Question: How do we make performance reviews really improve performance?
I don’t know anyone who likes performance reviews – they have become an annual pain in the backside for most employees and managers.
When performance reviews are not done well they can become a waste of time for everyone.
Road Map
Traditional performance reviews are very employer-centric. They focus on cascading organisational goals down to an employee’s role in achieving specific requirements for the business. Performance reviews are like a road map, “Get from A to B. Now what milestones have you met and how far along the road have you got?” The result, a smack or a carrot.
Typically Performance Reviews lack any discussions around the ‘rocket fuel’ used to get the individual along the road map.
Rocket Fuel
Almost every time, the missing link in a performance review is what ‘rocket fuel’ is being used for the employee along the road map? Understanding your peoples’ top motivators and helping fulfil them is this rocket fuel and vital to performance.
Map x Fuel = Performance
We need to reboot our thinking on performance reviews and super charge them with a motivational element.
The flaw in performance reviews is the motivational aspect – the missing rocket fuel. Traditional performance reviews are old school. What is needed for effective achievement of targets and the improvement of engagement are ‘Motivational Performance Reviews’ (MPRs) which have a Personal Engagement Plan (PEP) or ‘Stay Interview’ component blended in with them.
Question: How do we make performance reviews really improve performance?
Answer: Make them ‘Motivational’ Performance Reviews
Accumulated Benefits
So bring Performance Reviews to life and start doing ‘Motivational Performance Reviews’ (MPR) simply and easily with any of these motivational engagement tools:
- Personal Engagement Plans (PEP) or Stay interviews
- Engagement Driver Card System (EDCS)
- meCentral.com
The accumulated benefits are that they all overlap synergistically creating the outcome of a more engaged, motivated, performing and productive workforce. As mentioned previously, they can take as little as 15 minutes to do.
The issue is, they are easy to do, but they are easier not to do. Considering the difference they can make, what will you choose?
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Once again, as a business owner, I agree motivational performance reviews are better but I don’t have a large HR team. What could be some approaches for me?
Yeh, agreed most people leaders aren’t coaches or psychologist, so that’s why we created our ‘People Glue’ programs, book, Leaders Guides to train leaders and http://www.meCentral.com which allows people leaders and employees to do it all online themselves.
Why do we need performance reviews? Wouldn’t consistent, frequent, chats with your employees work just as well? We can get some drinks and say what’s on our minds.
Cori whilst frequent chats makes you think you know what is going on but you need hard core stats and figures to evaluate if the time you invested in those chats is worthwhile or not and if the employees are really taking it seriously and giving more output so I think it is equally important.
Agreed Cori, in a perfect world that would be ideal. Some managers/leaders though, if it useful and comforting to have some structure and a format – espcially around Motivational Performance Reviews or PEP when looking at people’s engagement drivers.
The marriage of both employer and employee objectives is essential in a ‘Motivational Performance Review’. Unfortunately most organisations leave out the motivational part.
Most performance reviews are employer-centric and need more a employee-centric focus and balance in them. Thankfully, more and more clients are asking us to help them in this area, so it’s encouraging to see the humanistic tide changing.
Thanks, nice insightful comment
Yes this is exactly why the EDCS have been designed – to help people leaders and managers who haven’t been trained as psychologists and coaches to be able to have richer, more informed discussions in ‘Stay Interviews’ (rather than exit interviews), ‘Personal Engagement Plans (PEP)’ and ‘Motivational Performance Reviews’. They can even be used in job interviews. meCentral.com also has an online tool version of the cards built into the system.
‘Rocket fuel’ is just our metaphor for ‘motivational drivers’. Performance reviews typically have company determined milestones, but nothing about motivational drivers of the individual that will get them to those milestones (e.g rocket fuel)