Employees reported receiving little performance-related feedback that they considered useful, and remarkably, over 80% of all employees were rated as ’exceeding expectations’ during recent review cycles. Further, most managers revealed that they struggled to have meaningful discussions with their employees about their individual performance and felt they lacked the tools to hold employees accountable.
Every organization knows the value they want to get from their workforce, but few have the effective performance management systems needed to realize that full value. To achieve the desired results, a performance management system relies on effective communication between employees and their supervisor, clearly set expectations, and well-defined criteria against which performance is evaluated. The longer the system is allowed to degrade, the harder it will be for employees to accept a transition to a more effective system, and the more important the change management strategy becomes for the transition.
With only a few months to develop the implementation plan for the new performance management system and to execute the change management strategy, WP&C created parallel paths to address the three key requirements to successfully implement the new system: selecting relevant criteria for evaluating performance, addressing employee fear of adverse consequences from the new system, and equipping managers with the necessary skills to effectively provide feedback and manage employee performance.
- Developing performance evaluation criteria: WP&C worked with the talent management group to understand why and how prior attempts at improvement had failed and developed categories in which performance would be evaluated going forward. Equally as important, processes and metrics were developed to evaluate organizational performance in executing the new system.
- Addressing employee fear: An effective performance management system provides insight into employee performance across the company, clearly identifying the strongest performers and those who are failing to meet expectations. The shift to such an environment can cause significant stress and fear for employees and supervisors alike, so a highly engaged and empathetic change management strategy was required.
- Developing manager capabilities: Using the new performance management system effectively required new skills for the manager team. WP&C developed a custom-designed, practical-application focused program to develop the required skills for implementing the new system.
The team developed custom-designed recommendations for the Client’s specific challenges in each area:
- Evaluation criteria: Employee evaluation criteria were developed along three critical dimensions—job-related performance, alignment with organizational culture, and professional development. To evaluate organizational performance with the new system, measures were developed (both quantitative and qualitative) to gauge the effectiveness of the system at providing actionable feedback to employees and for identifying both top performers and struggling employees.
- Change management: WP&C created and executed a plan that resulted in multiple touch-points with employees as part of the overall implementation effort. Engagement opportunities included Union Leadership, mandatory introductory and awareness small-group sessions for every employee, manager-specific sessions to align the leadership team with the organization’s vision for using the new system, and a robust communication plan that ensured multi-channel communications to every member of the organization.
- Manager development: To cultivate the core leader skills of effectively communicating with employees, setting expectations, providing feedback, and coaching and mentoring, a 12-month Leadership Development Program was created and delivered before the transition to the new system began and continued throughout the implementation phase. Monthly large-group (~30 persons) sessions provided frameworks for addressing the challenges facing the leadership team and then focused on developing practical solutions to the real-world challenges each manager faced. Weekly small-group sessions drilled down into the individual development needs of each manager while our experienced coaches helped them work to develop and improve their managerial skills.
WP&C’s role also included regular updates to the executive leadership team, providing insight and feedback from all levels of the organization so they could best engage the workforce at all levels and maximize the impact of the new system.
Wilson Perumal & Company’s work resulted in a profoundly successful transition to the new performance management system as evidenced by:
- 78% of employees cite receiving better and more meaningful feedback from their supervisor
- 69% believe the organization has improved accountability
- Nearly 80% of employees report improved manager communication
- Less than 15% of employees were rated as exceeding expectations (down from over 80%)
- Numerous employee performance improvement plans were implemented for struggling team members
