Who’s responsible for getting the best performance from your talent? Leaders and managers, or HR? It should be a double act, of course, but how does that actually play out in your organisation?
Performance management is one of those conundrums that seems to rumble on. During the last few years, many organisations moved away from formal systems, and then moved back again.
Some have found fresh new ways of doing it, but those I’ve heard about tend to be growing companies where leaders really ‘get’ good HR – and the CEO personally leads good people practice and values. Only time will tell whether they can scale this up as they grow, without more process.
It’s the quality of the conversation between the person and their boss that’s at the nub of so much. It’s vital to engagement, as well as so many decisions about talent – development, careers, and more.
The link between performance and pay is another minefield. If you’ve enabled the most balanced, objective and open discussions about an individual’s performance, then that’s a fair basis for decisions about reward – isn’t it? Maintaining the integrity of this is vital and this tends to be given to HR to do.
What do you think is the most important role for HR to play in performance management?
