Evaluate your employees to enhance their performance

At all levels of the hierarchy, managers are under a great deal of pressure, exacerbated by ever-increasing expectations. It’s not enough to generate profitable growth; one must also think about customer satisfaction, on-the-job safety, environmental protection, collaboration with other parts of the company, and the needs of various stakeholders, not to mention employee development! Faced with all these priorities, managers are naturally forced to make choices.

So, while many businesses today state that talent development is a high priority, a large number of people managers treat it as a second priority. A recent McKinsey survey shows that over half of CEO’s feel that their executive and line managers are not sufficiently engaged in developing or managing talent. Indeed, many see the talent management process as a burdensome obligation which is simply unmanageable given the efforts required to attain their operational objectives.

Yet, it is possible to view people development in a different light, that is, not as just another obligation, but rather as a key performance driver – and not just for the long haul, but also in the immediate term. Managers often perceive the annual performance review meeting, for example, as a more or less exasperating chore, as they are expected to fit a dozen meetings into an already overloaded agenda. However, experience shows that the time spent on performance reviews is often a very good investment, because the evaluation process is not only an excellent means to develop talent, but also facilitates the attainment of operational objectives. And managers who seize every opportunity to provide feedback and express their satisfaction throughout the year can stimulate or influence behavior in a way that enhances the performance of the concerned individuals and the organization as a whole. For this to happen, however, a number of key success factors must be taken into account, not all of which are necessarily intuitive.