Case Study – Improving Performance Management Effectiveness in Mid-Size Media Organization

Performance management is like budgeting: It’s required in every organization, it’s cumbersome and onerous, it never comes out exactly as you planned, and managers always whine, but you would never get rid of budget planning just like you should never get rid of performance appraisal – because no matter how flawed the process is, it’s good business practice.

For much long per­for­mance management practice has been overly prescriptive, rigid & more often divisive, and hence it’s no surprise that most of the organizations want to have a complete relook at it – to a more principles-led approach, and an approach that’s aligned to the modern workplace & workforce. The entire monolithic black-box practice is undergoing a much needed revamp – See HBR’s Reinventing Performance Management

The Brew’s Performance Management Practice includes:

• A complete diagnostic review of existing mechanism & measurements
• Effectiveness & Benchmarking KPI, which could include: Surveys, Focus Groups. 
• Independent testing of metrics & KPI’s against strategic objectives.
• Support for organization to cascade & deploy the Performance Management Process
• Support in implementing the process
• Support for augmenting process to practice – with continuous embedment to culture, business & organizational ethos

Find out more about The Brew’s Performance Management Practice; Also, see The Brew’s Performance Management Effectiveness Index to measure the effectiveness of entire practice.

About the Client Organization

A Mid-size media organization

The Pain Points

No consistent approach within the business to appraisals and target setting. No visibility of performance, achievements or areas where intervention was required to realign certain employees with business goals and company values. A bespoke appraisal system was required.

To summarize the pain points, here are the top 4 (attributing to 90% of organizational dysfunction) of the entire laundry list:

• Focus everyone on taking accountability for delivering our new strategy
• Embed a new set of organizational behaviors and drive our desired culture
• Better performance conversations that are less algorithm / mechanical based and more engaging
• Include well-being into performance conversations

The Mandate for End State Performance Management Practice

• Clear objective-setting and mon­i­tor­ing across the organ­i­za­tion, aligned to new strategy
• Real time and visible reporting capability at all levels – employees, managers, management & leadership
• Frequent regular conversations and check-ins, that include well-being along with per­for­mance and per­son­al development 
• Regular feedback, related to new behaviors

The Brew’s Approach

We were already working with the management team to resolve capability issues within the team. With this additional challenge, we met with the leadership of the company to acquire macro information about the business goals, it’s alignment across the organization and to audit performance management effectiveness of what was already in place.

With respect to solution, it required a complete overhaul l of entire performance management practice – right from identifying off the shelf solution customized to our context, to formulating the process, practice, effectiveness metrics suitable to the industry context, & adhering to needs of business model asks of the client.

Given the overhaul of entire practice, the change management for the entire organization was huge, but with our constant highlight of the pain points to the workforce, along with how the new solution would solve these, provided its adopted by all in the system, ensured a much smoother adoption by the workforce.

The Outcome

The performance management practice was developed and rolled out in line with business requirements to monitor the targets of everyone in the business.

Within a short space of time, the adoption of the the new performance management practice has been amazing, with more employees setting clear and well-aligned objectives. With aligned goals & cascades happening across the system smoothly, this has hugely helped support the goal of creating a culture of regular feedback. 

• Adoption has been quick and positive, colleagues and leaders love the simplicity and clarity that the new approach provides
• 93% adoption of objective-setting, all aligned to strategic deliverables
• Average of 68% colleagues receiving feedback within the last 4 weeks
• Of all the objectives set, around 24% are mapped tto well-being objectives, focusing on maintaining mental & physical health, giving back and improving work-life balance

Along with it, Communication was improved. Business needs were cascaded to all employees. Ideas the employees had for continuous improvement and their roles within the business were implemented, and the data generated was used to justify appropriate pay increases – that were measured on output and displaying the right behaviors and values.