Dedicated to former colleagues Malcolm Crapper and Mick Teece. RIP both.

Back in the pre-digital world, at around the same time every year I would get a clutch of lengthy hard-copy report forms landing on my desk.  As a full time salaried official, lay reps on release from normal duties to undertake union work could nominate people like me to contribute to their annual appraisals.

But when I said, truthfully, that our rep should be promoted  so her grade reflected her responsibilities, the employer had a meltdown.  Well, I suppose “success” and “high performance” to look very different from each side of the negotiating process.

Listen in to find out why I (still) believe employees can be promoted even if on full-time release for union duties – and what happens when (gasp) senior lay reps take HR roles with their employer.

Gasp again at the prospect of senior lay reps becoming union employees and then defecting to the original employer!

Safe to say, it’s not ideal, but also not the end of the world!  Find out why on the podcast!

Aroundthe same time, the multinational professional services company Accenture announced with a flourish the death of annual performance reviews.

The then CEO decreed that….. “The change we are making at Accenture puts people at the center [sic]…our people are looking for real-time, on-demand conversations to define priorities and to get and to give feedback…This new approach is entirely digitally-enabled so that conversations can happen anywhere, anytime and on any device.  This is the new world all of us are operating in – with fluid feedback at the point of need.”

(For more, see this article if you can get behind the Washington Post’s paywall, or this one if you can’t.)

Well let’s just stop right there.  An any time, any place, any where, or  “Martini” approach to performance review. How alluring. Rather like a Venus Fly Trap to an unfortunate insect.

Where are the limits to and control on such an all-enveloping utterly invasive mode of assessment?

Whose “need” are we talking about? 

And above all, what means do employees have to ensure that the commitment their employer expects from them is reciprocated?

Every instinct points to anxiety – that such a scheme in reality will be assessment on a granular scale, 24/7/365.  The savings from digitalising and automating this function will accrue to employers but not employees.  And further automation means that algorithms and AI will present irresistible opportunities for further savings – only for the lack of control and responsiveness from managers that so many 21st century workers have complained about for years, to increase still further. (Just google “unresponsive manager” if you feel the need to.)

For more on Accenture’s attempt to reshape performance management, listen to the podcast!

From an employee and union perspective Performance Management is a big big deal – even more so with basic pay and pay progression being increasingly linked to performance. Put any ten union reps in a room and we will quickly come up with just about the same “top five” of poor performance management regimes

1. Inappropriate target setting when your ability to hit your target is entirely dependent on other people over whom you have precisely no control.
2. Seeking constant improvements when the employee doesn’t have the means to achieve them.
3. Arbitrary “levelling” or a lack of transparency and objectivity.
4. The performance appraisal is frankly, discriminatory – institutionalised racism or sexism can be deeply embedded. 

And fifth and finally, the use of performance appraisal to manage members out of employment. 

This is a crazy clutch of counterproductive and irrational management practice.  It’s also not just irrational, but stupid.  Not just punishing but brutal.  But’s that what, in some places, did and I bet still does happen.

As well as having a common top 5,  our ten hypothetical union reps all will have had to face the sometimes awful, life-changing or, tragically, even, sometimes, life-ending, consequence of bad performance management.

Without wanting to state the obvious, this is bad for our members but also for the employer who risks productivity and reputation by pursuing misplaced methods.

Hear more about the 5 evils on the podcast.

The bottom line, for all. sorts of reasons, is that the more your pay is determined by appraisal or performance management, the more at risk you are from delinquent, inept or incompetent employers.

A key part of the answer is to join a union. (And listen to the podcast!)

Thanks!