Sibson Consulting and WorldatWork collaborated on and recently released their 2007 State of Performance Management Study. The study features the responses of more than 550 primarily senior level HR professionals in organizations that range from less than 100 employees to more than 100,000 employees.
Some key findings from the study include:
- There isn't much difference in the performance management techniques used in organizations where the programs are rated as effective versus those rated as less effective. The difference comes in the level of active leadership support and championing of the process. My experience would confirm this: performance management processes that are HR driven are rarely as successful as those driven by top management. It is critical to bring leadership into a role of active support (as in walking the talk) of performance management. One way to do this is to help them see (and help position) the process as one of business improvement rather than administrative compliance. Executives get more excited about the former than the latter.
- Only 30% of respondents report that employees trust the performance management system. This is a hugely disappointing statistic, and I would bet it is correlated to the first point above. In many organizations - unfortunately - members of senior management pay lip service to the performance management process, and then don't hold either themselves or their subordinates accountable for doing it well. With that kind of duplicity at work, no wonder employees don't trust it.
- Overwhelmingly, the top challenge faced by organizations in making performance management successful is the inability of managers to hold difficult performance discussions. Holding difficult performance discussions is tough; this much is undeniable. But candid communication and feedback - done, of course, in a professional and considerate manner - is essential to improvement. However, if this candor and responsibility is not modeled from the top (see, again, first point above) , is it really a surprise that it isn't trickling very far or very well through the organization?
If there were any remaining doubts, this study makes it clear to me that unwavering commitment from the top is essential for performance management success.
Full copies of the survey report can be ordered from WorldatWork
Comments