EPS BACKSTORY
MY SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The Journey to Repair a Broken Process
EPS BACKSTORY
In the early 1980s, while working in personnel at a specialty store in Boston, I received my first performance evaluation. I can’t recall the exact details, but I remember feeling stunned and discouraged. In retrospect, this was the start of my efforts to revamp performance management.
Fast forward about ten years, when I was working to create my performance management processes. I was confident I’d finally gotten it right with each new version, yet managers still complained. I’d find myself back at the drawing board, making more tweaks, changing forms, competencies, and ratings.
I used to dismiss the complaints from managers about the annual review process. Then I became a manager; in fact, head of HR. and had two important realizations:
I discovered that the “awesome” process I’d created was, in fact, terrible. But I could only see the flaws of my well-intended system after having to write and deliver evaluations for my own team.
I learned why managers weren’t listening to me when I said, “give feedback early and often” and “no surprises at performance review time.” I discovered why they weren’t providing on-the-spot feedback to prevent patterns of underperformance from taking hold.
It turned out I was asking for something that’s really, really hard to achieve.
I realized that performance management was unfixable. It could not be changed; it had to be completely rebuilt. No more tinkering with current forms and processes or spending time with yearly reviews predicated on the assumption that we can recall, document, and assess events from the previous year. Managers and employees required direction on how to conduct frequent, smaller-scale dialogues.
So, I put in place my process for managing performance without reviewing the past and instead having ongoing conversations. Here’s how it works:
First, I replaced the rating system of “meets expectations,” “exceeds expectations,” etc. with the Employee Performance Continuum, a visual model to assess, track, and plan for performance improvements. Used correctly and applied fairly, this model provides metrics to help inform important employment decisions like pay adjustments, promotions, succession planning, and more.
Second, I created my 10-Minute Questions Conversation framework, a quick and flexible conversation guide to guarantee productive performance development conversations.
Third, I developed a program to provide managers with skills, training, and simple tools to analyze employee performance, identifying ONE thing that would help the employee become even more effective. Managers learned to use action-focused words that were “hearable” and “sayable” to address areas for focus and improvement rather than getting side-tracked talking about short-term tasks. See more about the manager’s program here.
It was the first time people didn’t complain about the process. In fact, employees and people managers thanked me, sharing anecdotal stories about improved performance and work relationships. And over the next several years, I made my program even better, using feedback and more experimentation to fine-tune the process.
My career took a turn after I started my family, and I could not continue in my 9-5 corporate career. I loved being a mother and raising my children, but I still had a passion for evolving performance management. There was more work to do, more to fine-tune. My journey wasn’t over.
I knew HR pros everywhere struggled with getting performance management right, and I wanted to share my experience. I started speaking at HR events on how to modernize performance management. To my surprise, people followed up, and I had my first four clients. In 2004, I launched my consulting practice, Employee Performance Solutions, and haven’t looked back since.
Today, continuous performance management is no longer a new concept. And given the recent changes in our work and home lives, there’s no better time than the present to implement a system that helps managers and employees work together to improve performance and set near-term priorities.
If you’re revising an existing performance management system or lucky enough to build something from scratch and want some help with your thinking please get in touch. I’m always happy to talk with another HR pro. Feel free to pick my brain about how to measure performance without ratings, change management tactics, making pay decisions without ratings, documentation without performance reviews, continuous conversations, manager and employee preparation, etc. Any issue you have is one I’ve probably dealt with, and whether I can help with a solution or not, talking with someone who is working to evolve performance management always makes my day! Click here to schedule a call.
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