Start, Stop, Keep Going - Feedback DeliveryThere has certainly been a lot of change in the world of performance management over the last few years. Companies are shifting to more regular development discussions, organizations are revising their rating and rewards processes, and employees are demanding feedback transparency in job expectations and measures of success.

More Feedback = Greater Success

These changes are happening quickly, and more studies are showing that companies that invest in performance management are experiencing a direct impact on their bottom line. Employees who receive regular feedback are shown to be more engaged and productive and less likely to leave. Companies who monitor performance and potential are having an easier time planning for leadership gaps and developing future talent, and managers who make themselves accountable for providing clear objectives and more in-the-moment feedback are experiencing greater team success.

But at the end of the day, performance management comes down to direct communication between employees and their managers, coaches, leaders, and the company. No matter how HR defines measures of success, the front-line of your company’s performance management strategy will be the delivery of feedback from your managers.

Giving Feedback is Easy – Giving Effective Feedback is Tough

We frequently consult with companies and HR on how to better train and equip managers with the skills needed to deliver good and balanced feedback. We have written several articles and numerous blogs on the topic. We have even built-in tools and resources within emPerform to help managers give better feedback – but feedback still remains a challenge for many managers. Giving good and effective feedback is simply tough for anyone.

One of the most effective ways to guide managers in giving clear, constructive and honest feedback is the START, STOP, KEEP-GOING framework. Its simplicity is what makes it so beautiful, and practically, it is one of the best tools we have used internally, and that our clients have used to frame feedback across the organization.

What is START, STOP, KEEP-GOING?

We don’t have an official definition, nor can we trace where it originated, but we first learned about it in Mark Effron’s book ‘One Page Talent Management’. It is used across many disciplines from performance management, to project assessments and even agile/scrum discussions. It is an easy action-oriented retrospective exercise designed to acknowledge success and propose plans for improvement. It is sometimes called START, STOP, CONTINUE, or DO MORE, DO NOT CHANGE, DO LESS. In regards to performance management and employee development, this framework:

  • Gives employees and managers the opportunity to review how they are doing and identify improvements they can implement in the future.
  • Makes it easier for managers to clarify issues and reach a consensus with the employee on shared priorities.
  • Is action-orientated and provides momentum and energy for the employee.
  • Empowers managers to continuously improve the way they lead, and employees to improve the way they work.
  • Gives employees balanced feedback – the good, the bad, and the great.

This framework can be used when a manager sits down to complete reviews, conduct check-in meetings, or is regrouping with employees, and can apply to discussions around overall performance, select goals or projects, and even behaviors. It can also be used to provide a framework for 360° peer evaluators.

Here’s how it’s done:

START:

What should the employee begin doing or do more? This aspect of the framework allows the manager to look ahead and identify activities that their employee will do, should do more, or should start doing in the coming future. This section can also identify behaviors that should be developed and increased to help the employee succeed. This might also include goals or tasks that are coming or are ready to begin. It is a great way to set the stage for something new and discuss what resources are available to help the employee excel.

STOP:

What should the employee stop doing? This aspect of the framework looks backward and allows the manager to outline behaviors or actions that did not work or did not contribute to success for the employee or company. This might also include goals and tasks that have been canceled. This is the more critical feedback that is nicely sandwiched in the middle. Managers should outline clear examples and accounts of why things didn’t work and be prepared to discuss with the employee.

KEEP-GOING:

What should the employee keep doing? Identifies behaviors or actions that worked and that contributed to the employee’s success or goal attainment. These elements should be continued and developed to leverage their success. This is an opportunity to acknowledge success and reinforce behavior.

Where should you use the START, STOP, KEEP-GOING framework?

The beauty of these comment boxes is that it can frame smaller discussions, like weekly check-ins, or larger more in-depth discussions related to goals and development. Many of our clients include these 3 comment boxes alongside competencies, and some even use these as the questions asked to peer-reviewers in lieu of having 360° reviewers provide a ‘rating’ on behaviors. The important thing is that this tool is used anywhere where managers (or anyone in a potion to provide feedback) might struggle to provide balanced input that looks backward and forward, and also acknowledged achievements.

Words of caution:

Watch for Repetition

The framework itself is very simple but it can be tempting to re-frame and repeat the same points in multiple sections. For instance: “Start: sending emails to the entire team  Stop: Forgetting to send emails to the entire team.” Managers should re-read their points to ensure there isn’t overlap because this often happens without intending to do so.

Beware of Bias:

No framework can guard against bias. Managers will still struggle to accurately populate each box unless they pay attention and document behaviors, accounts and results. The best way to deliver feedback and explain the ‘why’ of the input is to support it with specific examples. We encourage managers to keep detailed notes and records of performance on an ongoing basis, so they can reference key points and use when they are outlining the START, STOP, KEEP GOING.

Overall, if you are looking for a simple but highly effective way to ensure your company’s talent is getting balanced, action-oriented feedback, the START, STOP KEEP-GOING framework is a fantastic option. Not only is it very clear and easy to follow, but it also sets the stage for highly effective feedback conversations and performance discussions between managers and employees. Who would have thought that three little comment boxes would be one of the best performance management tools we have seen?


Want to see how emPerform users are using START, STOP, KEEP-GOING in performance reviews and employee check-ins?

Contact us to book a demo of emPerform.

Performance Feedback Software Screenshot

first-aidLast week we announced the Top 5 Performance management headaches according to a recent survey we conducted.

Just to recap, the top 5 were:

1. Timely submissions of appraisals.

2. Quality of reviews & feedback.

3. Consistency in performance ratings.

4. Alignment of organizational & team goals with employee performance.

5. Engaging managers & employees in ongoing performance management.

 

 

These are extremely common and valid pains in HR’s you-know-what – so we decided to create dedicated posts to share some solutions we have come up with over the years to address these issues. We will start with the first.

Performance Management Pain #1 – timely submission of appraisals.

If you step back and consider everyday business processes, other than performance reviews, there is little need in any other area to collect and coordinate so much data from each and every employee on an annual basis (or sometimes more). No wonder organizations find themselves struggling to keep everyone on track! Most appraisals have to go back and forth to several people, requiring revisions and sign-offs. If you compound this with an ad-hoc manual process, paper reviews or emailed files, what you are left with is lost forms, forgotten tasks and HR sending a mound of email reminders or physically walking around to remind people. Fun times!

There is a reason this is the #1 pain – HR and organizations need reviews submitted on time to align with other business processes like compensation budgets, development planning, and corporate objective setting, to name a few. Employees also need consistency in the formal performance management process – something that is negated by inconsistent due dates and willy-nilly submissions by managers.

In fact most prospects we speak with are sitting under a 50% on-time completion rate for reviews! The last thing any organization needs is a bottleneck that gigantic. Luckily, we have some solutions.

 

Status Monitoring:

It is amazing what starts to happen when people know they are being monitored. And I’m not talking about the kind of monitoring where you put a ‘check’ next to an employee’s name. I mean company-wide monitoring of status and performance. When HR and executives have a real-time view of talent metrics broken down by department, division and even by managers, we see a very fast scramble to adhere to deadlines.

status db

When real-time reporting is enabled, organizations can not only locate any appraisal stragglers immediately, but they can access all of the other key performance data. If we drill down even further, status monitoring at the manager level gives supervisors a bird’s eye view of how their team is progressing in the review process so they can manage effectively.

emPerform comes standard with end-user status and performance status dashboards as well as drill-down company-wide status reports for HR. These reports are set to deliver updated numbers on a regular basis to the individuals or teams who need this data.

 

Reminders:

I know that I just took some jabs at reminder emails, but we really only have issues with the wasted time and resources needed to manually send those out. Ask any HR administrator who sends monthly and annual reminders of goal setting deadlines or review due dates and they will tell you it takes a huge chunk out of their day. This pain is 100% avoidable using technology.

That is why emPerform offers the ability to set-and-forget these key reminders and notifications:

Deadlines–> email notifications leading up to deadlines –> notifications of past deadlines –> automatic reports identifying outstanding items –> calendar and task files for scheduled meetings

Technology like emPerform acts as a very diligent administrator keeping the review process moving along on time. Most of our customers achieve a 95% or higher on-time completion rate after their very first review cycle with emPerform.

 

Process:

Sometimes, reviews aren’t being submitted because managers and employees do not see the value in it or the process itself isn’t set into corporate culture. This is a topic all on its own and requires a little more than technological intervention: you can click here to read a great whitepaper discussing just that.

But at a high level, we see a poor perception of performance management processes rapidly adjusting after the following is in place:

  1. Getting buy-in from the top: ensuring company leaders publicly endorse and encourage the process.
  2. Promoting the benefits of effective performance management to employees and managers.

Typically, after a few diligent and effective review cycles, the benefits become very clear to managers and employees and less coercion is needed. Once the logistical pains of performance management are solved, it is also much easier to focus on making the process more frequent and useful for all involved.

If organizations have mechanisms in place to monitor the status of reviews, effectively remind users, and if the process itself is woven into company culture, the common HR ailment of late appraisals can be cured.

If you would like emPerform to help you achieve a 100% on-time appraisal completion rate, click here to contact us or visit our website to request a demonstration.

emPerform SMART goals

Looking to set the best goals possible for employees? Make sure that your goals are high but achievable. Here is how to strike a good balance!

How can you tell if an employee’s goals are aggressive, but still attainable? How do you keep things fair while still pushing your team to perform better?

Finding the right balance between ambition and realism is a constant challenge for HR specialists and managers. However, not finding the right balance can undermine an employee’s performance. If you find yourself struggling to find a balance when it comes time in your employee evaluations to set goals, then here are a few things you should consider.

 

Start with SMART Goals

If you’re in the HR space, then chances are good that you have heard of SMART goals. If you aren’t 100% sure what a SMART goal is, then here is a breakdown:

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Attainable

R = Relevant

T = Time-bounded

You may have noticed that “Attainable” is (literally) at the center of a SMART goal. Another way to think of it, however, is that in order to be attainable, a goal also needs to be specific, measurable, relevant and time bound. In other words, don’t set a goal that is ambiguous, like “be one of the top salespeople.” Instead, say something along the lines of “you need to sell x amount this product by the end of the month.”

 

Factor in Past Performance

Sticking with the example of the salesperson, if your business has been around for 20 years and you have never had a salesperson increase their sales by more than 10% in one year, then why would you goal someone at a 25% increase year over year? While there are certainly some scenarios in which this may make sense, they would be the exception to the rule. Take a look at past employee evaluations and make sure to factor in an employee’s historical performance along with what other, top performing employees have done in the past, and set your goals accordingly.

 

Give Them the Tools They Need to Succeed

Goals are only attainable if an employee has the tools and resources needed to achieve them. Does the employee need to take additional training in order to meet a goal, for example? If you are setting ambitious goals, then make sure that you can provide the following:

1.            Regular communication

2.            Milestones and deadlines

3.            Making resources available (human, equipment, and materials)

4.            Periodically review the process as well as the progress

5.            Willingly revise and improve the process when necessary

 

Final Thoughts

Setting ambitious goals is important for an employee’s performance. After all, if they aren’t constantly challenged, then chances are good that the quality of their work will decline. Both the performance evaluator and employee must fully understand, agree, and sign-off on the goals set down.

 

If you would like to give managers and employees the tools they need to create and track SMART goals, explore emPerform’s easy-to-use online performance management software suite.