Employee performance management continues to evolve. The ‘Great Resignation’ is affecting organizations in a significant way – managing, developing, and motivating employees through feedback and performance management has become more critical than ever before.
In this article, we discuss some of the major trends we expect in 2022.
1) More continuous feedback & check-ins
CEB found that 95 percent of managers are dissatisfied with the way their companies conduct performance reviews, and nearly 90 percent of HR leaders say the process doesn’t even yield accurate information. Dissatisfaction in once-a-year reviews stems from multiple factors, including:
- Millennials & Gen Z – Millennials and Gen Z are now the dominating generations in the workforce. These employees want more feedback and transparency, but only 19% of millennials say they receive routine feedback. An even smaller percentage of millennials (17%) say that the feedback they do receive is meaningful. 60% of Generation Z want multiple check-ins from their manager during the week! While employees of all generations want ongoing feedback, it’s a particularly big focus for these employees – they want to continuously develop and improve. Annual reviews just are not enough.
- Evolving organizational structures – Many companies no longer operate in the hierarchical structures. Employees are working in multiple roles, across different teams/departments, with several (project) managers throughout the year. This makes it extremely difficult to accurately remember employees’ contribution at the end of the year. We need agile, real-time performance management systems that match the matrix of teams that organizations have.
- Recency bias – Recency bias is an unconscious bias in which a manager remembers the most recent performance of the employees, negating the full view of the employee’s performance since the last review. This has always been a problem – it is challenging to create an accurate picture of employee performance if managers are only evaluating employees once a year! In this fast-paced world that we’re living in where people are often involved in multiple different projects throughout the year, it has become even more critical that managers support, assess, and document their teams’ performance in real-time.
Many organizations have recognized that traditional performance reviews are not enough, and they have supplemented their annual reviews with frequent check-ins or continuous feedback.
Did you know that since the lockdowns of 2020, HR professionals are reporting that 35.6% of their managers have increased the frequency of their employee check-ins? These check-ins are also extending beyond performance (touching issues such as employee well-being).
Download our guidebook on The Current State of Performance Management to find out more interesting statistics on the current state of performance management.
2) Impact of hybrid work
The future of teams is hybrid. In fact, 87% of employees want to work from home at least one day of the week, and 68% of American workers say that working in-office and remotely is the perfect model. As employees want more flexible work options, organizations will continue to prioritize these practices.
With hybrid or remote work, organizations will need to implement standard processes and tools (like Pavestep) to help capture employee performance. While the majority of organizations have some sort of structure and formalized performance management process in place, many of these processes could be better. In fact, only 39% of HR professionals believe their performance management systems improve employee performance. Frequent communication, outlining clear expectations, and focusing on employee ‘input’ rather than ‘output’ are key in the hybrid setting.
For more information on managing a hybrid workforce, check out our guidebook on hybrid workforce management.
3) Performance data in all aspects of talent management
Organizations can no longer reliably use their managers’ “gut feelings” and biases to make important talent decisions. Performance data should not be just used for compensation, promotion, and termination – it can unlock all aspects of talent management (How does this employee work best? What roles are the best suited for? What skills do they need to improve on?).
Competition for top talent has always been intense, but it’s more intense than ever before for many of us. If organizations want to stay competitive, they need to make data-driven decisions to optimize their employees’ performance, motivation, and development. Most performance management softwares have some sort of people analytics built in them – HR just needs to take advantage of the data.
Future of Performance Management
As we move on from the pandemic, organizations will have to continue to adapt and push ineffective performance management practices out of the picture. With younger generations dominating the workforce, the breakdown of hierarchical structures to more agile work structures, and the focus on employee experience, organizations will need to constantly evolve their performance management practices to ensure that their employees are motivated, developing, and productive.
If you have questions on employee retention and performance management, we encourage you to reach out to us at hello@pavestep.com!
