Happy New Year! With the new year comes fresh starts, new resolutions, and opportunities to grow. Managers may have just finished a round of end of year appraisals, and employees are slowly returning from their breaks. Do you know how satisfied your employees are with your current performance appraisal process? It might just be that in 2023 you develop a more agile performance process for your organisation. 

Want to learn more? Keep reading.

Check in often

Do you only talk to your employees once a year? You might be missing out on valuable information your employees have to give you. Agility means being flexible and changing direction when needed. When you only talk to your employees once a year, performance will stagnate because it’s not possible to give regular feedback. One appraisal meeting a year also puts a lot of pressure on that one meeting. Agile performance management resolves these problems by introducing regular check-ins. 

Increasing the frequency of your performance meetings will:

• Increase your opportunities to provide feedback
• Decrease the discomfort and stress of a one on one meeting
• Allow greater flexibility
• Increase productivity by keeping everyone accountable

Get 360 degree feedback

While managers are keeping track of their direct reports, they might not be working with them a great deal. Team members however, are working alongside each other every day, and can develop a deep knowledge of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Having team members insights captured as part of 360 degree feedback is one component of agile performance management. It means that you’re getting the full picture of how an employee is performing and gives team members an opportunity to express gratitude to an individual, or point out areas requiring support that an individual might not recognise in themself.

Implementing 360 degree feedback allows you to:

• Receive the full picture of how an individual is performing
• Identify performance issues and successes missed in an appraisal
• Assist your team in recognising team players and those who need support

Progression planning

In your performance conversations, you are probably asking your team where they’d like to go in the future. But what do you do with that information? Are you assigning skills-based development tasks to your team? How are you giving your employees the opportunity to grow? Although sometimes necessary, we’re not suggesting you ask your employees to undertake lengthy formal training. Agile performance management also means agile learning. Instead, pair up a team member with a colleague who is doing the job they want to move into or ask someone in that field to assign microlearning tasks so the employee can dip their toe into the new role.

Ideas to boost your agile performance management with progression planning:

• Pair up your team members with mentors
• Share microlearning tasks with your team 
• Add short courses to their learning plan
• Check in with your team members after they’ve completed their learning

Putting it all together

Agile performance management isn’t a one-off meeting. It’s a cycle. Be prepared to have continued and frequent conversations with your team about what makes them excited to work, what they’re struggling with, and how they want to progress. Check in with them regularly to make sure they’re on track, and to give them tips in areas where they need support. If you assign learning to your staff, don’t leave them high and dry. Have a conversation about whether the learning was effective, and whether it’s bringing them closer to achieving their goals. 

Transforming your performance management to an agile framework is possible. Get started in 2023.