Rob Wheatley

One-to-One Agendas

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We have just released a great new feature for one-to-one meetings: Agendas.

For the 30% of our customers who don’t have one-to-ones turned on (yes, 70% of customers do have it turned on, in fact it’s one of PerformanceHub’s most popular features), one-to-ones is a PerformanceHub feature that enables managers to set-up regular one-to-one meetings with their direct reports; both the manager and direct report can record notes for each meeting.

With this update, you can now enable one-to-one meeting agendas, to help ensure that meetings are focussed, and that the right topics are discussed.

Here’s a screenshot of the new settings in PerformanceHub’s set-up page:

1-2-1 meetings settings

 

 

The keen-eyed would have spotted there are 3 new options to choose from when setting up one-to-ones:

“Meeting agendas”
This is how you turn on the feature. Without ticking this box, everything stays the same. But, once you have ticked it, you get a simple fixed agenda that HR Admin can set and is used for all employees.

“Separate standard agenda for managers”
Tick this box if instead of a single standard agenda you want to have different agendas for managers vs non-managers. Again, HR have control over what these two agendas are.

The standard agendas are edited in a new tab in HR’s Configuration area called “Agendas” – look for it in the main navigation bar once you have turned agendas on. We have created some default ones to get you going. These are applied as soon as you turn on the agenda feature.

“Managers can create team agendas”
Tick this box if you want to allow managers to manage their own agendas. Employees will initially be given a standard agenda as defined by HR (the settings above) but managers will also be able to create their own agendas and assign them to one or more of their direct reports. They will be able to do all of this in the One-to-Ones tab using the “Agendas” link in the sidebar (under the list of direct reports). They can drop back to the standard one at any time from here too, if they wish.

When an agenda has been set, then it will show as a coloured ‘card’ at the top of the meetings list on the One-to-Ones tab. Simple as that.

Should you use agendas?
We think so, even if you just turn on a single fixed agenda under HR’s control to give employees a little guidance on what to talk about in one-to-one meetings.

 

Other changes in this release

  • Employee roles are now ‘pinned’ to the appraisal/probation review rather to a review period. It means that a better history of changes are kept, particularly when roles change between a probation review and an appraisal
  • Several usability tweaks
  • Squished some pesky bugs
Rob Wheatley

Introducing Appraisal Notes

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Hot on the heels of the last new feature we introduced (Competency Comments), over the weekend we released another new feature – “Appraisal Notes”.

It allows HR and HR Partners to add notes to employee’s appraisals. It can be used as a stand-alone feature or in combination with the Appraisal Tags feature we released late last year.

Please get in touch to find out more.

 

Rob Wheatley

Introducing Competency Comments

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Over the weekend we released a new feature for competency based reviews. It allows managers and direct reports to add comments against individual competencies when reviewing performance against them.

As a bit of background – before the release, if you are using Competencies in PerformanceHub, then at appraisal time the manager and direct report are required to select a performance level for each competency in the DR’s role. The available performance levels are based on your competency framework.

The new Competency Comments feature gives employees the opportunity to add comments to each selection. A little ‘comments’ icon will show users if notes are available and indicate if notes are mandatory (see later).

To turn Competency Comments on, just go to the Configuration page and under the Competencies section, you’ll see a new option for comments. If you enable comments, another option will appear to ask if you want to make comments mandatory. If comments are mandatory, both the manager and direct report must add comments to each competency, otherwise the appraisal cannot be marked as finished.

Rob Wheatley

Appraisal Tags – A New Feature

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Appraisal Tags in PerformanceHub are powerful ‘snippets’ of information HR can create and associate with an employee’s appraisal. Think of them like ‘stickers’ that you can ‘put on’ employee’s appraisals and are only visible to HR.

Err, ok, so what does that mean?  Well, you can use them for all sorts of things, but perhaps the best way to describe them would be to walk through an example use.

Let’s say that you have a talent management and succession planning process you want to keep track of. You already have all sorts of information in PerformanceHub about people’s performance, and you may also collect other data you can make use of through PerformanceHub’s “Appraisal Fields” feature too, but how do you bring it all together in a meaningful way? Well, that’s one way Appraisal Tags can help you.

You could define a set of tags for Talent Management and Succession planning.

For instance:

  • Flight risk
  • Impact of leaving
  • Ready for promotion
  • Potential
  • Willingness to travel

Once you have created a tag, you can then create some values that tag could take.

For instance, the Flight Risk tag could have values:

  • High
  • Medium
  • Low

and the Ready for promotion tag could be:

  • Now
  • Within 12 months
  • Within 24 months
  • Within 5 years
  • Never

Once you have set-up your tags, you can apply them to appraisals. Why an appraisal and not an employee? Well, we thought that applying them to an appraisal would give you an opportunity to see how things have changed over time. Is Donald getting closer to that promotion? Has Theresa’s risk of leaving increased?

Once you have tags applied, then you can use them in reports and the distributions reporting tool. They fit neatly into the other reports PerformanceHub has, so you can answer all sorts of questions about your employees.

This is just one example of how you may use Appraisal Tags, but you could use them for all sorts of other things too.

If you would like an online demo of how Tagging works, then please drop me a mail.

Also in this release

  • A new “Probation Employees” report
  • Employee location added to the interim report
  • Employee start date added to the Objectives Count report
  • Employee status added to the Last Login report
  • Various small tweaks to the layout and in-line guidance
Rob Wheatley

What’s best: Lock-step or anniversary based employee performance reviews

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We are often asked whether PerformanceHub supports anniversary based performance reviews. The short answer no. PerformanceHub only supports ‘lock-step’ reviews (sometimes referred to as “focal performance reviews”).

If you are thinking about this for your organisation, here is some of our thinking as to why we went down the ‘lock-step’ route. Maybe it will help you decide. 

 

Arguments in favour of lock-step reviews :

  1. Gives you a view across all your employees at the same time. If you have anniversary-based reviews, then some people may have a recent review, with others being as much as 11 months out of date, making performance comparisons unfair.
  2. Makes it easier to change your process, as you’ll have clear water during the year when no-one is doing reviews. So you can make the change and train / inform people as needed.
  3. Better completion rate: everyone else is going through the same process at the same time, so people are more focussed on getting it done. HR and managers know exactly where everyone should be in the process and can chase accordingly.
  4. Encourages the manager to consider the performance of individuals in the context of team and organisation performance. Managers can benchmark across their team, and with other managers, and HR can benchmark / calibrate across the whole company.
  5. If pay reviews are also anniversary-based, then some people may get unfair pay changes compared to their colleagues, particularly if part of bonuses and/or raises are tied to company performance. Eg a company goes through a lean period, then lands a big customer and is feeling more flush. Depending on when your review was, you may have got a small or large bump. It may be that reviews held later in the financial year are more likely to get a good raise/bonus, if the company is feeling confident of meeting the budget.
  6. Easier to keep people aligned to company objectives, and to know how much work is going on that’s not aligned to current company objectives. Also easier to build momentum for the start and end of the review periods, eg with all-hands meetings.
  7. Because people are out of step, it can make succession planning harder.
  8. Overall it’s less effort for HR and managers.
  9. You can do lightweight refresher training, but doesn’t make sense to do when it’s spread throughout the year

 

Arguments in favour of anniversary reviews:

  1. You can guarantee performance data for the first performance review of new starters.
  2. It spreads the load of doing performance reviews through the year; with lock-step reviews there’s one time every year when managers have to spend a lot of time doing reviews.
  3. If performance is measured against some standard or fixed criteria, then the benchmarking benefit of lock-step may not be so important.

 

So, there are some good arguments to go with anniversary based reviews, but not so many as the ‘lock-step’ method. Also, the arguments aren’t particularly strong, particularly if you have probation reviews or regular one-to-one meetings (both supported by PerformanceHub). When using these features, employees starting shortly before your organisation’s ‘appraisal time’ won’t cause any problems.

We’re not too convinced about the ‘spreading the load’ argument either. Sure, it might be less disruptive to not have to review your whole team at once, particularly if your review period ends at a busy time for you (end of year accounts for instance), but we feel that the amount of effort is increased if you have a constant trickle of reviews going on over the year rather than planning to do them all at the same time.

Effort can always be reduced by having regular one-to-ones, and by reviewing objectives as they’re completed. Also, by keeping the appraisal form as short as you can. Our tip here – for every section you want to add to an appraisal, consider asking yourself:

  1. Will filling in this section help either the manager or employee improve the employee’s performance (either by helping them form concrete plans or by getting them to think about something they wouldn’t normally)?
  2. Will filling in this section help the organisation improve performance (e.g. by analysing the data centrally and then acting on what you find)?
  3. Do we have a process and resources to analyse the data, i.e. will we do anything with the information once it’s collected?

 

Rob Wheatley

New Release: Visualisation

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A quick update to tell you about our latest PerformanceHub release.

This new release really takes advantage of our online performance review software real-time capability. It’s a new visualisation tool designed to keep you on track of your process.

 

New ‘Sunburst’ Chart

Your CEO and HR Admin can now see at a glance where everyone is in the appraisal process using the new interactive sunburst chart.

Here’s an example.

The chart arranges your organisation as a set of concentric circles. Each segment in a band corresponds to an employee and is colour coded from red to green to tell you where they are in the process.

Clicking on a segment will give you more information and double-clicking will zoom the chart in (double click the centre to zoom back out again).

If you are colour blind, then you can switch views to change the colours by clicking the ‘colour blind’ link at the bottom of the legend.

If people find this sort of view useful, we may use it elsewhere, such as tracking progress on Interim Reviews. Another idea we’ve had is to give you the ability to put this info on your Company tab, so everyone can see where you are in the process. We thought this would be a good way to ‘inspire’ people into getting their appraisals done on time. Do let us know what you think.

Other items in this release

  • Added Employee Number, Gender and Start Data to employee records
  • Better ways to find employees on drop-down menus
  • Further enhancements to user prompts in text fields
  • Improvements to Feedback request notifications and other Feedback usability enhancements
  • Squished a few bugs
Rob Wheatley

Tips for starting a performance management process

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Good performance management can transform the culture of your organisation. It can:

  • Improve overall organisational performance using existing resources
  • Foster an environment for more open collaboration
  • Transform employee attitudes towards work
  • Create a more accountable system of working
  • Provide a framework to review and reward your employees’ work

From boosting employee morale to delivering bottom line benefits, performance management can be a game-changer in an organisation of any type or scale. But where do you start?

 

4 Key Areas To Focus On

 

1) Communication

Central to any performance management  is ensuring that everyone knows why you are doing it and what’s in it for them.  This will mean different things to different people; senior management team vs managers vs employees. But where it really counts is with your employees. If they see the benefits for them personally, you will get much better buy-in.

 

2) Education

It’s all very well having a process, but you must ensure that everyone knows how to actually do good performance reviews and act on the output from them, especially managers. Simple things like how to give constructive feedback, how to write good objectives or how to make development plans can make all the difference.

 

3) Consistency

Once you have the process in place, make sure it’s followed. Not just the reviews, but actions that come from them.

 

4) Leading by example

The performance management process is an inclusive one that the CEO and senior management must buy into to. They are not immune to the process and must follow it themselves. When developed and applied properly, it will become a component of organisational management that every employee takes seriously and follows diligently.

 

 

In more detail

 

Get employees excited about the process

You can do this by letting employees know what is in it for them, for instance:

  • It helps them with career development
  • It can identify parts of the job employees find difficult, frustrating or stressful and help them overcome those difficulties through training, support or finding better ways of working
  • Clearly defines what’s expected and can show them how they fit with the bigger picture. Well-defined objectives make it clear what is expected from employees. A clear understanding of shared goals will reinforce to employees the role they play towards driving organisational success
  • A performance review is as an opportunity for broader feedback, giving employees a platform for upward feedback or to share feedback on others, ensuring that no good deed ever gets forgotten
  • It’s a standardised procedure that helps ensure equitable treatment of employees

 

Create a solid performance review process

There is no magic formula for developing a performance management process. However, all good processes incorporate some common elements such as objective setting and quantifiable performance measurement.

Effective processes allow for a 360 degree feedback that gives employees a clear understanding about the impact of their performance not just at the project or process level, but also at the organisational level.

Good performance goes beyond effective application of skills. Softer factors like attitudes and behaviours play an important role in nurturing a positive and productive working environment. Disney and Ritz Carlton assess attitudinal issues to keep their workforce motivated and happy. Include such issues in your wider performance management framework to get a complete sense of just how valuable or toxic every employee is to your organisation.

Along with a comprehensive set of criteria for measuring performance, the process should also include identifying areas for development and a plan for improving in those areas.

 

Ensure that reviews are conducted properly

Managers responsible for performance reviews must follow best practices that allow the process to be effectively utilised and deliver the desired impact. These include establishing an environment that encourages two-way communication and open discussions. A consensus should be reached, next-cycle objectives must be set to make it clear what will be measured in the future and training/professional development should be identified.

Little and often:Annual performance reviews don’t work. Objectives change and the process must keep up. Also, if development plans are not being followed or are no longer appropriate, acting sooner rather than later is best for everyone.

 

Invest in the right performance management tools

 Lots of organisations stick to annual performance reviews because no one can stomach all the paperwork needed to conduct the reviews more frequently. Robust, easy to use, interactive and flexible performance review software can eliminate the paperwork typically associated with this process. Online software can also provide real-time information, ensuring you always know where you are and what’s going on.

Any tool you use is there to support the process, not be the process or get in its way.

If you really want to align your workforce, improve transparency and get things delivered, and ensure that the performance management software supports cascaded objectives. When objectives are linked together, everyone knows how they will fit with others’ and how they are contributing to the overall success of the organisation – a powerful motivator.

Rob Wheatley

Performance Review Tips – Getting the most out of performance reviews

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Performance reviews are sometimes seen as stressful by employees and managers alike. Or worse, a time vampire with little payback. However, with a simple bit of preparation, performance reviews can go from a dreaded process to a rewarding way to develop and motivate your employees. Here are some tips on how to make the most out of your Performance Reviews:

 

No surprises

Make sure that you have regular meetings with your direct reports during the course of the review period. If something important comes up (good or bad) provide feedback as soon as possible. There should never be any surprises when it comes to the final performance review.

 

Get to know your direct reports

Discuss where your reports wish their careers to go, what they enjoy doing, their expectations, etc. This will allow you to develop and motivate them accordingly. Create a good working relationship with your team members; you will both feel more comfortable in each other’s company. Your role is as much to act as a mentor as it is to manage day-to-day activities.

 

Set clear objectives

Set clear, achievable and time-bound objectives. Make sure that time frames are realistic and discuss the objectives with the employee beforehand, making sure that you both agree on what they are expected to do. Have regular meetings to discuss these objectives. This will enable you to make sure that your direct report is doing the right thing and allow you the coach them in the right direction. This will make their performance much more effective and you will both know how they are doing prior to the performance review, so there won’t be any nasty surprises.

 

Evaluation

Make sure that both you and your direct report agree on how they are to be evaluated prior to the performance review. You must be clear about how you are going to evaluate, and what part they are going to play in the process. This way you will both know what to expect.

 

Preparation

Preparation is key for both you and your direct report. Make sure that you inform them about the upcoming performance review; this will allow them to complete any relevant documentation or finish up any objectives. For you, remember to make notes about their performance during the course of the year and bring along notes from your regular meetings held during the year. This will ensure that you do not focus the meeting solely on recent events, which may not give a fair representation of the entire year.

 

Constructive Feedback

It is important to discuss both negative and positive points during the performance review; do not just focus on one area. Give constructive feedback. Remember that this should be a two way conversation, instead of just giving negative feedback ask your employee how they feel they did on certain objectives and what they feel they could have done differently, in other words, let them self evaluate where appropriate. This is your chance to coach your employee and to give them the opportunity to see where they went wrong and how they could have done better, instead of simply giving negative feedback which could demotivate them instead of encouraging them to do better. Spend time exploring your direct report’s strengths and make plans to capitalise on them in the future.

 

Most importantly, remember that your direct report will respond best when they feel ready and they know what to expect from you. Develop a strong professional relationship with them; this will allow you know how to challenge and motivate them accordingly and, as a result, create a successful working environment.

 

Plan for the future

You know what your direct report’s career aspirations are; you know their strengths and weaknesses. Set objectives or make development opportunities to help them realise their aspirations, building on their strengths and help reduce their weaknesses.

 

 

One final note, some people just aren’t great in some areas. No amount of motivation (positive or negative) will make a difference. If it doesn’t REALLY matter and, in particular, they excel in other areas, don’t dwell on the weaknesses and play to their strengths.