The majority of performance evaluation processes are crazy

If I haven’t introduced myself yet, my name is Jason Buchanan and I have been part of the team creating the Employee Life suite of products from the very beginning back in 2015.  Whilst we probably described the first version of My Employee Life as a performance management tool, we quickly discovered that this wasn’t what we really needed.  We figured this out when we asked ourselves two simple questions. 

Question 1.  Who is responsible for a person’s performance? 

The answer to this question might seem obvious – the person who is doing the job – but humour me for a moment.  What is the role of a supervisor or manager?  Ever since I have been supervising the work of others, my role has been to ensure they are achieving what they should be. If they aren’t performing, then surely some of the blame must rest with me as the supervisor or manager?  I am not saying that a person isn’t responsible for their own performance, they most certainly are. But when it comes to assessing performance, who’s performance is a supervisor actually reviewing when it comes to performance review time? Instead of creating a crazy situation where a supervisor is effectively evaluating their own performance, we wanted to create a framework that supports success rather than supports finger-pointing. 

Question 2.  When is the best time to influence a person’s performance in their role?   

This might sound like another strange question but bear with me once more.  Most performance review processes happen at the end of a period of time (3 months, 6 months, 12 months etc).  I don’t know about you, but most people I speak with when you mention Performance Reivew cringe at the thought of a typical process.  Whether it’s because one human being now has to judge the performance of another human being, or whether it’s the fact that the majority of us can only remember what happened in the last few weeks – something referred to as the recency effect – it’s a problem that these processes are often hated.  But here’s the thing. Why wait?  Surely the best time to influence performance and someone is performing in their job is at that moment in time?  We wanted to create a process that supports necessary adjustments in real-time rather than waiting for a point in the future when the time has passed. 

My Employee Life is about influencing performance when it really matters 

There is nothing more frustrating than someone telling you what you should have improved or done different weeks or months ago. My Employee Life overcomes this problem because it focuses attention on just a few important success habits in real-time.

1.  Agree and commit to what the future should look like

2. Reflect on what’s going well, not so well and what help is required

3. Use this data as the basis for better conversations between people who need to be speaking often.

In other words, My Employee Life supports better conversations rather than replacing them, which radically reduces the amount of unnecessary chaos that can invariably be created through crazy performance review processes. 

If this sounds interesting, book in 15-20 minutes to discuss it with me personally (Jason Buchanan). Book A Time Here.

How I use My Employee Life to improve my employee life

I am a manager in a company that employs just shy of 50 people, which means I am both a supervisor and a team member at the same time.  It also means I am responsible for my own performance and that of my team.   I also like the idea of enjoying my job because like you, I spend over a third of my time working.  I am pretty sure most people on the planet would choose to prefer enjoying their work than not. 

I didn’t know it before we started using it, but introducing My Employee Life helps me achieve my goal of enjoying my work in a number of ways.  Here’s just a few I thought I would share. 

1. Clear expectations and goals 

There is no substitute for clarity of expectations in advance.  Think about how much time is wasted when someone isn’t clear about what they should be doing.  Our performance drumbeat is that we break the calendar year up into four quarters, and at the start of each quarter we have conversations about where we are aiming to get to by the end of the quarter.  Planning and goal setting is hard because it is largely about the imagination, but it is critical to success.  Whether things play out that way, at least we have a clear and agreed future state that we are all aiming for.  The importance of common reality about goals can never be made more important.

2. Self-reflection and accountability 

The problem with most workplace goals is that once they are set, they are put aside for review at some point in the future.   Not with My Employee Life.  At the end of each week, there are two things every team member does right across the company.  The first is to update the progress of goals (agreed in point 1 above) which includes adding any comments that are applicable. Then, everyone completes a short ‘weekly worklog’ (some call it a weekly report) which prompts thoughts about what went well, what didn’t go so well, what help is required, and what actions need to happen next week.  Everyone shares this with anyone that is relevant to, which means not only is everyone up to date with what everyone is else thinking, but it means I can pick up on Monday morning precisely where I left off on Friday.  It radically improves the quality of my weekend because I know things aren’t slipping through the cracks.    

3. Real-time adjustment 

There is only one ideal time to bump, nudge and adjust something that isn’t going according to plan, and that is as close to real-time as possible.  As they say, there is no time like the present.  Whilst the weekly worklog highlights possible problems, it means my one to one conversations and scrum meetings with team members are even more effective.  This simple process increases the quality of my conversations with others, which means we can focus on making real-time adjustments rather than waiting for the end of the quarter to have the conversation. 

4. Performance conversations are way easier 

Having a conversation with anyone about their performance isn’t always the nicest way to spend time.  The really good thing about our My Employee Life process is that, because everything is clear and logged ‘on the fly’, and because there are regular conversations happening about week to week performance, there are no nasty surprises.  We have the conversations in real-time, and challenges are dealt with accordingly.  Clean and simple, which is way better for everyone.  And if things do happen to go south, there is a clear record which protects everyone involved.

5. Everything to do with performance is in the one place 

When I think back, I often struggled to review someone’s performance because the information was scattered through emails, spreadsheets, word documents, and random conversations.  With My Employee Life, I know that everything to do with performance, both for myself and others, is in the one place.  I don’t need to go searching, it’s all there because we have all agreed that is where it should go.  Not only does this save time, but it ensures there is an ongoing real-time record of what is really happening, which means any form of evaluation is always fair. 

If you are tired of crazy performance systems and processes, why not give My Employee Life a go.  It’s embarrassingly simple and effective. 

Contact us to get started.

How To Improve Workplace Performance On A Budget

‘What is the BEST way to improve workplace performance without having to spend significant amounts of money?’. This is one of our most common questions.

If you are a large company with lots of resources and plenty of budget in reserve, this may not be the article for you. If however you are like most of our customers, you need to find a way to improve workplace performance without spending too much money.

From all of our experience working with small and medium sized companies, there are a few key areas to focus attention on. If you can get these things right, it can lead to instant improvements in employee experience, overall workplace performance and financial results:

  1. Direction. As humans, we are curious creatures that like to know what’s happening. The clearer the future direction and guidance a person has, the higher their levels of confidence in the future.

Our response to this question is to consider our Performance Bundle. Think of this as all of our products and services bundled in together in a way that helps you focus more attention on things that matter, less time on things that don’t, and removing risks and blind-spots that are most likely to cause problems in the future.

This allows us to partner properly with you and become a second set of eyes and ears to support your goals and progress.

If you have 20 minutes to watch this video…

Create A product first!

Create a product first please!