The book that best tackles how employees are acknowledged is The Crowdsourced Performance Review: How to Use The Power of Recognition to Transform Employee Performance by Eric Mosley. Mosley combines the latest research with his experience as Co-Founder and CEO of Globoforce, an employment performance firm. I discovered the copy via NetGalley and was impressed with its argument of how much the performance review had become a relic.
A Panoramic Photo of a Career Instead of a Single Snapshot
When I first read the title, I immediately recalled the 360 degree performance reviews from my days at Ford. So I wondered if Mosley was advocating something already available.
But I did not have to read further than the opening chapter for the answer. It clarified the value of the 360 review in Mosley's view  - much of the reality surrounding a 360 performance review is less authentic than intended.
In practice 360-degree reviews can actually muddy the waters. According to an authoritative 2012 study conducted by Gallup, a serious problem for multi-source appraisals is that they often present the employee with conflicting messages about his or her performance. . .The result? In the 360 degree environment the input is watered down to the point where it becomes generic. Whenever people have to give an opinion, they become diplomatic in their responses.
The opening chapter also clarifies Mosley's thesis for the book â€" that the performance review structure is outdated.
To draw that conclusion, Mosley relies on the latest research. He describes how the discoveries increment the current quality of reviews. For example, he notes the degree that review timeliness is out of sync with an employee's current performance.
Typically managers' judgments about performance that will color the next 365 days are based on reactions to the last 365 days.
Mosley advocates social recognition as a remedy. Three trends serve as an influence for the review model:
- The spread of crowdsourcing information of all kinds.
- The universal adoption of social media.
- The rise of culture as a competitive advantage.
The third influence particularly caught my imagination. When I read that I recalled all the small startup firms that tout their quirky team of super-savvy-awesome professionals who miraculously balance work and play. The specific way culture enhances competitive advantages becomes clear.
Mosley goes on to outline the basics for a timely employee performance assessment. He sums how the new influences give social recognition an advantage:
When we bring these three innovations of crowdsourcing, social media and culture as a competitive advantage together for the purposes of talent and culture management, the result is social recognition, a systematic asset of practices in which many people consider and recognize an employee's performance on a daily basis.
The ability to relate performance to larger issues is what makes this book appealing. Mosley's writings and the supporting research connect the results from today's digital landscape to the activities of managing people well.
Your Employees Can Not Improve if Your Measures Do Not Improve
Analytics, while not covered in full-force detail here, takes a secondary undertone. Noting Moneyball, the story of the analytics success the Oakland As had with its baseball roster, Mosley advocates data as a way to explore untapped potential in employees:
Statistics are not the whole answer: Concentrating only on data can blind a manager to other relevant information…HR employees instinctively know that last point but too often it leads to a view that performance management is more art than science. It's both art and science, and the key for using data is separating the signal (relevant but selective data) from the noise (irrelevant but plentiful data).
Data visualization for managing employee metrics is highlighted to explain its value and to drive the salient points regarding employee improvement and proper monitoring of related performance.
I have two interns, my first “employees†since starting my business. The work arrangement is not complex, but I know that when the day comes for more formal reviews, I will have to consider new criteria to evaluate employees. Such considerations will happen for most small business owners who adopt the cloud and incorporate various levels of partnerships.
When owners do reach for more sophisticated evaluation, The Crowdsourced Performance Review illuminates how evaluations should be done.
