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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

is behind you, it’s too late to learn and grow from it. The amongst their people. ‘Conversation Day’ is part of the
moment has already passed – and rather than it being new normal, where employees and their managers dis-
used as a real-time lesson to springboard change and cuss the contributions and aspirations of employees for
innovation, it now feels like a lingering slap on the wrist. the future – where the concept of passing or failing is
It’s a constant case of rear view mirror gazing, when we irrelevant, and the focus is on possibility rather than
should in fact, be looking forward and focused on getting pointing out problems.
future ready.
Steven Rice, Juniper’s Executive Vice President for
The point is this: if our organizations are meant to be Human Resources says, “There’s no label associated
organic, shouldn’t they be breathing? Since we’re deal- with any individual, so from our perspective, there is no
ing with human beings, after all, shouldn’t our systems formal or traditional performance management process
operate along the natural rhythms of human relation- in the company.” Juniper made the brave, but some-
ships and interactions? Isn’t this all really about connect- what ‘messier’ decision to respect and engage people,
ing with colleagues and working together to deliver great rather than number them.
outcomes for clients and our businesses?
From measuring to motivating
Adobe came to this conclusion in 2012 when they
switched to a more agile system that made honest feed- Research firm CEB found that the average manager
back a regular part of the workday. Managers and em- spends more than 200 hours a year wading through
ployees now start the year by co-setting mutual goals performance review paperwork. Those hours, along
and articulating expectations. From there, assessments with the costly technology required (and not to mention
are real time and ongoing. Constructive criticism or the wine it takes to get through!), add up to roughly $35
recognition is shared immediately, so that both parties million a year that a company of about 10 000 employ-
can respond and adapt to what’s needed, and at the end ees will spend on annual performance reviews. This is
of the quarter, workers receive an overall recap of just mind boggling!
strengths and opportunities for development. It’s far
more intuitive, in the moment, and it’s proving very effec- Imagine if future managers were utterly passionate
tive. about the people they work with, where the why would
be just as important as the who and what at work. If
From numbers to conversations leaders were to adopt this kind of inclusive, human-
centered approach across the board, taking the time to
What could be dealt with quickly over a cup of coffee has lean in and really understand their people, articles like
become an ode to endless paperwork and obscure eval- these wouldn’t need to be written. It would be dead ob-
uation criteria. And, the idea of people – complex and vious: annual reviews would become redundant, and
emotionally unique beings – being reduced to a number, meaningful and purpose driven conversations would be
doesn’t exactly fare well. the new order of the day. Sounds brilliant!

“If you’re trying to motivate people, assigning them rat- But wherever you stand on the issue,
ings (especially when forced on a bell curve) isn’t a great it’s good to ask if what you’re doing
idea,” says HR Consultant Mary Jenkins in her coau- now is actually working. Chances are, if
thored book Abolishing Performance Appraisals. your systems are essentially saying,
“Studies have shown over and over again that people see you in 11 months, you could be
simply think they perform better than other people. Un- doing it much better. After all, keeping
less you rate someone in the highest category, the con- your finger on the company pulse
versation shifts away from feedback and development to means you keep it there every day.
justification.” It invariably becomes a martial arts-like ex-
ercise of self-defense and justification.
By Jeanette Sanderson, Global Talent & Organizational
That’s why Juniper did away with the labelling and rating Development Leader at Aurecon
system and embraced a more human-centered approach

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