Performance Review Beat Down or Blueprint for Improvement?

Perspective makes all the difference.

Take a recent infographic from employee communications firm, GuideSpark, for example. At first glance, it seems to offer a pretty solid beat down of performance reviews:

• 89 percent of individuals GuideSpark surveyed don’t want their performance review feedback to be a surprise.
• 89 percent want their managers to be direct in giving performance feedback.
• 64 percent wish that their employers would focus more on their growth and development as part of their review.
• 60 percent don’t understand how their performance is measured relative to their peers.
• 56 percent say their company’s goal-setting process doesn’t help them prioritize their work.

Before you chuck your performance reviews altogether, however, consider this: these survey respondents aren’t simply grousing about what they dislike. They’re telling us exactly what we can do to improve performance reviews—and improve them in a way that will allow our people do their jobs better, grow into their full potential, and meet our expectations more effectively. These individuals are telling us precisely how we can increase their commitment and engagement levels and motivate them to accomplish more.

In other words, this data is a good thing, shedding light on how we can transform our employees’ revulsion toward performance reviews into rapture. It’s a matter of perspective.

For our money, these individuals aren’t saying, “Do away with performance appraisals.” They’re saying, “Here’s how to do my appraisal right.”

The question is … are we listening?

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Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:

@GuideSpark  

Negotiating vs. Dictating Performance Goals

Modernizing performance reviews (and performance management at large) is the subject of a recent LinkedIn post by Robert Bacal, CEO at Bacal & Associates.

In his post, Bacal offers 10 ideas to update how organizations manage performance and appraisals, including: individualize expectations even for employees doing the same job; put to bed the myth of objectivity; and realize that the purpose of reviews is improvement.

Sound advice, for sure. But Bacal’s wisest counsel was his plea for managers to negotiate goals and objectives during reviews, not dictate them. “Employees know far more about their jobs than their supervisors,” he writes, “in addition to wanting to be more involved in steering the direction of their jobs. No longer does it make sense for goals and objectives to be dictated by the manager. When employees are active in determining what they need to do to contribute to the company, you'll find higher levels of employee engagement and commitment.”

Some managers might have trouble swallowing the idea of “negotiating” goals and objectives—especially those tied to departmental and organizational targets. However, Bacal correctly points out that employees have a better, more intimate understanding of their roles and responsibilities than their managers. Smart managers put this knowledge to use in the process of managing performance effectively. If the word “negotiate” isn’t quite palatable, ask your managers to “collaborate” more with their teams regarding performance goals and objectives.

One item we take exception to is Bacal’s dismissal of ratings forms, which he flatly calls “terrible and demoralizing.” While that’s true of some ratings tools, not all are categorically terrible. Many organizations have found that modern performance management tools actually help them take a more disciplined approach to holding reviews and extracting real value from them.

For instance, with easy-to-use software in place, both managers and employees are more engaged in the review process, reviewers are more aware and respectful of timing and deadlines, reviews are completed faster, and the communication between reviewers and employees is often greatly improved.

In one of our latest case studies, Roseann Rush, Vice President of HR and Risk at PrimeSource, describes how modernizing her company’s review system improved results across the board, including raising its completion rate for reviews from 65% to 89% … slashing its annual review period by more than 50% … and making significant improvements to its documentation and communication processes. You can read about PrimeSource’s experience here.

Bottom line, for many employers, updating their tools and systems goes hand-in-hand with modernizing their approach to performance management. Doing both together can lead to long-lasting, meaningful change.

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Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:

@rbacal

Inclusive Leaders Turn Performance Reviews into Gold Mines

Attention managers and team leaders! Here’s great advice from Great Place to Work (Gulf) CEO, Ron Thomas:

“Our workforces have the ability to be a percolator of ideas and solutions if we would just turn the spigots on. Letting our employees know that we are dependent upon their ideas and thoughts has the potential for any organization to break out of the pack and shift power to the people who are closest to the issues. It’s simple: Turn them loose, unleash their powers, and watch things happen.”

Thomas shared this wisdom in a July blog post on TLNT.com, “Leaders Get More Out of People When They Don’t Wear the Crown.” He cautions leaders against buying into the notion that they’re “the ones with all the gold-plated ideas” simply by virtue of the titles and senior roles they hold. Instead, he says, leaders should remember that they’re in a position to provide useful support, guidance, mentoring and coaching—but only by treating others as their equals.

This is inclusive leadership at its finest. (See Karen Higginbottom’s interesting Forbes article on inclusive leadership here.) Indeed, the vast majority (85%) of business executives agree that inclusive leadership is an effective way to improve performance, as reported by Ernst & Young.

One way to be an inclusive leader and unleash the power of your people is to turn performance reviews into gold-mining operations. Ask individuals to bring their “gold-plated ideas” to the table at review time, and don’t end a review without asking what you can do personally to support and ensure the success of your employees’ ideas. Again, this style of leadership is about embracing the notion that you, despite your title and role, don’t have to have all the ideas and answers all the time. Remember, great leaders are great facilitators. Help your people put their knowledge, experience and ideas to good use and they’ll love you for it.

Inclusive leaders also often practice behavior modeling (showing by personal example the actions and behaviors you want from employees). This isn’t done merely to set an example. Behavior modeling delivers actual business results. As we noted in a prior post, research from Catalyst illustrates that employees who observe selfless behavior in their managers are more likely to report feeling included and engaged in their work and their teams. They also report feeling more innovative, suggesting new product ideas, and going beyond the call of duty, among other benefits.

One of the greatest advantages of inclusive leadership is that it unleashes the intelligence and creativity of your entire team. This means you no longer have to be the sole source of great ideas 24/7. And when you’re no longer trying to shoulder that heavy burden alone, you just might find yourself becoming a happier, more effective leader.

The Importance of Discretionary Effort—and How To Inspire It

We sparked some interesting conversation when we mentioned Aubrey Daniels in a recent post about the need for more frequent performance reviews.

You might recall that Daniels was among the first individuals to champion the notion of applying behavioral science to the workplace. As a result, he’s widely known as “the father of performance management.” In discussing our post, some people told us that they’re fans of Daniels’ work. Others said that, while important, his ideas focus too heavily on performance optimization and the bottom line—i.e., wringing the maximum amount of hours and effort out of every single employee.

To be fair, that’s not really true.

It is a fact that Daniels’ company focuses on enabling organizations to capture “discretionary effort” from employees. (Discretionary effort is that which goes above and beyond the minimum level required to a job.) But Daniels’ company doesn’t advise clients to extract greater effort at all costs. In fact, its approach to performance management advocates that employers manage their people with sensitivity and manage performance based on behavioral measurement and analysis, ongoing performance feedback to employees, and positive rewards.

Obviously, Daniels’ behavior analysis-focused approach to performance management will not work for or appeal to every organization. No approach does. In fact, Reviewsnap doesn’t agree with every precept or opinion Daniels and his company espouse. But we do agree with the basic concept that the true heart of great performance management is frequent and ongoing measurement, feedback and positive reinforcement. And we firmly believe that performance reviews can be the vehicle that supports and helps to deliver all of these elements—as long as reviews are conducted properly. We also believe that proper performance reviews are instrumental in capturing discretionary effort.

For those who want a fresh look at Daniels’ approach to performance management, check out an interesting post that appeared in Aubrey’s Blog in July, “Overworked? Could Reducing Workloads be the Key to Improved Results?”

At one point, the post states: “… oftentimes we find that people confuse discretionary effort with increasing the volume of work. Discretionary effort is about outcomes, not hours worked. It is about achieving business results through fluency in critical behaviors. It is about identifying and reducing the behaviors that don’t have business impact and focusing on the behaviors that do.”

Performance management isn’t about squeezing more and more from your employees. It’s about placing them in the right roles, aligning them closely to the company’s goals and mission, and giving them the direction and support they need to reach their full potential. That’s how we get sustained discretionary effort from our people.

One more note on this topic …

In his post, “What Exactly Is Discretionary Effort?”, consultant and speaker, Jason Lauritsen, points out that most of us assume discretionary effort and employee engagement are closely intertwined. After all, an unengaged employee isn’t going to be dishing out a lot of discretionary effort, right? However, Lauritsen suggests, “discretionary effort is less a matter of engagement than it is of performance.” He also calls into question management’s expectations where engagement and discretionary effort are concerned. Bottom line, Lauritsen believes the time has come to redefine our terms.

It’s intriguing stuff. Then again, isn’t everything in the world of performance management?

Performance Management Should Begin Before We Hire Someone

When most of us hear the term “performance management,” we think of performance appraisals, mentoring, employee learning and development—all of the things that happen well after we hire people into our organizations.

But savvy employers know that truly effective performance management starts before we hire someone. It starts with finding and recruiting the right people.

Who are the right people? Danny Gutknecht, co-founder and CEO of Pathways, offers this insightful definition: “individuals whose attitudes, behaviors, mindsets and goals are closely aligned with those of your organization.” Gutknecht also advises employers aiming to raise the bar on their performance management to get a clear picture of what makes their best people a great fit for the organization, then hire others like them.

The upshot of Gutknecht’s counsel is clear: hire individuals who are closely attuned to your organization and your best people, and their performance will be in sync with your needs, goals and mission. As a result, your performance management won’t require a lot of heavy lifting—i.e., you won’t need to do extensive behavioral and performance modification or costly replacement of these individuals. The performance management you provide will be largely positive and developmental rather than punitive and correctional.

So how do you go about finding people who are closely aligned to your organization and who match up to your best people? For many employers, talent assessment tools are the answer.

There are a multitude of assessment tools available to today’s employers. Gutknecht’s company, for example, conducts Essence MiningTM to uncover the intrinsic nature and key characteristics of an organization and its people. Harrison Assessments and Shadowmatch USA, among others, focus on behavioral tendencies and competencies to predict performance. Still other tools are personality-based.

Finding the right assessment solution for your organization is, of course, a matter of fit. It has to meet your needs and goals but it also has to suit your company culture.

A recent article on the SHRM website, “Testing for Talent: An HR Case Study,” presents an interesting case study of the Barnum Financial Group and its use of an assessment tool to guide its coaching, communications and teamwork initiatives. The article also offers four helpful tips (which we’ve paraphrased below) to anyone searching for the right assessment tool for their organization:

1.     Be precise about what you want to accomplish.

2.     Forge a rough consensus among management about the tool that best fits the culture of your organization.

3.     Complete the assessment yourself to gauge its accuracy.

4.     Keep budget in mind, as you’ll need to make both an initial investment and an ongoing one.

Without question, performance management encompasses all of the activities we engage in after hiring an individual—conducting performance reviews, providing coaching, delivering developmental opportunities, and all the rest. But if we’re wise, we’ll remember that the most effective performance management actually begins before any of these activities take place. It begins with making the right recruiting and hiring decisions.

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To read more about our thoughts on performance management, click here to download our whitepaper, “From Dread to Moving Ahead — Take the Pain Out of Performance Management.”

The Case for More Frequent Performance Reviews

Aubrey Daniels, the clinical psychologist who is often called “the father of performance management,” believes the performance appraisal process is flawed and in need of radical change at many organizations today. The biggest problem, he believes, is that reviews happen too infrequently.

He’s right on both counts.

To drive results-oriented performance, we need to change how we conduct reviews, which we’ve written about previously. Please click the images below to read these posts.

We also need to make frequent, one-on-one meetings with employees the backbone of performance management. But this is exactly the challenge for many of the managers we speak with—they have no idea how to squeeze recurring meetings into their already hectic schedules.

In a Forbes article titled, “The Secret To Effective One-On-One Meetings With Direct Reports,” leadership coach and author Kristi Hedges summarizes some of the key roadblocks that keep managers from actually holding more frequent performance-related discussions with their direct reports. These roadblocks include managers’ uncertainty about how to structure such meetings … how to ensure these meetings are productive … and how to avoid turning them into one-way delegation sessions. Another concern is that these meetings will uncover “simmering conflicts or complaints” that will require significant time and effort to resolve.

All are legitimate concerns. However, Hedges offers managers helpful insights on how to implement and make the most of more frequent one-on-one meetings. Her tips include: create an actual schedule and a structure for these meetings; discuss the employee’s needs and issues as well as your own; and be sure to manage accountabilities.

One of the key aspects of frequent performance-oriented meetings is that they should not be heavy-duty critique sessions. Good people don’t need to be micromanaged. (A recent Business Insider article highlights the dangers of micromanagement, for those interested.) These get-togethers should be more about discussing employees’ needs and concerns—for instance, the things that may be getting in the way of carrying out their day-to-day responsibilities

Employees want and need our assistance to achieve their full potential, and this is precisely where more frequent performance-oriented discussions can help.

Of course, this doesn’t mean your people don’t want to speak with you or hear your feedback on a regular basis. In fact, they do. Research has long shown that employees want clear communication from their managers regarding what’s expected of them (responsibilities), what they’re doing right (recognition), what they’re doing wrong (constructive criticism), and what they need to do to advance their careers (development and career guidance).

When you think about it, the “I don’t have time” argument against more frequent performance meetings doesn’t really hold water. The truth is we can’t afford to not make the time.

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To read more about the power and potential of sound performance management, click here to download our whitepaper, “Bridge the Gap Between Your Performance Reviews and Employee Development—or Both Are Primed To Fail.”

Client Story: York College of Pennsylvania

Since opening its doors in 1787, York College of Pennsylvania has maintained a sterling reputation as a “center of affordable academic excellence.”

But in 2010, after more than two centuries of distinction, the College decided that one thing needed to change: its performance review process.
 

Its legacy process—labor-intensive and spreadsheet-driven—was no longer keeping pace with the needs of its busy staff and employees. The paperwork alone was causing delays and frustration for everyone involved, said Vicki Stewart, the College’s Director of Human Resources. The time for change had come.

Click here to download our most recent case study and learn more about the benefits York College of Pennsylvania has
experienced with Reviewsnap.

The Art of Effective Performance Reviews

Conducting a great performance review is a bit of an art.

Managers who are just learning this art often ask us what they should be talking about—other than specific performance targets—with their people during reviews. In addition to the fine details (specific performance goals, noteworthy achievements, critical skill gaps, “reach” projects, future potential roles, etc.), we advise managers to ask questions that will help them understand the “big picture” where each individual is concerned.

This is where the “art” of performance reviews enters.

Managers need to ask the right questions and use the right probing techniques to learn the truth about crucial performance-related issues—for example, how employees feel regarding their own performance, the appropriateness of their responsibilities, their interactions with coworkers, their contributions to the department, their commitment to the company itself, and their feelings about the future, among other things.

Interestingly, Forbes recently published an article, 9 Things You Should Tell Your Boss At Your Next Performance Review, which is obviously written as advice for workers. But managers should read the article as well, and consider using a number of its key points to guide their performance review conversations. For instance, the first four items on the list are: 1) what makes you happy; 2) how you want to grow; 3) what you’d really like to work on; and 4) how you envision the future.

These are actually perfect examples of the issues managers should be talking about during reviews (in addition to the more prosaic performance matters noted above). In other words, don’t wait for employees to bring up these topics. Bring them up first by asking your reports about them. Doing so will help you dial into their perspectives, needs and interests—all of which are crucial to effectively managing their performance and developing them. Plus, you’ll send a clear signal that you care about how employees are feeling, not just trying to squeeze the most work out of them. That’s the kind of manager people want to work for.

Address some of the issues covered in the Forbes article and you’ll not only create an artful performance review … but you’ll also go a long way toward creating a meaningful one.

Goal Setting Works. But Avoid Those Goals Gone Wild.

Helping employees set achievable performance goals delivers substantial benefits.

Goal setting helps employees prioritize their work and focus their day-to-day efforts effectively. It lets them know exactly what they’ll be measured on (in part) during performance reviews. It can facilitate their communication and interaction with managers. And it shows them how important their personal contributions are to department, functional and overall company targets. In short, it’s astounding how much impact goal setting can have on our bottom line and competitive strength.

Done well, goal setting also is a tremendous tool for motivating our people and fostering greater levels of engagement—especially when managers and employees create goals together and work collaboratively to set expectations.

The Human Resources function at MIT does a great job of reminding us how this is possible. The Performance Development page of its website not only instructs readers on the basics of goal setting but it also shows how to tie goal setting to employee development plans.

One of the truly insightful things MIT offers is a set of best practices for bolstering basic goal-setting strategies. These best practices include (and we’re paraphrasing):

·      Ensure there is alignment among an individual’s goals, her/his actual job responsibilities and the department’s targets. (You’d be surprised how easily these components can slip out of alignment without ongoing attention.)

·      Consider an employee’s needs—not just the department’s needs—when setting goals.

·      Communicate department goals to the entire group as a whole, not just individuals. This helps foster clarity and cohesion among the team.

·      Incorporate special projects, committee assignments and mentoring relationships into goal setting.

·      Once achieved, use goals as stepping-stones to new goals and assignments.

While some of these practices might seem rudimentary to more sophisticated organizations, many small to medium employers will benefit significantly from these suggestions.

Interestingly, there have been a few studies showing how poor and/or overblown goal setting can actually be dangerous. A few years ago, Forbes published an article featuring a report by Wharton operations and a team of researchers titled, “Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting.” Essentially, the bulk of the research showed that “overly ambitious targets” have profoundly negative consequences. Just goes to show you that too much of anything—even a good thing—can be bad.

Bottom line, help your employees set limited, realistic goals … and be sure to avoid those nasty goals gone wild.

Hating on Performance Reviews—and the Old Switcheroo

"Study finds that basically every single person hates performance reviews.”

With a headline like that, it’s no wonder a recent Washington Post article continues to get attention. The problem is it’s not true—not even according to the research the article cites as its

source.

The research was conducted by psychologists at Kansas State University, Eastern Kentucky University and Texas A&M University, who “looked into how people respond to negative feedback they receive in a performance review,” according to the article. It also says the researchers “asked 234 staffers at a large southwestern university to rate their feelings about a performance review they received three months earlier.”

Based on those facts, it’s a little difficult to understand how the Washington Post can justify the headline it ran. Okay, it’s VERY difficult to understand. But we definitely understand why they ran it: it’s a sure-fire attention grabber. It’s like a lot of recent headlines that hate on performance reviews.

Although it seems fairly obvious, we’d like to point out that there’s a significant gap between everyone hating performance reviews and a few statistics showing 234 individuals at one university generally don’t like getting negative feedback during a review (who does?) and some portion also disliking a recent review.

If this research does highlight anything it’s not that everyone despises performance reviews. It’s that many managers continue to do a less than stellar job of conducting reviews. If they truly want to help drive employee performance effectively, managers need to learn to be more constructive, guiding and mentoring—even when they’re providing negative feedback.

The Washington Post article is really just the latest in a long line of articles that pull the old headline switcheroo. Dozens of pundits and bloggers have written headlines like, “It’s Time To Eliminate Performance Reviews,” and then offered advice on how to conduct performance reviews properly. Clearly, it’s a popular attention-getting device.

Even so, performance reviews continue to be a necessary and effective tool for helping our employees grow, develop and even excel. But we need to conduct reviews appropriately and in ways that reinforce our employees’ commitment to doing the best work they can.

To read more about performance review best practices and how to rethink your appraisal process, download our white paper, From Dread to Moving Ahead - Taking the Pain Out of Performance Management.

Can Performance Reviews Actually Help You Improve Employee Engagement?

The simple answer is yes—if you leverage reviews to develop targeted learning plans for your employees. More on this in a moment …

Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report is an ongoing study of employee engagement in the workplace, and it contains more than a few striking statistics. Here are two

that hit us like a sledgehammer:

·       Only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work.

·       In the United States, 30% of employees are engaged at work.

The good news (if you can call it good) is that our domestic engagement rate tops the global average. But it still leaves a lot to be desired. A stunning 70% of our workforce is either only moderately engaged or outright disengaged from their work.

The Gallup Business Journal website recently published an article titled, “5 Ways To Improve Employee Engagement Now,” which is worth reading. It offers sound insights on how to gather truly accurate engagement data from your own workforce, where to focus your engagement improvement efforts, and why frontline managers are so critical in building and maintaining employee engagement.

Another powerful way to enhance your organization’s engagement levels is to leverage information from performance reviews to help you develop targeted learning plans for each of your employees.

This is an often-overlooked strategy for building engagement because many managers treat performance reviews as a mere formality or a necessary evil. The fact is every performance review is an opportunity—an opportunity for managers to develop and mentor their people, and an opportunity to gather crucial information about the areas in which employees excel and struggle. This information is developmental gold. It should be used as the basis for selecting learning curriculum that will build up strength and close skill gaps.

By developing targeted learning plans for your employees, you openly demonstrate your commitments to them. You actively support their personal and professional growth. And you significantly boost their chances of advancing within the organization.

This won’t go unnoticed by your employees. Indeed, they’ll reward you with their loyalty and a deeper level of engagement.

Mirror, Mirror: Who’s the Fairest in Engagementland?

For those of us prone to mirror-gazing and taking stock at this introspective time of year, here’s something worth pondering: are we really doing what it takes to nurture employee engagement within our companies?

It’s a fair question, especially when you consider the powerful benefits that derive from

superior employee engagement, e.g., enhanced productivity, improved innovation, greater profitability and reduced turnover, to name a few. The media has been filled with stories about these benefits and about the incentives that employers use to raise engagement levels.

But far less has been written about the attributes shared by companies that enjoy superior employee engagement. A notable exception is the Hay Group’s report titled, “What it takes to become a high performing company.”

In addition to highlighting the key attributes of companies with high employee engagement, the report also calls attention to this critical fact: companies boasting high engagement levels also are high-performing companies. They’re industry leaders in terms of their financial performance. “Indeed, these organizations roughly double industry averages on five-year ROA, ROI and ROE,” the authors write.

As the report shows, here are a few of the key attributes shared by high-performing, high-engagement companies:

·      They treat employee development as a priority. “Employees in high performing companies offer more favorable views of their ability to improve their skills in their jobs. As a result, they are more confident about their ability to achieve their career objectives by continuing to work for the company.”

·      They treat employees with great regard. “Those organizations that show a high regard for employees are more likely to find them willing to go above and beyond the formal requirements of their jobs, pour extra effort into their work, and deliver superior performance.”

·      They have leaders who lead. “Good leadership is widely known to make a significant difference to bottom-line performance … High performing companies are viewed as having effective leadership, leaders (whom) employees can trust and have confidence in, and leaders whose actions and behaviors are consistent with company values.”

·      They keep employees aligned with business goals. “High performing companies help employees to feel fully aligned with the organization by ensuring that strategies and goals are clearly communicated to employees and that employees are regularly informed about business plans and results.”

Again, these are just some of the attributes covered in the report, which also offers related statistical data for you digits-driven thinkers.

Clearly, as responsible employers and HR professionals, we need to give these attributes our serious consideration. But for those of us interested in transforming our companies into high-performance dynamos, our consideration isn’t enough. We must actively nurture these attributes in the New Year.

4 Trends That Are Transforming Performance Management and Organizational Learning

At its core, performance management is all about giving our people the information, resources and guidance they need to achieve specific goals. Sounds simple enough. Of course, the devil is in the details.

One reason performance management is so challenging—the business world isn’t static. Our organizations evolve. Our business goals and targets shift. Our customers’ needs change. Some of these changes occur swiftly while others take time. But there’s no stopping them.

It’s a good thing, then, that significant changes are occurring to the tools, technologies and techniques at our disposal for managing performance and developing our employees. In fact, here are four trends that are on their way to becoming standard operating procedure for improved performance management and corporate learning:

1.     Bring your own device (BYOD) policies—Many companies are adopting these policies for a variety of reasons including their cost-effectiveness, their appeal to younger workers, and the 24/7 connectivity mobile devices provide to workers who travel frequently and work remotely. In addition, a growing cadre of talent management and learning/development providers are now delivering mobile solutions as part of their offerings, which enable companies to share powerful tools and resources with their people in exciting new ways. (See Gartner’s interesting research on BYOD here.)

2.     Bite-size learning—This refers to the practice of breaking topics and lessons into smaller, more “digestible” pieces. The rationale: to enhance retention of information and to allow busy employees to consume a topic in a few minutes. It also makes learning incredibly more effective in the age of the mobile, fluid, and multi-generational workforces.

3.     Location-based learning—This is the kind of learning you see taking place in museums and tourist sites. The learner is presented information on the spot via sound, images or text—or a mix of these three. Sound is delivered through headphones or speakers while images and text are delivered to a variety of devices including smartphones, laptops, tablets or screen projectors. Smartphones, in particular, have dramatically increased the popularity of location-based learning.

4.     Cloud computing—The “cloud” offers a convenient and inexpensive way to access an increasing selection of tools designed to help organizations track and improve employee performance, learning and development. Cloud-based solutions eliminate the need to update software manually, and they facilitate the easy sharing of information, resources and tools (especially those related to learning programs and knowledge sharing). Plus, cloud-based solutions are particularly attractive to enterprise organizations and companies with large, dispersed workforces.

Without question, those of us who want to improve all aspects of performance management—from assessments to learning and development programs to compensation management—need to take better advantage of these concepts and technologies.

For most of us, this means arming our companies with systems and solutions that enable us to do several key things well:

·       Empower our learning leaders to easily create development goals and recommend specific learning activities based specifically on an employee’s performance appraisal ratings.

·       Give employees easy access a full external learning curriculum that supplements our internal training and development content.

·       Provide our people with online access to a comprehensive learning management system.

·       Provide our managers with real-time access to reporting analytics and transcripts of learning activities.

The more we embed these strategies into our business cultures, the better we’ll become at building workforces that deliver real competitive advantages.

Interested in reading further about the convergence of talent management and transformational technologies? Download our white paper, “Performance Assessments in an Increasingly Mobile World,” which is available here.

Five Advantages of Automated Scheduling for Employee Reviews

Employee reviews can be cumbersome. In some cases, they take time away from daily tasks and can be stressful for both managers and employees. As a result, they often get pushed aside in favor of handling a big project or conflicts with vacation time.

Employees who are interested in how they're progressing may have to wait several weeks or months
before they are reviewed. This can have a ripple effect. By using an automated process for scheduling reviews, the stress of missed performance evaluations can be eliminated. Here are five advantages to converting to this process.

• No surprises. Automated appointments on the calendar create a system where managers don't get a last-minute notification of reviews. This reduces a feeling of urgency and stress that can be avoided by the advanced notice and a chance for both the employee and supervisor to be prepared.
• Automated scheduling. An annual review or six-month evaluation that occurs at regular intervals and on time provides consistency. It helps employees learn how they are progressing, gives them confidence and enables them to prepare in advance to meet their goals.
• Budget effects. Implementation of performance evaluations sometimes affect an employee's salary. When evaluations are pushed back or skipped altogether, this can skew budget projections. For companies using a fiscal year and use-it-lose-it budget framework, this can have a problematic snowball effect.
• Employee morale. If a raise is tied in to a performance review that comes late or not at all, employees may feel cast aside when their reviews are missed. This can impact morale and performance.
• Friendly reminders. For some people with busy schedules, the reminder feature of performance review software is a notable advantage. It keeps them on task and fills in their calendar to prevent rescheduling and missed deadlines.

Automated scheduling keeps everyone in the evaluation loop on track, providing better results and increased engagement for the employee which makes the manager's job easier in the long run.