Tag Archives: feedback

Examining the Impact of Ratingless Reviews and Year-Round Feedback on Employee Performance

31 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by in Compensation, HR Strategy, Performance Management, Talent Management

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<datascience.berkeley.edu

<datascience.berkeley.edu>

…Okay, so much has been written in the news about companies doing away with performance ratings. GE is probably the most famous company to make this change. But companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Adobe, Deloitte and Accenture have also (somewhat less famously) recently re-designed their performance management process, eschewing the formal annual review + rating in favor of more ongoing feedback and check-ins.

The articles I linked to above all have different views on the efficacy of replacing annual, formal review programs with more infrequent and informal fare… and to be sure companies have had varying degrees of success (and failure) with said implementations – often measured internally through employee feedback surveys and other experience data. Some of it has even been published online. But I don’t think that before yesterday I’d seen any large scale survey research that aggregated company experience data to quantify the value proposition companies are realizing (or not) from this performance management shift in the form of talent differentiation and productivity outcomes.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a great white paper from the folks at USC CEO here that did just this. Surveying 244 different organizations, USC CEO looked at three trending performance management process changes – namely the introduction of ongoing performance feedback, ratingless reviews of performance, and crowd-sourced feedback – and their effect on the way that employees were rewarded and the impact on their development.

…You’ll need to purchase the full working paper if you want to deep dive into the findings, but I want to share a (really compelling) exhibit on the impact that the shift in performance management practices has had on the way employees are developing and being rewarded. From the study:

Rewards Admin

^*80* percent of respondents are saying that shifting their performance management process to a more informal/less cyclical format has improved development outcomes for employees, which is exactly what a good performance management process is supposed to do. 2/3rds of companies also report that top employees are being more appropriately rewarded, with real differentiation between poor, average and good performance that (based on the data) is reinforcing the behaviors merit/reward pay should be reinforcing. Again, developing good performers into great performers is what this is supposed to be all about. And that’s what 4 in 5 are getting out of this change.

And now for my favorite data point:

Reward Allocation

^Again, 80% of the companies responding are – on some level – trusting and empowering their managers to make merit/reward decisions without meddling. And it’s working. Only 21% of employees say they are less clear about how they’re performing, with 62% saying that they feel pay decisions are more transparent (see exhibit #1 above). Much has been made about the subjectivity of a ratingless system… but most employees seem to prefer them and feel that they more accurately capture their value.

Having transitioned away from the rating scale and annual performance discussions in favor of no ratings + ongoing feedback with my own teams years ago, this data jives with my own experience and wasn’t much of a surprise. Still, it’s good to see some survey data coming out supporting what most people managers already know: If you have frequent, candid conversations with your people about what is expected and reward them appropriately, most of the time they will improve their performance (and be more engaged).

…Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today. Check out more research at USC CEO from Ed Lawler here, and as always let me know what I got wrong (or right – positive feedback is appreciated!) in the comments section below.

Happy Wednesday,

Rory

P.S. Has anyone tried crowd-sourcing feedback yet? Approximately 80% of the companies surveyed here had moved to ratingless reviews, while (I suspect) a much smaller number have started crowd-sourcing feedback as part of the performance management process. It is a novel idea, but I think you really have to have the right culture for this to work. What that culture looks like? I don’t know. Please share your own experiences etc.

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A Few Thoughts on Socializing Expectations Around Feedback

08 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Employee Engagement, Talent Management

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…Okay, so this evening I read a great piece from Josh Bersin on LinkedIn entitled Employee Feedback is the Killer App: A New Market Emerges. It’s probably the best piece I have read about employee engagement and feedback in, well, ever. I highly recommend checking it out here. Starting with a visual, though, check out the below graphic – per research from Workboard – which shows the correlation between feedback and engagement:

Feedback Deloitte

^So for many people this is intuitive. People like to be told how they’re doing, and they especially like to be told they’re doing a good job. But of course this is easier said than done. The age old problem is coming up with a way to regularly deliver both positive (and constructive) feedback in a way that helps teams get the best out of one another.

Bersin recommends tacking this challenge through a combination of pulse surveys, anonymous feedback tools (for delivering constructive feedback), conducting cultural assessment diagnostics, and social recognition. He emphasizes that there isn’t really a right or wrong approach for any individual company – the tools a company uses to move the needle on feedback and the form that feedback takes in large part depends on the organization.

…The cool thing about all of these tools though is that are they are speaking to three basic truths about human beings (in both work and personal contexts):

  1. We each respond to and deliver feedback differently based on how we’ve been socialized
  2. Everyone has their own rules of conduct (what they believe is right/wrong)
  3. We all (to an extent) have a desire to feel like we’re included (and that we’re adding value)

^There are a ton of great tools out there to help us address these realities about people in the pursuit of greater engagement in the workplace… but at the end of the day all of these tools are simply helping us to (I) understand one another’s values, and (II) establish rules and conduct for collaborating/communicating to bring the best out of one another while respecting those values. Coming up with vehicles to accomplish these two goals doesn’t feel all that daunting, right?

…It’s 7:30 PM so I may be oversimplifying this (in which case I may revisit later), but I wanted to share this piece and a few thoughts here. Please let me know what I got wrong in the comments section below.

Best,

Rory

The Importance of Articulating “Why” When Providing Feedback

27 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in General Management, Performance Management

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I know this would normally be a ‘Quote of the Week’ day, but I am mixing things up this week. ^_^…So in HR we often do a lot of management couching. And as an HR Manager supporting a pretty demographically diverse client group, for me to credibly advise leaders on how to tackle the myriad of different people challenges they face on a daily basis it’s critical that I have both a strong working and applied knowledge personally coaching individuals and teams.

Ergo, I am constantly soliciting feedback from my direct reports (whilst at the same time conducting a personal assessment of my own people management competencies) to understand how I can be a stronger team leader. Through this process, within the past year I’ve made significant gains where it concerns (i) helping my team develop new competencies to position them for advancement opportunities, (ii) removing non-value added work, and (iii) creating a culture of transparency and open communication.

It has been a long process, but lately I’ve (at times) started to feel like I know what I’m doing.

…Enter Work Rules! by Google’s CHRO Laszlo Bock, which helped me to recognize a gap in an area that I thought of myself as pretty good: Delivering actionable feedback. 

^Allow me to elaborate: It isn’t uncommon for me to regularly thank a member of my team for successfully completing ‘XYZ’ (or conversely provide constructive feedback when someone has an opportunity for growth). But often missing in my feedback has been why what I am commenting on is important. Allow me to illustrate: On any given day, I might say something like the below to a member of my team;

Me: Thanks for keeping me in the loop on how you managed that unemployment claim, and also for resolving it in such a timely manner. Keep it up!
Direct: Thanks for the kind words! No problem.

^When delivering positive feedback in this way, I’ve generally felt like I am doing a good job by (i) recognizing an employee for solid performance and (ii) clearly specifying what I’m recognizing the employee for. But in the above example the why this behavior adds value is a very important missing component. Because the why is what allows the employee to contextualize how his or her behavior added value… and as such give discretionary performance.

Case in point: I recently delivered similar feedback to the above, but added; “(Direct report), keeping me in the loop on the actions you take when managing these claims helps me because I occasionally get push-back from stakeholder XYZ; and by knowing how you handled the situation at the time, it allows me to make sure I’m on the same page with you here and to back you up when I get questions.”

^When I provided the additional “why” when delivering feedback, a really powerful thing happened. The employee followed up with me and said: “Thanks for letting me know why this helps you; I often wonder if I should get you involved with day to day transactional activities like this, and understanding how information like this helps you makes me confident about broaching it without feeling like I might be wasting your time.” 

^The direct’s comments then opened up a good dialogue wherein we talked about some of the other tactical items managed by the employee where she was unclear on what my level of involvement should be. And at the end of this dialogue, the employee left the meeting with much greater clarity of purpose on several previously undefined items whilst subsequently feeling much more empowered on others. Simply by contextualizing the otherwise very specific work performance feedback I was providing, I removed a lot of uncertainty for a member of my team and enabled her to be a more efficient performer.

…Sophomoric, I know; but I just wanted to share this ‘aha’ moment for anyone else that may be missing this simple value added component of feedback.

Best,

Rory