The world of work is undeniably changing. To keep up with a constantly shifting landscape and maintain a pulse on their organization, senior leaders and HR managers are looking ahead. But looking ahead requires more than anticipating trends—it requires leadership to document and assess past performance while staying alert and attuned to the present. That’s where strategic alignment comes into play. When done right, strategic alignment ensures the integrity of an organization’s structure and resources while supporting employees and keeping a keen awareness of environment and technological chan ..read more

Rethinking performance management is top-of-mind for many executive teams. As the world of work changes at a rapid clip, leaders are focusing on how to implement agile practices that allow large, enterprise organizations the same deftness as a small start-up.  A hugely important contributing factor for enterprise organizations to achieve this level of agility is through performance management. Traditionally, enterprise performance management consisted of an annual, all-encompassing appraisal of an employee’s work by their manager.  This system was clunky and largely reviled by emplo ..read more

Performance check-ins are central to helping employees develop skills, realize their potential, and feel engaged. For HR leaders, performance check-ins provide a chance for alignment, critical conversations, and gaining insights on employee experience and needs.  Making performance check-ins successful within an organization requires clarity and care from leadership as well as shared understanding from managers and employees alike. Although all companies are different and require their own bespoke system, there are best practices and general guidelines that are ubiquitous for any organiz ..read more

Improving employee performance is top-of-mind for managers. Great leaders understand the importance of employee engagement and want to make sure they’re creating an environment for teams to thrive. But what should managers and leaders do when they see someone lagging behind? Are there performance objectives that can be set and measured that can help guide an underperformer? Performance objectives are a powerful way for leaders and HR professionals to guide individual work. What’s more, they’re designed for any individual contributor regardless of whether or not the person is underperforming ..read more

Placing the best people in your company’s most important roles does not happen by chance. Matching top talent with key roles requires a disciplined look at where an organization creates value as well as an understanding of how individuals contribute. What framework can leaders use to link talent to value? What’s the best approach for connecting the best person to the job? According to McKinsey & Company experts Mike Barriere and Rahul Mathew, organizations can create increasing amounts of enterprise value by deploying human capital as they would deploy financial capital.  A different ..read more

Calibrating how the individuals on your team or at your company perform is nearly impossible without a uniform, well-communicated, and thoughtful plan. HR leaders within an organization typically help to shape and solidify a review process that allows managers and contributors to candidly assess performance. But what happens when an employee’s performance is called into question? Or when an employee reaches out for help and guidance in terms of reaching their goals?  Performance improvement plans are action-based guides designed to explicitly outline steps an employee needs to take in or ..read more

In 2019, Mercer updated their Global Performance Management study. Unfortunately in the six years since their last study on the topic, there hasn’t seemed to have been much progress. Just 2% of respondents claimed their performance management process delivered exceptional value to the business.  In today’s environment, when a company’s results are heavily dependent on the performance of each employee, HR and C-suite operational leaders can no longer be content with legacy performance management processes. It’s become mission-critical to uplevel employee performance management practices in o ..read more

Performance management programs tend to evoke strong (and often negative) feelings from employees and employers alike. This is because many organizations continue to rely on outdated practices, such as annual reviews, that hinder rather than help employees grow and fail to achieve the business results that senior management desires. The good news is that your business doesn’t have to stay stuck in ineffective and outdated practices. Forward-looking HR leaders who recognize the need for change can get buy-in from senior leaders and implement new performance management processes that employee ..read more

Each year management consultancy firm Korn Ferry compiles a list of the World’s Most Admired Companies (WMACs) and provides insights into what makes them so successful. In 2018, their report declared that agility is the top priority of leading businesses with 95 percent of the WMACs saying it is a “critical” or “very important” focus area. Agility describes how companies successfully deal with the near-constant changes of 21st-century business through becoming more adaptable and innovative. Instead of a traditional hierarchical, top-down and siloed structure, agile organizations are made up ..read more

Last week, Betterworks released the first report based on insights from our 2019-2020 State of Continuous Performance Management Survey. This report focused on quantifying the business impact of a continuous performance process. Overwhelmingly, respondents in organizations who have adopted continuous performance practices saw better results for their businesses. In fact, they reported outperforming or significantly outperforming their competition at a 24% higher rate. Our research found that respondents from organizations with a continuous performance process in place reported significant i ..read more