The pain of annual appraisals

Dear Caroline,  like in all organisations, we have scheduled and planned months for performance appraisals every year. In my organisation, it is the month of May. Yet every year, we have to go through so much pain to get them done, and sometimes we have situations that I would describe as hostile and even passive-aggressive situations that have to be managed by the HR team. The HR team has tried to manage this process, giving people timely plans and schedules, but it always comes back with pain. How do I get around this stress? Judith
 
Hello Judith, sorry to hear about your “pain”. Rest assured, your pain is not unique in any shape or form, and many organisations feel your pain.

First, let me clarify that performance management is NOT the responsibility of the HR/People & Culture/People & Change function in your organisation; it is the line manager’s responsibility. So, we need to set the correct parameters. The people who function with the leadership ( SMT/ EXCO) are responsible for providing the framework that enables performance management to work. 

The pain you are experiencing is likely due to avoidance of the manager having difficult discussions with their team members and staff feeling unfairly assessed because they are “receiving the feedback for the first time”. So we need to address two aspects: the performance management framework of the organisation; you would be surprised to know starts with recruitment and selection of your organisation’s talent and the second part is how your performance framework is defined and this includes;  how goals and performance indicators are set;  how good/poor performance is rewarded and managed; how are competencies defined and also includes how supervisors are trained to manage team performance, including team motivation engagement as well as how staff are prepared to receive feedback. It is very complex but let’s look at the critical foundations.

As I mentioned above, the starting point is how you recruit and assess for talent – this means that we have recruited the right people who are skilled and have the competence to do the work that has been correctly defined with clear measures of what a good job looks like, defined through a well-defined job description.

Secondly, your framework has provided a process for setting goals and targets objectively. These goals should be aligned with the organisation’s goals and strategy, and the indicator must matter in measuring these goals – no matter how difficult.

Thirdly, at the start of every year, supervisors and their team members have a conversation to discuss the goals and targets and ensure that all teams are in agreement on what needs to be achieved.

Lastly, during the period under evaluation, supervisors and their team members have regular conversations about performance so that when it comes to annual appraisals, it’s “not new” to the staff. If there is a need for a “difficult conversation,” it is not new because it has been discussed before. Hopefully, by the time one gets to the annual conversation, the poor performance has been addressed.

Remember, underlying all this is ensuring that your supervisors have been trained to manage, motivate and engage teams, have been guided to document their discussions and are well-equipped to handle difficult conversations.

While the above is very basic now, you can now ask yourself what is causing the pain: has the organisation recruited people who cannot do the job; do you have well-defined job descriptions that ensure staff perform to the best of their ability; does your organisation have a process of goal setting and cascading; do your managers engage with their team members regularly to support their performance and lastly has the HR and SMT/EXCO team provided a framework that promotes developments and reduces the pain of performance appraisals? Let’s start with a self-diagnosis. 

Good Luck. 

Caroline Mboijana, Managing Director, The Leadership Team (U) 
[email protected]