Trends for Performance Management

Joe Weinlick
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A strong labor market in early 2017 means keeping top talent is more important than ever for companies seeking a competitive edge. Employers, managers and HR professionals should examine performance management trends. Judging someone's performance is a key, yet sometimes neglected, metric that continues to evolve to serve the needs of forward-thinking companies.

Greater Efficiency

Technology in the workplace, whether cloud computing, specialized computer software or HR algorithms, measures whatever metrics you want. Performance management software represents a great automation tool for any company that wants to utilize real-time reporting of analytics regarding personnel reviews. Automated tools allow you to give constant, ever-updating feedback when employees try to meet performance goals. The software then analyzes an employee's achievements for supervisors to interpret. When you include highly efficient software into your personnel reviews, this aspect of your job gets easier and easier so you can focus on results and analysis.

Frequent Reviews

Employees can expect more frequent reviews because technology makes performance management easier. Align your employees' performance with your company's goals. Instead of annual reviews, which lose their impact since they may be too far removed from an employee's actual performance, consider monthly or quarterly reviews.

Millennials value regular feedback, and technology helps keep track of reviews, performance goals and areas of improvement. The sooner workers know what to expect out of their job, the better they can adapt to the feedback they receive. Annual reviews are no longer relevant to a fast-changing workplace.

Workforce Engagement

Technology and more frequent reviews lead to an engaged workforce in your performance management model. Contemporary personnel reviews foster trust among all employees, empowering them to do the jobs they were hired to do. Engagement also includes examining the work ethic of employees within a company's goals, mission and values. Workers start taking the initiative and voicing their ideas more readily because the feedback system works both ways when it comes to communication. When companies hear more ideas, this leads to better innovation within a company's niche market, and that innovation creates more revenue and higher profits.

Goal Setting

Rather than a formal review process, performance management should focus on setting and achieving goals. How often does each individual team member meet or fail to meet a goal? This objective doesn't necessarily have to be intangible, such as communicate better with customers. Goals, thanks to frequent feedback, technology and engagement principles, can be tangible. Instead of taking 10 business days to complete a project, try reducing the completion to eight days.

Discover how a worker's goals contribute to the company's overall objective, and see where that takes your business model. The key to setting goals is to have clearly defined finish lines and obvious steps to reach those ends. This aspect of personnel reviews helps leaders who have a big-picture vision of how small, incremental steps lead to a more solid company look several months and years into the future.

Performance management trends for 2017 continue to move toward more technology, more reviews, less formal feedback and better worker engagement. Prepare your company by investigating the most efficient way to foster these trends while your business grows in a robust, quick-changing economy.


Photo courtesy of arztsamui at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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