Tesco performance management review process goes organic

Tesco Bengaluru, the global technology and retail operations centre for grocery and general merchandise retailer giant Tesco, started off the year by announcing a regeneration of their performance management review system.

According to Economic Times, from May 2017 Tesco will be replacing their bi-annual reviews with more regular, organic catch ups between managers and staff. The new, more natural process will help to promote a coaching environment and real-time feedback. This will encourage capabilities to be systematically improved throughout the year, across the organisation.

The Tesco teams work towards building competitive advantage and providing better shopper experiences for millions of customers worldwide. The range of work at Tesco covers technology, business, finance, commercial, supply chain and property services.

Their innovative and highly-skilled product and engineering teams build, develop, and deploy software, improving time to market and staying relevant to customer needs. As a mostly technology-driven workforce, Tesco employees needed a performance management system that catered for measuring and improving complicated functions in an uncomplicated way.

Following the example of other large companies like General Electric, Adobe, and Google, Tesco are about to implement performance tools that will encourage staff development organically, with more regular feedback and individualised opportunities for growth. The company’s HR team believe that the new performance discussions will help employees feel more valued and ultimately inspired to perform better.

“While most companies differentiate employees based on salaries and link that to performance, here the attention is on trusting colleagues to do their job. This change in the environment encourages the manager and colleague to not only connect as individuals, but also creates better roles, pushes for better targets, and enables colleagues to do things that surpass their learning,” said Krity Sharma, Head – People, Tesco Bengaluru.

If, like Tesco, your company is also looking at refining your review process, here are some principles we’ve found that are critical to performance management processes at high performing organisations:

• Clear recognition and fair reward of individuals who perform to a high level.
• A commitment to performance management as a day-by-day process not an annual or bi-annual review cycle. This is supported by regular and immediate feedback and coaching.
• A system of performance management that recognises an individual’s strengths and builds on these.
• It is results that an individual produces that are assessed as part of the process, not the person’s character.
• The assessment process is transparent, robust and consistent, with clear differentiation across the workforce.
• Performance goals will align with company strategic goals so people focus on the right things and can see how their daily work contributes to these goals.
• Recognise that it’s not just the results people deliver (the what) but also the values and behaviours (the how) that underpin those results.
• The process is ‘agile’, fast, efficient and responsive.

To learn more about what the most capable organisations are doing when it comes to performance management, read our eBook, Does your approach to performance management ‘sing’ or ‘sting’? It’s packed full of practical advice like how to create meritocracies, the importance of underlying principles, why transparency delivers engagement and how to assess new technology for performance management. Download your copy here.