Continuous performance management is the modern-day HR’s saving grace.
Let’s be honest, as much as annual review processes or quarterly performance assessments make sense on paper, it simply doesn’t cut the proverbial mustard IRL. People don’t fit into neat little cells on a spreadsheet, and their needs in the workplace don’t hold off politely until it’s time for yearly assessments.
This is why ongoing appraisals and feedback are essential, so adjustments can be made as and when the need arises.
Here’s a look at why the continuous approach to employee feedback is the way to go if you wish to boost engagement and retention, nurture trust, and improve problem-solving and workforce planning at the hand of more accurate performance information.
What exactly is continuous performance management?
Continuous performance management is a contemporary, employee-centric approach to workforce assessment that focuses on evaluating skills and performance in a way that creates a trusted environment in which employees are empowered to drive their own development.
This kind of real-time feedback promotes performance improvement by means of ongoing 360-degree evaluation, and provides the basis for effective goal setting and efficient trajectory amendments when necessary.
In short – employees and managers get together on a regular basis to check in on how well the employee has been performing their tasks and if there is anything they need to do to improve it. If improvement is called for, they work together to make it possible.
No stress, no fretting, just good people management.
Let’s take a look at 8 benefits of continuous performance management:
1. Supercharged employee engagement
According to findings by Gallup, employees who are approached by their superiors to discuss goals and success at least twice a year are almost three times more likely to display engaged behaviour than their contemporaries who aren’t.
2. Reduced employee turnover
Businesses that provide their employees with regular feedback have an almost 15% increase in employee retention. High rates of employee turnover is not only expensive, but it also manages a company’s employer brand, which has a direct effect on the quality of talent it is able to attract in the long run.
3. Improved operational alignment
Ongoing assessment allows HR professionals to drive operational alignment by correcting cultural issues as and when it becomes apparent, from the grassroots level up rather than from the top down. This is yet another benefit of getting appraisal input from co-workers as well as managers and supervisors.
Read more: 5 Ways HR tech can drive organisational alignment and employee engagement
4. Increased organisational trust
When managerial teams foster trust among their employees, these team members are twice as likely to be engaged and report a positive employee experience, which in turn is a KPI for overall profitability. When employees are clear on what is expected of them, productivity gains go up by as much as 10%.
5. Ongoing skills development
Continuous assessment provides valuable data that can pinpoint skills shortages and gaps that can be addressed internally by means of peer coaching, further training, etc. This also has a direct impact on a company’s bottomline.
6. More efficient management
When managers have the opportunity to engage in regular conversation with their team members, it’s much easier to communicate efficiently – there’s no need to cram a whole year’s worth of feedback into a single hour. Instead, taking a little time every week or month to sit down and talk through the particulars of the job allows everyone to stay on the same page and work together more efficiently.
7. Effective team-based problem-solving
When hampers to productivity, e.g. a lack of resources or skills, are addressed as and when it becomes apparent, a team can focus its energies on seeking out future opportunities instead of fixing issues that accumulate and bottleneck throughout the course of a year or quarter.
8. More accurate performance data
Continuous performance management systems deliver vital data that don’t just provide a once-off, annual ‘snapshot’ of what is going on within an organisation, but instead generates a data stream that can be used to get to grips with company culture and managerial effectiveness as a whole.
Innovative ways to gather data for continuous performance management
When performance data is collected from a variety of sources on an ongoing basis, there is no undue dependence on a given individual or parameter, which makes it all the more fair and accurate. This is a great way to eliminate prejudice that could arise from isolated assessment factors.
Here are a few innovative feedback sources that can be leveraged in this regard:
- Peer-to-peer recognition. Having an employee recognition platform in place that allows for quick and effortless recognition messages to be sent between peers creates a space where informal performance feedback can be shared publicly.
- Pulse surveys. These quick sentiment checks can indicate whether there are any immediate areas of concern that need to be addressed.
- Self-evaluation forms. Regular self-evaluation provides valuable data, but also gives employees the opportunity to adjust their approach when necessary.
There you have it – the importance and benefits of continuous performance management in a nutshell.
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