Suggested Reading: The Crowdsourced Performance Review
By Steven E. Sacks, CPA, CGMA, ABC
I recently read a blog post, “Want to Kill Your Performance Rankings? Here’s How to Ensure Success.” It explained how companies are moving away from the traditional performance management or rankings model and moving toward more frequent feedback. Employees are seeking to make this a more collaborative process, asking bosses and peers to engage in more frequent conversations about their performance.
There is a movement afoot to replace the formulaic, numbers-driven performance ratings with more quality, substantive conversations. There are three steps to accomplish this:
- Create a framework to encourage regular conversations.
- Ensure that conversations focus on the future.
- Train managers to have quality performance conversations.
It also talked about encouraging employees to ask for feedback; to decrease the level of anxiety normally associated with receiving scheduled (or unscheduled) feedback.
The article confirmed what has been spoken about for years. Companies, irrespective of industry or service sectors, are looking for the most effective ways to keep their talent. I recommend reading “The Crowdsourced Performance Review” by Eric Mosley.
We have seen the use of the term crowdsource in action. It is a powerful tool to gather consensus or opinions on such things as Amazon.com’s product pages or services like TripAdvisor and Angie’s List. The combination of data from many sources and individual opinions create a new approach to decision making called crowdsourcing.
The Old Model Just Doesn’t Cut It
But what does crowdsourcing have to do with employee performance reviews? If the traditional model is frozen in time because of its flawed structure, there is no quick fix by applying a Band-Aid here, a Band-Aid there. When the performance model was first invented, it was designed to reward good performance—whatever that was—and provide some sort of incentive to stimulate underperforming employees to improve. The notion of a cycle creating an ever-improving work performance based on “objective” criteria, improving morale and increasing profits was the basis of the program.
What has been the result? A complete opposite effect that created mistrust, cynicism and low morale. Mosley’s book rethinks the performance review systems and proposes a new model. It adds new practices that are in synch with the way businesses think and technology is leveraged. The book describes three new innovations to the performance model:
- The spread of crowdsourcing information
- Adoption of social media
- Rise of culture as a competitive advantage
Evolution of the Performance Review
The idea is to meld all three of these components that will result in social recognition. This employs a systematic set of practices, where many people consider and recognize an employee’s performance on a daily basis. This real-time assessment—as opposed to the one-year retrospective—reveals improvements or shifts at particular points in time, thus enabling more insightful evaluation.
The use of the crowdsourced review supplants the year-end review and is superior in the way it operates. Information is gathered about positive specific actions that comprise the efforts of individuals and groups. The feedback comes from multiple sources; a person is not judged entirely by his or her manager. The review is in real time because feedback is continuous and immediate; this is a must because managers tend to forget things when other urgent matters suddenly arise.
Actually, in 2017, companies should no longer be relying on performance assessment forms that were developed 30 to 40 years ago.
Culture, as I and others have written before, will continue to be the great differentiator. Company leaders are making big changes in how they manage human capital, and community-based styles of collaboration and goal setting are two of the ways. As Mosley notes, a culture of recognition can either be a one-time occurrence by honoring an individual for his or her work in managing a project, or it can offer more far-reaching benefits as it cuts across departmental silos and allows for communication that is consistent, timely and free-flowing.
If recognition leads to better employee engagement, then leaders must find the best tactics to use. Mosley cites thought leaders from organizations specializing in performance management. He describes Towers Watson’s approach to getting the best from employees: 1) Know them; 2) Grow them; 3) Inspire them; 4) Involve them; and 5) Reward them. If an organization practices all five of these, employees will consistently give value-added discretionary effort, thus leading to improved financial results.
Insightful and easy to read, The Crowdsourced Performance Review enhances its points with relevant charts and sidebar anecdotes. Leaders, mid-level managers and employees will benefit from how businesses are reimagining culture, communication and performance as business models and operations are rapidly changing.
About Steve
Steven Sacks is the CEO of Solutions to Results, LLC, a consultancy that specializes in helping individuals, firms and organizations meet the challenges of communicating with clarity and purpose. Visit his website at www.solutions2results.com.