As the need for ongoing performance management tools grows, you may have considered transferring from a standard feedback system to a microfeedback system. Like any process in performance management, we don’t recommend underestimating the requirements or tools to do so effectively. With the help of our process flowchart, transitioning to a continuous feedback system and providing feedback to employees is simple and effective for any organization.

Quarterly – Analysis

• Do external research. With hundreds of systems on the market (we won’t name a few), they all promise the same thing, but may not deliver or perform. Take demos, ask questions, digest and sales materials.

To Do: Create your own Vendor Comparison Matrix. In the left column, list all of the features you can possibly think of. Then at the top row, list all of the vendors you’re examining. Go through and check off who has what, and don’t be afraid to reach out to find out more information.

• Do internal research. Survey your organization to find out what they need in an improved feedback system before you do the external research or you run the risk of overlooking a necessary component.

To Do: Employee surveys through your traditional feedback system will have to do for now!

Continuous Monitoring: Research never stops, whether it’s external or internal. Shiny new systems and management tools will always hit the market and an evolving workforce will always have changing needs. Keep a pulse on your organization by conducting quarterly research, externally and internally, to find the best way to continue providing feedback to employees.

Monthly – Planning

• Set Parameters & Objectives. Break down organizational performance goals by departments or teams and ask managers to provide a feedback plan with specific parameters. For example, if your organization has a low client retention rate this may be routed back to low performance.

To Do: Pinpoint major company-wide issues, break down potential root causes and then generate performance goals geared towards solutions.

• Review Different Feedback Processes. You may have conducted extensive research, but the one thing you’ll need to ensure is that the system you select works with the feedback process your organization needs.

To Do: Work with managers to determine the cadence of employee feedback needed to reach set performance goals.

Continuous Monitoring: Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a performance system to solve all of your company’s problems. We recommend revisiting the planning stage once a month.

One Time – Transition

• Determine Best Solution. With all of the data and information gathered from these performance management tools during the analysis and planning stage, you’re ready to make your decision.

To Do: If you’re the ultimate decision maker, make sure to bring in other key stakeholders’ opinions to ensure nothing is overlooked. If you’re not the decision-maker and still need to get exec buy-in, then this one’s for you!

• Communicate the Changes. Now here comes one of the most important aspects of the entire process. Relaying the change to your workforce. My, oh my can this go wrong!

To Do: Bring in your HR department as well as your marketing team to ensure the messaging is clear, consistent and reassuring. Employees should feel empowered by this change, not limited or anxious.

Continuous Monitoring: Don’t hesitate to ask for feedback from employees. Sending out a simple survey with basic questions about the system and how it’s being used can show you a lot about how well this transition has been communicated. Hopefully, your system will allow for better employee to manager feedback, like iRevü.

Weekly – Governance

• Train Managers to Give Microfeedback. Educating your managers on the importance of providing microfeedback, ensuring they have the resources needed to generate microfeedback, setting guidelines for what constitutes good and bad microfeedback and allowing them to build their own cadence/process within set parameters are a must!

To Do: Develop a real-time feedback training program for managers. The initial one should consist of at least 32 hours of formal training, but make sure to revisit concepts on a weekly basis.

• Change Management. Not only do employees need their performance managed, but your managers obviously do too (especially in a time of transition like this). Moving from standard performance, which is pretty much scheduled for them, to a system requiring more accountability also means managers need to be evaluated.

To Do: Conduct monthly performance reviews (standard, we know!) with your management team to ensure they’re keeping up with the changes. Be sure to discuss management goals with this process as well.

Continuous Monitoring: Depending on your organization, this can be monthly or weekly. However, make sure to designate a directly responsible individual to make sure this ball never gets dropped with checkpoints every quarter.