Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CANADIAN HR REPORTER WEEKLY e developmental model is becoming a better option for companies hoping to shake up the performance-manage- ment process, according to a recent report by the Confer- ence Board of Canada. And the prevalence of assigning ratings to employees is gradually declining, said Trends in Performance Management: From Forms to Feedback. Eighty-five per cent of employers use a ratings system, down from a high of 94 per cent in 2011, found the survey of 324 employers. "More (employers) have shifted towards a rating- less model, but the vast majority still are using ratings," said Nicole Stewart, principal research associate at the Conference Board of Canada in Ottawa. "When you remove that rating-piece from the discussion, it allows you to talk about next steps, and where you're going (as an employee)." Seventy-four per cent of those companies still use performance ratings for executives, while 83 per cent use them for management and 81 per cent for non- management workers. "Moving forward in the next few years, we're really going to see that kind of ongoing feedback and coaching model. It will be interesting to see if we can move the needle on the satisfaction rate with some of these systems," said Stewart. Developmental model In a developmental model, employees are given constant feedback, which makes them appreciate being valued, ac- cording to Nic Tsangarakis, principal at Kwela Leadership Talent Management in Vancouver. "Recognition, appreciation is super important because it plays into feelings of self-worth. It plays into higher levels of engagement; it plays into people feeling more confident, making better decisions, and that, in turn, translates into higher levels of performance… When managers are able to do performance management on a day-to-day basis, on a week-to-week basis, on a month-to-month basis, that's when it's more likely to be effective." By doing regular check-ins, workers can become more accountable, according to Rob Catalano, co- founder and chief engagement officer of WorkTango, a performance-management technology firm in Toronto. "e moment you shoot over a goal into a system that doesn't get looked at again for another 364 days, that whole concept of not having to be accountable for following up with those goals or any level of evaluation, it's so far away from actually acting on it," he said. "From an employee side, I think in this whole consumerization of HR, the feedback that they receive needs to be in a more frequent way than they are used to — across the board." For some companies, the rating system should be abolished, said Tsangarakis. "People don't like being placed into categories, they eschew the idea of labels: Human behaviour is intricate, complex, and to try and categorize it by way of a rating just no longer works, quite frankly." His advice? "Don't do it." Compensation question But many companies cling to ratings because it is the best way to categorize compensation, according to Catalano. "It's one of the biggest change-management pieces that happened because of all the things it is tied to, like comp and so on. It's in a very unique shift because some Use of performance ratings systems continues to decline: Survey But that leaves employers struggling when it comes to comp conversations BY JOHN DUJAY Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. HR News at Your Fingertips THE LATEST NEWS THE BEST COMMENTARY DELIVERED WEEKLY FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Visit www.hrreporter.com/ canadian-hr-newswire

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