Do Your Performance Reviews Really Help Your Employee’s Motivation and Productivity?

Insights by Gallup and Michael Griffin

According to Gallup, only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve.

Gallup recently wrote an article on the negative impacts of yearly performance appraisals (PA) and some insight into what might me better alternatives. You may reference the Gallup article by a link at the end of this blog.

Yearly performance appraisals are stressful for both the supervisor and the employee being “rated.” Here are some of the possible outcomes: 1) the supervisor just rates “agree” or “very good”? on 90% of the questions to keep harmony with the employee and HR, 2) the employee in December hears again about the problem s/he had last February, bringing up bad feelings again that lead to employee demotivation, 3) the supervisor in poorly prepared for the PA due to lack of skill and motivation in giving feedback, and, 4) nothing improves by the end of the PA as both parties needed to just “tick the HR box” and be released from the stressful PA experience.

My +30 years of HR experience has revealed that year end PA’s , if required, should be a “celebration” of what the supervisor and employee already know because regular and constructive collaboration and feedback all year long. Better yet, dump the PA, and celebrate the year and focus forward on the upcoming year’s goals and challenges. This observation is borne out by the Gallup research:

“Gallup has found that when managers provide weekly (vs. annual) feedback, team members are:

• 5.2x more likely to strongly agree that they receive meaningful feedback

• 3.2x more likely to strongly agree they are motivated to do outstanding work

• 2.7x more likely to be engaged at work

Needless to say, the best performance management systems encourage frequent, meaningful manager-employee conversations.”

Let’s outline how your managers can provide regular, meaningful supervisor-employee conversations that lead to year-long collaboration and motivation for both the boss and team members.

• Review & update the job specifications for both the supervisor and employees. This can be done with a discussion with the boss and employee. It can lead to improved buy-in on the job, KPI’s and processes to boost productivity.

• Ensure leaders and team members are trained & can set clear and achievable goals for day to day work, projects and tasks related to continuous improvement. You may think “Dah!” It is amazing how many managers set poor goals that lead to poor employee feedback that does not inspire.

• Set up Team Scorecards that built by the team and supervisor. Effective scorecards focus on leading KPI’s and less on the lagging KPI’s. Review the scorecards with the team on a monthly, or at least a quarterly basis. Kaplan & Norton’s Balanced Scorecard books and research can help you here.

• Conduct Daily Kick-off Meetings as recommended by Verne Harnish of Gazelles, Inc. The analogy is like in sports where the coach gets the team in a huddle just before the game. I hold a daily kick off meeting with my core team that allows each team member to review the day before success stories and “war” or failure stories followed by their agenda for the day. This kick off meeting builds high trust and sharing and allows for affirmation as well feedback to fail forward.

• Gallup states “Early evidence suggests that when organizations replace annual reviews with more frequent or more subjective systems, but don't provide sufficient training, they quickly discover their managers don't know how to talk to employees.”

• ELAvate experience coaching & training over 500 organizations across Asia Pacific identified these Foundational Coaching Skills need to be regularly practiced by supervisors to build trust and collaboration with employees and teams:

  • Active Listening with Excellent Questioning Skills

  • Goal Setting

  • Communicating Work and Assignments

  • Developing Others

  • Giving Recognition

  • Providing Constructive Feedback

  • Encouraging Diversity

  • Problem Solving

  • Team Leadership

  • Managing and Inspiring Different Personalities

• You may notice that if your leaders are fluent in these foundational coaching skills, they will be fluent in performance discussions no matter what time of the year!

• In Asia, harmony and remaining quiet during times of stress can be the norm. Managers need to have excellent Emotional Intelligence to be aware of not just the individual or team goals or tasks, but the feelings and emotions surrounding goals, tasks, projects and relationships among the team members. This EQ awareness can support the manager in how s/he communicates to team members with respect and empathy.

• Finally, don’t forget to “celebrate” individual successes by giving recognition, and having that “Celebration of What We Already Know” the end of your financial year.

If you wish to discuss how ELAvate helps leaders learn and get results from coaching skills or how to dump your PA system to inspire productivity contact me direct.

Here is the link to the Gallup article on ending performance appraisals.

Michael J Griffin
CEO & Founder of ELAvate
Corporate Performance Consultant
Maxwell Leadership Founding Member
michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com
+65-91194008 (WA)