Performance Management - Transcription

Transcription
Performance Management
Speaker: Sonam Chawla
Merrill Lynch one of the world's leading underwriters of debt and equity transitioned from a system of annual review
to having reviews thrice a year.
Why do you think employers spend so much effort and resources on the performance management of their
employees? What is the benefit that the organisations reap out of this, and how do the employees benefit out of
performance management?
Let us first try and understand what is performance management? Almost all industries leaders regularly stress the
importance of performance management, but what is it exactly?
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Performance management is a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing performance in
organisations by linking each individual's performance and objectives to the organisation's overall mission and goals.
The two important things to be kept in mind while designing a performance management system. Performance
management should be a continuous process. It should be cyclic where you're setting goals and objectives observing
performance and then giving and receiving ongoing coaching and feedback. Secondly, it should always be linked to the
broader mission and goals of the organisation. One should ensure that the employee’s activities and outputs are in
sync with the organisation's goals and eventually enable it to achieve its targets.
Let's try and understand what is the performance appraisal process? What does it entail off?

It is evaluating an employee's current and/or past performance relative to his or her performance standards.
Therefore, it implies comparing what should be with what is. The what is part implies measuring actual performance,
whereas the what should be part is derived from the following components: One, the goals; second, the job
dimensions; and third, the traits, behaviors, or competencies, to perform a role.

So, when we talk about goals, the goals should be derived from companies overall objective. It could be profitability,
cost reduction or an efficiency goal. Also, the goals should be smart, that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant,
and time-based. The job dimensions imply the specific job responsibilities and the traits behavioural competencies are
related to a specific role.
Speaker: Mukul Parab

Performance metrics that evaluate the success of an organisation or an activity over time are known as key
performance indicators.
They can apply to projects, individuals or even processes. These indicators should usually link to strategic objectives,
direct where to focus resources, and be measured against specific targets.
KPIs need to clearly indicate how they can be achieved whose responsibility they are and more importantly, be specific
to your organisational objectives.
Now these KPIs should not be vague, providing context and meaning by tying it to an objective and comparing it to a
target makes it that much more achievable.
OKRs or objectives and key results on the other hand are a simplistic black and white approach that uses specific
metrics to track the achievement of a goal.
OKRs are a strategic framework while KPIs are measurements that exist within that framework. OKRs are usually used
to set quarterly goals but can also be used for annual planning.
Companies like Intel and Google have made the OKR method popular by adopting it for their organisational plans
which has made a lot of other organisations want to emulate that as well.
Typically, an organisation will have three to five high level objectives and three to five key results per objectives. OKRs
should be created in a pyramid structure.
The employee is the foundation, then the managers, then the department head and so on to lead the achievement
effectively.
OKRs are set at the company team and individual level. For example, let's consider a product-based company that's in
the process of setting their company OKRs.
Now one of the objectives that they would be looking at setting could be increase organisational ranking in the sector.
Now the key results for this would be 1. Increase media engagement by 20%. 2. Increase new customer base by 25%
in the next year. 3. Increase customer retention by 15% in the next year and.
4. Launch at least five new products in the market in the next year.

Now, how would this translate to the products team’s OKR? The objective out here would be launch one new product
in the market every two months for the next year.
The key results out here being 1. Research and identify the most popular products currently preferred by the
customers. 2. Create a pool of nine new products minimum for consideration and approval. 3. Create awareness of
new product launch and train employees on the product features and 4. Drive a customer adoption of new products
of at least 85%.
Now, how would this translate to an individual level objectives and key results? For an individual, it would have to be
research and identify the top five products currently preferred by the customers.
The key results out here being 1. Identify the top five products on the basis of popularity, 2. Identify the top five
products on the basis of profitability. 3. Identify common products in both these groups and repeat the exercise until
you have a list of the top five products. 4. Share these findings with the new products team with an analysis of popular
features and expected features in the new product.
Pareto, a renowned Italian economist discovered in the late 19th century, that 20% of people in Italy controlled 80%
of the country's wealth, which directly meant that 80% of the population own only 20% of the country’s wealth.

Similar findings to the same effect are set to be following the 80-20 principle or the Pareto principle.
So, think about it for a minute. The same principle would be applied in the case of an organisation, in which a pool of
talented individuals could be contributing to a large chunk of the final output. Hence, as a manager, it is your key
responsibility to identify this talent pool, nurture them and retain them in your organisation. So, let's first try and
understand a little more as to why do we need to appraise performance.

First and foremost, and a very important part is all the pay, promotions, and retention decisions are based on
performance appraisals. Performance appraisal also help each employee see their goals in the light of the overall
company goals, and therefore, help achieve the company goals. It also helps the managers and subordinates take
corrective actions to manage and correct any gaps or deficiencies at the end of the year or even midway. Performance
appraisals are an important input to career planning activities, and also determining the training needs of employees.
The next question is who should do the appraising, who should appraise whom.
Let's took it a few stakeholders who are involved in the appraising process. Still the most commonly practiced way of
getting appraised is through the supervisor. And indeed, the supervisor is in the best position to observe and evaluate.
Peer appraisals are also becoming very common in organisations. Peer appraisals of feedback given by your peer
group. Facebook and Google commonly use peer appraisals as an integral part of their performance management
system.
Some companies also have rating committees. Rating committees consists of employee's immediate supervisor and
three to four other supervisors. It helps cancel problem of bias and can include different facets of an employee's
performance. A lot of companies encourage employees to do self-ratings. Self-rating is rating your own performance.
Many companies these days are also seeking feedback from the subordinate of an employee during the appraisal
process.

The performance appraisal process is an exercise where the organisation measures whether the employee’s objectives
derived from their KPIs or OKRs have been achieved by them in the time period desired it upon either quarterly,
biannually or annually.
The employee performance appraisal process is crucial for organisations to boost employee productivity, improve
their outcomes, ultimately guiding the entire organisation towards their desired objective.

In addition, performance appraisals also help us evaluate the employee skills, strength, and lacunae accurately.
Any type of performance appraisal process generally consists of the following steps. Step one. Establishing
performance standards. This is where benchmarks are set up to compare the employee's performance.
This requires designing what constitutes as a successful or unsuccessful performance and to what extent did contribute
to the organisation objectives.
The standard said it should be easy to communicate and understand and just as easy to measure. If the benchmark is
behaviour based; the descriptive statement should be carefully worded.
Step two - communicating the standards. Now one said it is the responsibility of the management and the manager to
communicate the standards for the employees.
The standards should be clearly explained to the employees helping them understand their roles and to know what
exactly is expected from them.
If required the standards can also be mortified at this stage itself according to the relevant feedback from the
employees or the manager's based on the feedback.
Step three is measuring the actual performance. Measuring is a continuous process which involves monitoring the
performance throughout the year.
Now this stage requires careful selection of the appropriate techniques of measurement on the basis of the standards
set and communicated as well as regular conversations with and guiding the employees were needed.
Now, step 4 is comparing actual performance with the desired performance. The actual performance is compared to
the desire of standard performance and the comparison tells us the deviation in the performance of the employees
from the standard set.
This includes recalling, evaluating analysis of data related to the employee's performance and communicating that
with them on a regular basis.
Step five is discussing the results or giving the feedback. The result of the appraisal is communicated and discussed
with the employees in a one-on-one basis.
The results, the problems and the possible solutions are discussed with the aim of solving those problems and reaching
consensus.
The feedback needs to be shared by managers in ways conducive to the acceptance of the constructive feedback and
have them look forward to reaching a mutually acceptable means of addressing those points.
Step six is a decision making; an important purpose of conducting employee performance appraisals is for making
decisions about employees without any bias.

Decisions regarding rewards, promotions or role changes of employees depend upon the performance appraisal
results analysed in an objective manner.
This is also crucial for the overall achievement of the organisational objectives. A research conducted by TJ Insight
which is Times Jobs Knowledge and Research Unit underlined that in an effective organisation, assignments and
projects are monitored continually.
According to, 48% of the surveyed organisations- ongoing monitoring, periodic reviews and managerial feedback
provides the opportunity to check; how well employees are meeting predetermined standards and to make changes
in unrealistic or problematic standards.
Speaker: Viekas Khokha

Practical barriers that we observe in a performance management process also needs to be highlighted, because not
every organization is doing so well in this area. Though this is so critical. So, I will talk of some of the barriers as we
move ahead.
● The overall organization goals sometimes do not lineup to individual goals like I gave you an example.
Organization was not achieving objectives but people were exceeding in their objectives, which was a gap.
● Goal setting is not done in time. Normally managers go very relax in the beginning of the year, so sometimes
goal setting is done on January, February or March for a calendar year. So, you technically lose 2-3 months that people
don't even know what they are expected to achieve.
● Goal setting is not objective and is not measured properly. Now again, we keep talking of smart goals and
everybody knows what smart means, I am not going to repeat here, but a very objective setting of goal needs to be
done, and I have one practical input on this. I have coached a lot of people. Create sub goals for people. Suppose at
an organization level you just get 5 goals. For each goal, you create 5 more, but bring them to objective level. Creating
sub goals will help you to make it more objective and measurable. Once they are objective and measurable you can
track people well. Also guide them well, in terms of whether we are going right or wrong.
● Now, in some cases, performance is also not tracked at a regular level. People go very relaxed; they talk in the
beginning of the year and end of the year. By the end of the year, damage has already happened. Again, tracking of
performance has to be in the culture. it has to be built into the culture, so that regular discussions happen and I mean
regular could be monthly, could be weekly, could be quarterly, but regular discussions to be able to improve the
performance. To be able to execute this process so well stitched to the organization’s philosophy.
● The performance discussions do not happen one on one. People do it on the system and forget about it. I think
a discussion 1-o-1 is required where you hear the team member. Team member assessors her or himself, and you
bring your qualitative inputs and quantitative inputs on that. That is a discussion which needs to happen. It has to be
a formal, formal discussion. Secondly, every discussion needs to have some documentation which needs to be shared.
● The development plan is not exercising a part of plant. This is again a flaw. Development journey and
performance journeys are interlinked. We need to ensure that the development plan needs to be intact, for the entire
workforce, because all are inspiring to develop and grow. All are performing to be super performers. People need to
know their part and journeys.
● Last, but not the least managers are not trained. We keep coaching managers, so a regular intervention of
coaching young leaders, managers how to conduct performance management is also very important. Because if you
don't coach managers, they are going to track very badly on performance management, and this can lead to an attrition
of team members, who are also potentially high in terms of performance?
● Needless to say, this whole process has to be lined up with the top management. It can't be only called as an
HR person. I remember at one point of time, one of my line managers called it. I am doing a favor to HR by filling it.
That is a time we made a change in the philosophy. it has to be run by the line managers, it’s not only HR piece of
work, because unless it’s thread well into the management and line managers, it can’t be effective.
● Like I said, feedback has to be recorded because what happens let’s take practically. When you do a
performance management at the end of the year, you remember last two or three incidents basis which you rate
people. Now what about last 9 months incidents. So, a regular feedback, which is recorded, gives you an idea and
memory into what happened remaining year. Otherwise there are recency factor plays its role and the recency factor
has been traditionally marked, as a very, very ineffective process of dealing with performance management and people
have made wrong decisions basis recency factor.
● Most of the managers objective of performance management is only limited to increments and evaluation. I
think it has to be changed from increment evaluation to development and the journey, and that coaching has to be
done by HR. We need to regularly find modules to be able to guide and coach them to be able to effectively assess
people and give them feedback.
Speaker: Viekas Khokha

Now suppose we don't see an efficient performance management system. What happens? I am sure, all of us can
guess but let me lineup a few from a practical level where I have seen.
o Organization performance will never be at the par with individual performance. You will not be able to achieve
your goals on an annual level.
o Employees turnover go very, very high. People leave because they are not feeling justice or they don't feel
their justice in whatever they are getting.
o Controls of performance management are missing completely. That means your performance management is
a control of an employee, not an employer or an organization.
o It should not be perception driven, it should be data and analysis driven and discussion driven.

o It highly impacts the other areas in terms of hiring, in terms of getting more people on board because it largely
affects all other areas of HR and very likely because of bad performance management your budgets of HR go haywire
because when you hire more, you hire people at a higher salary and then when you give people, what they don't
deserve, you are paying higher. All the HR budgets go haywire and the composition budget is one of the largest budgets
in the opex, which organization carries and the opex is negatively impacted.
The way of working during COVID-19 has changed drastically. The organisations have completely moved to a remote
work culture.
Managers had to be explicit about the remote workers’ responsibilities and metrics and make the team and
organisational objectives very clear. At the same time, the usual processes had to be maintained to give employees a
sense of stability and normalcy.
BCG found that amongst various aspects of performance management, aligning performance metrics to the new
environment was one of the highest rated factors for HR to consider. Well, they're different ways of performance
appraisal and they keep evolving with changing times. Let us now learn about a few of them.

Performance appraisal systems are typically divided into traditional methods and modern methods. Let's try and look
at a few traditional methods of appraising performance.
Let's start with the confidential report and the essay method. They're quite similar to each other, both are descriptive
reports of a candidate's assessment during the year. Confidential reports are mostly used by government
organisations. The positive side of a confidential report or an essay method, is that a manager can write a detailed
report about a candidate's performance. The downside of such a method is that it is not very objective, and it also
generally does not include an in-person feedback given to the employee.

The next method that we're going to discuss is the critical incidence method. Critical incident method involves
preparing a list of critical incidents by the manager and putting them together. He then keeps a written record of
effective and ineffective behaviour of the employees against each of those critical incidents.
For example, here you can see an assistant plant manager's critical incidents log, and against each critical incidence,
you can see the target. The manager would typically put his comments and remarks against each of the critical
incidents of his team members.

The next method that we're going to talk about is the ranking method. Ranking method is probably the easiest method
to appraise performance. It is simply the managers ranking all the employees from highest to lowest. It does not specify
any areas of improvement or the areas where they have performed efficiently.
The next method that we're going to talk about is the graphic rating skills. Graphic rating scale is the most widely used
method in organisations. As you can see in the example, it represents each rate of an employee on a 5-point scale,
and a manager at the end of a performance cycle puts in a degree to which the employee possesses that trade. In this
example, you can see a candidate doing exceptionally well is rated 5, a candidate who is considered to have done a
good job is rated 4, and a candidate who has not performed so well is given 1.
Another method used for performance appraisal is the Paired Comparison Method. In this method, an appraiser
compares each employee with the other employees one at a time, as you can see in this table.

Another method, which is also commonly used in organisation, is the Forced Distribution Method. In this method, the
manager places predetermined percentages into each performance category. Employee's performance level confirms
to a normal statistical distribution. The advantage of this method is that it prevents the supervisor from rating all
employees as high or most of the employees as satisfactory. However, the challenge in such a system is to meaningfully
differentiate between the top 20% and the rest 80%.

Earlier performance appraisal methods like the ranking method, the force distribution or the bell curve method, the
critical incidence method or the confidential report method were very basic and only dealt with measurable tangible
objectives.
They also had the capacity to be influenced by individual bias which would oft time result in unobjective appraisals.
Now this led to the creation of various other methods of appraising an individual's performance which seek to
eliminate as much bias as can be ensuring that the analysis is objective in the long run.
Some of the more commonly used methods are management by objectives (MBO’s). The MBO method is ideal for
measuring the quantitative and qualitative output of the senior management of a business of any size.
Here, management and employees together identify, plan, organise and communicate objectives to focus on during a
specific appraisal period.
This could be quarterly half yearly or annually. After setting clear goals; managers and employees periodically discuss
the progress made to control and debate on the feasibility of achieving those set objectives.
MBOs are used to match overarching organisational goals with the objectives of employees in accordance with the
smart process.

Smart stands for specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-bound. Now these MBOs ideally work for fast-
paced sales-oriented organisations like those in the FMCG sector where there is a large market with equally large
players.
For example, retail giant Walmart uses an extensive MBO approach to evaluate the performance of its top middle and
front-line managers on three main dimensions: customer service orientation, decision making and results orientation
and analysis and problem solving with level wise objectives being mutually agreed upon and adhered to.
Another method is the 360-degree feedback method. This is a multi-dimensional approach, more suitable for private
sector organisations than public sector ones.
This evaluates employees using feedback collected from their entire circle of influence: managers, peers, customers
and direct reports.
Its purpose is to increase the individual's awareness of how they perform and the impact it has on the other
stakeholders involved? This is a great method while you are looking at initiating coaching, counselling or career
development activities.
This encourages employees to invest in self-development and to be more adaptable. Now this has five integral
components. First, one self-appraisal: this offers the employee a chance to look back at their own performance and
understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Now this needs to be structured to avoid leniency or bias. Then you have the managerial reviews. Now these reviews
must include individual employee ratings awarded by supervisors as well as the evaluation of a team or program done
by senior managers.
Then you have the peer reviews. Peer reviews help determine an employee's ability to work well with the team; take
initiative and be a reliable contributor.
A factor to be considered here is that friendship or animosity may end up distorting the final evaluation result and it
needs to be weighted accordingly.
Then you have the subordinated appraising manager which is SAM. This is a delicate step as reportees tend to have
the most unique perspective from a managerial POV but care needs to be taken here that reluctance or fear of
retribution does not skew the results.
Lastly, you have the customer or the client reviews. Now these can either be internal customers or external depending
on the role played by the individual.
For example, Philips, one of the world's leading diversified technology companies have been using a globally
implemented 360-degree appraisal process since 2013, which year on year has resulted for them in increased sales.
A larger number of employees being promoted to larger roles instead of hiring externally and a reduced attrition rate
due to the imbibing of their work culture through the appraisal process.

Another method is the behaviourally anchored rating scale or BARS. This method of appraisal takes into account the
specific behaviours employee needs to display as a result of established performance parameters.
Now the performance is compared with predetermined descriptors which have numerical ratings attached to them
and which indicate whether a desired behaviour is being displayed or not.
These statements which act as a yardstick to measure the employees performance against predetermined standards
that are applicable to their role and job level are created using the critical incident technique.
The use of BARS entails clear measurement standards, improved feedback, accurate performance analysis and
consistent evaluation.
It lays emphasis on specific, concrete and observable behaviours; thus, eliminating construct irrelevant variance in
appraisal ratings. It also decreases chances for bias as a result of clearly defined statements.
As a process though, it is more time consuming to create and implement and demands more from the managers and
senior executives in terms of professional and emotional maturity.
As such, the process is ideal for large organisations with the financial capability of pursuing the project. For example,
the BARS for a nurse could look something like this, where you're judging it on a scale of one to five where one would
be the least desirable behaviour displayed which could be something like, often impatient with difficult patients,
regularly needs other nurses help to deal with these patients.
This could be an undesired behaviour given a weightage of 1 on the scale and on the same scale at a weightage of 5,
the most desired behaviour could be something like never impatient with difficult patients shows sympathy in their
interaction with patients and their families helps other nurses with difficult patients and eases the patient's fears.
This gives us a complete scale of where does the desired behaviour lie. One more method is the human resource or
the cost accounting method.
Now the cost accounting method broadly compares the profitability of an employee against their remuneration. It is
obtained by comparing the cost of retaining the employee, more popularly known as cost to company against the
monetary benefits the contributions or the revenue generated the organisation has accrued from that specific
employee.
For example, if a sales relationship manager is hired at x CTC; they may be expected to generate four to five times of
x as revenue over the year to be considered as a profitable resource.
The cost accounting method effectively measures the cost and value the employee brings to the organisation while
helping identify the financial implications that the employees performance has on the bottom line.
At the same time, its high dependency on the cost and benefit analysis and the memory power of the reviewer
becomes a major drawback out here.

Now this method is ideal for start-ups or small businesses where the performance of one employee can make or break
the organisation's success.
For example, in Reliance Securities, which is a BFSI sector organisation; the organization thrives on the revenue
generated by the sales function.
Here, the performance appraisal of the sales executives is conducted in accordance with the cost accounting method.
Every sales executive is expected to generate revenue that is five to six times of their CTC which is defined and
explained at the time of joining in terms of their KPIs.
This is further broken up into monthly or quarterly targets which is monitored for appraisal purposes.
This is also tied to their variable pay program or incentive structure as is commonly known and the employees are
encouraged to achieve their goals through a medium of rewards and recognition program as well as contests from
time to time.
Apart from the appraisal techniques that you just learned, there's one more technique that's used by the employers
and that's called the Assessment Centers.

Now, assessment centers are generally carried out to assess the potential of the employees. Employees are required
to complete a range of tests and exercises similar to the activities that they might encounter on the job in the
assessment center away from the jobs. This could include case studies, role plays, in-basket exercises, group
discussions, and management games. A team of experts, assessors observe and evaluate the employees. Employee’s
performance is assessed on the dimensions such as interpersonal skills, leadership abilities, stress handling ability,
planning and organising abilities, and decision-making skills.
Now, let's try and look at managing the appraisal interview discussion as a manager. While conducting performance
appraisals, you may encounter four types of appraisal situations or discussions. You might have a discussion where the
performance of the team member might be satisfactory, but not promotable. You might have another situation where
you have the performance to be satisfactory, but promotable as well.
The other two conditions could be that the performance is unsatisfactory, but it can be corrected and you need to
develop a performance improvement plan. The fourth situation could be that the performance is unsatisfactory and
it cannot be corrected, but you still need to develop a performance improvement plan. Let's now look at how would
you manage these situations and how would you manage the appraisal interview discussions?
There are some things that you need to do as a manager before you enter an appraisal discussion. You should be well
prepared in terms of reflecting on your employee’s performance for the past year, look at some data and then come
into the discussion.
Some of the useful guidelines for the discussion are: You should have objective work data of your team member. You
should use examples, instances, facts, and numbers probably related to productivity efficiency. You don't need to get
personal during the appraisal discussion. Don't say you are too slow in producing the reports, instead, compare it with
the standard of giving the report say 10 days and give a feedback accordingly.
Very important is to let the employee talk. Ask open-ended questions, listen to what the person is saying, and before
closing the discussion, get to an agreement, make sure the person leaves knowing specifically what he or she is doing
right and where the need to improve and prepare an action plan with targets and dates that needs to be handed over
to the employee before he or she leaves the discussion.

Now these are some of the pointers and pitfalls that you need to be aware of while conducting performance appraisals.
One. You need to make sure that the employees are aware of how and what criteria they are being evaluated on. This
needs to be communicated to them at the time of joining and at the beginning of every year.
The parameters set for successful and unsuccessful performance should be available to them in a documented format
for comparison purposes.
Next keep performance notes on your staff. This will help avoid recency bias. Recency bias is where you are only taking
into account what has happened in the near past and not accounting for what has happened over the entire year.
This will allow you to include names, dates and project details in your performance document, demonstrating
awareness and involvement on your part.
Next allow employees to rate their own performance. Most employees will appreciate that input and they will
appreciate being considered.

This will provide a view of the performance from their perspective which can be compared with the parameters set to
understand if there are any perception gaps.
You also need to start your preparation for the appraisal discussion well in advance, giving yourself and the employee
ample time to prepare your documentation.
Do the same for scheduling the meeting as well; ensure there is a place where the discussion can take place in privacy
where if it is not your cabin. It's a meeting room that is booked beforehand.
The meeting is a formal business meeting, treat it as such. Avoid diversions or mixing social elements within while
conducting the performance conversation.
Performance evaluations are an important document. These can be used as evidence while addressing employee
grievances; so, include only relevant performance related information, avoid humorous anecdotes, personal
information, judgmental statements, offensive or discriminatory language.
Listen more than you talk during the meeting, encourage employees to share their thoughts and suggestions. This will
help you look for areas of improvement; also make sure the employee signs and returns the evaluation by a specific
date.
If the employee has any disagreements with the assessment, ask them to write their comments in a separate
attachment and include it with the signed evaluation document.
Most importantly always keep the conversation confidential. You also need to consider the following: one - do not
create a threatening environment by positioning a table between you or the employee or seating yourself in a position
between the employee and the door.
Any performance issue that requires disciplinary action should be addressed at the time of its occurrence. It shouldn't
be a part of the meeting unless it is relevant to that specific discussion.
Don't wait till the end of the meeting to inform the employee of a raise by then the employee will just be waiting for
the meeting to get over and the chance for an open conversation will be lost.
Also, the appraisal meeting is not the place for changing evaluation ratings based on information hitherto not known
to you.
If this happens, inform the employee that you will consider the information and if you see merit in it; you may make
adjustments later on.

Most organisations have realised that convention performance review systems do not capture your time performance
and fail to provide feedback and improvement opportunities to employees.
According to PWC report, title performance management India, a change beckons 52% of organisations have made or
are planning to make changes to employee performance in the near future. Let us try and understand this with the
help of two examples.

Let's take the case of GE first. GE had introduced the ranking method, also known as the rank and yank method by
Jack Welch in 1980s. It shifted to a new system under the leadership of Jeff Immelt. It was called the performance
development system. They developed an app called PD@GE, where PD stands for performance development.
In this app, they exchange voice and text input attach documents and even handwritten note between employees,
managers, and teams across the company. This app facilitates a constant exchange of feedback the whole year round.
The participants can receive suggestions from anyone in their network.

The company clearly shifted its focus from command and control to empower and inspire. Performance management
was GE’s historical approach, a system-driven, top down, and formal process. In this new system, they changed the
wording to performance development. They call it PD@GE. It's really around forward thinking, actionable
conversation, and it's a daily priority. They look at performance reviews in terms of insights and coaching and delivering
impact and outcomes. It is about developing employees and delivering business outcomes, focusing on work that
matters most and accelerating an employee’s growth through continuous discussion and enabled by a more
contemporary and mobile application.
Let's look at another case of Adobe. In 2012, Adobe’s then Senior Vice President of People Resources, Donna Morris
was feeling frustrated with the annual performance reviews. The process was so complex, bureaucratic, and
paperwork heavy that it ate up thousands of hours of managers’ time. It also created barriers to teamwork and
innovation since the experience of being rated and stack ranked for compensation, left many employees feeling
undervalued and uninspired.
Donna was mulling the issue on a visit to one of Adobe India offices when a reporter asked her what was new or
innovative in human resources, even though she hadn't yet discussed the idea with Adobe CEO. Her peers on the
leadership team or her own team, she just announced the plan to abolish the performance review format. Her
revelation made the front page of Economic Times of India, and a major disruption was underway.

She headed back to the US, determined to catalyse this change and help create something better for Adobe employees
and the company as a whole. Donna and her team solicited feedback from all across the country and after months of
work and many iterations, Adobe introduced check-in and informal ongoing dialogue between managers and the
direct report that has employees feeling more engaged and empowered.
So, they shifted from this old system of rating and ranking method to check-ins. So, check-in basically revolves around
clear expectations, growth and development, frequent feedback, both positive and constructive and no ratings or
rankings. No more late nights for managers scrambling to write detailed reviews for the record, no more competitive
motives underlying teammate interactions. This system was more development and feedback oriented.
A survey conducted by Salto Dee Fe Consulting Services titled State of Performance Management Systems in India
highlights that digital tools could improve the performance of employees.
Analytics is one such tool that can help organisations predict employee’s performance based on historical and real-
time data.

For example, the Adani Group hired an analytics startup firm, Vahanalytics, which uses machine learning for driver
profiling, behaviour, and performance. The startup was hired to trace the vehicles at Adani Group's Mundra port and
capture information on whether drivers have been speeding, taking sharp turns or not following the driving norms.
These reports in turn help Adani Group to predict the performance of drivers and make timely decisions with regards
to their training.
Another similar example is the logistics giant, UPS. UPS has provided its drivers with intelligent, hand-held computers
that help drivers make better decisions, such as determining, which order to deliver parcels in for the most efficient
route. Additionally, the company collects important data on the behaviour of the driver with the help of more than
200 sensors that are fitted onto the trucks. These sensors record data on everything the driver does such as whether
or not they wore a seat belt or how many times they reverse the vehicle. This data is then used to provide feedback
to the drivers and suggest improvements or training wherever needed.

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Speaker: Sonam Chawla

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Mukul Parab

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Sonam Chawla

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Mukul Parab

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Viekas Khokha

Speaker: Viekas Khokha

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Sonam Chawla

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Mukul Parab

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Sonam Chawla

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Mukul Parab

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Speaker: Sonam Chawla

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

Powered by upGrad Education Private Limited

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