Many people have probably heard something along the lines of “Traditional performance reviews are broken.”. That is true – annual performance reviews are ineffective at developing and retaining people these days. If you are reading this and thinking “Duh, that’s why we just implemented continuous feedback – we’re all set!!”, that may not be the case. 

Many HR/people professionals have spent countless hours and resources to set up their new, sexy performance management systems, only to find out that employee adoption never takes off. Simply implementing a continuous performance management software won’t actually create a culture of feedback and accountability that organizations are looking for. If it did, most organizations would have moved away from traditional performance management long ago.

So how can a company create this elusive culture of feedback and accountability? More specifically, how can they acquire employee adoption?

It has become apparent that the software is a small part of the equation. There are an additional four drivers that need to be considered if organizations actually want to create impact: sponsorship, education, experience, and process.

1. Sponsorship – there must be buy-in and role modelling behaviors from executives AND managers across the organization. 
2. Education – “You’re really awesome!” or “Great job!” aren’t meaningful. That’s not feedback. Organizations need to educate their employees on how to share feedback in a meaningful and constructive way (e.g., focused on behaviors).
3. Experience – managers need to make it as easy as possible for their team members to share and request feedback. 
4. Process – organizations need to put the right processes in place, to reinforce behaviors, so that hopefully they become habits and part of your culture in the long-term. 

While software can make the process of sustaining this culture and managing performance easier (especially in a remote environment), these four drivers are really table stakes. Organizations need to see continuous performance management as people-led and technology supported, not the other way around.

About the author

Harrison Kim is the CEO of Pavestep, an intuitive performance management solution that enables the culture of feedback & accountability. He is a former McKinsey consultant and a former private equity investor specializing in the human capital management sector. He founded Pavestep to help leaders develop their biggest asset – talent. He is obsessed with employee performance and feedback.