Meet­ing once a year for an employ­ee per­for­mance catch-up no longer seems effec­tive or rel­e­vant in modern fast paced environment. As a result, more and more com­pa­nies are mak­ing the switch to con­tin­u­ous per­for­mance man­age­ment.

Increas­ing­ly, organ­i­sa­tions are pri­ori­tis­ing on-going com­mu­ni­ca­tion between man­ag­er and employ­ee, while doing away with numer­i­cal per­for­mance rat­ings and stack-rank­ing sys­tems. It seems that reg­u­lar per­for­mance and devel­op­ment dis­cus­sions are one of the per­for­mance man­age­ment trends that are here to stay. Done right, they are an incred­i­bly effec­tive employ­ee per­for­mance man­age­ment tool that has the abil­i­ty to ele­vate moti­va­tion, employ­ee engage­ment and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty while improv­ing rela­tion­ships between super­vi­sor and employee.

Reg­u­lar per­for­mance dis­cus­sions and coach­ing ses­sions sound great in the­o­ry, but putting them into prac­tice is some­thing else alto­geth­er. Organ­i­sa­tions fre­quent­ly tell us that their man­agers lack the knowl­edge of how to con­duct mean­ing­ful per­for­mance con­ver­sa­tions. We’re here to help bridge that gap.

Below, we have laid out five pri­ma­ry dis­cus­sion points to cov­er dur­ing these meet­ings to ensure a struc­tured, pro­duc­tive and worth­while exchange.

1. Objec­tives and SMART Goals

Man­agers need to remain up-to-date with employ­ee progress in terms of objec­tives and SMART goals. The more fre­quent the per­for­mance dis­cus­sions between the super­vi­sor and employ­ee, the more relaxed, open and hon­est the employ­ee will be with regards to goal pro­gres­sion and pos­si­ble obsta­cles. This is because with increased com­mu­ni­ca­tion comes famil­iar­i­ty and the sense that the man­ag­er is there to tru­ly help, rather than to judge and evaluate.

Objec­tives may also need to be adapt­ed as pri­or­i­ties change, so take the oppor­tu­ni­ty at each meet­ing to con­sid­er whether objec­tives are still rel­e­vant and productive.

2. Per­son­al Devel­op­ment and Career Growth

Man­agers and employ­ees should take some time to dis­cuss per­son­al and career devel­op­ment. Which skills, knowl­edge or strengths could be devel­oped to suc­cess­ful­ly achieve objec­tives, to progress towards a career goal or to help the indi­vid­ual or the team per­form more effectively?

Devel­op­ment is real­ly impor­tant in terms of employ­ee engage­ment. A focus on train­ing and devel­op­ment has been known to boost morale and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty while decreas­ing staff turnover.

3. Employ­ee Issues and Concerns

If the employ­ee has any issues or con­cerns, now is the per­fect time to raise them. They have their manager’s full atten­tion and they know they have some­one to work with them to arrive at a solu­tion. Equal­ly, if the man­ag­er has any prob­lems they wish to dis­cuss, this pri­vate set­ting is the ide­al envi­ron­ment in which to raise them. Decide on spe­cif­ic actions that need to be tak­en, and set a time frame to fol­low-up and put them into action.

4. Per­son­al, Team and Organ­i­sa­tion­al Priorities

Take the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cuss team or organ­i­sa­tion­al pri­or­i­ties for the com­ing weeks and what this means for the employee’s per­son­al pri­or­i­ties or goals. If there has been a change in focus or direc­tion, the employee’s objec­tives may need to be re-pri­ori­­tised or new objec­tives added.

5. Man­age­r­i­al Help and Support

Employ­ees need to know that man­age­ment is there to help and sup­port them in any way they can, which makes the issue of man­age­r­i­al sup­port a key dis­cus­sion point. Is there any­thing the employ­ee needs from their man­ag­er in the com­ing weeks? This may be any­thing from deal­ing with an inter­nal office con­flict to organ­is­ing mater­ni­ty leave. Use this oppor­tu­ni­ty to draw up a plan of how the man­ag­er can help. Man­agers should also sched­ule fol­low-up dis­cus­sions to ensure the employ­ee’s needs are being met.

How Can You Ensure These Items Are Reg­u­lar­ly Discussed?

Employ­ees and man­agers need to be pro­vid­ed with a clear struc­ture for per­for­mance and devel­op­ment dis­cus­sions to ensure that these dis­cus­sion points are cov­ered in detail. I Train Consultants will be happy to help the managers and HR Professionals via one-on-one coaching and webinars. These are pur­pose built to ensure that reg­u­lar per­for­mance dis­cus­sions take place that they are mean­ing­ful and that action points are cap­tured and fol­lowed up. Email us at [email protected] for details.

Sources:

employment-studies.co.uk

static1.squarespace.com

hbr.org

Author:  Vishal Punetha

Corporate Training Consultant

I Train Consultants India Pvt. Ltd.