How do you measure the effectiveness of your performance processes? This is a sneaky little multi-layered question 😁 because effectiveness relies on two elements:
- Employee Participation: You only get this when you have an experience that makes sense in the context of your people, culture, and ways of working.
- Performance Outcome: You only get this with 'Process' and 'Great Performance' alignment, in other words, the process needs to help employees reach your org's definition of what great performance looks like.
Sounds so simple when it's written like this. The thing is, it's easy to get right but it's also easy to get wrong.
Key to getting high levels of Employee Participation is designing the process by walking in the shoes of each participant, literally, step by step for an employee and step by step for a manager - asking for their input to the process along the way and getting their feedback after a real run.
Key to number 2 is understanding that every organisation has a different philosophy on what great performance looks like, this is often driven by the characteristics of the industry you operate in. Perhaps you have a philosophy that achieving KPI's is great performance, or perhaps developing employee capabilities and skills will indirectly lift the org, or a simple cadence of feedback about living your values, or more connected relationships between managers and their team members... there are many more, but one thing is for sure - don't try to do them all!
What's the graph below? Participation rates we often see achieved by our customers. It's these results that tell us, together, we got the design right for an engaging performance experience for these employees and managers. Step 1 Done!