Improve Employee Performance By Talking To Your People Now

Here’s how you do it

Advances in workplace technology have been an incredible boon to organizations with increasingly dispersed workforces. The number of employees who work remotely or telecommute are on the rise, while connecting global teams has never been easier thanks to the growing prevalence of robust communication and meeting tools. This technology is evolving with the ever-shifting needs of organizations and their employees.

 

But technology on its own can’t replace relationships. With an increasing number of manager/employee dynamics taking place at a distance, employees still want a personal connection with their managers to know that their contributions are valued, and that they feel a connection to their work and their teams. They still desire performance feedback and we need to ensure that we take the time for touch points that may have happened organically in the past when everyone was working in the same space.
 
This workplace shift has exposed the limitations of performance management programs that rely solely on the dreaded once-a-year conversation. This means that smart managers and organization leaders will shift focus and engage their dispersed employees in ongoing coaching conversations in order to help their people achieve performance goals and meet their development needs.
 
According to a 2018 Brandon Hall Performance Management Study, the next era in performance management will consist of more: frequent conversations, alignment with business goals, impact on ROI, and employee rewards and recognition. The same study revealed that 54 percent of organizations intend to supplement performance management with more frequent conversations over the next 12-18 months.
 
This is a step in the right direction, but the primary challenge with the shift to multiple conversations is that most managers aren’t trained on how to have frequent conversations, or simply don’t know how to structure the ongoing performance management process.
 
HR tech innovation is making it easier for managers to connect with their people to help them link performance to learning in a way that improves business outcomes. With Saba Software, managers are using the check-in feature, similar to how they’d interact on popular social media platforms, to access conversation starters, share feedback, track progress against performance and development goals, and provide coaching in real time.

Seattle-based Vulcan Inc. is utilizing Saba’s talent development technology to document monthly 1:1 meetings to create an innovation incubator that facilitates a culture of trust, collaboration and leadership that aligns goals and enhances employee performance for all entities under the complex Vulcan umbrella.
 
“TalentSpace has helped us introduce a culture of constant feedback.” Tim Mulligan said in a recent interview with Saba about nurturing high performance at Vulcan. “We still do an annual review [and] a mid-year review, but we're also mandating that managers hold regular 1:1 check-in meetings with their employees so there's ongoing dialogue and feedback – and zero surprises when it comes to formal review time or career progression conversations.”
 
Despite the fact that Vulcan’s teams are dispersed around the globe, Mulligan and his team have been able to cultivate a bespoke performance management program that suits the needs of their people and culture of the organization, affectionately dubbed the “Vulcan experience” and fitting their employee experience hashtag, #OnlyAtVulcan.
 
So where do you start if your organization needs a gentle push in the right direction? Here are four tips on how organizations like Vulcan use frequent conversations to adapt to the changing business landscape.

In today's fast-paced work environments, your managers’ and employees' time is a valuable commodity; it can be challenging to convince managers that ongoing performance conversations are essential. These check-ins don’t have to be a drawn-out affair: even informal, 10-minute check-in conversations can be effective.
 
HR technology and trends analyst Josh Bersin recently shared the progress organizations are making to embed learning in the flow of work. The same line of thinking can – and should – be applied to organizations’ approach to 1:1 conversations; these check-ins also need to occur in the flow of work.
 
Ensuring that employees’ goals are aligned to the organization’s by setting SMART goals quarterly or annually, and then following up with coaching and feedback in bi-weekly or monthly 1:1 meetings ensures that employees stay on track. A key is encouraging employees to regularly review and update their progress against these goals prior to the 1:1. They then “own” or have accountability for their performance and can bring forward their successes and obstacles to the 1:1 conversation with the manager. That’s the legwork required for the managers to be able to provide their coaching and feedback to help employees stay on track

Tackling employee coaching means managers need a hands-on playbook for success. No one is born knowing exactly what to say to guide their people to goal achievement. Just like with employees, we also need to develop our managers and give them tools and resources to help them be successful – such as coaching “conversation starters”, or a checklist of solutions for helping employees identify and overcome challenges.
 
It’s well established that high-performing organizations make the connection between learning and performance. For them, learning is not the outcome – it is the behavior that drives performance. Purpose-driven learning is the prescription when managers and employees identify skill gaps. It’s a tool that a performance coach (manager) can provide to an employee when they have skill gaps or challenges in meeting their objectives.
 
By thinking in terms of business outcomes and focusing learning and development programs on specific behaviors, skills, or competencies, you can solidify the learning-performance connection to achieve the results that matter to your business. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that learning needs to link to performance outcomes that drive business results. This circuit of performance, feedback, learning and implementation is what creates a culture of continuous development and growth.

Logging these ongoing performance conversations, including learning pathways, feedback, and goal status updates, directly through the talent development platform keeps both managers and employees accountable. Employees quickly learn whether they’re a high performer or a low performer.
 
Incorporating rewards and recognition into the process allows employees to see where they stand and identify the gaps they need to bridge with learning and development (L&D). And with regular manager coaching and feedback guiding employees along the way, they can get to where they need to be more quickly.
 
Executing a transparent talent development process is about more than expecting managers and employees to connect on a regular basis. The tools they use also need to be intuitive and fit into their lives seamlessly.

Whether your people are constantly on the road, in the field or working from home while they tend to a sick child, they still need to be able to check in with their managers to solicit feedback, engage in performance conversations, and allow managers to offer coaching or prescribe learning when they see an opportunity for improvement. That means that organizations’ learning and performance processes also need to be mobile-friendly.
 
An intuitive mobile check-in platform empowers people and teams with the flexibility and capability to drive their own experience, while keeping them aligned to the performance goals of the business. Regular check-ins with their manager should be expected but it shouldn’t cause your people headaches when they try to log into a clunky, complicated platform. Instead, their employee portal user experience (UX) needs to be easy and clean – everything they’ve come to expect as consumers of digital content.

A hyper-connected talent environment allows employees to integrate L&D, coaching and feedback into their everyday experience, so they can deliver their best, every day. At Vulcan, Mulligan said a recent survey indicates employees are responding positively to these processes with high levels of engagement and employee satisfaction.
 
“Employees know their talent development program and experience isn't some off-the-shelf program. It's created just for them, and in alignment with the Vulcan culture,” Mulligan added.
 
Hack your own performance management process by creating an ongoing performance management culture where managers and employees meet regularly, and put high-value information at employees’ fingertips. By following these four tips, organizations can prime their people for success.