Ask a room of managers for their thoughts on tackling underperformance and you’ll usually see a tinge of fear in their eyes and hear phrases like; ‘it takes forever’, it’s too hard’ or even ‘you can’t! Many will have a war story to tell, often involving a grievance or an employment tribunal claim, and happy endings are few and far between.
As a result, for most employers, performance management is the exception not the rule.
The reasons for these negative perceptions are complex and long-standing but at the core is organisational culture. Very few organisations have a true high-performance culture. Whilst talk of ‘high performance’ is commonplace, the difficult conversations, that are needed to bring it to life are often lacking.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Managers have the right to manage performance, and employees have the right to be developed and supported.
It’s akin to an underpayment; if an employee was paid 1% less of their salary, they’d be quick to ask for that 1% and yet employers regularly accept 5, 10, 15 or 20% less than what the business expects with no action or consequence.
So, what can be done…?
Well, the starting point it is tackling poor perceptions of performance management. Too often it is seen as a route to exit, used when the working relationship has broken down. Whereas it should be a path to progress. A tool to support, develop and retain. Unless and until that becomes the reality, performance management will inevitably be underutilised and organisations will continue to miss opportunities to support their employees to do better.