It is often said “Employees Quit Managers and NOTCompanies”. The primary reason for this has been that for very long companies have followed a standard yearly or bi-yearly performance evaluation process. The managers decide Job Objectives (also referred to as Key Responsibility Areas or KRAs) for their employees at the start of the financial year, conduct yearly or bi-yearly evaluation of the employee’s performance against the Job Objectives and force fit employees under the company-wide bell curve, leaving very little room for improvement opportunity for the employee.
In the last couple of years, many leading companies have been realizing the importance of creating more and more work satisfaction for employees and have been moving away from traditional methods of performance evaluation and gradually shifting towards more continuous and 360 degree type performance evaluation methods.
The list of companies that have been pioneering this paradigm shift is a long one, and the company that leads the pack is none other than GE, which pioneered the standard appraisal system discussed above and shunned it after following it for almost three decades. GE launched its new app PD@GE for more frequent and continuous interactions between managers and their employees. Read more here
In addition to GE, this Fast Company article highlights some leading companies that have adopted some innovative ways of employee performance management system. It’s worth mentioning that Adobe after introducing its continuous feedback methodology has been able to cut voluntary employee turnover by some 30%.
In India, it has been the IT industry that has been at the forefront of moving towards the continuous feedback and shunning bell curve. Infosys, the Indian IT bellwether, recently announced that it would be moving away from the bell-curve type appraisal system and would be introducing an app called iCount to create discussion opportunities between employees and their managers. IBM on the other hand, introduced its own performance management system called Checkpoint which will allow employees to receive more frequent feedback from managers on the following: business results, impact on client success, innovation, personal responsibility to others and skills. The list is a long one with some leading names such as TCS, Accenture, Wipro, HCL etc. Read more here
Aye Finance – which wants to be a leading financial company to the micro and small enterprise and be an admired company not just for its customers but also for its EMPLOYEES, realizes that it cannot be admired by its employees unless it creates right growth and development opportunities for its employees. Aye which considers INNOVATION as a key virtue of its operations has developed its own Performance Management System (PMS) App – UNNATI with the help of its strategic partner Fego.
Aye believes that through Unnati, it would be able to solve the following problems with the standard appraisal method:
- Standard System: Since discussion on Job Objectives do not take place until half-year or year-end (in case of bi-yearly or yearly appraisal), many a times, employees are not even aware of their Job Objectives.
Unnati: It would make it mandatory for the managers to timely provide Job Objectives to their employees. This would be further monitored by the Admin of the system.
- Standard System: There are very few touchpoints between a manager and his/her employees, typically once or twice a year.
Unnati: It would allow much more frequent interaction between a manager and his/her employee. The employee could request and the manager could provide feedback on the smallest of jobs performed. These frequent feedbacks on smallest of activities would provide timely feedback to the employee and opportunity for discussion on growth areas with the manager. The App would allow for both Pull (Request Feedback from Someone) and Push (Give Feedback to Someone without his/her Request).
- Standard System: Has been fraught with inconsistency between manager’s words and final ratings. Many a times, managers shy away from giving real feedback which could at times also be harsh so as to create a likeable image for themselves but do not provide a rating which is commensurate with the year-round remarks.
Unnati: It would be a way to document feedback on real-time basis and would create enough data points which would eliminate inconsistencies between a manager’s words and final ratings, improving accountability on the part of both – manager and employee and removing a potential opportunity for dissatisfaction.
- Standard System: It is either uni-directional (manager imposing his feedback on the employee) or bi-directional (manager and employee both providing feedback to each other) but ignore employee’s contribution to other employees and departments.
Unnati: It would allow for a much wider participation from all possible stakeholders – seniors, subordinates, peers from all departments and vendors, laying a foundation for a 360 degree feedback. It will ensure that any positive contribution by an employee in the building of the organization is duly recognized while evaluating his/her yearly performance.
- Standard System: It has often proved to be a forum for judging employees and not a platform for their development.
Unnati: By documenting feedback on even the smallest of tasks would allow a place for more timely feedback and potential for steering discussion between manager and his/her employees towards the personal and professional development of employees and not on judging him/her as person.
The PMS would be available through both Web and Android App and it would cover each of the company’s 400+ employees. It would allow every individual to provide feedback to every other person in the organization by exposing their name or by choosing to stay anonymous to allay any fear that any employee may have while giving someone a genuine but a harsh feedback.
While Aye Finance would continue to conduct appraisal in the traditional manner for now, with the introduction of Unnati, it hopes to reduce (if not eliminate) the various inefficiencies that exist in the traditional Performance Management Systems. The organization hopes that the new system would allow for more continuous and frequent interactions between managers and employees and would play an important role in every employee’s personal and professional growth. Aye Finance hopes that its indigenously developed Performance Management System (Unnati) will re-iterate its employees its commitment to keep INNOVATING and to continuously improving satisfaction at work.
Mayank Mathur
