RECAP: 2019 FOX Family Office Forum

Performance Reviews Revisited

Presenter:
Bonnie Gauger
Human Resources Director, Johnson Keland Management, Inc

Session Description: 

Getting the right people engaged in the right activities to have the most impact on your business and the families you serve is the key to ensuring a high-functioning organization. Performance reviews are an opportunity to “take the pulse” of the organization and staff and can establish a healthy dialogue that provides space to exchange feedback and assess performance. This interactive session explored how a performance review process can be a manageable, meaningful dialogue that improves performance, and employee engagement. A family office HR practitioner, who reinvented their performance review process, provided key insights and best practices to help participants do the same.
 

“The performance management process you choose has a lot to do with the culture you want to drive in your family office. We get so caught up in the ‘what’ that we lose track of the ‘why’.”
- Bonnie Gauger
Key Takeaways: 
  • With performance reviews, we are trying to accomplish three goals: (1) develop people (individual development, coaching and mentoring, retaining top performers, and developing leadership); (2) reward equitably (pay fairly, promote and advance, and offer total rewards); and (3) drive organizational performance (align goals, develop culture, create a shared purpose).
  • There is no “perfect” performance management process, but it is important to start with culture. Performance management can be used as a lever to change the employee experience and evolve the culture.
  • The traditional performance management process that many organizations use today was based on a military model from the 1950s and tends to be one-way and top-down. It is typically focused on past performance that is addressed only annually or semi-annually. It can be time-consuming, focused on filling out forms, it is ratings based, and can be stressful for managers and employees alike.
  • Johnson-Keland Management moved to a Performance Conversation Framework that is focused on an ongoing conversation and is about relationship building. Performance conversations provide more frequent check-ins with shorter conversations, can be flexible, and offer “in-the-moment” feedback. They are future-focused and not based on ratings.
  • Discussion guidelines provide structure for the conversation beginning with a climate review (focused on job satisfaction, morale), followed by a discussion of strengths and talents, then opportunities for growth and learning and development. Finally, a discussion on ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the business with innovation and continuous improvement.
  • Biggest hurdle has been a shift in thinking about how to reward employees without ratings as well as encouraging manager trust in the process.

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(FOX Members only)