How can frequent one-to-one meetings actually change your company for the better?
By now, you’ve probably read plenty of articles about how fewer and fewer companies are making use of annual performance appraisals. They have seen their day and they have been traded in for a more efficient system of regular performance reviews and feedback.
What you might be more interested in knowing at this critical juncture is how exactly your company will benefit from overhauling your performance management cycle. What are the actual business benefits that will help strengthen your organisation and take it to the next level? Below, we’ll cover the five main benefits you will see after introducing regular performance management reviews, once you have carefully and thoughtfully transitioned away from a more traditional system.
1. With regular performance management reviews comes increased job satisfaction
Put simply, employees are always happier when they have access to more frequent feedback. It has been shown that 65% of employees want more feedback than they currently receive, yet many companies appear slow to respond. This is a great shame, as with regular feedback discussions comes an increased understanding and confidence in your work. That means your employees will be more engaged, more driven and more able to succeed.
Additionally, such discussions provide an opportunity for employee recognition, which can have a huge impact on both morale and job satisfaction. Never underestimate the power of acknowledgment. It can encourage tremendous enthusiasm and company loyalty.
2. Companies can use regular employee performance management discussions to cut staff turnover
Thinking about introducing regular performance discussions? You should know that companies that have done so have experienced a notable improvement in terms of retention, saving them a significant amount of time and money.
In fact, organisations that introduce frequent one-to-ones with their employees generally see a 14.9% lower turnover rate. A particularly impressive and famous example is that of Adobe, who witnessed a 30% reduction in voluntary turnover when it shook up its performance management system.
3. More frequent communication regarding SMART objectives affords greater clarity
Remarkably, many employees struggle through their day-to-day roles, not actually knowing what is expected of them. This is obviously terrible for the companies that hire them. An uninformed employee is not going to be productive, they’re not going to perform well and they’re not going to achieve their goals if they don’t know what they are in the first place.
When you incorporate regular performance reviews, manager and employee are able to frequently readdress SMART objectives. Rather than having a few over-arching objectives that gradually become irrelevant over the course of a year, short-term goals can be set, meaning that manager and employee have the opportunity to regularly collaborate and clarify objectives. Managers can set expectations and employees can ask questions, while simultaneously taking ownership over their goals. Using this approach, employees develop a great sense of pride in their work and are more confident in their ability to achieve their set objectives.
4. Regular performance discussions influence career growth
At Clear Review, we recommend the introduction of monthly check-ins. As well as discussing concerns, achievements, and goals, employee and manager can discuss development opportunities during this time.
Training and development is an essential area of performance management, so time should be dedicated to personal development plans (PDPs). How is the employee progressing? Where could they improve? What steps does the employee need to take in order to advance further in the company? Addressing these questions will benefit both the company and the employee. The employee will realise that their organisation genuinely cares about their future at the company. As a result, the business will benefit from a skilled, determined and motivated employee.
5. Regular performance discussions are actually more time-efficient than annual reviews
Though it might sound counterintuitive at first, introducing more frequent performance discussions in place of a single annual appraisal really is more time-efficient. Annual reviews simply don’t deliver a strong return on investment when it comes to training, developing and engaging employees. According to one source, Accenture once spent over 2 million hours on performance reviews. Before adapting its performance management system, Adobe dedicated 80,000 management hours each year in order to conduct annual reviews.
The problem is that these hours aren’t a great use of management time. They are dreaded by employees and don’t produce reliable results. Annual appraisals try to accomplish too much in one meeting and, as such, they tend to produce very little. On top of this, annual appraisals are usually accompanied by a lot of form-filling, which takes up a lot of HR, management and employee time.
Regular performance discussions happen more frequently, so management and HR are kept up to date on employee progress. Meetings are shorter and more informative and, on top of this, trusting relationships are able to form between employee and manager, meaning that conversation is more meaningful.
Though this quantity of meetings might sound daunting at first, these ‘check-in’ meetings can be short and sharp, and results pay off in the end. Think it might be a struggle to keep track of it all? Your company can make use of performance review software to track and schedule meetings to ensure they take place and that action points are captured.
If you are sold on the business benefits of regular performance discussions, use our free and informative one-to-one meeting template. This will help you with your transition to continuous performance management by guiding your conversations and giving you important points for discussion.
To find out how Clear Review’s dedicated and experienced HR team can help you transition to continuous performance management, get in touch today for a free performance management consultation.