The key to launching a new performance management system is to start small.
It’s ok if the system isn’t perfect right away, if it’s a pilot at first, or if you haven’t included every descriptor you’d envisioned.
Start small and add over time. If anything, this will help with change management because team members will have more time to adjust to the changes along the way.
To Learn — Your timeline will drive everything else
Before you do anything else, determine your ideal roll-out timeline, which will ideally coincide with the start of your organization’s fiscal year ― or after a mid-year or quarterly inflection point.
Map your development timeline back from the ideal roll-out date to make sure you understand how long you have to develop all the pieces of your performance management system. (You can capture this timeline in a Word document or Google Sheet.)
Do this first because you don’t want to miss the opportunity to pilot what you create. It’s time-consuming to select and develop performance management tools (e.g., technology systems), so don’t dive into that work until you have a clear understanding of when you need to be done with the tools and begin the pilot.
To Apply – Things to consider
Rubrics
Develop rubrics for your more junior staff first (in most organizations, this means managers and below).
- These are the team members who need feedback the most since they’re newer to working and are still growing their professional skills.
- In addition, building rubrics and descriptors from the most junior staff on up will be easier for you too.
When building your rubrics, start with 4 competencies that apply to every position in the organization.
- We recommend that one competency relates to mission alignment (e.g., who you are as an organization and your commitments, values, beliefs, and vision). Make this as concrete as possible by defining terms (e.g., if an organizational value is “kindness counts,” define what it means to be kind).
- We recommend that the other three competencies relate to the skills that team members need in order to do their jobs well (e.g., communication, project management, and functional expertise). Use a 4-point Likert scale so there’s not too much gradation. There are certain non-negotiable skills required at certain levels (e.g., senior directors need management skills).
Communications Strategy
You’ll need to sit in on every roll-out meeting to help with messaging. It’s not enough to have one meeting with managers and then send them all out to explain the new system to their direct reports.
- Coach managers and make sure they’re all saying the same talking points over and over again. You’ll all feel like you say the same talking points a million times ― that’s a good sign that you’re communicating clearly and consistently.
Feedback
You should always be seeking feedback to improve the performance management system, so make sure there’s a feedback mechanism (e.g., survey, informal conversations) built into your process and calendar. People want to know that you hear them, which is very important to maintain a strong organizational culture.
- Consider setting up a working group to get feedback as you build the system, which will also increase buy-in.
- As your system changes over time (based on feedback and changes that happen naturally as your organization grows), be sure to communicate the changes you’ve made and why.
Performance Reviews
Don’t forget to design your performance review process and incorporate it into any goal-setting conversations that might already be scheduled.
- Ensure that conversations occur so that any promotion conversations align to key budget milestones.
- Ideally, performance reviews happen twice per year, but you might start with just once per year or even do it more informally in monthly check-in meetings.
During performance review conversations, you’ll provide a competency-based assessment to the team member, aligning that assessment to their short-term goals while also identifying growth opportunities in the areas you have identified they need to improve.
- It’s always helpful to have your colleague do a self-assessment in advance of this conversation so that you have a better sense of their perspective coming into the conversation.
- Once you’ve shared your feedback, follow up with a written summary of your conversation and next steps or goals so that you and your team can continue to grow.
Need more help? If you’d like support and/or coaching in building out your organization’s performance management system (or any other part of your organization’s talent ecosystem), we’re happy to help! Book a free, no-obligation, 30-minute call so we can get started.
Hope you found these leadership ideas helpful! If you’d like more support, TalentED Advisors offers a full suite of talent services, including:
- Hiring for executives and more junior roles
- Coaching for leaders and teams
- Organizational redesign
- Organizational health and culture
- Compensation frameworks
- Retention, recognition, and reward
- Career pathways
- Performance management
- Employee relations
Learn more at talentedadvisors.com/organizations. If you want to get a sense of what it would look like to work together, click the Get Started button to book a free, no-obligation call.
