Deloitte: How We Are Reimagining Performance Management

According to a recent Deloitte survey, 58% of executives believe that their current performance management processes neither drive employee engagement nor high performance. In this article from April’s Harvard Business Review, the firm outlines how it is redesigning its own internal performance management process to focus on assessing future potential, rather than evaluating past performance.

Deloitte’s existing performance management system, which is used to evaluate 65,000 people, focuses on an annual score produced for each individual, based on their strengths and weaknesses in delivering projects throughout the year. In evaluating this system, they found that focusing on a year-end review was too formulaic and, to their surprise, they discovered that they spent close to two million hours per year on performance management.

This fascinating article explains why Deloitte is moving away from assessing individuals’ skills and moving towards real-time feedback. It presents an interesting debate about how best to appraise high performing executives, and describes their new “performance snapshot” which, they say, allows them more time to spend actioning the findings of their performance management, rather than measuring them.

This article was originally published on HBR.org