The topic of performance management can bring dread to managers and employees alike. But a successful system can positively impact the bottom line, provide a path for achieving goals, and increase employee morale. Our Results Driven Performance Management System resources can help implement and maintain a successful strategic process. Most importantly, you will finally get your team to perform at the level you know they are capable of.

• Most performance management systems are too rigid for uncertain times
• Leaders need a new way to track and encourage high performance
• Aligned goals, ongoing feedback, and flexible metrics and incentives are key

The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic threw performance management systems into chaos -- and the reactions were telling.

The Warning Signs are there, and your company is probably not immune.

 

Which Of These Signs Have Your Experienced?

Decreased productivity.

One of the most profound and damaging symptoms of employee disengagement is a decline in the quantity or quality of an employee's work. If you notice that an employee is frequently missing deadlines or submitting subpar assignments, they may be feeling unmotivated due to disengagement from the organization. Other signs include doing the bare minimum and lacking innovative or creative thinking.

Attendance problems.

Employees frequently miss work, come in late and leave early, or take extended breaks during the day. In that case, they likely lack enthusiasm for their jobs, and their motivation is dwindling. These clear disengagement indicators will quickly harm the organization's bottom line through diminished productivity and overpaid wages.

Negativity.

While some grumbling about the stress and responsibilities of work is typical, excessive negativity is a strong indicator of employee disengagement. Do you have any employees who constantly complain about their jobs or the organization, shift blame to others, or generally exhibit a defeatist attitude at work and are unlikely to care about the organization's success or put forth their best effort? Managers must eradicate negativity because it can permeate the workforce and harm team morale.

Lack of initiative to improve.

Do you have employees who forego training and development opportunities, avoid taking on new challenges, or are hoping they can get by in their positions with minimal effort? This may be because they do not like their jobs or feel apathetic about the organization's success—in other words, they are disengaged.

They avoid activities that show an investment in the company.

One of the signs of low employee engagement is withdrawing from participating in change. They only are focusing on doing just enough to get by. This can also indicate that an employee has one foot out the door. After all, why would someone volunteer to help the team or company if they don't plan to stay?

 

No Matter What Business You're in, You're in the People Business

 

The performance management systems of many corporations are ineffective, frustrating, and too rigid for a dynamic, high-risk business environment. It's time for leaders to make a leap to a new way of managing people.

A Gallup 2021 Study Reveals Today's Employee Needs For Feedback

• Employees who receive regular feedback are more engaged
• Effective feedback is timely and relevant
• Great managers use feedback to create a development-focused culture.
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"How am I doing?" "Did that go well?" "What could I do differently next time?"

 

Employees are hungry for feedback from their leaders, managers, and peers. They want to gain insights that advance their abilities and future potential. And more than ever, feedback is pivotal for engaging employees: Gallup data show that when employees strongly agree they received "meaningful feedback" in the past week, they are almost four times more likely than other employees to be engaged.

Today's employers and managers must understand how to get the most out of their team members. That is why we designed our Performance Management That Works online training program the way we have.

 

 

Essential Characteristics of Modernized Performance Management

The new approach to performance management will have to be more collaborative, adaptive, and individualized based on conditions on the ground.

Aligned Goals

Setting and forgetting goals is no longer an option. Future uncertainty requires an aligned approach to goal setting.

Your company must have an agile and collaborative mindset that encourages employees to own their goals and expect change. Even anticipate it. Employees and managers should look for opportunities to pivot with changes to business needs and be rewarded for identifying new ways to make a positive impact. Your Managers should be given the expectation, authority, and flexibility to tailor goal setting to the team and the individual as their work changes.

Your Employees should not be surprised by performance reviews. This starts with the expectation that goals will be adapted as needed to keep them highly relevant and precisely targeted at high performance. And it ends with ensuring the goalposts don't move at the last minute, without warning.

 

Ongoing Conversations

Nearly half of employees say they receive feedback from their manager a few times a year or less. Your managers must adjust their approach to communication. The only viable management style in the future will be ongoing coaching conversations that establish a rhythm of collaboration and create shared accountability for performance and development.

However, most managers have not been using this approach and must be trained in the skills and provided the tools to do so. These conversations are more than just talk -- they will have different purposes and outcomes at weekly, monthly, and quarterly intervals. Are your managers prepared to have these effective conversations?

 

• Your managers must be ready to manage in a hybrid workplace, with some people working from home, some on-site, and others blended.
• Your managers also need to take the personal lives of team members seriously. As the pandemic showed, life outside of work has a significant impact on work itself. In uncertain times, people's emotions and moods change daily, from hope to fear.
• From now on, the only viable management style will be ongoing coaching conversations that establish a rhythm of collaboration and create shared accountability for performance and development.
• Your managers should focus on the future -- identifying opportunities, quickly communicating changes, and preparing for potential pivots. People still want to know that their long-term growth and success haven't been forgotten.

 

Great ongoing coaching conversations create a two-way street of communication that makes it easy to discuss needs and challenges and deliver highly individualized recognition. But managers aren't always naturally good at initiating frequent conversations -- and employees don't always welcome them. Imagine getting more feedback from the worst boss you've ever had!

 

Equip Your Management to Improve Team Performance

Employee needs can't be adequately met in today's business environment using traditional performance management systems. It's time to burn the boats, leave old performance practices behind, and create a performance management strategy that is adaptive, responsive, and calibrated to the new workplace.

Your management team needs the fundamentals of good management more than ever: agile goals, exceptional coaching, and high accountability systems and the training to do so. The Trial and Error Approach  Does Not Work for management training and never has. Static performance reviews, annual goals, and infrequent feedback never really cut it before the crisis, but they certainly won't cut it now. It's time to make a change.

 

Do You Want To Make the Improvements?

• Build a better system to get the best out of your people:

• Learn what we know about transforming performance management.

• Have conversations that accelerate employee performance.

• Give managers the training and development they need to lead high-performing teams.

 

In this course, you will receive everything your management team will need for a highly effective Performance Management System.

• Executive Instructor-Led Video Training provides the hows, whys, and whats of managing the performance of their employees.
• Supporting Course PDF
• All the Performance Management Tools You Will Need to Implement or Round Out Your System
• Professionally Created Monthly/Quarterly/ Annual Performance Review Form
• Discipline Written Warning Form
• Position Improvement Plan (PIP)
• Complete List of Team Competencies
• Personal Development Plan

Let's Get Started!