America's Got… Performance Management

Cale Hamer
Product Manager, Global Talent Management
Ultimate Software

I was flipping through channels a couple of weeks ago and catching glimpses of both the Grammy Awards as well as a multitude of reality-based singing shows when I came to the epiphany that performance management is much like singing.  Most people try to do it, but few people do it well. Though unlike singing, performance management is actually relatively easy to do, especially when done in a way that is thoughtful and when the organization puts their people first.  When this happens and personal development takes place, financial performance will be positively impacted. The problem is many organizations don’t approach performance management as a method for executing on business strategies. They simply see it as an annual process they have to do in order to adhere to legal policies and check a box off for HR. One common thought  is that performance management process is a process of documenting ratings that justify compensation and personnel decisions—many of which have already been made before the performance review even begins.

If done well performance management can be much more. It can:

• create a shared sense of performance expectations across a company,
• give employees meaningful feedback that helps them improve their effectiveness and drive their development,
• increase overall collaboration within the organization, and
• provide the organization with insight into the talent of the workforce.  

When done poorly, performance management has about the same level of strategic value as the process for completing expense reports. It simply documents what people did in the past and places very little emphasis on improving what they might do in the future.

According to a study by the Business Journal in May of 2011, the number of U.S. workers who voluntarily quit their jobs was at its highest level since 2009. There were 2 million quits nationally in May 2011, compared to 1.79 million quits in May 2009. The major reason behind this was the decrease in employee engagement. A national survey by Mercer cites that about 20 percent of U.S. workers are feeling disengaged, while another 32 percent of workers are seriously considering leaving their organization. (Carlock, Catherine. “Greener pastures: Statistics show increase in the number of people changing jobs.” The Business Journal. 2 Sept. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.)

This is why we promote a collaborative, engaging, and experiential performance management process. We believe that the process should not only be person-centric, but that it should also be experiential versus date- or event- based. Individuals should be continually engaged with their organization, their manager, and their career path instead of receiving an annual review that leaves them feeling like headcount rather than an instrumental part of the organization.

So when you’re looking at your existing process today, what would your people say about their engagement in their career development and performance reviews? Are they collaborative and ongoing? Or do they feel administrative? If these areas were improved, don’t you think your bottom line would improve with them?

It’s something we’re passionate about and spend a lot of time thinking about at Ultimate. We’re focused on building a talent solution that provides for ongoing collaboration, flexible review processes, and abundant opportunities to identify and build upon individual skills and competencies. We believe in not only building an engaging user experience, but giving each person the tools they need to be engaged within their organization.

I look forward to sharing more in the coming months on ways to improve your performance processes and about how UltiPro can get you there.

Cale Hamer