In my last blog post I promised to share some findings from our research into how HR can make Annual Performance Reviews something that people really want to engage with. And I also promised I’d tell you about a webinar where you can find out more. The details of the webinar are at the end of this post, but let’s talk about the research findings first. Since the start of the year, we’ve been talking to leaders, to HR teams and to ...
“Never turn your back on a boomerang.” I was going through the ordeal of my Annual Performance Review and this phrase on my boss’s coffee mug struck me as tremendously funny. I still find it quite amusing but on that particular day I laughed hard. And my boss laughed hard at me laughing. This was my first ever ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW. It really felt like something that should be written in CAPITAL LETTERS. In those days, the ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW ...
“You’d better make this investment worth our while. You’re asking us to give up the equivalent of five years of our senior leaders’ time to learn how to have better performance conversations. That’s a big ask.” I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone as sceptical as this director of an engineering firm I worked with a couple of years ago. And I certainly left that particular Board meeting with his words ringing loudly in my ears. He, along with three ...
“I’ve got to let you into a secret. I never liked the whole formal performance management thing – and it’s not just because the managers hate me for nagging them about it!” The Head of HR who made this confession isn’t unique. I’ve been there myself. As a former Head of HR & OD in the financial services and utilities sectors, I spent many hours trying to convince leaders that performance management was their responsibility – not something that ‘belonged’ ...
I once worked with a manager who never gave his staff realistic annual performance reviews. Everyone was apparently performing equally well. Eventually problems began to surface, so the director of HR sat down with him to find out why he hadn’t flagged up issues in good time. He claimed that he found it hard to find the right words – “I don’t find these conversations easy”. The company invited him and several others to a communications workshop, so that they could ...
It’s that dreaded time of year again – performance review time. Otherwise known as the yearly (or half-yearly) point at which the HR team and line managers do battle. HR want managers to get all their performance reviews completed on time and to actually have a performance conversation before they fill in any related documentation. Line managers are turning into skilled avoiders of this process, which they see as being HR-driven rather than a fundamental element of their management role. ...