It’s that time of year where people feel inclined to commit themselves to numerous resolutions and ways to change their life for the better.  And alongside that annual appraisals tend to pop up and we ask employees to rate themselves on the previous years performance and set new objectives for the year ahead.  This can be quite overwhelming and I’m not sure, given what I’ve seen throughout my career, of the value in that overwhelm. 

Since setting up Colliver Consulting and working with small businesses, I’ve been a big advocate for continuous performance management.  I’m sure you’ve all heard of the term but what does it actually mean in practice?

Continuous performance management seeks to create a culture where employees own their development and give and receive feedback on a regular basis. 

 What are the benefits of reviewing performance regularly?

There are many but here are some of the top ones:

1.      It encourages development

By shifting the focus to a growth mindset, people are able to own their own development.  As long as your managers are equipped to coach them through this and you as a company are willing to invest in them, then they will do the rest.

2.      It engages employees by giving them real time feedback

Training and development are massive engagement drivers and so is feedback.  Part of a continuous review approach is encouraging regular two-way feedback.    Feedback provides a sense of belonging and purpose and makes people feel appreciated – all factors in driving engagement.

3.      People’s goals change with the direction of the company

There is nothing worse than reviewing a goal you set 12 months previously and realising the project didn’t take off or it was completely out of line with the direction the company was heading.  By continuously reviewing goals the irrelevant ones can be scrapped or changed in real time.   People then feel motivated to perform in the direction their role or the company takes them (rather than being measured against potentially outdated goals).

4.      It identifies training and stretch opportunities for employees

Training and stretch opportunities are key and as part of a continuous review approach I strongly encourage conversations about peoples short- and long-term career plans.  We don’t want to lose our good staff but by training and developing them whilst they may choose to leave you will also reap the benefits of increased productivity and engagement.

And the flip side is, if you don’t focus on training and development they won’t reach their full potential and will probably leave anyway.  Monster reported in 2021 that 45% of surveyed employees said they would have been more likely to stay in their current jobs if they were offered more training.  The Workforce Learning Report by LinkedIn in 2019 backed this up and said 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in helping them learn.  It found approximately a quarter of Gen Z and Millennials say learning is the number one thing that makes them happy and grow.   Given Millennials are set to make up 50% of the workforce in 2025 it makes it pretty important.    

How do you implement a continuous review approach?

Make sure you do the groundwork.  Here are some things you need to think about:

• Do people know how to give and receive feedback? 

• Do people know how to set goals?

• Do managers know how to have coaching and career conversations?

• Do regular 121s/check ins happen to facilitate reviewing performance and goals?

• Are you as leadership/management happy to receive feedback and implement changes?

Changing to continuous performance review isn’t going to happen overnight but if you invest in the process you’ll set people up to succeed and will soon see the benefits in productivity, engagement and retention.

Further reading & references
2019 Workplace Learning Report (linkedin.com)

Fall 2021 Hiring Report | Monster

5 Employee Development Statistics You Haven’t Heard Of | ClearCompany