There are more and more articles focussed on the new generation of graduates and school leavers entering work, often termed 'Generation Y' employees, and the implications on Performance Appraisals and Performance Management.

Despite making me feel very old, although falling somewhere just within the 'Gen X' bracket, the article did make some interesting points that highlight how a convergence of familiarity with technology coupled with a desire to have regular feedback, means that 'Gen-Y'ers' will expect a very different kind of management in the future.

It will become less and less acceptable to sit down at the end of the year and conduct a single  'Annual Appraisal'; already we are seeing our clients implementing 'Interim Reviews', 'Project Reviews' and alike, which happen throughout the year.

The transition to online performance review systems will make this process infinitely more easy than a paper-based process, and employees will expect this to become the norm, especially when technology is so prevalent in other areas of their life.

Taking this further, the ability to have web-based applications accessible from anywhere, is leading our performance appraisal solutions to now offer a 'Performance Journal' or 'Activity Log' which acts as a simple open document which both an individual and their line manager can complete throughout the year.

They add activities, acheivements, thoughts, apsirations, so that when they come to complete the necessary annual appraisal form, it is no longer a chore but simply an opportunity to reflect and easily consolidate into a better representation of their work during the year.

Gen-Y'ers will help line managers re-evaluate how they should properly performance manage for organisational success.

John

With all the different customised performance appraisals solutions we delivered in 2010 and those projects we are about to start in this year, we can see some new trends developing in what organisations want to achieve through the performance review process.

1. There is more and more emphasis on competencies within the process; the desire to assess how people behave as well as what they achieve - furthermore, feedback on these competencies is being solicited from more than just the Line Manager.

2. Longer term development needs and career aspirations are more prevalent in appraisal forms as organisations seek to manage their talent more effectively, retain people and promote from within.

3. There is a greater understanding of how setting objectives is absolutely key in the whole process; poorly set objectives lead to a poor perfomance appraisal process - we are seeing more guidance in this section of the form.

4. There is more attention being given to interim performance appraisals, be they quarterly or more, with some ability to capture achievements and progress in a performance journal or log within the online system all throughout the year.

5. The global nature of many of our clients means that multi-lingual capabilities within our systems is becoming increasingly common and something we have gleaned much experience of in the last few years.

All in all, these snapshot trends show an increasing desire on the part of organisations to really get to grips with the performance management cycle, as they look to satisfy the needs of both the individual and the organisation and make it work for all concerned.

John


 

We've been doing a lot of translating recently.  Both translating our 360 degree feeedback system and our performance appraisal service.  This reflects us gaining new clients that operate on a worldwide basis and also that some of our existing clients are broadening the reach of their system.

Generally our clients have English as their business language with much of their internal documents and meetings written or held in English.  So, why translate the 360 feedback and performance appraisal?

I certainly do not believe that they should be translated as a matter of course.  It adds a complexity and level of work that should only be undertaken where it is justified.  However, in many cases translating is beneficial.  Here's why.

Most organisations spend a great deal of time gettiing the wording right on their competency framework, questionnaire or performance appraisal form.  Much time is spent getting the precise nuance right.  Where this is the case, often someone working outside of their native language is going to struggle to pick up this nuance. 

One sensible option or compromise is to only translate the 360 questionnaire or the performance appraisal form.  Leave the main body of the system in English if all of those participating are used to working in English day-to-day.  The key element of the process - the completing of the form or questionnaire is then completed in the individual's native language ensuring the feedback is accurate and as required.

An additional point is that it is important to translate into your organisations' language as well as the country language.  One person's performance appraisal is another's annual review.  We translate first into the language (e.g. Spanish) and then we translate into the words that are relevant for the client.

Brendan

We are delighted to share the news that we are embarking on a new project to deliver a highly tailored online Performance Appraisal solution to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.

The multi-lingual system will look to replicate the WTO performance appraisal forms online and follow their performance evaluation process from setting objectives, through to mid-term reviews and the end-of-year appraisal.

Data will be shared with their Oracle HRMS platform and reports generated within the system to provide management information on status of appraisals, training & development needs, and performance ratings.

It promises to be a very interesting project which will play to our strengths as we create a bespoke performance appraisal solution that is flexible, scalable and easy-to-use.

John

One of the most important aspects of a performance appraisal form is that it tends to be used by manager's as an aide memoire during the annual appraisal meeting.

We can all picture a manager with the performance appraisal form in front of them talking things through with the employee.  We may prefer them to do something different but we'd probably accept that the uncertain manager will use the form as a prop during the meeting.

With this in mind, how we structure the appraisal form; the words we use, and the questions we ask can positively influence the conversation from afar.  We are the experts in performance appraisal, not the manager, so this is our big chance.

For example, by using a simple "look back", "look forward", "plan development" structure we can immediately help the manager to structure their thoughts.  Hopefully they will then review last year's performance, set targets for the coming year and consider what development the individual needs based on last year's performance and this year's targets.

You can follow this approach through into the detail of the form - have in the back of your mind ... "how will the manager use this".


Brendan

Just a reminder to invite you to join us for our next free webinar this Thursday 9th at 2pm BST, entitled "How to successfully implement a performance appraisal process within your organisation."

It is designed to help any HR professionals out there who may be planning to introduce or revise their performance appraisal process:

Details

What to expect

• Understand the critical factors that will ensure success when introducing a performance appraisal process into your business
• Take away a checklist to help you work logically through the implementation process
• Appreciate the key principles that will help you design a great performance appraisal form; Objective setting, Values review, Competency assessments, Score / grade,  Personal development plan 
• Consideration of what a good appraisal meeting looks like for both line manager and employee

Places will be free but limited, so if you would be interested in attending please register in the sign-up box on the right hand side of this blog and we will send you specific details by return.

We look forward to speaking with some of you again soon.

John

Following the success of previous live events and webcasts, we are pleased to announce a new webinar for September which will be a help any HR professionals out there who may be planning to introduce or revise their performance appraisal process:

Details

Picking up on my last post, emphasizing the importance of setting well-formed objectives, it has been interesting to note through our training programmes, just how difficult this step in the performance appraisal cycle proves to be for many line managers.

 

Undertaking a training session on how to set well-formed objectives probably wouldn’t feature highly in most line managers priorities, but we are seeing more and more that this module helps unlock some of the difficulties line managers struggle with further down the line; most notably, giving positive and negative feedback, coaching conversations and critically the end-of-year performance review meeting.

 

One of the key difficulties in setting ‘good’ objectives is a superficial attempt to apply the SMART template; the term is so ubiquitous that the temptation is to run through it without thinking through what it really means.

 

For example, is it ‘R’ for relevant or realistic? If it is realistic, what is the difference between that and achievable? What measures are appropriate? Is it enough to detail the tasks and activities or should the goal be solely outcome oriented?

 

Without this clarity (and practice), what results is a murky version of a SMART goal, which is nebulous and has enough ambiguity to make an honest assessment of performance almost impossible and performance appraisals a challenging task.

 

John

Love them or loathe them? Performance appraisals seem to engender strong feelings in both camps, with firm advocates for structured performance reviews seeing them as a productive and valuable process both for the individual and organisation, and as many seeing them a necessary evil that could be replaced by a blank sheet of paper and a chat.

Such polarity probably represents the very different experiences people have had both as an appraisee and an appraiser; it can go horribly worng, but it can also go spectularly right.

Setting ones own experience to one side and thinking through the purpose of performance appraisals objectively, one should come to the conclusion that an appraisal process, whether it be highly structured or very loose, is useful if it serves to improve the performance of an individual and by implication the organisation.

What we would see as the first critical step in an appraisal process improving performance would be well-formed objectives; SMART or otherwise, objectives are the key - with them, the whole process of performance management has robust foundations, but without them, all subsequent steps in the process such as coaching conversations, giving feedback, and ultimately the performance review, teeter on a house of cards.

John

A quick note to announce some new performance appraisal training programmes that we believe will support our online performance review systems.

Performance Planning
This programme helps Line Managers become skilled in setting well-formed (or SMART) objectives and outcomes for their team; it covers what objectives seek to do, the different types of objectives which suit different job roles, what a well-formed objective looks like and finally how to write and set these in a performance planning meeting at the beginning of the year.

Performance Conversations
This programme helps Line Managers become skilled in handling those all important conversations that should happen all year round; setting some great objectives at the performance planning stage is not enough, what is required is the ability to review and modify objectives throughout the year, offer positive and negative feedback and be able to coach individuals to success.

Performance Appraisals
This programme helps Line Managers tackle the end-of-year appraisal; as an event, it needs to be well prepared for, structured and followed up effectively. Delegates will learn how performance appraisals form part of a wider performance management cycle, core skills required in the appraisal and a logical structure to follow.

If any of these programmes are of interest and you would like to know more then just drop me an email at john@bowlandsolutions.com.

John

I was reading a book on long distance cycle training.  The author referred to SMARTER objectives.  The acronym was used differently, although the SMART was very similar to the HR useage.

Specific
Measurable
Agreed (he referred to sharing your goal with someone else)
Realistic
Time-phased
Exciting
Recorded

The two latter lines are the new ones to me.  Recorded is fine - it just makes sense, but exciting catches the eye.  An exciting objective in an performance appraisal sound far-fetched?  But why not?  And if exciting is too far - surely interesting is something we could look for?

Too often you see dry goals that are unlikely to drive someone to higher performance or gain personal reward from achieving the goal.

I've started training to complete a cycle ride from Land's End to John O'Groats in the UK (about 900 miles) in 9 days.  A wonderfully SMART objective - although I have dark moments where realistic is in doubt!  And I find the idea so exciting that I'm motivated for training, buying books to learn about how I can improve endurance, and putting my own milestones in place to make sure I'm on track.

Worth a thought - a SMARTER goal in an annual performance review form could lead to considerable improvement.

Brendan

It may be worth pointing out at this stage that these excerpts from our performance appraisal white paper is a suggested order of working rather than a suggested order of importance. Done properly the personal development plan should  be the most important part of the performance appraisal.   Assuming that one of the main intentions of this process is to have people improve and so lead to improved organisational performance then a development plan is the key.

The reason for the order is that we find that a practical consideration is whether the  development plan is part of the same annual appraisal meeting and form completion process as the  objectives, values, and scoring. Often it is not. Indeed, practical constraints aside we would suggest that the development plan is kept separate from the appraisal form itself. It  requires a slightly different mindset and lives in a different way.

In principle the development plan should describe the skills, knowledge, and behavioural  changes that the individual is looking to develop over the coming time period. It generally  follows that most of the development plan should flow out of the review of prior year  objectives / values and consideration of goals for the coming year. This is important and  needs guidance to those completing the form. That an individual does not know Spanish and  would like to learn the language is only relevant if 1) they need to know it for work or  2) the organisation has a value of broadening peoples abilities.

The performance appraisal form is commonly a general HR domain. The development plan must be produced in concert with the learning and development/training team. Much completing of  Excel spreadsheets can be eliminated by a well designed, online development plan.

This is an excerpt from our performance appraisal white paper.

Brendan

Your annual performance grade is something that sticks with you. It can overwhelm the whole process. But it is not the most important part of the process and indeed performance appraisal can work perfectly well without one.

If you are not looking to use the appraisal as a link to pay then consider long and hard whether you need this one line/number summary of the year.  We find it distracts the appraisal meeting and distracts the appraisal project itself – heavily influencing how objectives, values and 360s are designed and completed.

If you do need the grade (and most of our clients do) then let's consider our options.

Commonly we see two sorts of grade; a numeric grade (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4) or a narrative grade (e.g. Strong performer, Competent, Development required). What we see less commonality  on is how this grade is determined.

End of the form grade

Still the most common, there is a simple drop down box of options that the manager selects  from.

Calculated average

Seemingly growing in popularity, we see grades calculated from other ratings on the annual  performance review form, or built from grades in interim reviews across the year. The most common is to grade how objectives have been completed.

Suggested calculated average with override

A late entrant, but increasingly a request, is to calculate an average within the system and  then give an option for the manager to override the calculation - normally with a forced  narrative option to explain the discrepancy.

Forced distribution

All of the above options can be subject to a forced distribution (e.g. 20% of people will be an  A, 40% will be a B, etc.). Some form of scoring drives this distribution which can be  across the whole organisation or across departments.

360 degree feedback influenced

From scoring on 360 feedback, the annual performance review grade or evaluation is  influenced or calculated.  Take great care with this option.

I have to say our view is not set in stone here. In an ideal world I suspect we would avoid  the annual grade - it can be distracting and it can be more controversial than it is useful. But, if you are going to run performance related pay (a debate in itself) then a grade is likely to form an element of the review process. I believe then that having followed a sensible  process, managerial discretion is required on the grading. Whether that is assisted -  through averaging - isn't actually that important.

With such an important topic area, training is the key to ensuring the managers are able to  apply the chosen process in a fair manner and in a way that achieves the performance  appraisal process objectives. Managers will need training and role playing that ensures that  the gradings being presented are even across the organisation. This training can of course  be included in training on how to handle the appraisal meeting.

The above is an excerpt from our performance appraisal white paper.


Brendan

A performance appraisal offers the opportunity to discuss the values of the organisation and how the individual in their day-today work is promoting those values. A values review serves two key purposes

• Reminds all involved in the process of the values and the importance the organisation places on them
• Highlights practices that are outside of the desired values

You may wish to consider who is best placed to comment on this.

Often the manager is not best placed. Colleagues and direct reports are more likely to see the actions of an individual particularly in remote teams. 360 degree feedback is often used to gain insight into behavioural indicators – although be careful not to lose 360's key benefit of being developmental. A good manager should have enough contact with the team and colleagues to have this insight without 360 – but it is an option.

A values review can be very subjective. Compared to determining whether a well-formed objective has been achieved or partially achieved, it can be more contentious to discuss  integrity or openness.

The aim of the process here is generally to prompt an open conversation between the manager and the individual so we need something simple. A clean, rating based assessment with overall comments can offer a quick route for the manager (and perhaps the individual themselves) to give an overview and then prompt a conversation. As a matter of detail, a frequency rating scale often works well here. It is easier to answer “Displays integrity” with
Often or Very Often than it is to say Good or Excellent.

The subjective nature of values reviews also lends a problem for using their scoring for an  overall score or link to performance related pay. The benefit of linking them to pay for a  number of organisations is that it demonstrates their importance. The organisation is saying  we don't only care whether you achieve the big goals we also care how you go about the work. You have to balance the inherently difficult nature of scoring values with the benefits of demonstrating their importance.  Our instinct is to not link it to pay but it's not a hard and fast rule.

This is an excerpt from our performance appraisal white paper.


Brendan

Following on from Part 2, this is a look into the process of moving a customer's existing paper-based performance appraisal form into an electronic format, and the benefits that are associated with doing so.


Please state your objective...

Setting and reviewing objectives is a key phase of any performance review. Many customers find it useful to have some continuity on long-term objectives, revisiting those that were set in the previous appraisal.
In a paper-based workflow this would literally be a case of keeping the old form with the new one, and cross-referencing the relevant areas, or worse still, copying the objectives out onto the new form. Either approach is not user-friendly and saps time from the actual 'meat' of the process, reviewing and discussing the objectives themselves.
Electronically we can overcome these failings in several ways. Forms can be set up with the option of carrying over objectives of a particular type into the next annual appraisal form, or alternatively only incomplete objectives can be brought forward.
Either way, objectives can automatically be brought into a new performance review without any intervention by the appraisee or their manager, along with any accompanying notes or timescale information, allowing them to get on with the process itself.
Another option to encourage objectives from the appraisee is to set a minimum required number of objectives in each form. On paper, an instruction is possble, but online we can check and alert the appraisee if the mimum count is not met.

More to come soon.

Peter

I've heard it said so many times that nature is the best designer, there's something to be said for survival of the fittest. Natures designs that surround us are only there having fought off many other designs to be the best, granted there has been some evolution along the way.

I'm looking into the usability of our 360 degree appraisal and performance review tools and considering where our products need to evolve in order to meet the growing needs of our users, however, I'm now keeping in mind that some of our features have been around in some form or another since the beginning and have stood the test of time. So, maybe those features deserve to remain, albeit after some evolution of their own.

What are your thoughts? Are there features you just can't live without, features that are great, if only they had a little bit extra? Let us know!

David

Probably the most common section on a performance appraisal form is an objectives section.  Normally in two parts - review of past year, and setting of new objectives - and designed to get targets set against which the next appraisal can be assessed, I would say 90% of forms we see have this section.  But why?  A previous post on goal setting gives the background to how this section came to pass but we find a number of roles for which objective setting doesn't work that well.

There are two main categories of role that don't fit to the objectives structure.  First, are constant repetitive jobs.  Call centres, manual workers, programmers.  Most of these roles have their objectives built into the day-to-day role.  The objective is to do the day-to-day job correctly.  These jobs are better assessed by competence (can I do it) and key indicators (did I do it).  Objectives are useful for people who have a wider role within the organisation or have project work as part of their remit - which could of course include some of the examples I have given.

The second category is fast moving industry roles.  I once ran a call centre operation.  While I had an objective to answer 95% of calls within 15 seconds, frankly that was an hourly task not something I could achieve over a year - it was my job, not an annual objective.

I would rather see regular competency and indicator based assessments than force in an objectives section where it doesn't fit.  The key aim is to use the performance appraisal process to help people understand how they are performing, give guidance on improvement, and generate development plans that can be supported and implemented.

Brendan