Beyond Measure: The Evolution Of Performance Management.

When Deloitte tallied up the amount of time spent on traditional performance management systems to evaluate employees, the hours spent totaled 2 million p/year. In yet another example, prior to radically reforming its performance management system, managers at Adobe spent over 80,000 hours per year. Shifting from performance evaluation that measures talent based on ratings and output is giving way to a system of development, coaching and performance that is driving improvement and dramatically increasing productivity.

Deloitte’s new approach has evolved into a proprietary system that’s focused on “what’s the most detailed view of you that we can gather and share? How does that data support a conversation about your performance? How can we equip our leaders to have insightful conversations? Our question now is not What is the simplest view of you?but What is the richest? Is performance management at root more about “management” or about “performance”? Put differently, although it may be great to be able to measure and reward the performance you have, wouldn’t it be better still to be able to improve it?” And then fuel it? 

If you’re interested in understanding more and learning how to evaluate your own organization, this insightful article on HBR (Harvard Business Review) called ‘Reinventing Performance Management‘ (by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall) is a great starting point.