HR Must Pass The Ball To UK Managers Or Risk Failure

51% of HR departments still haven't delegated performance management to managers, according to SHL's Performance Management survey

SHL, a world-leading provider of HR services, today published the results of its Performance Management Survey to reveal that 51% of HR departments still own performance management schemes despite best practice evidence that this has a negative impact.

The survey, which targeted 163 organisations across the UK and Ireland, also indicates that when HR does delegate performance management, it fails to offer essential training and support in a majority of cases. Almost two thirds of organisations have identified a need to improve the quality of feedback and coaching delivered by managers as a top priority.

Karen Hodges, Practice Leader, SHL said: Despite best practice suggesting that ownership of performance management processes by the people it directly affects is critical, the process of passing it over to managers isn't always taken seriously enough. A lack of management training means that in the majority of cases managers today don't possess key assessment and development skills. Coaching and feedback is an area where there is a particular management weakness.

Other key findings of the survey include:

Linking individuals' objectives to business performance indicators is
seen to make the biggest contribution to the overall effectiveness of a
performance management process. However, the objective setting
process is identified as a critical skill gap for managers.

Where 360 appraisal is in operation, it is viewed more positively by
almost twice as many organisations than conventional or upward
appraisal.

Linking performance management to salary increases the efforts of high
performers, but has little impact on low performers.

Organisations using online systems rate their performance management
process as more effective in driving performance overall. Almost one
fifth of the survey respondents plan to change to an online system in
the next 12 months.

Although employees are more satisfied when performance management
operates as a continuous process, less than half the responding
organisations hold frequent informal progress reviews.

Separating the performance and development meeting drives overall
performance more effectively than combining them, but three quarters
of respondents are still combining them.

Competencies are of growing importance in personal development and
in the overall appraisal evaluation, with three quarters of surveyed
organisations now using them.

One third of organisations are disappointed with how well performance
management achieves its primary objective of developing people.



Karen Hodges concluded: The survey highlights a number of areas where best practice is recognised but not being implemented by organisations. Those companies that are implementing best practice have reported a direct impact on the bottom line and, although there have been some real failures in the performance management sector there are now opportunities for massive improvements thanks to technological advances and new attitudes to how people can be developed and motivated by HR.