Traditional goal and people performance management gets done wrong more often than it gets done right. But there are ways to improve productivity with relative ease—especially with the right software solution in place. In this blog, we cover steps you can take to get goal and performance management right.

Some things are hard. Curing diseases, space missions, jumping really high and dieting come to mind. But some things aren’t that hard. People are just doing them the wrong way. Case in point: goal and people performance management.

Here’s where companies go wrong with people performance management—and how putting the right technology in place can make it right:

1. Ineffective & Siloed Goal Management

  • The vision of goal management: The workforce working in concert to achieve the most critical priorities of the business.
  • The reality: A laborious once a year process where people work in silos to create individualized goals that do not align with organizational, managerial or team priorities. They become out of date within weeks, leaving people working on the wrong efforts and not working effectively together. This means ineffective individual, team and workforce achievement and productivity.

To do this right, you need to replace goal management with goal alignment, collaboration and prioritization. You can make this goal and priority alignment process simple with the right features, including:

  • Publishing a list of key business objectives and update these nimbly as your priorities change, so that your people can align their personal goals with the goals of the business.
  • Allowing employees and managers to publish their goals and asking everyone to align their own goals to the goals of their managers, teammates and others – even cross-functionally.
  • Making updates every quarter or as needed in less time than doing the same once a year in other tools.

2. Ineffective, Infrequent & Untimely Feedback

  • The vision of feedback: Feedback between managers and employees and employees and their peers occurs regularly, when needed and the feedback is effective and actionable.
  • The reality: Most tools and processes are designed to automate once a year feedback processes with few tools for managers and others to provide effective feedback. This means feedback happens too infrequently and, when given, is typically too late to make a difference.

To solve this, feedback needs to be timely and effective—not a once-a-year exercise. Employees and managers can easily seek and run feedback sessions ad-hoc anytime during the year or set up a regular cadence of feedback sessions between employees and managers, such as once a quarter or even month. You can also use simple to complete best-practice feedback templates or create your own, so feedback is effectively completed when needed.

3. Invalid, Biased & Useless Performance Measurements

  • The vision of performance measurements: Ratings of goals and overall performance if used will be valid, fair and unbiased and employee performance will improve based upon the way they are measured and the feedback is presented.
  • The reality: End of year reviews are based upon out-of-date goals, and managers and employees haven’t had a performance and goal feedback discussion in a year. This leaves managers guessing at ratings and struggling to cobble together useful feedback and employees anxious, disengaged and mistrustful. Any ratings, measurements and feedback are ripe for bias and mistakes, and any HR decisions based upon them are subject to error.

To drive effective HR outcomes and improve employee performance and engagement, you need valid, unbiased and useful performance measurements.

With a better supporting solution, employee goals are more relevant and up to date, and feedback is consistent and timely. It’s simple to complete quality year-end reviews in almost no time as all of the data is right there waiting for managers. Also, regular feedback sessions take the fear and frustration out of year-end reviews as there are no surprises and mistakes brought on by managers trying to recall conversations and results from many months prior. In turn, the ratings and measurements are valid and fair, which results not only in better employee buy-in, but also more effective compensation, promotion and other HR decisions.

Why You Need Software to Improve Goal & People Performance Management

To transform goal and people performance management as outlined above, you need robust, flexible features. HRSoft’s PERFORMview can provide all of this and more. By enabling goal alignment, timely feedback, and valid, unbiased and useful performance measurements, you can take your performance management from wrong to right.

Plus: HRSoft recognizes that each business is different. That’s why we support a highly flexible workflow engine and toolkit through a low-code application. This enables organizations to use the tool just as it is configured in the demo site in a modular fashion. Just run what you want, when you want and with the touches you desire to personalize a process that is the best fit for you and your people.