Together with LHH and Advantexe, AstraZeneca’s move from performance management to performance development caught the Personnel Today judges’ eye. ‘An amazing piece of work given the scale of the company – this initiative is superbly designed and comprehensively supported through coaching and development’, they said. Here, we profile the winning and shortlisted organisations for the Performance Management Award, sponsored by Lattice.
WINNER
AstraZeneca in partnership with LHH and Advantexe
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has fundamentally changed how performance management is deployed and experienced by managers and employees. Its new approach focuses on coaching-based dialogue that considers personal contribution, impact and strengths-based development.
After a survey found that its previous approach, which involved ratings and an annual review, was disliked by employees, it decided to replace it with a more forward-looking strategy. Regular conversations have replaced annual reviews, and these focus on employees’ contribution, rather than their performance. This means that employees can take greater ownership of their own development, the company said.
Rather than mandating that managers learn the new processes, the HR team encouraged them to ‘self-learn’ the new approach via videos, webinars and drop-in calls. An AI-driven business simulation tool was used to allow managers to practice 12 different scenarios, while a ‘feedforward’ tool enabled them to gather insights about their coaching capabilities. Some 68% of the manager population participated in workshops and thousands accessed self-led resources.
The new approach has changed performance management from a negatively-viewed process into one that can drive employee engagement. Seventy per cent of managers said their confidence in holding meaningful coaching conversations had increased and there has been a 45% shift in positive mindset towards performance development.
RUNNERS-UP
House of Commons
The House of Commons service has over 3,000 employees, from baristas and clerks to lawyers and librarians. As a centuries-old organisation it faced some major cultural challenges, and performance management was identified as an area that needed revitalising. Its outdated appraisal system was viewed as a chore.
It wanted the new system to be viewed as several things: courageous, inclusive, collaborative and trusted. Following an assessment of its aims and evidence-gathering from staff, middle and senior managers and directors, it settled on its final approach: “Coach & Focus”.
Every quarter, employees have an extended coaching conversation with their manager to agree a focus for the next quarter. Progress check-ins, take place at least monthly so employees can discuss their progress and wellbeing.
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Managers are also assessed via anonymous surveys that are sent to their reports. Managers then receive coaching on their feedback to aid reflection and accountability.
Following a trial involving 190 staff and 35 managers, 97% of managers said they wanted to continue the approach. Individuals were pleased that it focused on people, not paperwork, and managers felt clearer about what good management looked like. Staff felt conversations were meaningful rather than bureaucratic and emerged from conversations with a better idea of what they should focus on each quarter.
Coach & Focus has since been rolled out across the entire organisation.
N Brown Group
N Brown Group, which owns brands including Jacamo and Simply Be, is on a journey to evolve from a catalogue business into a digital retail leader. Part of this involves nurturing a culture where people can thrive and bring their best selves to work.
A continuous assessment programme is in place for colleagues to help drive performance. It performs talent mapping to identify both high potential and high performing colleagues who are fast tracked with specific development programmes that will develop the capability to future proof the business.
As the company continues to develop its learning and move towards a performance and feedback culture, the statistics around check-ins and feedback show some real improvements. A total of 9,174 check-ins were recorded in the 12 months before its entry was submitted, and it has seen a 22% increase in feedback being recorded. Requested feedback has increased from 52% to 85%.
N Brown has reviewed its engagement channels and launched ‘Fabric’, a new intranet. The provides regular news and updates for colleagues to ensure they understand and are involved in business priorities, and offers information around company strategy, objectives and performance.
It has established an effective feedback loop, which captures the colleague voice in several ways, including a twice-yearly engagement survey and a colleague voice group.
Vertas Group
Facilities management company Vertas Group set out to rethink the traditional appraisal process which it found was not adding value or driving achievement of business objectives. The resulting strategy sees more natural, and meaningful, continuous conversations with no form to complete.
It wanted to “be brave” and break away from the annual appraisal process. Its goals included holding conversations that were fluid and meaningful, allowed managers to connect with the individual, provided positive feedback reinforcement and discovered hidden skills and expertise among the workforce.
Working with a consultant it removed the traditional performance objective setting framework from its system and applied a more bespoke ‘fluid’ design to aid simple manager completion.
After a year of launch, the firm had seen more than 11,000 continuous conversations held, which have focused on positive feedback, and an understanding of what employees care about in terms of their work and personal goals. It has a bespoke framework to assist managers in focusing on the individual and what they excel at, what they care about and their goals and ambitions (the ECG framework’, which ensures individuals are kept at the heart of the process.
Managers were upskilled in the new approach via new e-learning module that focused on the principles of the new initiative, the benefits and the ECG framework as an aid for conversation. All managers completed the training in time for launch in May 2021, and employees had been kept up to date with the changes via a communications campaign.
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Sixty-nine per cent of staff now say they feel highly appreciated by their manager, an improvement on previous years’ surveys. The company has a total colleague engagement score of 75%.
