Most performance management systems are failing their organizations. A recent Gallup study notes that only 14% of employees strongly agree that their performance reviews inspire them to improve, and only about 20% of them feel that their review system is fair and transparent. 

For decades, companies have had the same solution: overhaul the entire process and implement new software that will magically fix it. Safe to say this hasn’t worked.

In our most recent Thought Leadership conversation, we asked Allison Nugent, Fractional CPO at Sunstone HR, why the performance overhaul rarely works, and she gave us an answer that was deeply revelatory. She said, 

“Successful organizational change is a progression: it starts with socialization, is strengthened through buy-in, and is realized through agency.”

To Nugent, a true sustained difference can only come from company-wide alignment and collective participation. This begins with socialization, or providing employees with the relevant information to reach a shared understanding, which leads to buy-in, or allowing them to opt into the change on their own terms, and concludes with agency, or giving members ownership over the process to sustain it.

Everyone, from the executives to the entry-level hires, need to be brought into the change, and ultimately become meaningful catalysts for the process themselves. Because an honest, holistic attempt at change in performance management must put its members at the forefront. By ensuring your change actively involves its members you cultivate the most important component of performance management success: a company-wide performance culture.

The Importance of Socialization

To Nugent, the most important question an HR leader can ask is “How do we create belief in our process?”. 

Employee socialization is about meeting your members where they are – it is a genuine inquiry into understanding how your performance management system can aid each individual's development. By educating each member, you give them the relevant information to reach a shared understanding. Communicating is the crucial first step to creating belief in a performance management system.

Creating Commitment through Buy-in

The most crucial fulcrum for authentic performance buy-in is the manager. If HR can convince a manager to commit to utilizing their performance system, they can truly govern the growth, development and feedback experience. Without manager commitment, any evaluation system will be rendered near useless.

However, Nugent says, all manager pushback doesn’t look the same. Managers who are not bought into HR performance structure fall into one of three groups:

1. The Overriders: Nugent says these managers “want to give feedback, but they want to give it in their own way, not necessarily how HR is asking them to.” These people are bought in to having feedback conversations with their direct reports, and they might even be doing it in a way that inspires trust and growth, but because it is happening outside the systems in place, HR can not govern or measure it.

2. The Performatively Compliant: A performatively compliant manager would say “I really don’t like doing this, but I’ll do it because they say I need to do it”, says Nugent. This manager will go through the motions with their direct report, but not in a way that fosters true engagement. In most ineffective performance systems, the majority of  managers will fall into this category. 

3. The Resisters: These managers directly boycott the performance evaluations. They don’t see the value in conducting feedback conversations, so they refuse to engage in the system altogether. 

Because managers are the evaluators in any performance system, no HR department will be able to implement their changes effectively if they do not address the managers in these three groups.

Communicating Change

Nugent likes to say that “goals, or expectations, should not exceed three.” Simplicity leads to consistency and clarity while still giving individuals or departments the space to adapt. Fittingly, her blueprint for communicating with dissenting managers to generate authentic buy-in revolves around three clear values: 

1. Active Listening: She says,“Actively listening is showing interest in the responses that you're receiving. It’s not just ‘here's what I want to do and here's how I want to do it.’ It’s making the effort to understand what people might be thinking, what they might or might not be saying, and being able to build a lasting relationship beyond that interaction.” With dissenting managers, active listening is key to fostering a mutual understanding, and working towards alignment in the future.

2. Respect: Respect is central to Nugent when it comes to People Operations. If you ask her about any aspect of a People Leader’s responsibilities, she will mention the importance of conducting every action with respect for the people that you are working with. She says, once you “maintain respect for someone’s thoughts and ideas, good, bad, or indifferent, and carry yourself with that respect, you unlock the ability to have productive, rich conversations around differences and misunderstandings.” 

3. Deliberate Inclusivity: Nugent advocates for bringing everyone to the table, from the most avid supporter to the most vehement resister, to engage in dialogue about building the right performance management system. By actively expanding the conversation to include more perspectives, an HR leader can actually build a performance plan that suits the organization.

These values are the fundamental building blocks of corporate communication for Nugent. Active listening, respect, and deliberate inclusivity foster an environment of trust, where even those who reject your work can know that you are willing to accommodate their opinion. This is the grassroots path to true buy-in, one that allows an organization to create together.

By prioritizing company members in organizational change, Nugent is making a clear statement: meaningful change in people operations is collective. When team members are given agency in creating a system that works for them across departments and roles, the organization transcends the modes of buy-in as we traditionally understand them. Instead, a performance culture is achieved.

This culture is built on trust and deep rapports and it remains adaptable to different evolutions of the business and its roles. Dissenters who are indifferent to an ineffective system become the creators and problem solvers that help pioneer a new workplace that serves their needs.

By weighing employees’ opinions against company goals and needs, HR leaders surpass their roles in areas like discipline and compliance to become true culture setters, and strategic engines that keep the business aligned. With HR leaders at the helm, organizations can use active engagement to redefine work itself.