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Using social goals as part of your performance management process

There’s no doubt that setting goals is a vital component of the performance appraisal process. Goals can give employees direction, they can be used as a performance indicator as well as act as a tool for motivation. But with the accelerating speed of change in organisations and the demand for quick responses and continuous feedback, annual goals can quickly become obsolete. So should we be re-thinking the way we use goals as part of the performance appraisal process?

By using a more collaborative approach, empowering employees and changing from a culture of top-down control, some organisations are moving towards more transparent and agile systems to improve performance and accomplish workloads.

So how can goals be used collaboratively? Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, the two most recognised academic researchers on goal setting, have stated in their research that “Making a public commitment to a goal enhances personal commitment.”

Making a goal public or social will certainly encourage collaboration among team members and open communication between colleagues. Social goals allow employees to work in real-time by sharing work amongst peers, managers and teams. Goals are shared and worked on collaboratively across teams and the organisation. Individual performance is monitored in real-time and has direct relevance to results.  Teams can rally around objectives in an easy, open and social way. This helps teams to stay focused on what really matters and encourages individuals to work towards driving the key targets that impact the business.

There are a number of new and innovative social performance management platforms on the market now. These systems fully embrace the concept of collaborative, social goals. WorkSimple’s platform allows individuals and teams “to set relevant goals that impact work happening on a daily basis.” The platform provides a news stream which enables individuals to view what their peers are working on and see how their own work fits into the bigger picture.

Rypple, which has recently been acquired by Sales Force describe their approach to social goals - “you can inspire your team to set challenging objectives — and actually accomplish them. Objectives and key results achieved are showcased on individual profile pages so people know where they stand and what’s expected of them….. Share your goals publicly on Rypple and access resources from across the company. People in your organisation can join goals — and invite others to collaborate with them. Teams aligned around achieving the right objectives work better together and more effectively.”

So adopting a social approach to performance management can certainly help companies to align goals in real time in addition to making them highly focused.  Ultimately, the workforce feels more engaged, more in touch with where the business is heading and more empowered to engage in its success.

A different approach to using performance feedback

How often do you receive feedback on your performance? For many, it’s like waiting for a bus – nothing for ages and then it all comes at once. You might receive it just once or twice a year during a performance appraisal or perhaps, if you’re really lucky, monthly or weekly during a team briefing.  In many organisations feedback is still associated with a formal appraisal process or annual event.  In fact, feedback given outside of these times might even go unnoticed because it’s not considered “formal”.

Ideally, feedback should form part of a coaching process which gives direction and guidance on how to improve personal performance. It’s normally considered the manager’s job to give it. There are obvious problems associated with this; if feedback is only given periodically it can be out of date and irrelevant. If it’s mainly given by the manager it can be unknowingly biased or inaccurate. It’s true that the trend towards 360 degree feedback has helped to balance out any discrepancies by creating an opportunity for individuals to receive feedback from peers, colleagues and even external sources.  However, 360 feedback is often linked to an annual performance review and therefore can also be out of date and inaccurate. Colleagues can be scratching around for something to say for the sake of it. Unless continuous notes have been made throughout the year, often only the most recent events come to mind.

So how can personal feedback be given more effectively and not used as just part of the performance review?  How about turning it round and creating a different working culture where employees are primarily responsible for getting their own feedback, not annually but daily in real-time. Why not make giving feedback more personal, interactive, timely and focused … rather than just an activity which take place during the formal review process?

For this to work, employees will need to adopt a common belief that it’s everyone’s responsibility to continually share and seek out helpful information. Employees need to feel empowered to comment on their colleagues’ performance … constructively, not critically. And, they should understand that it’s not only the manager’s responsibility to give feedback.

Feedback given to an employee by their superior on their strengths and weaknesses gives a top down message that employees should not seek out their own feedback.  But, surely the receiver of the feedback will be more responsive to criticism or praise if they’ve initiated the request for feedback and surely it’s easier to give constructive feedback if it’s been asked for?

Generation Y are communicating constantly and expect instant answers.  When it comes to finding out how they’re doing at work, will they be content to sit back and wait for formal feedback to be given in a periodic review?  Unlikely …. Requesting and giving feedback daily and continuously is already part of their busy social networking life!

So when re-thinking your appraisal process, consider feedback as a separate process. Of course, making this possible requires a ‘platform’ – I’ll be talking more about social performance management platforms during the next few weeks.