When we think of accountability in organisations, thoughts typically move straight to the top. The Chief Executive and Executive Directors are ultimately responsible for organisational performance – with the role of the Chair and Board being to hold those at the top to account.

With traditional approaches to performance management, this level of accountability is placed on line managers – who are viewed to be ultimately responsible for getting the most out of the employees who report into them by motivating them, setting goals and assessing performance.

In almost every reward framework review I have conducted over the past 3 years, the question is raised of line management’s skill and will to have the difficult conversations with employees, focus on personal development in addition to assessing performance, and get the best from the people they manage. The answer 99% of the time is that line management capability is falling short.

Another factor making the job of line managers even more difficult is COVID-19 and the knock-on effects in terms of remote working. A large part of the UK working population has been working from home for almost a year now, making the monitoring and assessing of performance more challenging than ever.

But why assume that upskilling line managers will automatically lead to an improvement in employee performance? The time has come to take performance management a step further and to shift accountability to employees for their own performance and development.

How can this transition take place? Autonomy may be the key.

From forced autonomy to authentic autonomy

The changing nature of work for a large number of organisations in terms of location and a focus on what is delivered, rather than how much time is spent on the job, has forced managers to trust their employees more, whether they like it or not.

The way things are now, performance can only be judged for a large part of the population on output – with very little visibility of what is going on behind the computer screen. Employees have automatically become more accountable for their work.

It is time to take this ‘forced’ version of accountability and trust a step further, and apply it to performance management to make it ready for the new world of work we will go back to post-vaccinations.

This involves providing employees with autonomy and trust right from the start of the process – not only in terms of what they deliver, but in terms of the entire performance management cycle.

Scary it may be for managers, but counterintuitively the more autonomy they provide for their reports, the higher the accountability employees will have, and in all likelihood the better results and higher levels of engagement for both managers and reports.

Start at the start

The shift of accountability starts with providing employees with more autonomy at the start of any performance management process – goal setting.

Here there should be a shift away from annual goals picked by the manager and agreed by the employee, towards a collaborative approach – led by the employee, with support and guidance from managers as required (particularly if the employee is a relatively new starter).

This level of autonomy ensures realistic expectations of objectives throughout the year, but it also means employees now have a vested interest in performing and developing to their own objectives. This in turn results in employees having more accountability for performance and development – with check-ins throughout the year taking the form of an ongoing dialogue between employee and manager.

If an employee underperforms, the so-called difficult conversation changes from why is an employee falling short of expectations somebody else has set them, to what support the employee needs to get back on track with their own goals agreed at the start of the process.

Let it go

It may be difficult for managers who feel under pressure to deliver – both themselves and through the people they manage – but to begin the process of shifting accountability to employees, they must take the leap of faith.

Providing employees with the guidance and support needed so they can autonomously set goals and focus on development as a continuous process results in an easier monitoring of performance, as managers can focus more on the contributions employees make, rather than concerning themselves with time and effort spent on work.

This contribution-based model of assessing performance is a critical step change organisations should make in times where some or all employees are working from home, and especially for organisations where the workforce is split into working remotely and on-site. Focusing on output allows a consistent approach to assessing performance for these organisations, regardless of place of work.

By treating employees like the adults they are, providing them with autonomy and empowering them to take ownership of their own destiny, this can only enhance the employee experience.

Time for change?

With a YouGov survey showing only 26% of UK employees believe traditional performance appraisals are useful, and ways of working and employee expectations changing, this may be a good time to take a look at your approach to performance management.

Get in touch with us to find out how we can help you bring performance management into the new world of work.

Peter Fairchild, Senior Consultant at QCG - January 2021