January and February is typically a very intense period in the people management cycle of many companies. Performance ratings, performance and, if time permits, development conversations, performance-related salary increases, bonus reviews, setting new objectives and a long etcetera.
For many, and I admit that for me it has been like that for many years, a madness. And of course life goes on, show must go on. Luckily, the customers keep buying, the day-to-day issues are still there, the work is piling up and there is no human way to get out of this unscathed. Especially if you are serious about developing, motivating and engaging your people.
The traditional annual performance evaluation and the HR processes linked to it continue to be the basis of people management and development in many companies. Paradoxically, in many cases, these processes become like a boomerang against the objectives for which they were designed, being a source of demotivation and frustration.
For several years now, many companies have begun to "reinvent" these processes to adapt them to new needs. In many cases there has been a shift in emphasis from Performance to Development, recognizing that the ideal of balancing the two objectives is almost always complicated, to say the least. A good example is service companies, where people development is the key to competing and retaining talent.
In a world where innovation is the main source of competitive advantage in most sectors and agility and adaptability is a must, needs and challenges are constantly changing.
In this context, it is practically impossible to evaluate people on the basis of annual cycles. Projects are short term, they tend to change during their development and it is almost impossible to define objectives and tasks in a year's time.
In response to this, companies such as Google, Amazon or Deloitte have developed more constant and informal feedback practices, focused on continuous development.
This feedback, in many cases, comes not only from the direct manager, but also from colleagues or other managers with whom the employee interacts on a daily basis. These new forms of feedback have challenged HR systems that accommodate traditional processes based on annual appraisals. New apps and systems have appeared that allow this continuous feedback from various sources.
In this line , performance ratings are also eliminated, objectives are set by projects, are more short-term and are reviewed frequently. And, in many cases, they are set collectively rather than individually, which reinforces collaborative work.
The continuous feedback formula seems today the most adapted to the challenges of our world: following real project timelines, recognizing successes when they occur, giving development feedback when challenges arise and managing performance issues on the spot.
It puts the responsibility on the real actors, employees and managers, empowering them to be actors of their own development and success in the company. In short, it looks to the future rather than to the past, as opposed to the annual performance evaluation, which is based on past events.
Sometimes, it is the very rigidity of HR processes and systems that creates resistance to this change, which has become an imperative for many industries and businesses.
Curiously, smaller or more recently created companies operate in this way in a natural and spontaneous way. Learning from these more agile models, also in people management, is a challenge for large companies and multinationals.
In this context, some things remain the same. Giving feedback and having good development conversations remains a challenge for many, both in organizations and in life in general. For organizations, establishing a feedback culture focused on continuous improvement, while helping to develop future talent, requires strong determination from senior leadership.
In my opinion there are two basic things that underlie the success of this culture:
Giving feedback is a skill and is key in a culture of continuous development. Like all skills, it can be improved by knowing the basic rules, but above all with practice. Feedback is also the core skill of the leader-coach: the leader who empowers his team and brings out the full potential in people.
If you want your team to improve their feedback skills and practice in a safe environment, we have some experiences that will help you achieve this. Ready for People we have some experiences that will help you do just that - check them out!
Silvia Fradera
Founder of Ready for People