“Many companies left the era of the metric-based approach far behind. Nowadays, leaders are shifting towards What-How-Why methods, which allow them to evaluate employees in terms of integrating their behaviours with company values. Also, most CHRO use the Performance Management System with a well-defined methodology, which seems to be a must in a modern company culture,” says Thierry Goder, IMSA Mauritius.
“Nevertheless, several companies still conduct performance reviews in the traditional way, using metrics and KPI’s. On the other hand, because of the coronavirus crisis the situation is so tense that remembering essentials is crucial when it comes to employee evaluation,” explains Marianna Carbonari, IMSA Italy.
Evaluating employee performance is always an awkward yet crucial part of every manager-team relationship. No matter how well you might improve your metrics system or how well-defined your PMS methodology is. During times of uncertainty, everyone is losing their nerves. What to do? Just breathe and focus on constant feedback.
Several companies still conduct the performance review in the traditional way – based on numbers of phone calls taken or emails sent. If you are a CEO of one of them, consider changing as soon as possible. The metric-based approach often results in a situation where employees stop thinking about the quality of their performance. Instead, they focus on the number of actions taken, just to survive the evaluation process. As Elizabeth Brockey pointed out in HRMorning: Company cultures are driven by metrics often play to the idea of “winners” and “losers” and create a zero-sum game. While there are aspects of competitiveness that can be used for positive motivation and encouragement, many of these zero-sum cultures can drive employees to hide, rationalise, minimise, or cover up—all to avoid failure.
Metrics are important, but they should not be the primary source of performance review. For this reason, a growing number of companies have decided to abandon the pure metric-based evaluation approach. They try to empower their employee by providing continuous performance appraisal and proper management. Even for sales and production teams – hard numbers will always be the important indicator of their success – moving away from pure KPI’s assessments is a common trend. The trend is hard to miss.
People who receive guidance and believe that their employer respects and invests in them will see all that attention as invaluable and will work more effectively. And this will ultimately let your business grow.