Using a Performance Review System to Develop Your Organization and Talent

We live in a time of an ever-evolving workplace where change is seemingly constant. Amid the tumultuous environment it can often be difficult for organizations to figure out what is working well and who the top performers are, even when they may already have the perfect mechanism in place: a performance review system.

Soliciting feedback from your employees is the easiest, and most valuable, way to understand the frontlines of your organization and begin to understand what, and who, may be working well from leadership to administration. In instances where workplace change is rapid, soliciting feedback from employees can be the most valuable tool for management to gain perspective. In the October 2016 issue of the Harvard Business Review Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström, and Derek Schrader identify numerous reasons why leadership training and development fails, one of which is the “employee’s fear of telling the senior team about obstacles to the organization’s effectiveness.” It’s no surprise that employees can feel intimidated by sharing critical feedback of their managers, but creating the opportunity can help managers, and organizations, find their strengths and work to develop them further. Utilizing a performance review system to facilitate some anonymous feedback from your employees can create that safe environment for employees to provide that feedback without them feeling like it could affect their working relationships.

Beer, Finnström, and Schrader go on to outline the most effective way to develop talent and organizational effectiveness:

1. The senior team clearly defines values and an inspiring strategic direction.
2. After gathering candid, anonymous observations and insights from managers and employees, the team diagnoses barriers to strategy execution and learning. It then redesigns the organization’s roles, responsibilities, and relationships to overcome those barriers and motivate change.
3. Day-to-day coaching and process consultation help people become more effective in that new design.
4. The organization adds training where needed.
5. Success in changing behavior is gauged using new metrics for individual and organizational performance.
6. Systems for selecting, evaluating, developing, and promoting talent are adjusted to reflect and sustain the changes in organizational behavior.

Utilizing a performance review system like Trakstar can help facilitate the types of conversations that can help the senior team implement change effectively and help develop it’s talent to make change the change lasting and effective.