An HR Service Provider’s Guide to Performance Review Season

We’re coming up to the most wonderful time of the year! And no, I’m not referring to the hectic holiday stretch with its gatherings, gifts, and celebration. I’m talking about another busy corporate tradition: Performance Review season with its planning, goal-setting, and assessments (and maybe a little anxiety and stress for good measure). 

Who Does Reviews?  

Well, most of your customers do. A SHRM survey found that a staggering 72% of SMBs do some type of annual review with a majority of those reviews occurring in the 4^th and 1^st calendar quarters. Furthermore, 30% of those organizations place a “Top Priority” on their process, while another 65% are providing “some attention and resources”. Right now, your customers are actively thinking about their review process and will soon be conducting some type of performance appraisal. 

2020 and COVID-19 has forced businesses to rethink how they work and measure their employee performance. With so many businesses moving to a virtual office, it’s more important than ever to have employee engagement and communication tools that allow staff to coach virtually, discuss performance issues, and align objectives no matter where they sit.

So what does that mean for the HRO’s serving these businesses? Bottom line: now is the time for you to be reaching out and discussing a better way for them to build, maintain, and conduct their employee reviews.

What’s Their Focus?

SMBs are planning and preparing for their upcoming reviews now.  Even those companies who rely less on traditional annual appraisals and more on continual employee coaching and frequent performance conversations are discussing performance.

Organizational strategies for the current year are being reviewed as new objectives are set for the upcoming year.  Employees’ current performance and future focus will be discussed and aligned in meaningful ways. Development tracks, training budgets, and compensation plans are all finalized before managers and employees sit down to discuss the ongoing focus for the new year.

How Can I Help Them?  

SMB’s are desperate for assistance with their performance appraisal process and are looking for help!  

Only 12% of SMBs give themselves an “A” grade when asked about their performance management effectiveness. That’s a lot of room for improvement! And many SMBs are still utilizing out-date, hard to administer paper and pencil reviews.

Helping your customers with a more effective performance management process is a great way to support their growth – and make your solution stickier. Improving their employee performance helps their business succeed. And successful businesses grow.

Some of the benefits they’ll see:

1. Consistency and Administrative Ease. Performance reviews become a repeatable process, eliminating ad-hoc processes that lead to inconsistent and biased results and actions. Reviews and coaching can be performed more often, with less work. 
2. Motivation, Morale, and Retention. Regular communication and feedback helps employees recognize the investment in their growth and development. This leads to more loyal employees, higher productivity, and improved retention. Companies who implement regular employee feedback have turnover rates that are 14.9% lower than those who receive no feedback.
3. Recognize Strong Performers. Identifying top performers and making promotion/salary decisions requires data and rationalization. Performance management systems make it easy to see who is doing well, contributing, and why.
4. Highlight Training and Role Needs. Customers can better understand the gaps in their employee onboarding and training by spotting trends over time. This helps employees who need individual training or broader department/company wide initiatives.
5. Employee Autonomy. Employee development will be top of mind as goals are set, reviewed, and discussed throughout the year. When employees are aware of larger department and business objectives, and how their work contributes to it, they see more value in their work and are free to think creatively.

Sounds Great! Now What?  

The best gift you can give your customers this year is helping them find and implement an effective performance review system. Have you asked your customers how they handle reviews? Are they seeing value from it? What challenges are they having?

SMBs are increasingly seeing the value in performance management systems and are seeking out solutions. In our 2020 HR Service Provider trends report, 42% of service providers cited not having Performance Management as a reason they lose prospective deals. What’s holding you back from offering it to your customers?

If you move quickly, you can assist your customers with year-end 2020 or early 2021 reviews.

PrismHR makes it easy for you to add an integrated, fully-featured Performance Management System to your services. And, we offer two plan options depending on your level of expertise and available resources:

1. PrismHR-Managed: We’ll co-sell with your team and handle all of the SMB implementations, training, and ongoing support. A great option if you want to offer Performance Management to your clients ASAP, but can’t (or don’t want to) commit additional time and resources.
2. HRO-Managed: You take care of sales, implementation, and first-line support for your clients. A good option if you have in-house expertise and resources to handle the work.

To learn more about PrismHR Performance Management, reach out to your Customer Success Manager. Also, check out the Seeds site for helpful resources for promoting Performance Management to your clients.