A collection of Performance Management Cycles

We all loved the performance management cycle!

Performance management is changing. Almost every HR professional has been involved with performance management cycle design. The HR Trend Institute, in collaboration with The Muesum of HR, is preparing an exhibition of performance management cycles.

In this article we present an overview of nearly 50 performance management cycles. The first conclusions: it is a rather boring collection and the similarity between the cycles is big. The variety is caused by the level of detail of the process that is provided.

A sample of the collection

Advanture

The examples are ordered in alphabetical order, and therefore we start with Advanture (great name!). They don’t like cycles and circles at Advanture and they tried to make the cycle as square as possible. Their cycle is “holistic and sustainable”.

AI Group

The AI group has chosen a circle and four steps, as many others in this collection. A classical cycle, nothing fancy.

AIHR

A circle and four stages, we have seen that before. Question: is potential something you can develop?

Appalachian

Appalachian looks like a very well structured organisation. No sustainable or holistic cycle, a straight line going from red to green. It is a bit of a puzzle, because two cycles are merged into one line. The years starts on July 1, and goals for the year are set in the period April-June. The prior year is evaluated in July and August, if I understand the flow in the right way.

Boston University

In Boston they go for the five step cycle, and you can only enter the cycle after proper onboarding. Good news for the people in the process: Feedback can be informal or formal, and the goals can be reset before the annual performance evaluation.

CAPPC Consult

A snapshot from the CAPPC Consult cycle. Two questions: where do I start and why is the bottom arrow pointing anti-clock wise?

Cave and Thomas

A well thought through cycle. Top-down. This was probably designed before the employee experience came into fashion. I like “Continuous monitoring and feedback”.

CIPD

In the top flow the CIPD talks about the “Performance management chain”. Interesting: I don’t see any actual performance in the chain, only future performance.

Cleveroad

Five steps in the Cleveroad perfomance management cycle. A piece of the puzzle seems to be missing.

CRG

At CRG we count 13 steps, in five phases.

Continuous performance management

The “Check-in” is the basic building block in this cycle. Managers have to do a lot of check-ins. The connection to reward is not so clear.

Deming Cycle

The good old Deming cycle, embedded in most of the performance management cycles. Simple and easy to remember. Do we need more?

The Exchange Post

Simple, maybe too simple…

FedSmith

FedSmith added some people to the cycle, sympathic. The function of the arrow in the middle is not so clear to me. So that we know the positions of employee, supervisor and management? Management is at the top here, but with some defined bounderies.

15FiveBlog

The credo: “Boost employee performance every week”! High Fives at step four.

The Happy Manager

Does this cycle make managers happy?

Heartpace

Modern!

HR Portal

An April to April cycle. In the companies where I worked, it was always difficult to design a cycle that captured a full year. The annual goals were always set too late, and it was difficult to incorporate feedback in the new cycle. I don’t think these issues are solved by calling the cycle “continuous”.