In HR and management circles, the value of annual performance reviews (or appraisals) has increasingly been challenged in recent years in favour of more regular ‘performance conversations’.
While regular one-to-one feedback is crucial, appraisals remain one of the key performance management tools to help ensure employees’ performance contributes to the objectives of your charity, as part of a holistic approach to managing performance.
You might feel put off by the bureaucracy of some appraisal systems and the time they can take. But, getting in place a fit for purpose appraisal system can really help you understand what your staff think, and give you an opportunity to keep channelling them in the right direction.
Be proactive
They can also help you deal with issues rather than putting them off.
If you’re a small charity and starting afresh on this, or reviewing a system that has fallen by the wayside, consider starting with a very simple model where your focus is to:
- review how the staff are doing, in terms of performance (and well-being)
- set future objectives or targets; and
- agree any development, support and training opportunities
Beyond that, what else makes for an effective system?
- Your time – my experience from exit interviews tells me that postponing or cutting short sends completely the wrong message and demotivates staff. Giving suitable time for a performance conversation shows your commitment to that employee.
- Keep pay and promotion discussions separate from those about learning and development.
- Measure the right things for the job – keep it to the minimum of what is relevant to the role, and useful for employees to understand their own effectiveness.
- Be consistent – the CIPD refer to strong evidence that it is employees’ reactions to feedback, rather than the feedback itself, that influences future performance. So it’s crucial that employees see performance reviews as fair as well as useful.
- Focus on building strengths – not just trying to “solve” under-performance. This marks a big shift in mindset for many managers, but there is growing research (from the CIPD and others) suggesting that reviews are more likely to improve performance if they focus on building strengths and replicating successful actions or behaviour, for example through a future-focused coaching style.
- Effective training for all those involved.
Our team of CIPD-qualified HR consultants are experienced in advising charity clients on developing suitable performance management systems, and delivering training to support implementation.
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