How a clutch of firms is changing the way employee performance is assessed

Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Accenture India are at a different stage of the transition but all agree that quarterly or short-term feedbacks help carve out a path for their long-term goals

When Adobe adopted a process of continuous performance management ditching its annual appraisal process in 2012, it set off a whole rethink of the process of employee appraisal across the globe. The US multinational took some years to embed the new approach into its work culture, but it paid off handsomely with voluntary turnover decreasing by 30 per cent within a couple of years of introducing the system of “check-ins” and “frequent feedback”.

While Indian firms took some time to embrace the system, most IT companies have moved towards a continuous performance management process, replacing the annual/half-yearly appraisal cycles and more importantly, the bell curve method that focused largely on keeping talent in performance baskets. The adoption of a continuous system helps in better monitoring of company goals, arrest attrition rates and build transparency, say experts and companies.

Business Standard spoke to Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Accenture India, among a handful of other technology firms to understand their experiences since the switch. Each of these companies is at a different stage of the transition but all agree that quarterly or short-term feedbacks — instead of waiting for an entire year to discuss employee performance — help both the companies and their employees carve out a path for their long-term goals.

All three have found that a short-duration performance management system helps them identify and fix the shortcomings of each individual resource instead of merely hanging the Sword of Damocles over the heads of non-performers. While ratings in a different form still exist, these companies say they are even willing to go on to the extent where rewards or bonuses are not hard-coded to an employee’s rating.

“One factor that made this inevitable was the exit of top performers. The younger generation has less tolerance for not being recognised on time. Earlier in the beginning of the year goals were set and only at the end of the year, those were discussed. In the continuous cycle, your goal settings are reminded to you in the monthly meetings. So it is not just to pass on the scorecard to you but also to build on a lot of transactional meetings to discuss the input-to-output on a monthly basis,” says Ajay Shah, vice-president and head-recruitment services, Teamlease.

In the IT ecosystem, this switch is catching up and individual employee development is a common thread. Talking about Infosys’ iCount performance management programme which was introduced in 2016, the company’s executive vice-president and group head of human resource development, Krishnamurthy Shankar, says such a system allows the employee to record her achievements on a milestone basis instead of looking back only once. “Additionally, a continuous mentoring and development cycle is rolled out. For example, if I am the employee and I am writing in the iCount that these are my strengths and these are my weaknesses, these are one or two things that I need to work on, then the boss will have a say and based on that a development plan is prepared,” says Shankar.

On the reward and recognition side, too, there is flexibility, says Shankar. “It’s not that someone with a good rating will get a hundred per cent bonus because your boss can also make your bonus go up and down depending on how he or she feels about your performance. There is a broad range of rewards and performers will be rewarded according to those. Of course, there are oversight mechanisms in place — for example if someone with a good rating is getting zero bonus, we don’t let it pass.”

Shankar refers to some parameters (see box) which have improved and adds that in the past, when people quit, many identified lack of performance monitoring as a reason, and that percentage has come down drastically.

Tech Mahindra is a slightly late adopter of a the contuinuous performance monitoring system. Harshvendra Soin, chief people officer, Tech Mahindra, says, “While our performance management was twice a year till last year, we are exploring an online real time feedback mechanism using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for all our associates this year.” He adds that Tech Mahindra’s focus as a company is on continuous improvement of its associates and “providing feedback at the end of the year does not align with that”.

The company, however, does not divulge details on the AI-enabled system it is getting in.

Accenture says it uses the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment to help its people understand their natural talents and how to apply them. “We enable each person with the ability to create a dynamic set of priorities in our performance achievement tool (accessible on a laptop or mobile device), that reflect the three-five most important areas of focus for the next three-five months. They are measurable, clear and specific and are aligned with the goals of the team,” says Rohit Thakur, managing director and lead human resources, Accenture in India.

Shah from Teamlease says the merit of the continuous system lies in the fact that it talks about both goals and metrics. For an IT company with lists of clients who help the company bag projects worth thousands of crores, sales teams are important but the larger output comes from the delivery team. So if you are my employee and are able to outrun your KRAs, deliver projects much early and are able to show the performance in the first six months, I will have a trigger to reward you.