More companies are discovering that the traditional annual performance appraisal approach is no longer suitable in the modern business landscape. HR professionals are now turning to continuous performance management. This article will cover continuous performance management, its advantages, and how to implement it in your organization.

What Is Continuous Performance Management?

Continuous performance management is a human-centered approach to employee evaluation, promotion, and performance improvement. As an organization, you can develop an environment that fosters trust and employees who feel empowered to take control of their career and development. 

While traditional performance management models focus on compensation and rankings, continuous performance management is centered on the principle that evaluations should be timely and more frequent than the usual approach (mostly done annually). 

Key Elements of Continuous Performance Management

Here are the key elements of a continuous performance management framework:

• Dynamic goal-setting. Management needs to regularly validate and update the company’s goals. Having dynamic goals allows managers and employees to develop a mindset of continuous learning.
• Ongoing feedback. Have regular check-ins and formal performance conversations. Also, provide feedback in the form of constructive criticism or recognition.
• Robust data collection. This element is crucial if you aim to diversify the origin of your employee evaluation data, increase data capture frequency, and automate the data capture process. 
• Employee self-evaluation. With continuous performance management, employees have direct access to data insights on their performance.  It is easy for everyone to see their achievements and shortcomings. 

Importance of Continuous Performance Management

Continuous performance management helps organizations improve employee engagement and retention programs. With regular feedback and recognition, employees will be more committed to their work. Productivity also increases when employees have regular check-in sessions to address performance issues and when management guides them in achieving their personal goals.

Continuous performance management promotes a regular and open communication between managers and employees. As a result, it fosters better teamwork and collaboration. When employees understand their roles and importance as a team member, everyone is motivated to work and help the organization achieve its goals. 

What Are the Benefits of Continuous Performance Management?

With continuous performance management, you can unlock your employees’ full potential. Here are other benefits you’ll realize:

• Engaging work environment. This system allows managers and employees to have an open forum to interact with each other, share ideas, and discuss their roles and responsibilities. As a result, it’s easy to identify shortcomings and areas for improvement.
• Higher employee retention. When management understands what motivates an employee, finding the best way to reward outstanding performance is easy. In turn, employees are inclined to stay because they know they are appreciated and their efforts are recognized.
• Recognize employee productivity. Employees are more productive when they are happy, and their efforts are appreciated. With continuous performance management, you have a platform for giving formal recognition to employees’ best performance. Likewise, giving regular feedback and recognizing their achievements will keep employee morale high.
• Facilitate SMART goal-setting. With a continuous performance management system, you can easily modify and update goals according to the employee and team performance. The framework is designed to adapt to changing business trends and ensure that your goals are dynamic and evolves accordingly. As a result, you are able to define your employees’ SMART goals to eliminate ambiguity and confusion.

How to Implement Continuous Performance Management

Continuous performance management eliminates the anxiety of waiting for annual performance reviews and the dreaded employee-manager interaction. Since employees receive regular feedback and performance reviews from the managers, they become more comfortable and open when discussing performance improvement plans and career goals. 

Here’s how to implement the system in your business:

• Discuss with the management team. Explain to the management team how many companies already benefit from this system. Encourage managers to conduct frequent formal and informal meetings with employees. Use all avenues of communication within your organization to announce the switch to a continuous performance management system.
• Provide training and guidance. You need to provide comprehensive training to your managers and employees on the principles and best practices of continuous performance management. The training should cover topics such as goal-setting, giving effective feedback, performance tracking, and ongoing coaching.
• Use software. Take advantage of available technology to have a seamless transition to continuous performance management. You can find online survey portals to help you conduct employee surveys and analytics tools for data gathering.

How Kilpatrick Can Help Companies in Implementing Continuous Performance Management

Continuous performance management fosters a forward-looking growth mindset and helps strengthen relationships between employees and the management team. 

If you need help establishing a continuous performance management framework for your organization, Kilpatrick Executive can help. We can also find suitable candidates with knowledge and experience in continuous performance management. Contact us today, and let’s find the best HR professionals for your business.