As our work and environment changes, so does the way we manage our people. In the modern world we tend to be defined what we do and how we do it:
- A service provider where our behaviours and thinking are valuable
- Creativity and innovation are highly prized
- Flexibility and adaptability are more common in our work to help us manage change
- Ability to work more collaboratively within multiple teams
- Technology and AI are starting to remove the manual and repeatable tasks and allow for more skill focus and creative thinking
Yet despite the working landscape changing, processes have stayed the same.
Performance management through the years
In the 1900’s - Power Over
Industrial revolution changed the power relationship of work. Few employment laws meant the boss held all of the power. It was mostly focused on physical work so measures were based on physical outputs.
1960-1970's – Staff records
Labour laws and post war attitudes to work meant there was unrest in the workplace. There was the introduction of staff records, tighter monitoring of staff output and greater attention on employee behaviours and time keeping. There was also an increase in feedback mostly through the form of corrective action, usually written or formal.
1980-1990's – Rank and Yank to coaching
Ranking people’s performance to help yank them up in the company or terminating their contract became more widespread. At the same time an increase in HR paperwork and the use of formal processes occurred. This led to the introduction or coaching as a way of increasing employee performance and ensuring they moved up the ranks.
21st century – The intelligent manager
Nowadays there is a more attention on the human brain. Listening to people’s thoughts and opinions and encouraging multiple ideas. The understanding of the brain’s psychology, especially around motivation, has significantly increased. This has led to a more individualised approach and open conversations to performance management over process.
At the moment, in many organisations, recording outputs of conversations, actions and outcomes is still a requirement. However, the conversation between leader and employee should be the primary focus. The outputs only need to be recorded as part of an agreement between the two.
Within process driven performance management approached, the only reason the conversation happens is because of the focus on output and it is dull. This is why many people feel like the performance management appraisal is just a tick box exercise.
When the focus shifts in an appraisal to signing document and paperwork this is when the emphasis on the conversation moves away and the meaning behind the appraisal is lost. This is when the human element tends to be removed.
In positive performance management, it helps to simply record information such as:
- Who is doing what by when?
- How are they doing it?
- Potentially a record of the development or the required support
When the task becomes a goal to be achieved instead of something meaningless and a ‘requirement’, this is when the feedback and outcome will become more positive.
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