Reflect on your high school experience—your final grade was not determined solely by the final exam. Instead, it was shaped by a series of assessments, weekly quizzes, mid-term evaluations, and self-reflection assignments, all designed to keep your learning progress on track. This continuous approach to learning was not just about evaluation; it also emphasized growth and development, ensuring a deeper understanding and steady progress.
Now, compare this to traditional corporate performance management. For years, organizations operated within strict hierarchical structures, relying on periodic evaluations to assess their performance against predefined objectives. Originally designed to enhance efficiency, these evaluations frequently deteriorated into mere compliance exercises—routine procedures that prioritized checking boxes over promoting significant employee growth. The underlying belief that adults are solely responsible for their own growth creates a fundamental contradiction: expecting high performance while offering minimal real-time support to enable it.
As Peter Drucker famously stated, “What gets measured gets improved.” Yet, in many companies, measurement is infrequent and disconnected from day-to-day progress, making meaningful improvement difficult. Continuous performance management (CPM) presents a compelling alternative by integrating ongoing dialog, real-time feedback, and agile goal-setting. This employee-centric approach shifts the focus to continuous development, ensuring that employees receive timely support and recognition.
The rising popularity of CPM stems from a growing recognition that traditional approaches often miss opportunities for employee development as their inherently retrospective nature fails to provide timely and meaningful feedback. Historically, performance evaluations were structured around rigid industrial-era hierarchies and productivity. This approach assumes that employee motivation is driven purely by external factors such as promotions and wages.
As work environments became more complex and competitive, there was a stronger emphasis on employee agency. Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory highlights the role of workers’ motivation—e.g., recognition, accountability, and growth opportunities—in driving employee performance. Furthermore, a shift toward knowledge-driven business models has prompted organizations to be more proactive in talent development to maintain their competitiveness.
Thought leaders like Dave Ulrich have championed agile HR practices that integrate talent development with business strategy, focusing on continuous feedback and employee engagement to enhance individual and organizational success. This shift gained further momentum in the early 2000s when pioneering companies like Adobe abandoned traditional performance ratings in favor of frequent check-ins, real-time feedback, and goal alignment. Technological advancements that facilitate performance tracking notably drove the transformation. This shift underscores the importance of fostering an environment where growth and communication are embedded in the organizational culture while ensuring simultaneous employee and business growth.
What Sparks Progress?
Components such as real-time feedback and coaching allow employees to adjust their performance proactively, fostering a culture of receiving feedback. At the same time, managers can quickly identify areas needing improvement and offer additional training or coaching before minor issues escalate into significant setbacks or bottlenecks.
Frequent developmental conversations further enhance communication between employees and managers. These discussions go beyond performance evaluations, focusing on aligning expectations and personal development goals. Employees are given greater autonomy in setting their developmental objectives while ensuring alignment with the organization’s overall strategy. This sense of ownership increases engagement, motivation, and accountability.
Clear communication and trust between employees and management are reinforced by agile goal-setting practices that align individual performance with organizational objectives. Through regular check-ins, employees gain a precise understanding of their targets, reducing uncertainty and anxiety about expectations. This enables employees to clearly see how the organization’s goals support their personal career growth, enhancing intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and accountability.
Another key feature is transparency through a holistic 360 feedback cycle that incorporates input from peers, managers, and self-assessments. This multi-source feedback approach enhances fairness and objectivity, giving employees a well-rounded perspective on their strengths and areas for improvement. Receiving constructive feedback from peers—who they often spend significant time collaborating with—further enriches the evaluation process.
Technology has also played a crucial role in the adoption of CPM. AI-powered tools can analyze vast amounts of data from employee interactions, project management platforms, and customer feedback, offering real-time performance insights. These technologies help minimize biases in performance reviews by ensuring fairness and accuracy. Additionally, cloud-based platforms and mobile applications streamline the feedback process, making it more accessible and efficient.
Making CPM Work
Transitioning to CPM can be daunting, requiring the organization to take a deliberate and strategic approach to ensure alignment with its needs, culture, operations, and even the industry’s regulatory standards. It should begin with an honest evaluation of the current PMS by top management. The organization’s current performance culture, the adequacy of coaching interactions, and the effectiveness of the current feedback and evaluation system should be assessed to determine if they can provide the expected business improvements. Furthermore, the success of this transition also hinges on overcoming key challenges, including leadership buy-in, managerial engagement, and industry-specific constraints.
Securing buy-in from top management is critical. Leaders accustomed to annual reviews may hesitate to adopt CPM due to concerns over increased workloads, employee resistance, and the challenge of tracking frequent check-ins. However, demonstrating the benefits, such as improved engagement, motivation, and overall performance, can help address these concerns. It is also important to emphasize that, in practice, regular check-ins require more effort than the often cumbersome annual appraisal process, which makes performance management more actionable.
To ensure consistency and accountability, organizations should establish a minimum check-in frequency (e.g., monthly) and develop standardized, centralized meeting templates. These templates should guide discussions on key topics such as company goals, employee development, and career growth. Standardization is crucial, as managers often juggle multiple responsibilities, which makes it challenging to sustain active participation. Without a clear structure, check-ins risk becoming a routine administrative task rather than a valuable tool for growth. A well-defined framework not only ensures discussions remain accessible throughout an employee’s tenure but also alleviates the burden on managers by providing a clear, consistent approach to best practices.
Human resources (HR) also plays a crucial role in this process by equipping managers with the necessary training, streamlining processes, and embedding CPM into daily workflows rather than treating it as an additional administrative task. This training should support the practice of referencing past check-in conversations during annual performance reviews to mitigate recency bias and objectively reflect an employee’s entire performance from the period, creating a more balanced and effective PMS.
Industry-specific constraints also affect CPM implementation. Highly regulated sectors may require formal documentation, making a full transition to CPM difficult. On the other hand, project-driven industries such as the technology and creative fields may find CPM more naturally aligned with their fast-paced workflows. Organizations should acknowledge that CPM is not universally applicable and tailor its strategies to their unique operational requirements. Organizations could position CPM as a complementary tool, providing real-time insights and maintaining regulatory compliance through the integration of structured documentation and continuous feedback mechanisms.
DBS Bank demonstrates successful CPM integration by blending traditional performance management with an agile, feedback-driven culture. Their Culture by Design process reinforces an agile culture and a learning organization by providing immediate feedback to their 27,000 employees. The MOJO meeting initiative, for example, ensures meetings have a clear agenda and facilitates immediate feedback on whether organized meetings are successful based on predetermined criteria. To support its digital transformation objectives, the company is also actively utilizing a mobile learning platform to enhance employees’ digital competencies in various categories. At the end of the course, qualified employees are granted the opportunity to teach their coworkers, giving them a sense of purpose.
CPM is more than a systemic shift; it is a cultural transformation that redefines how organizations nurture talent and drive performance. By fostering real-time feedback and continuous development, it promotes a dynamic environment where employees can grow and contribute meaningfully. However, for CPM to succeed, organizations must recognize that its effectiveness hinges not just on tools and processes but also on leadership commitment and cultural alignment. HR plays a critical role in ensuring that CPM is not just another corporate initiative but an embedded practice that enhances engagement, accountability, and growth by championing its integration into the organization’s fabric and guiding employees from a compliance-driven mindset to a meaningful process that fuels both personal and organizational success.
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Performance Magazine Issue No. 32, 2025 – Employee Performance Edition.
In this free webinar from The KPI Institute, our General Manager for EMEA, Adrian Brudan, explains the importance of key performance indicator (KPI) documentation. Discover how documenting KPIs enables organizations to establish effective KPI governance, accountability, and stakeholder buy-in.
In the past, employee performance management was top-down and one-sided. Nowadays, the paradigm has shifted, giving employees more control over their performance and fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. Dr. Malika Viltz-Emerson, a Senior Global Human Resource Leader, has experienced this firsthand. In this interview, she explores the numerous benefits of involving employees in managing and improving their performance. Let’s delve into the strategies, tools, and best practices that can help organizations shift from traditional performance management approaches to more inclusive, employee-centric models.
Given today’s data-driven business landscape, how should organizations leverage digital tools and data analytics to shape their employee performance management practices, particularly in terms of providing real-time feedback and insights?
The current approach prioritizes collaboration, overall contributions, impact, and outcomes—all of which can be effectively managed and found within a single tool. It is an agile employee growth approach facilitated by continuous feedback and communication tools. There are four common pillars that guide impact identification in specific areas through open manager-employee dialogue, resembling a self-assessment. These are:
Operational excellence – Enhancing service quality and delivery, fostering innovation, and driving organizational growth while seeking opportunities to become a global strategic advantage
Culture journey – Finding deep meaning in working together, ensuring growth, diversity, and inclusiveness; working with values such as integrity, respect, and accountability
Growth and collaboration – Contributing to the growth of others while leveraging and expanding upon their work and ideas
Individual key accomplishments – The impact that a person has on a project, customer, team, product, or anything that delivers business results
But the major shift is towards data analytics and dashboards for team and company performance, rather than individual assessment.
Could you describe and share some key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’ve utilized to evaluate the performance of your organization’s employees?
The KPIs we use vary depending on organizational priorities, job roles, and specific departmental or organizational goals. There is a set of standard KPIs that focus on culture as a journey, and these include teamwork results, helping others grow, prioritizing the company goals’ impact, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Per the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report 2023“, Large Language Models (LLMs) can already automate about 15% of employees’ tasks, and this might rise to 50% with improved applications. How will these advancements not only affect tasks but also reshape the broader dynamics of employee performance?
These advancements vary across industries. But for most companies, they will allow employees to become more strategic, transform productivity, and reduce the time spent on repeatable manual tasks—ultimately paving the way for getting work done. Although I have some reservations regarding some companies’ usage of LLMs because we know co-pilots grow to become pilots, these reservations ensure we slow down, conduct proper due diligence, and have the right governance in place. The advancements open doors for many people to upskill, allowing people with either no or low coding experience to develop and discover alternative ways to solve problems. It also enhances key soft skills that require human judgment and emotional intelligence.
What role do organizations play in upskilling and reskilling employees in competencies of the future? What does your organization do in this area at the moment?
Providing opportunities for all employees to upskill and reskill should be embedded in an organization’s priorities and goals. Investing in a continuous learning program will help employees adapt to job changes. This program starts with two core competencies: digital acumen and business acumen. The importance of their employees’ data literacy or digital acumen level should be apparent to organizations. Employees need to enhance their familiarity with artificial intelligence (AI) tools to remain competitive. This does not mean they need to learn to be programmers, but as previously discussed, no-code or low-code programming is vital to stay competitive in the future job market.
Adoption is of the utmost importance, making sure that our full-time employees recognize the significance of their contributions and gain a broader understanding of the bigger picture. Embracing the transformations and designing a roadmap that closes the skills gap at every level of our workforce is essential.
Are there any emerging technologies that will significantly influence how organizations manage employee performance in the near future?
Embedding responsible AI is the imminent solution. Let’s face it, that is what we consider emerging technologies nowadays. Moreover, the technology involving data aggregation—i.e., limiting systems to pull data from one data source—should be part of every organization’s near-future plans.
A recent study conducted by Stanford University highlights a disparity in perception, with employees often perceiving higher productivity when working from home, while managers tend to perceive lower productivity levels. Could you provide further insight into the influence of remote work on employee productivity and discuss the differences in these viewpoints?
Having organizations foster all three setups—i.e., remote, on-site, and hybrid—as options is critical to employee experience. However, I believe that if a company promotes a remote work setup, then there should be a quarterly or annual gathering to bring the teams together. I also acknowledge the drawbacks of going fully remote, such as underutilized facilities and the impact on support staff like food vendors, custodians, and security personnel. I will conclude that there is no right or wrong answer to this problem. It should be considered a new way of working and requires future-forward ways of thinking, the same as we do with emerging technologies.
With the rise of the gig economy and freelancing, how are traditional performance evaluation models evolving to accommodate the unique dynamics of temporary and contract workers?
From a performance evaluation dynamic and based on my experience, it is based on a scorecard whose criteria are based on the KPIs that the organization sets. While we use a significant amount of temporary and contract workers, we are only evaluating their performance based on the specific task or project they were contracted to support.
How is employee performance defined and evaluated in your organization? Can you discuss your organization’s performance criteria, rating levels, and frequency of performance reviews?
For us, it is not overly complicated. It is simplified by having the employees drive most of the process. It is about having rich conversations that optimize impact and get employees to do their best work. The frequency can be two to four times per year and is set by individual senior leaders. But there are at least two tracked conversations, not reviews. The employee outlines these conversations and focuses on areas like the growth of others, building on ideas, and contributions to the team, business, or customer.
How can organizations move from the traditional approach of annual performance appraisals to self-regulated teams and a strong feedback culture?
Stop thinking traditionally. Instead, bring in the right talent to help you foster a forward-thinking and growth mindset. Employees are not fans of performance reviews or 360-degree feedback, which breaks from the norm. Make it a conversation, a way to connect with the employees and teams. A standard set of core priorities puts the employee in the driver’s seat. Identify barriers to support the employee and have them do the same, enabling them to reflect and understand the impact of the work. Performance tools are for tracking the conversations, reviewing the total rewards outcomes and snapshots, and soliciting peer impact.
What can organizations do to engage more actively the employees in the individual performance management process, so that it is no longer regarded as solely an HR process?
To accomplish this, establish a culture that puts the employee in the driver’s seat, gives them accountability, and guides them to take ownership, including self-assessment, peer input, and aligning rewards with outcomes. Ensure regular manager check-ins and early sharing of insights. There should be no surprises for employees when discussing their performance.
Performance is also linked to learning, so having learning paths identified for both the employees and managers early in the process is crucial. The learning for employees would be tied to their core competencies and additional skills, and for the manager, on how to be a coach in the performance process.
How does your organization ensure alignment between employees’ objectives and corporate strategy?
We create deliberate listening mechanisms through which we better understand the needs and do some breakthrough thinking together.
What factors are critical to the success of a modern employee performance management system?
A modern system would be something that helps promote the company culture, continuous improvement, employee well-being, and ongoing development. But that’s more about the processes around the system. The tool itself would enable communication, tracking of capabilities, and identifying core competencies, opportunities, learning, and feedback. It should also give the employee a voice and put them in the driver’s seat. I did not speak about compliance, data privacy, and security—to me, those are obvious in any system, especially performance.
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Performance Magazine Issue No. 28, 2024 – Employee Performance Edition.
Erratum: The previous version of this article mentioned “365-degree feedback”. It has since been corrected to “360-degree feedback”.
About the Practitioner:Dr. Malika Viltz-Emerson has over 20 years of experience in human capital management. Her mission is to identify and address the real-world challenges and opportunities for employees and the company, and design and implement optimal solutions that leverage the latest tools, technologies, and processes.
Implementing a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) System is a vital step in strengthening an organization’s performance management and strategic alignment. However, to ensure the KPI system brings meaningful value rather than becoming a bureaucratic burden, it must be introduced with care.
Two of the most critical factors in this process are the speed of implementation and the timing of deployment.
The speed of implementation is a delicate balance between urgency and patience. While it may be tempting to fast-track the process to show quick wins or satisfy leadership expectations, introducing a KPI system too quickly can backfire. People are naturally resistant to change, especially when it brings new procedures or measurements into their daily routines. If the implementation is rushed, employees may view the KPI system as an imposed burden rather than a valuable tool. This resistance can erode trust, reduce participation, and ultimately lead to the failure of the performance management system (PMS).
Instead, leaders should consider a phased and inclusive approach. Gradually introducing the system allows time for employees to understand its purpose, see the connection to their work, and feel part of the process. This builds a sense of ownership and alignment with organizational goals. A KPI system should foster focus and clarity—not just create more forms and dashboards. Without this human connection, it risks becoming a layer of paperwork that adds complexity without driving results.
Equally important is the timing of deployment. Organizations operate in cycles, and there are always periods of high intensity—year-end closings, peak sales seasons, or major product launches. During these high-stress periods, teams are focused on immediate deliverables and managing volumes, not learning new processes or reflecting on long-term measures. Introducing a KPI system during these busy times can overwhelm staff and lead to poor adoption.
To maximize impact, the implementation should be scheduled during a quieter period when people have the bandwidth to engage with the system thoughtfully. This allows better participation in workshops, training, and feedback sessions. It also ensures the system is not seen as an added stressor, but as a support structure that enhances performance and decision-making.
Ultimately, a KPI system must be more than a technical exercise. It requires cultural adoption, leadership commitment, and careful planning. The right speed ensures people can adapt and connect with the system, while the right timing ensures they have the energy and attention to engage meaningfully.
In conclusion, the implementation of a KPI system should not be rushed or poorly timed. Success lies in managing change with empathy and strategic foresight. By respecting the pace of human adaptation and the rhythms of the business, organizations can build a KPI system that is not only effective but also embraced by those it is meant to empower.
A performance management system enables an organization to monitor and, if needed, improve its performance. Without one, the organization is essentially missing a foundational pillar, one that is crucial to its success and longevity.
Find out how to implement a performance management system by watching The KPI Institute’s Andrea Minelli as he goes over each step in detail.
