Building or Bullying? Tackling performance management

There is a small but attention-grabbing group of consultants pushing the position that "performance appraisals are dead". Such a claim may make an eye-catching headline, but it is dangerously misleading. Performance appraisals and performance management are here to stay. Feedback is a fundamental need of the human species - it contributes to our wellbeing. And businesses cannot hope to get the best out of their staff unless there are frequent and multiple ways they provide feedback to staff about which behaviours are desired and which are not.

In November, Voice Project held sold out breakfasts on this topic. To over 150 guests, we polled the audience, presented our own research drawing upon data from over 185,000 employees, and had high practical tips and experiences presented by four guest speakers

Tackling Performance Management Breakfasts

Our Sydney breakfast event featured Penny Holloway - GM of North Sydney Council, David Martin - Head of People, Learning and Culture at HammondCare, and Chris Georgiou - HR Director at AMT Group. Rita Cincotta - Associate Director HR at Swinburne University of Technology, also presented at our Melbourne event.

Check out the videos from our Sydney event:

Part 1

Part 2

Performance Appraisal and Correction

See the slides below, showing audience poll results and also summarising Voice Project's research on the work practices most closely associated with effective performance management

A powerful message coming from the breakfasts was the critical role played by senior leaders. The poll held at the Sydney event, with around 100 members of the audience responding, showed that getting agreement on the process and content of performance appraisals was harder with senior leaders than it was with non-unionised staff or unions. The single biggest challenge reported by the attendees was getting performance appraisals completed on time, and one of the biggest determinants of on-time completion is whether senior leaders regard on-time completion as a priority. On the related topic of bullying, Voice Project's own research showed that role modelling and consultation by senior leaders showed a far stronger association with low bullying than did behaviours of lower-level supervisors. Finally, as you'll see in the videos of our guest speakers, all spoke of the critical role that senior leaders played in building and promoting an effective performance culture.

Space here prevents a full summary of the other themes coming out of the breakfasts, but here is a quick summary. Leaders who get scored well on performance correction also show strong capacity for resolving problems early, cooperating closely with others, keeping people informed, and helping develop the capability of others. Effective performance appraisal, and preventing bullying, are intimately tied in with your involvement, recognition and development systems - too many organisations focus on supervisor training to improve bullying and performance management when more critical first steps are to ensure that staff are sufficiently satisfied with the way they are involved, recognised, developed and supported. Finally, as David Martin explained "You are what you tolerate" - you need to set clear performance standards, and hold individuals responsible for meeting those standards; if you tolerate low standards from some employees you then lower expectations for all employees.

I hope you enjoy the rich content in this blog, and we'd love to hear any comments or questions you may have.