The old performance review no longer performs. Many organisations are looking for ways to improve their employee appraisal cycle by transforming demotivating appraisal meetings into motivating appraisal and performance review meetings. Replacing the traditional appraisal meeting with ongoing coaching and motivating feedback seems to be the solution, but how do you do that? Employees' own feedback – and perhaps customers' feedback – is often still the missing link.
Demotivating appraisal meetings and the drive to improve the appraisal cycle are currently hot topics in the trade and national media (see, for example, this article in NRC). They are also prompting heated discussions in various HR groups on LinkedIn. At a conference held by the Vrije Universiteit (VU) at the end of January on new approaches to remuneration, this topic was also discussed extensively.
Replacing demotivating appraisal meetings with coaching
The impetus is seven years of research plus the new book Het Nieuwe Belonen by Kilian Wawoe, an HRM lecturer at VU. The conclusion: employees and managers consider traditional appraisal meetings a waste of time and money, demotivating and also unfair (because many other factors play a role in the appraisal). Furthermore, according to the research, appraisal meetings have no positive effect on staff performance. Wawoe – and many others – therefore advocate abolishing the ‘judgement meeting’. The demotivating appraisal meeting should be replaced with ongoing coaching that provides motivating feedback for employees.
An end to the demotivating appraisal cycle
In essence, this is a call for a better appraisal cycle and a more modern approach to staff: more effective, fairer, smoother, with two-way conversations and more ongoing dialogue between staff and managers. After all, an annual bouquet on your wedding anniversary does not make a good marriage either. This should mean the end of the old, demotivating appraisal cycle and equally demotivating appraisal meetings with demotivating feedback.
Coaching should improve the appraisal cycle
Coaching should improve the appraisal cycle by providing motivating feedback for staff. Above all, this requires valuable input for conversations between employee and manager. Continuously measuring employee satisfaction and employees' experiences – in other words, the exployee experience (EX) – at important moments is essential here. It provides valuable input for a motivating appraisal cycle with regular conversations and continuous coaching. Fortunately, collecting this feedback is now very simple and accessible with an online feedback platform such as GrowPromoter.
Use customer experience for motivating feedback
And in the same way – accessibly, online and continuously, with a few short questions each time at the right moment – customers' experiences and perceptions (the customer experience) can also be measured. This, too, can directly inform ‘new-style appraisal meetings’ and a motivating appraisal cycle during coaching conversations between staff and managers when that input is relevant. For example, for employees who have direct contact with customers.
Link employee satisfaction to performance reviews
Sometimes customer feedback needs to be translated to the appropriate level for the conversation between employee and manager. However, this is often a small step once that customer feedback has been collected. In this way, customer satisfaction and experience can be linked to employee satisfaction, their performance and performance reviews. This is the key to motivating appraisal and performance review meetings based on their own feedback, with greater satisfaction among both employees and customers.
