Top employers move away from annual performance reviews

July 21, 2015

Ellie-etc

Transparent goal setting and more continual feedback could replace traditional performance reviews and rankings within British workplaces as top employers favour this new approach.

According to a study by the Top Employers Institute, named Performance Management, 96% of firms are realigning their performance goals in response to current business needs.

This was based on responses from 600 employers in a total of 96 different countries.

Changing performance management strategies

84% of firms also said that they now evaluate employee performance on a continuous basis, marking a huge shift from traditional annual reviews towards employer-to-employee ongoing feedback.

Employers also stated that while it’s important to measure employee performance, the traditional ways of doing so are simply too complex and reliant upon ratings.

As a result, employers are showing a trend of moving towards offering coaching and development instead.

David Pink, CEO of Top Employers Institute, said that the most prominent finding from the report was that performance management is evolving from rigid objectives to a transparent process of continuous dialogue and future development of the employee.

Connecting with the younger workforce

Previously, there was also a clear focus on the individual and separate tasks when it came to performance management.

However, as many companies now want to be more connected to younger graduate talent a different work culture is needed.

Employers are developing key capabilities in social awareness, flexibility and agility in order to attract and retain the very best talent.

Top UK employers are also allowing employees to be involved in their own performance management to allow them to feel more in control of their career progression; promoting a high performance culture in the workplace.

If you’re a graduate employer and would like advice on how to attract the best graduate talent, speak to Discovery Graduates today.

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