Speaker 1: Despite all the talk of getting rid of performance appraisals, a well-designed performance management system can improve a company's overall profitability and accelerate its growth. Effective performance management systems help establish employee expectations around specific roles and responsibilities. They outline the resources available to them and they provide the structure for employee appraisals. Hi, I'm Kevin Rutherford and welcome to RG's Talent Tips. Today I want to share how some advanced planning can help you design and implement an effective performance management system. So let's dive right in. Here are five things to keep in mind if you want to design an optimal performance management system for your organization. First, speak to employees. Most employees think that performance appraisals are unfair. Not surprising, right? If you want something that has meaning and purpose, get employees involved in the early planning of a new system. The earlier they are included, the more they will buy into the process. Second, review job descriptions. You can't measure performance if you don't have an understanding of the requirements and specifics of a job. Now that means it's critical that the descriptions of the job responsibilities are accurate and that they reflect the needs of the current business. Too often we see JDs that are outdated and not reflective of the current environment. As a matter of fact, have you updated your JDs since the pandemic started? I know many companies that have adopted a hybrid work profile and the JDs that they had are nowhere near the JDs that they really need today. Third, define performance expectations. Define standards that determine whether performance is above, at, or below expectations. And be specific. Really provide anchors or targets for each level. Employees need to know the white lines on the road. I had a boss that used to say, a great performance appraisal tells people if they're winning or losing in their job. I love that. Fourth, design feedback and training tools. Now as important as evaluation is to performance appraisal, I believe that even more important is a process and training that equips managers to deliver feedback and coach behaviors to improve on the job performance. Now we do a lot of work with clients on performance management systems and one of the first things that we do in our process is conduct employee surveys on all aspects of performance management. Without fail, one of the primary complaints employees consistently have is receiving poor or no feedback from their managers. And frankly, I feel bad for most managers since they rarely receive training on how to have performance discussions in their company and how to do it properly, graciously, and with development in mind. They're often left to fend for themselves. Don't let that happen to your managers. Just remember that great feedback is only effective if it helps and motivates someone to improve. And lastly, motivate staff to comply. Encourage the behaviors that you want by putting incentives in place. What gets measured and rewarded is what gets done. Simple as that. There you have it. Keep these five things in mind when designing your performance management system. Speak to employees, review job descriptions, define performance expectations, design feedback and training tools, and motivate staff to comply. If you leverage them, you will build a performance management system that everyone understands, appreciates, and also helps employees improve their on-the-job performance. I hope you enjoyed this video and learned something that you can apply right away. If you did and want more, please subscribe to our channel below and check out our website for even more content, handouts, and free tools that will take you from where you are to where you want to be. Until next time. you