, core tools for supporting your team in their personal development and in achieving the company goals.

Best practice in 360 feedback and best practice in performance reviews (and KPIs, and engagement surveys) will lead to fantastic results.

I might agree completely on forced ranking exercises!

Brendan

When you are in a one-to-one 360 degree feedback debrief session,  the purpose is to explore the recipient's report, raise their self-awareness and have them accept what the feedback is saying; without these stages of awareness-building and acceptance, it is difficult to move onto setting development goals and action planning.

With this in mind, questions which help them reveal more about a situation from different perspectives are  invaluable; let's take an example of someone having feedback as being abrasive or brusque in their dealings with others.

The first question often to ask is 'Does this ring true for you?' or 'Do you recognise this in yourself?'; if the answer is 'Yes' then the line of questionning is different to that if they say 'No'.

Taking the former, your questions should then try to highlight the specific scenarios in which this behaviour occurs; asking 'Why do you behave like this?' can often make someone defensive and attempt to justify the behaviour i.e. 'It's not me, it's them'.

Far better to uncover what is happening before they decide to behave like that, because consciously or unconciously, there is a decision made to act one way or the other.

So, questions might be 'When do you notice this behaviour emerge? With particular people or in a particular situation? What do you believe about this person or situation? What are your expectations as you go into a particular situation? What about when you are not brusque or abrasive...what's dfifferent?

Such questions serve to help an individual become aware of the beliefs, values, assumptions, thinking and feelings which lead them to certain decisions and behaviours; with that knowledge, individuals are in a better place to make different choices & decisions next time.

If you are interested in knowing more about our 'How to conduct effective 360 degree feedback debriefs' training programme then feel free to get in touch through this blog or the website.

John

The US based 'Sherpa Coaching' organisation annually publish the results of a survey on trends within the world of Executive, Business and Life Coaching; the seventh one has just been released with an interesting find regarding the use of 360 degree feedback.

The use of 'diagnostic' assessments, such as 360 feedback, within the realm of Executive Coaching, is now a consistent front-runner compared to 'type models' such as Myers-Briggs and DISC; some 26% market share compared to around 15%.

Naturally we find this encouraging!  We see great value in psychometric tools as a means of highlighting preferences, dominant styles and approaches within individuals; they can use this raised level of self-awareness to perhaps help become more flexible in their communication, leadership, etc.

However, whatever one 'might do' or 'prefers to do', nothing has more impact than awareness around what it is you actually 'do do' (try not to laugh at the back...) - 360 degree feedback provides perspectives from Line Manager, Peers, Direct Reports, and a host of others if desired, all of whom offer observation of your behaviour, and crucially, its impact.

To move from 'that's interesting' to a real lightbulb moment of 'I need to do something about that!', moving from psychometrics to 360 degree feedback often provides the impetus for change.

John

A brief post to highlight some findings from the latest CIPD 'Employee Outlook Survey'; a key finding was the 360 degree feedback perception gap between how Line Managers rated their abilities compared to how their direct reports rated them - near 80% to 58% respectively.

The level of satisfaction and confidence in Line Manager capabilities, feeds directly and crucially into levels of employee engagement, a factor which has growing evidence of  having considerable impact on organisational performance and 'bottom-line' figures.

John

It's interesting to note how important language and terminology is when it comes to defining the performance review process within an organisation.

Some organisations use the term 'appraisal' or 'evaluation'; others favour something which leans more towards the developmental element within the process, such as 'Personal Development Review' or suchlike.

Invariably the purpose of the process is the same; a chance to reflect on what has happened, plan ahead, and highlight development needs for the individual concerned - all encompassed in a conversation between a line manager and the employee.

The question then is, does it matter what we call it? Does one title or phrase better describe what happens over another? And do people approach the process differently depending how it is framed?

For our part, we favour the idea of stripping back all these to something which is relatively neutral but which conveys the true essence of performance review; it's a conversation.

A conversation implies two-way dialogue with the intention or purpose to collectively review, plan and define development needs, and perhaps more besides.

Let's throw this one open and ask, "What do you call your annual performance conversation & why?"

John

Often when we are involved in 360 degree feedback projects with our clients, we find ourselves delivering the face-to-face debriefs with the group of recipients, particularly if they are within the senior leadership team of the organisation.

Exploring the 360 report with the individual and identifying their own specific development areas is really just the starting point for leveraging the true value of 360 feedback.

It is relatively straightforward with an online 360 system to aggregate the data of all recipients and allow HR to then seen what the group-wide learning & development needs are and how they should be prioritised.

However, beyond this very effective means of conducting a TNA within the business, such data needs to be coupled with the anecdotal evidence gathered through the debrief conversations with the group of recipients themselves.

It is the comments from recipients during the debrief which add colour and depth to the development requirements, and these need to be skillfully drawn out through a review of the individual debrief conversations to see what is truly needed for that group of people.

Furthermore, and where the real power of 360 degree feedback lies, is in the strategic themes which inevitably emerge during the debrief conversations; if you speak with the top team in a business, you will quickly find the conversations highlight issues that are way beyond their own role.

Patterns may emerge which suggest very high-level issues such as poor vision and direction, a failure of communication from the top team downwards, a rumbling dissent among the employees which threatens to undermine the whole organisation.

We will present such findings back to the senior leadership team as a non-partisan party, and just like in a 360 debrief, ask "What do you notice?", "What is the impact of such feedback?" and "What does it suggest might be necessary organisational changes?".

360 degree feedback, correctly implemented, can go well beyond being an HR initiative and be seen as a critical tool in raising the awareness of the organisation and giving insight into what it needs to do to succeed.

John

Places for our forthcoming free seminar, "Successfully Implementing 360 Degree Feedback" have been filling up fast, so this an invitation to register for one of the last remaining 4 spaces!

To register a place & receive your invitation, just click below:

Go to seminar registration page - 4 spaces remaining

By the end of this seminar, you will: 

We really do hope you can join us for what promises to be a great morning!

Go to seminar registration page - 4 spaces remaining

Many Thanks

John

We currently have a survey open and are still welcoming feedback on people's experience of Performance Appraisal; there is an opportunity to secure a free line manager training session for your organisation if you participate, and the full results will be sent to you in a report when complete.

To participate, just follow the link below - It's a very short survey and should take no more than 2 minutes:

Implementing Performance Appraisals Survey

Results so far....

In the meantime, I thought I would share some early results and indicators which highlight some interesting insights into how organisations are implementing performance appraisals and where the difficulties may lie:

• Not unsurprisingly, every organisation was conducting performance appraisals, with nearly two-thirds of those reporting above 85% completion rates; this is very encouraging considering that 75% were running these as a paper-based process.
• Broadly two-thirds again reported that their performance appraisal process had no performance grade or rating, which then produced a similar result for those implementing 'Performance Related Pay'( PRP); the former result may seem more counter-intuitive than the latter. 
• Of the narrative questions, the responses to what would improve their performance appraisal process, the two themes which are most prominent at this stage are organisational/senior management commitment, coupled with the capabilities of Line Managers to conduct constructive appraisal conversations.

We are going to let the survey run a little longer; these early results suggest there will be some more interesting themes to share and perhaps help spark some ideas for you as to  seek to implement your own Performance Appraisal process.

John

Our popular series of 360 degree feedback seminars continues, so  we would like to invite you to reserve one of the limited number of places at our next free seminar on May 31st 2012, which is being held at:

Institute of Directors

123 Pall Mall

London

SW1Y 5ED

To register a place & receive your invitation, just click below:

Go to seminar registration page

By the end of this seminar, you will: 

We really do hope you can join us for what promises to be a great morning!

Go to seminar registration page

Many Thanks

John

We often hear of the debate regarding whether performance appraisals are worth the paper (or screen if on-line...) they are written on, so here are 5 good reasons to just stop doing them.

1. The organisation has no need to clearly define performance expectations; people know what is expected of them, so why have endless conversations about it?

2. Individuals have no interest in how their activities and tasks contribute to the overall goal of the organisation; it's just confusing and irrelevant.

3. Line Managers have enough to do without having to take time out to motivate and engage employees by providing feedback, praise, and helping them in their development & career aspirations.

4. The organisation doesn't need to identify high performers and has no need to implement any form of succession planning; it will be quite obvious to see where the 'talent' is.

5.  HR don't need to co-ordinate and align learning & development needs across the business; individuals will let us know what training they need and when.

Not sure if I need to counter this post with '5 good reasons to start doing Performance Appraisals'....what do you think?

If you want to get a balanced view and some ideas as to how you successfully implement Performance Appraisals, then check out our newly revamped Performance Appraisal whitepaper here.

John

The final step in our '3 steps to great 360 degree feedback' list; follow the links for 'Step 1 - Ask the right questions' and 'Step 2 - Follow a well-structured process'.

Step 3 - Have a great conversation around a great report

We hope you enjoyed this 3 part series of posts - If you would like to download the latest 360 whitepaper, attend a seminar, listen to a recorded webinar, have an online system demonstration or just an old fashioned chat then please get in touch.

John

Following yesterday's post which shared 'Step 1 - Ask the right questions' , we now move to the second step as part of the series "3 Steps to great 360 degree feedback".

Step 2 - Follow a well-structured process

Think through the following

• Who picks the respondents?
• What level of anonymity do I require?
• How many respondents should there be?
• (somewhere between 8 and 15 is a good guess)
• How are we going to communicate this effectively
• Explaining the 360 degree feedback process
• The invitation emails from the system
• Reminders
• Availability of reports
• Who is going to see the report?

And so on…

We are often asked what are the key components that make for great 360 degree feedback within an organisation and know that everyone loves a 'tips list'...so here is our '3 steps to great 360 feedback' list!

We are still collecting data through our brief Performance Appraisal survey and are keen to keep this open a little longer as the results so far are proving very interesting.

To participate, just click on the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NXP3FRX

We will send a copy of the results to anyone who participates and would like to receive them.

Participants will also have the opportunity to secure a free Line Manager training session on any one of the following topics:

• Seting SMART objectives conversations
• Coaching conversations
• Feedback conversations
• Appraisal conversations
• 360 degree feedback debrief conversations

These are all part of our new suite of 'Meaningful Conversations' training programmes designed to bridge the skills and confidence gap for Line Managers who wish to have more effective conversations with their team.

To participate, just click on the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NXP3FRX

Thanks

John

For those who may have missed our recent webinar, "Successfully Implementing 360 Degree Feedback", this is now available for download via the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/87b46v7

The webinar focuses on four key elements of 360 degree feedback implementation, namely:

• Design of the competency frameworks, questionnaire, and rating scale
• Understanding the different type of 360 reports; what works when
• How to build the case for 360; getting senior level 'buy-in'
• How to share the feedback report in the one-to-one debrief session

In addition, we demonstrate an online 360 degree feedback system to show how easily recipients, respondents and administrators can engage in the process if correctly designed. 

Hope you enjoy it and welcome any feedback or questions you may have. 

John

A brief post to highlight this article in the Airforce Times which describes the decision of the Airforce to introduce 360 degree feedback into the performance management of personnel.

What stood out were the comments by the primary sponsor of the new initiative, who emphasised that this was to:

"improve interactions between airmen and supervisors and not just provide a “grade” on which airmen can be judged.

The main goal is not to simply complete a form or ‘grade’ an airman on their own assessment, but to develop the airman and provide the ingredients for a successful Air Force career,” 

Nicely put; it brought to mind the Lance Armstrong book entitled 'It's not about the bike', and acted as a reminder of remaining focused on what 360 degree feedback should really be about.

John

We are delighted to have Dilip Boury, Researcher at Roffey Park Institute, provide us a very interesting post  highlighting some key points regarding performance management within organisations which have emerged from their annual 'Management Agenda' survey.

The Management Agenda 2012 survey is available as a free download via a link at the end of this post.

Roffey Park's annual Management Agenda survey 2012 finds that since the downturn, the proportion of managers reporting that their organisations are failing to tackle underperformance has increased to its highest level. What's more, organisations are failing not only to address underperformance but also to encourage and support good performance.

Failure to tackle underperformance is not only a critical issue for organisations in terms of lost productivity but also because it risks undermining the goodwill of high performing staff. However, this year nearly half of managers (46%) reported that underperformance is not tackled at all well in their organisation. This proportion has increased year on year since we began asking this question in 2007. It appears that as the economic conditions have deteriorated, organisations have put underperformance under the spotlight.

To understand why organisations were failing to address underperformance we asked managers to rate their performance management. About half reported their organisations were poor or very poor at dealing with underperformance whether through treating it as a development opportunity, confronting it or through providing performance coaching. Moreover, few organisations are adept at encouraging good performance, for example through incentivising going the extra mile and rewarding good performance.

Organisations seem best at performance process issues such as conducting scheduled performance appraisals, making it clear to people what they are expected to deliver and involving people in setting stretching but achievable goals, but even in these areas one-fifth of organisations are poor or very poor and the majority are simply ‘adequate’. It seems organisations are going through the motions of performance management but are failing to get to grips with the difficult issues. 

Now in its 15th year, Roffey Park's Management Agenda is the definitive survey that helps organisations understand what to expect in the year ahead.

To download a free copy, just click on the link below:

The Management Agenda 2012 Survey 

About the author:

Dilip has been working in applied organisational research and since joining Roffey Park in 2007. He has authored published reports for Roffey Park’s 12^th and 13^th Management Agenda surveys and an in-depth study into what enables truly effective HR Business Partnering. Dilip also conducts bespoke research for a range of clients, including the Home Office and Agencies, the Ministry of Defence, Eversheds, the National Police Improvement Agency, NHS Yorkshire and Humber and Gas Strategies, Plan International and many others. He holds an MSc in Occupational Psychology, a PG Dip in Psychology and a BA in Applied Social Science

A recent article in eGov monitor highlighting the results of a research project by the Chartered Managment Institute (CMI) and Penna, pointed to a key finding which was how organisational performance is linked to management capabilities.

No surprises there one might ponder; however, it is the strength of the link that may give pause for thought - of those organisations recognised as high performing, the percentage of respondents who deemed their line manager to be effective (80%) was double that as seen in low performing performing organisations (39%).

The report goes on to outline the associated costs attributed to poor management and draws out a series of actions which 'UK PLC' might adopt to push Management & Leadership Development (MLD) further up the agenda within businesses.

It is still sobering for us to see so many companies failing to properly invest in their line management population; perhaps the first step to seriously tackling such an issue is to take the role of Line Manager seriously in the first place.

Significant change always comes through a shift in mindset and the idea that people can just step into the role of Line Manager without considerable investment in skills development is ludicrous and ultimately costly.

John

A common question we are asked when working with clients implementing 360 degree feedback relates to how frequently they should run the process.

Many times, and for the majority of our clients, the process becomes an annual event; sometimes integrated with the performance appraisal process which by default runs every year.

Some organisations though question the need to conduct 360 feedback every 12 months; the more senior individuals will often argue that they just don't need to solicit such feedback so frequently and suggest perhaps 24 month cycles as an alternative.

On the face of it, and certainly after having run the process for a number of years, this can seem sensible and attractive; the same themes can often emerge for individuals and they start to value the process less and less.

However, I think this misses a fundamental point of 360 degree feedback and that is that it isn't just about the recipient and their desire (or lack of it) to receive feedback; rather it is an opportunity for the people around them to give feedback in a structured way, mostly anonymously, and disclose their experiences of that individual over the past year.

Whatever we might argue in saying that people should openly give feedback all year round, it shouldn't be restricted to the 360, etc, the fact is that organisations are, on the whole, 'feedback poor' and these things don't always happen as we would like.

360 degree feedback provides a useful “checking in” for recipients; an opportunity to pause for thought, once a year, and reflect on what is going well particularly with the people around them, and what they should be mindful of as part their development going forward.

John