You walk into the manager’s office and close the door. It has been nearly a year since you last sat in this room. Today is your yearly performance review, but as you both shuffle papers, you haven’t a clue what is going to be discussed.
You’ve done great work, but does your manager know that? When’s the last time the two of you discussed your objectives, or you received any kind of feedback? Every day you work hard, but what’s it all amounting to?
If this scene is familiar, or if your organization also struggles with performance management, you’re certainly not alone. It’s a common problem for companies, especially during performance reviews. At KeenHire, we traced performance management issues to a few deficiencies, specifically a lack of performance indicators, misplaced priorities and improper managerial training.
Optimize Performance Indicators
Without clear, established performance indicators, it’s difficult for both managers and employees themselves to measure success. Many times, a manager will establish performance metrics, but won’t develop a way to effectively measure and track those indicators.
Along those lines, if metrics are not tied to a company’s objectives or if the position lacks a well-defined purpose, it’s hard to measure an employee’s long-term success or improve corporate performance.
Improve Performance Management – Make It Priority No. 1
If a company doesn’t consistently dedicate time and resources to performance management, it won’t develop a culture of ongoing growth, especially if performance reviews are conducted on just a yearly basis.
Without feedback from managers, employees can’t improve performance, learn and grow. Also, without regular interaction, the employee-manager relationship suffers, which directly impacts the effectiveness of performance reviews. If managers don’t understand the day-to-day activities of their employees, how can they accurately evaluate corporate performance?
Performance Management 101
If managers are not trained in how to provide effective, meaningful feedback, no matter how accurate a position’s performance metrics or how regular evaluations are, a performance review is still destined to fail.
Especially if managers don’t like to give criticism, reviews can become overly lenient, biased and ultimately ineffective, which makes performance improvement difficult.
The KeenHire Solution
At KeenHire, we believe to optimize performance management systems you need a strong, well-designed hiring process. Without a good hiring practice, companies fail the first test of performance management – matching the right people to their ideal position.
However, most companies have problems with performance management because they either have not identified clear metrics for effective performance on the job