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performance

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance – Summary

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performance

This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. More importantly, they result in employee success and organizational success.

The previous three blogs overviewed the importance of ongoing conversations. They also outlined an approach to take when providing feedback. This feeback focuses on “landing” the message vs. just “sending the message”. Leaders, managers, supervisors, team leads and anyone else who oversees or manages the work of others need to commit to providing meaningful and helpful feedback on a regular basis that is authentic and clear. This blog will summarize the key concepts that must be employed to effectively manage the assessment and feedback stage of the process of managing employee performance.

The Fundamental Purpose of Feedback

There are two basic reasons that managers assess and discuss with an employee the actions/behaviours or outcomes that the employees demonstrate relating to the job performance that was expected. The feedback (a better word would be performance conversation because it should be a two-way dialogue) is given to:

  1. Reinforce a desired action/behaviour/outcome so the employee will know to do it again; or
  2. Correct an undesired action/behaviour/outcome.

Actions/behaviours/outcomes that are considered “desirable” is based on an expectation setting process. This process outlines what the organization wants from the employee and how they partner to give the employee value in return. Ideally, the performance leads to success for both the organization and the employee.  Times are changing. The idea that employee performance is only about the organization is gone or is soon to go. So, with mutual success in mind, we engage in conversation to reinforce and correct action/behaviour/outcome that needs to be modified or changed.

Key Principles

Research has demonstrated that conversations focused on sharing insights into the employee’s progress should be prioritized. It should no longer be considered by managers as something to get to “when I have time” or ”when I’m finished my real work”. Managers should share with employees what they do and don’t do well. There should be regular conversations (progress updates) with a focus on actions/behaviours/outcomes that have a significant impact on organizational success and/or employee success. Every conversation should focus on ensuring that the employee understands the message and the choices that they have to respond to the situation. The manager’s mindset needs to be on “landing” the message, not just “sending” the message.

Framework for the Conversation

Managers can employ a process that FEEDs the employee. This is part of ensuring that the message “lands” and that organizational and employee success is achieved. A little bit of forethought using a four-step process, will dramatically increase the effectiveness of the conversation. FEED stands for:

1 – Facts, Focus and Framing – What happened, what message should “land” & what context is important

2 – Expectations – How what happened compares to what was expected.

3 – Effect – What impact did the action/behaviour/outcome have on the employee and or organization

4 – Dialogue – What is the other person’s perspective

Managers who consider the purpose of feedback, embrace the key principles and employ the FEED framework will undoubtedly see greater success. This success will benefit the employee, the team, the organization and their own leadership. In the next blog, we will tackle how to have a difficult conversation in situations involving disagreement or conflict.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.

feedback

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance Part 3

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feedback

This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. More importantly, they result in employee success and organizational success. The previous two blogs emphasized the importance of ongoing conversations and choosing an approach focused on “landing” the message vs. just sending the message. Managers of employee performance need to commit to providing meaningful and helpful feedback on a regular basis. This feedback must be authentic and clear. This blog will continue the topic of how to assesses performance through ongoing conversations with a focus on how to structure the actual feedback conversation so that it “lands”.

Four Step Framework

I have developed a four-step framework for providing feedback in an effective manner. As a way to remember each step of the process, the four steps are based on the word FEED. Connecting the concept to a story can be a great way to remember the concept, so let’s do that for our feedback framework.

In our story, a young woman with great potential joins an organization and is matched with an experienced executive who is entering the twilight of her career and has been asked to mentor the new employee. When they sit down at their first meeting, the experienced executive asks the young woman “what would you like from me – how can I help?” The young woman remarks that she prefers an environment where people are engaged, care about their work, relationships matter and employee success matters. She continues with an observation that all too often there is an environment where people are indifferent, relationships don’t seem to matter, and management appears to only care about how the company is doing. She then asks, “how do I build an atmosphere where relationships matter, and people feel supported?”

The wise executive answers “Relationships are a like a living being. They are alive and need sustenance. Like any living entity, the one you feed thrives. If the sustenance you deliver provides clarity, builds engagement and supports employee success, that is what will thrive.  Take a few days to think about that, and let’s meet again to talk about what I’ve said and what it means to you.”  With that, the meeting ends.

Feedback Process – FEED

The key concept from the story is “whatever you feed will thrive”. A framework for having great conversations with people is all about your ability to FEED. FEED stands for:

Step 1 – Facts, Focus and Framing

  • Facts – Describe the situation – the specific behaviours and outcomes.
  • Focus – What will be the focus of the conversation? Identify the message that you want to “land”.
  • Frame – How will you frame the conversation at the beginning – what context will be helpful for the message to “land” better?

Step 2 – Expectations

  • Revisit the expectations. Confirm the “target” expectations that have been communicated and discussed in the past.

Step 3 – Effect

  • Discuss the effect of the actions taken. Review the impact of the actions/outcomes. What difference does it make to the recipient of the feedback, to co-workers, to the customer, or to the organization? Connect the impact to outcomes that are important to the recipient (explain an example).

Step 4 – Dialogue

  • Invite the other person to share their perspective. Engage in dialogue – an exchange of thoughts.

If you do a good job FEEDing an employee when assessing their performance, success will grow. In the next blog, we will summarize the key elements of assessing performance.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance Part 2

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This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. More importantly, they result in employee success and organizational success. The previous blog emphasized the importance of ongoing conversations. Managers of employee performance need to commit to providing meaningful and helpful feedback on a regular basis as opposed to a few times a yea or only during an annual meeting. This blog will continue the topic of how to assesses performance through ongoing conversations with a focus on how to structure feedback conversations. We will now explore how to assess performance and provide employees with meaningful information on how they are doing.

Employee Assessments

The previous blog provided compelling evidence to support the assertion that assessments of employee performance take place on a continuing basis. When the performance assessment takes place, it is important for an employee to know where they are relative to where they’re supposed to be. When the performance indicates that the employee is on target, the manager should provide positive reinforcement to ensure the behavior continues. If an assessment of performance indicates that the employee is not on target, the manager should provide corrective feedback to enable the employee to get back on course. Although performance assessments take place on a regular basis, most managers are not able to spend all of their time constantly sharing feedback. There needs to be a balance.

How Frequently Should Managers Have Feedback Conversations with Employees?

Ideally, conversations on performance should take place anytime there is a behavior action that has a significant impact on the individual or the organization.  This ensures that the positive “on target” behaviours that have a significant impact will continue and the “off target” behaviours that to not meet expectations are corrected.

What Approach Should You Take to Lead to Success?

Once the decision has been made to share performance feedback with an employee, the next question is “What approach should I take in order to effectively share my assessment with the employee so that it will lead to success?” (aka “How do I give them my feedback?”). This is where the correct mindset is critically important. When giving an employee feedback, managers often define a good conversation as one where they have told the employee what was wrong (or right) with their behaviour. This does not capture the real objective of the conversation. In order for feedback to truly be integrated with the overall objective of performance management (which is helping employees succeed), the goal of the conversation is not just about sending the message. The ultimate goal of the conversation is to “land the message”.

Red Auerbach was a very effective coach in the national basketball Association. He was once quoted as saying; “It’s not what you tell your players that counts. It’s what they hear.” (Red Auerbach, Leadership Wired, Mar. 12, 2004). I believe this is a profound insight. When talking with managers regarding the struggles they have with employees who don’t seem to respond to their feedback, I often hear the managers defend their actions by explaining to me how many times they spoke to the employee to tell them how to correct behavior. As a manager, rather than measuring how many times you said something to an employee, you should be measuring if the message was received and understood. This is where the term “landing the message” becomes critically important.

Landing the Message

“Landing the message” means that the employee has fully understood the message and the implications of taking action as a response to the message. When we accept that “landing the message” is the goal we are trying to achieve when sharing performance assessments, it can offer great insights into the type of approach needed to achieve this goal. When we are able to land the message, we are on the right path to help the employee achieve success. With this in mind, the next blog will provide a framework for giving feedback in a way that encourages dialogue and builds understanding on how to achieve success.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.
SMART goals

Managing Employee Performance – Setting Expectations Part 2

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SMART goals

This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. The previous blog offered a few insights into how to set expectations. This blog will continue the topic of how to set expectations with a review of goal setting.

Motivating Employees Through Goal Setting

It is commonplace for organizations to use the goal setting process. They do this as a means to motivate employees toward the achievement of organizational objectives. However, the process of setting goals must be managed effectively in order for it to be valuable. In a study of organizational behavior theory on goal setting, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the motivational value of goal-setting depends on two things:

  1. Whether the employer has set a goal that is realistically achievable
  2. Whether the employee receives feedback with respect to their progress in achieving the goal.

I will address the second point in a future blog on creating a motivation environment.

SMART Goals

A widely used acronym for setting goals is “SMART”. In order to make expectations clear, the goal should be:

Specific – clear articulation of expectations

Measurable – a means to assess achievement of the goals

Achievable – challenging but not so difficult that they can’t be achieved

Relevant – contributes to the achievement of a department/organisational goal

Time-framed – there is a clear date of completion (milestones can help as well)

An example of a goal that is not SMART would be saying, “let’s reduce costs”. This can be improved by instead saying, “let’s examine the top twelve areas of spending in the operations budget for our departments over the next three months with the goal of reducing year-over-year spending by 5%. This way we can meet the organizations objective of re-directing spending to an increased investment in research and development”.

The “A” in SMART stands for Achievable. Organizations risk undermining the motivation of their employees if the goals they set for employees are not achievable. They also risk other forms of bad behaviour.  Stephen Covey, a noted author on the topic of principled leadership, was quoted as saying “There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.”   

Setting Achievable Goals

So, how does an organization ensure that the goals they set for employees are achievable? I believe that there are two important strategies that organizations should employ in order to develop goals that are achievable.

Involve the Employees in the Process

Managers must strategize to ensure that they involve employees in the goal setting process. Management can start with macro goals and a plan of action for each department; however, they must involve the employees in order to get the employee’s commitment to the goal and to identify any barriers to the achievement of the goals that management may not be fully aware of. Also, having the employee participate in the goal-setting process will give them a much stronger sense of accountability for the goals because they help develop them.

Integrate a Job Duty Review

The second strategy needed for developing achievable goals is to integrate a review of the job duties into the goal-setting process. Organizations should review the expectations outlined in a job description at the same time as a review of time-framed goals. When it comes to thinking about managing employee performance and expectations, the only real difference between a job description and the annual goal-setting exercise is the timeframe.

A job description typically has an indefinite time frame. The expectations outlined in the job description remain in place until there is a significant shift in organizational structure or a change in the employee’s designated role. The expectations outlined in a goal-setting process typically have a start date and an end date. However, they take time to accomplish and should be integrated into the outlined job description of the employee.

Employers should provide an estimate of time time required to complete the goals outlined in the goal setting process. There should also be an acknowledgment of how the time required to achieve the goals will be integrated with the time required to achieve the ongoing expectations of the job. Employers should also acknowledge the time required to achieve the goals Failure to do this can lead to issue such as employee burnout or employees who pursue achievement of short-term goals at the expense of important ongoing job expectations.

Conclusion…

In summary, the first step in effectively managing employee performance is the process of setting expectations. This includes both the ongoing job accountabilities and the time framed goals.

The next few blogs will offer insights on the importance of sharing feedback on the employee’s performance in a manner that has the best chance of being embraced by the employee so that they are able to achieve success.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.
employee performance evaluation

Managing Employee Performance – It’s Not About the Forms

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employee performance evaluation

This blog is the first in a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. This is a hot topic with many organizations because for many organizations, the process often creates more problems than it solves.

Research indicates that many organizations have chosen to abandon what they describe as the “annual performance appraisal” process because of the problems it seems to create. This blog will address some of the key challenges faced by organizations in managing employee performance.

Understand the purpose of managing employee performance

The first step in organization’s need to better manage employee performance is to understand the purpose of the process. The primary purpose should not be focused on filling out forms or creating a perception that a documented, numerical rating is the main driver of compensation. Rather, it should be focused on helping employees succeed in delivering on accountabilities that are aligned with organizational objectives. When the process focuses on the completion of forms, it becomes a paper chase where managers often do not feel responsible or accountable for the process and the potential value it can bring.

Similarly, if the process focuses on compensation, it often devolves into a focus on the “annual performance appraisal” meeting. This is where managers and employees seem to debate a performance rating because it is so closely connected to how much of a pay increase an employee will receive. Even the language of describing the annual meeting as a “performance appraisal” is problematic because managers should not be “appraising” performance on an annual basis. They should be appraising performance on an ongoing basis – every day or at least every week. To get the most value out of a performance management process, organizations need to ensure that it’s not about the forms, it’s about the conversations that help an employee succeed.

Employee Success

The entire performance management process should be focused on helping employees succeed. The definition of employee success combines achievement of the organization’s expectations that have been communicated to them as well as the achievement of the goals and expectations that employees have set for themselves. It is important to note that documentation of performance is important and there is nothing wrong with connecting pay with performance. Having said that, the key is to focus on conversations that help success.

The documentation and compensation are by-products of quality conversations and quality performance assessments as opposed to being the main focus. A key opportunity for many organizations is to shift the internal mindset and the focus of the system and language relating to managing employee performance. For some organizations, the first step in shifting the mindset may be as simple as changing their language from “annual performance appraisals” to “annual performance reviews”. This ensures that managers understand that feedback is an ongoing process and the annual meeting is a review – sort of like a highlight reel – that focuses on performance feedback that has already been shared with the employee.

These review meetings can take place more frequently than once a year, however the purpose is still to review the collective dialogue that is taken place during the performance review period.

It’s Not About the Forms

If an organization focuses its attention on equipping managers to engage in regular dialogue with employees, they will be much more likely to achieve the objective of helping employees succeed. Also, by focusing on regular dialogue, the organization will reinforce that the process is not about the forms.

The forms that organizations use as part of their employee performance management process should assist the manager in capturing an overview of the ongoing performance feedback discussions that the manager has had with the employee. These discussions will focus on the employee achieving their full potential by offering reinforcement of desired behaviours and constructive analysis of what needs to be corrected. The forms can offer a process for capturing performance feedback throughout the year in order to avoid issues such as the recency bias. The forms can also be used to hold managers accountable for their performance assessments in order to reduce or eliminate other forms of rater bias.

Once the organization has embraced that the purpose of managing employee performance is to help employees succeed in meeting their accountabilities, the execution of the process will improve. Subsequent blogs will address each of the component parts of an effective program for managing employee performance.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance Part 4

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This blog is part of a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”.  Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee that result in the achievement of goals and expectations.

Previous blogs in this series answered questions about assessing performance and offered feedback principles that will enable the person sharing a performance assessment to “land” the message.  This blog will provide insights into the concept of “framing” a conversation and how it relates to landing the message.

Planning for a Performance Conversation

Planning for a performance conversation can dramatically improve the outcome of the conversation.  Recalling some of the principles from recent blogs in this series, a manager needs to use the FEED framework in their conversation planning.  FEED stands for:

  • Facts – start with facts
  • Expectations – review what is expected
  • Effect – outline the impact or “effects” of the actions taken
  • Dialogue – invite the other person to share their perspective

Determining the Theme of the Message

Either reinforcement of a desired behaviour or correction of an undesired behaviour, determining the theme of the message an important part of the planning process.  By establishing the theme of the message you want to “land”, you help keep things on track as the conversation evolves and create a way to measure if the conversation was successful.

Framing the Conversation

When you have outlined the FEED approach and established the message theme, you are ready to start the conversation.  You know what you want to say and why you want to say it, but the other person may be entering the conversation with little or no knowledge of your purpose and intent for the conversation.  This is where the concept of “framing” comes in.  When you provide a “frame” for the conversation, you provide context to the receiver that contains insights into your purpose and intentions.  Let’s look at an example of two different approaches a manager could take to invite an employee into a performance conversation.

Situation:

Judy, a good performer on your team has been leading a project and things have been going well.  At a meeting this morning, Judy made a mistake in the way she handled a situation and the outcome of the meeting was not what it could have been.  Judy did not make a career altering mistake, however the behaviour has enough impact that it warrants having a performance conversation with her to ensure that the undesired behaviour is corrected.  You have thought through the FEED framework and the message theme and have decided to give Judy a call to set up a meeting with her later today (if she is available).  Below are two different approaches to invite her into the conversation.

Approach #1

“Judy, this morning things didn’t go as planned in the meeting. Please meet me in my office at 3pm today to discuss the situation.”

Approach #2

“Judy, I know you have been working hard on the project and things have been going well.  At this morning’s meeting, there was a situation that seemed to not go as well as it might have.  I am committed to helping you achieve the success you are striving for in managing the project, so I thought we should meet later today to talk about what happened.  Are you available at 3pm today?  We could meet in my office to discuss the situation”.

Approach #1 does not offer much in the way of a frame for the conversation.  The challenge with this approach is that the employee could easily interpret the invitation in a negative context and could attend the meeting with a healthy degree of fear that is less likely to help them in their development in managing projects.

Approach #2 provides insight into the intentions of Judy’s manager and the desire to help them as a frame for the conversation.  This approach is much more likely to put Judy in the right frame of mind to be open to improvements when her manager goes to “land” their message and offer corrective feedback.

In summary, good planning can help with performance conversations.  Effective feedback requires you to develop a framework for delivering the message, identify the theme for the conversation and provide context – a frame – for the message to ensure your good intentions are clear.

The next blogs in this series will offer insights into how to deal with performance gaps and the prospect of confronting an employee with difficult feedback.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.

two young business people discussing

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance Part 3

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two young business people discussing

This blog is part of a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”.  Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee that result in the achievement of goals and expectations. Read more

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance

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41108649 - landing

Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee, that result in the achievement of goals and expectations.

This blog is part of a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”.  The last blog offered insights into how to assess performance and provide employees with meaningful information on how they are doing.  This blog will continue to explore the process of giving meaningful performance feedback. Read more

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance

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Businessman supervising his female assistant's work on laptop computer

This blog is part of a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”.  Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee, that result in the achievement of goals and expectations.

The previous two blogs offered insights into how to set expectations.  We will now explore how to assess performance and provide employees with meaningful information on how they are doing. Read more

Managing Employee Performance – Setting Expectations

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Setting Expectations

This blog is the second in a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”.  Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee, that result in the achievement of goals and expectations. The first blog emphasized the need for organizations to choose the most appropriate focus for performance management – the development of a relationship and work environment that enables the person to perform to the best of their abilities. Read more