Is Continuous Performance Management right for your organisation?

There’s plenty of talk about Continuous Performance Management. But is it right for your organisation? Is it worth the upheaval? And what are the signals or flags to know if this is the right call for your company?

These were the first questions asked by the attendees at our webinar hosted by CIPHR.

There are 3 key indicators or markers that your organisation is ready for a more agile approach to performance review.

How does performance appraisal work now in your organisation?

The most fundamental indicator is how your current process works right now. You’ll know this from conversations with managers – and through feedback from employee surveys. You’ll know whether your appraisal process is seen as having value – or simply a waste of time. Whether it delivers actions and progress - or if it’s just seen as frustrating. You’ll get a sense of what’s going on and how people feel about the current approach. And that’s a good indication of whether you’d benefit from transitioning to continuous performance management. If you find your current process adds little value, people don’t see the benefit and objectives are not being achieved, then start to think about continuous performance management. If your current appraisal and review process offers some value despite it being an annual or bi-annual meeting, then consider how much greater benefit could be gained from a more regular check-in.

How digitally ready are you?

Another strong marker concerns the digital readiness of your organisation – and of your employees. Clearly, better quality conversations around achieving goals and objectives don’t happen just because of supporting performance management and appraisal software. But if you’re wanting to help managers and team members to keep track of their check-ins and the actions needed, then support them with an appraisal system or app that is simple to use, quick to update, easy to access and fits in with the processes and flows that reflect how your employees want to run check-ins – and not as dictated by a software supplier!  Without such a system, timelines and deadlines come and go too easily without reminders, and check-ins just don’t happen. Think about where your employees are.

But that doesn’t mean that if they’re not technically savvy or don’t have work access to technology that performance appraisal and goal setting in this way won’t work. One customer of ours, uses tablet devices with its factory workforce. At a check-in meeting the manager and team member, work together to update the progress on goals directly into the tablet.

What conversations are taking place right now?

The third key marker is the level of career and development conversations that are taking place at the moment – and how this is viewed by your talent. If people are disappointed with their opportunity to talk about career growth and development, then it suggests that not enough conversations – whatever they may be – are not happening. More frequent check-ins with their managers could help in that – and that gets supported by a more agile approach to catching up between manager and team member. The conversations at this stage are not around ratings or goals, but focused on career and development.

Will your organisation benefit from moving to continuous performance management?  Take a look at what is happening now with goal and objective setting and career conversations - and how the value of those are perceived. Ask yourself about whether your employees want greater understanding of where their roles support the organisation – and then think about how you can best support this with performance appraisal software.

When you’re ready, get in touch to discuss how we can support you – and how Munoz in the UK is already getting that shared understanding of goals.

And you might like to watch the full webinar and hear our thoughts on how to get started with Continuous Performance Management and make the transition.