How To Cultivate A Performance Management Culture
(written based on guidance by Hollie Altice, Director, HR Consulting)
Building a culture of performance management is crucial for any organization. It can either make or break the company’s success. Motivated employees are necessary for making an impact, and motivated employees are born out of a successful performance management culture. That is why we’ve compiled a list of our top five things to focus on when building a high-performance culture.
Firstly, know your organizational values. Ask yourself what your company stands for and whether your employees align with your values. If they don't, take action because values drive company and employee behavior.
Secondly, job descriptions should be clear to ensure employees understand their roles. While documenting everything an employee does isn't necessary, we advise having a document outlining where their time should be directed. If employees don’t know where they are going, they won’t know how to get there!
Help support achievement by creating goals that are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-based (S.M.A.R.T). You can pick another system if you wish, but the point is to see if someone met their goal with 100% certainty and without ambiguity. This way, performance can clearly be measured. In addition, and most importantly, goals should be aligned to company VALUES.
Managers should meet with employees frequently to drive engagement and ensure that feedback is never surprising. We say all the time–the worst reviews are the bad ones that employees did not know were coming.
Finally, feedback is essential. Employees must be able to communicate with managers, and managers should communicate with their teams.
A high-performance culture takes work–constant adjustment, open communication, and feedback. What’s the saying? “Nothing hard ever comes easy.” It's the same for a high-performance culture. You have to work at it EVERY day!
