My Three Essential Resources for Modernizing Your Performance Management Process.

#1.  Yes, you can and should measure employee performance without ratings.

Are you feeling stuck with your annual review and rating process because you need something to measure performance and help make pay decisions?  Is this preventing you from transitioning to the more modern process of continuous performance management (ongoing conversations)?  

Yes, you're right to want a system that continues measuring performance.

Yes, you also know that the traditional route, annual reviews, and rating scales like "Meets Expectations" fall way short of what you need. 

Try using the Employee Performance Continuum (download the paper version and let us know if you're interested in the online platform). 

With the Four-Square Employee Performance Continuum, you can:

• Measure and track performance
  
  
• Use this information to help inform pay and other
  employment decisions
  
  
• Identify your high-potential and ready-for-more-responsibility employees
  
  
• Identify and course-correct under-performing employees

We can help you apply the model, but go ahead, print the worksheet, and try it out!  There's nothing to lose :-)  

#2.  Yes, you can make pay decisions without ratings.  We'll show you how.

Performance review ratings are normally used to help partially or completely guide pay decisions.  If you're looking for alternatives and want to know how to make pay adjustments without ratings, you'll first need to measure performance (use the Employee Performance Continuum Model).

From there, you can check out the model with example pay increase percentages that correspond to the employee's placement on the Continuum (Work Results + Observed Behavior). 

Performance is only one factor in making pay decisions.

Take a step back and consider the factors beyond performance that impact pay decisions.  Here are some examples:  

• Budget
  
  
• Market Pay
  
  
• Revenue
  
  
• Pay Equity
  
  
• Union Agreements
  
  
• Country Laws

So, when you think about it, performance reviews, particularly ratings, aren't the be-all and end-all.  

Figure out the "making pay decisions without ratings puzzle," and you'll have one less roadblock to ditching annual reviews for something better.  

Get in touch if you want advice on how to apply the model, but go ahead, print the worksheet, and try it out!

#3.  Here's a 1-page Performance Management Manager's MS Word Fillable Form.  

THIS FORM CONTAINS THE THREE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF A PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE CONVERSATION "CHUNKED" INTO SMALLER PIECES WITH WRITING PROMPTS.

This one-page performance review form is not your typical performance evaluation.  The focus is on what's working now and how to be more effective in moving forward.  I suggest using this as a  replacement for your annual performance appraisal to create more of a performance-development style conversation between managers and direct reports.  

1. Managers using this form learn how to write meaningful content that can be used to facilitate a productive and engaging performance conversation
   
   
2. You can add your organization's competencies or values to the form

If your managers need to complete annual performance review forms, then the least you can do is make the ritual less menacing by shortening the form and eliminating redundancy. 

See how the employee
performance continuum works

Continue assessing performance and use this information to drive the right conversations between your managers and employees