Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have recognized that the several traditional practices and methods are not effective anymore. The markets have become more fast-paced and the changes are rapid which demands more efficiency and readiness. Businesses also need to optimize their productivity and efficiency in order to increase profitability. The performance management system is the ultimate tool to achieve those goals. Businesses use performance management to maximize the potential and performance of their employees, to encourage them to perform well and prepare them for the coming challenges. The performance management system is a very crucial process which help businesses to improve their human resources, identify problems and find solutions to those problems to maximize the outcome. The performance management system not only help tracking the employee performance but it also help improving the communication between the employees and the managers which is a great way to improve productivity and efficiency. The performance management bridges the gap between the employee and managers and help businesses increase employee retention and loyalty and groom their talent to maximize their contribution.
What is the Difference between Traditional and Continuous Performance Management
Traditionally the performance management was an annual process, or at maximum bi-annual. The employee appraisals and performance discussions were done once in a year or twice in a year and that is it. However, the continuous performance management is designed for more agile businesses to help them deal with the modern people management problems. As name suggests the continuous performance management is a continuous process. Although the goals for both traditional and continuous performance management could be the same but the experience and outcome is totally different. The businesses have realized this and now a day’s more and more businesses are implementing the modern continuous performance management systems. The continuous performance management allow managers to interact with employees more often either by performance management software, survey tools, or one-on-one meetings, and it helps them track their performance more effectively. The continuous performance management not only track performance effectively but it is also more helpful in communicating goals and identifying the problems. That is what makes continuous performance management superior than the traditional performance management.
What is the Continuous Performance Management Process?
The continuous performance management system and process is different from traditional performance management, usually a software tool is used to aid the continuous performance management process. The continuous performance management process is more comprehensive and frequent, that is why a performance management software can make the process more effective and convenient. Here are the basic components of the continuous performance management process:
- Regular Check-Ins:The regular check-ins and more frequent feedback is the foundation of the modern continuous performance management system. There is no certain limit of the number of check-in, mostly businesses do monthly and in some cases weekly are also proven to be very effective. The regular check-ins are essential component of the continuous performance management process, although the frequency could be different from case to case.
- 360 Degree and 720 Degree Feedbacks:Traditionally the managers were the only one to give feedback to employees, however, that is not enough and businesses have developed a more detailed feedback collection method which includes more sources than just the manager such as supervisors, managers, peers, subordinates, cross-departmental colleagues, and even customers, suppliers and any other stakeholders. For that the 360 degree feedback method is used. The 720 degree feedback is simply a 360 degree feedback conducted twice, the first round help building employee development program and the second round will help to understand the positive or negative impact of the program on employees.
- Evolving Goals and Objectives:The continuous performance management process includes regular check-ins but those check-ins can only be beneficial if the managers and employees focus on a few aspects such as employee’s current progress with comparison to their goals and objectives, identifying their problems and needs which could have impact on their goals. The personal development aspect of the performance management is very important for the employees, the evolving goals and objectives can help both managers and the employees to set goals and objectives, making changes or tweaking existing goals and objectives, and also making a plan of action for the future based on that check-in.
- Real-time Performance Data and Reports:Every performance management process is incomplete without generating performance data and making reports. The continuous performance management process provides businesses with real-time performance data, regular and customized reports on employee performance, performance trends, teams’ performance and everything in between. These reports help managers understand the strengths and weaknesses of their employees and teams and also help them identify and rectify the problems that are harming the performance.
The continuous performance management system is a great tool to maximize the performance of the organization and also increase employee satisfaction by offering them effective personal development programs, including their voice in the decision making processes, help resolving them their problems and much more.
What are the Benefits of Continuous Performance Management System?
The continuous performance management is slowly taking over the traditional performance management processes. The famous Adobe and then Accenture shifted from traditional performance management to continuous performance management systems and have witnessed great increase in their productivity and efficiency. Here are some key benefits of the performance management system:
- Increased Adoptability:The continuous performance management system help businesses to quickly identify the needs for training or career development opportunities whichprevents any competencies or skills gap which can hinder the organization’s performance and productivity.
- Make Feedback More Effective:The continuous performance management system provides regular feedbacks to the employees, the employee concerns are addressed immediately, the poor performance is identified quickly, the course correction is done regularly, and employees can easily communicate with their managers which makes feedback more actionable and effective for the employees.
- Improve Corporate Culture: The continuous performance management system encourages regular and more frequent discussions and feedbacks which help both employees and managers to improve themselves, the employees will get a better sense of what is expected from them and the managers can become a better mentor and guide which will result in a more productive and improved corporate culture.
- Increase Employee Engagements: The continuous performance management process frequently and regularly engage employees and managers in discussions and feedback sessions, which help increasing employee engagement, raise their interest and trust, and also help managers communicate the goals and objectives more clearly, these all help improving morale and increase employee performance and efficiency.
- Effective Goal Setting Mechanisms: The continuous performance management process or any modern performance management system offer features to increase the effectiveness of goals and their impact on employee performance. The managers can easily set SMART goals, OKRs and configure KPIs to effectively communication and monitor the goals and performance.
- High Quality Performance Data: The managers usually rely on direct feedback discussions or line of reporting. However, the continuous performance management system makes feedback more objective. It provides accurate performance metrics, and offer intuitive performance dashboard to provide a more in-depth performance analysis and highly quality performance data which help improving the accuracy and efficacy of the managers’ decisions.
These are just the few key benefits of implementing a continuous performance management system. It is important to understand that the performance management software should also be able to support the process you want to implement. The businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have also realized the importance of continuous performance management and its benefits, which is why since past few years the entire country is rapidly adopting to modern performance management processes.
Conclusion
The continuous performance management is far superior then the traditional annual performance management processes. A powerful performance management software is used to streamline the continuous performance management process. Furthermore the continuous performance management process is not only more frequent but it offer real-time performance data and monitoring capabilities which can significantly increase the vision and understanding of the managers and help them take the right decisions at the right time. Another great benefits of continuous performance management system is that it is much more transparent and accurate than the traditional performance management system. It doesn’t have many flaws that are inherent in the traditional performance management process. The digital aspect of the system also help HR to automate several processes which reduce their workload and improve the efficiency.In this blog we have discussed the continuous performance management system and its key benefits. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help your organization implement a bespoke tailor-made highly cost-effective continuous performance management system, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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