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Performance management has room to improve. According to Gartner research, 52% of chief human resource officers (CHROs) believe they are not rewarding the right behavior in employees, and only 32% of HR business partners believe performance management delivers what employees need to perform.

Because of this, in the last five years, 74% of organizations have significantly changed their performance management processes. “Companies are implementing a variety of new practices, from linking pay to project performance to eliminating performance reviews entirely,” says Benjamin Loring, Research Director at Gartner. “The real unlock, however, is making performance management useful to both managers and employees with this six-part roadmap.”

Six ways to fix performance management

Improve performance management by considering the amount of conversations you have, the lens through which you look at performance, and the style of feedback you provide.

Ongoing conversations

No. 1: Encourage ongoing manager-employee feedback throughout the year

Create a mutual understanding of what type of feedback employees need to be successful and enable them to own and schedule feedback conversations by educating them on the types and frequency of dialogue that can occur.

No. 2: Promote discussions beyond individual contexts

To enact this, promote team goal-setting. Encourage team members to reflect and develop their individual goals for teams to review for alignment, impact, relevance and overlap. Similarly, create a space for employees to provide feedback to managers to reinforce employee agency and power in feedback conversations.

Forward-looking reviews

No. 3: Develop a framework for assessing future performance

Assess employees’ development readiness — their capacity, ability and willingness to take on professional development at a given point in time — not just performance, and align coaching conversations, and support to their true needs. This may require evolving how you evaluate growth and reframing the value of the process, while also navigating ambiguous situations and meeting organizational needs.

No. 4: Encourage managers to communicate actions needed for future success

Help managers provide feedback on what skills their employees need for the future, in addition to reflecting on their past accomplishments. Increasing transparency of skills across a team encourages cohesiveness, coaching and on-the-job development.

Peer feedback

No. 5: Gather feedback from co-workers on how employees help fellow team members

A huge part of performance management is feedback from colleagues. Guide managers on how to identify sources of feedback based on who has knowledge of an employee’s work, rather than limiting feedback to the employee’s formal relationships. Peer assessments are a good way to hold employees accountable for demonstrating critical behaviors and get a more comprehensive understanding of their contributions. Just be sure to develop evaluation guidelines that focus on outcomes.

No. 6: Foster an environment of feedback

Encourage employees to recognize their peers’ contributions to create comfort and confidence regarding feedback exchanges. Create a simple approach to seeking and requesting feedback and frequent prompts to focus managers on recognizing and reinforcing good behaviors throughout the year.

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Retailers and their suppliers are under more pressure than ever before to deliver more goods to more destinations faster.

To stay competitive, “retailers need to know where things are at all times so they can redirect shipments, rebalance inventories and respond to new demands on the fly,” says Rich Becks, general manager, Industry Value Chains, E2open, which delivers cloud-based supply chain collaboration solutions.

And if there is a problem with their supply chain, and they can’t get products to stores and/or consumers, retailers (and their suppliers) risk losing customers.

So what steps can, and should, retailers take to make sure their supply chain operations are running smoothly? Following are four suggestions from retail supply chain experts.

1. Use cloud-based software that can track and manage inventory in real time.

“Retailers struggle to balance uncertain consumer behavior and long, complex supply chains,” explains Kurt Cavano, vice chairman & CSO, GT Nexus, a supply chain technology company.

2. Use source tagging and RFID to keep track of inventory and stock levels.

“To improve supply chain management from the moment product leaves the manufacturer’s warehouse all the way through to the point-of-purchase, retailers should deploy a source tagging solution,” says Steve Sell, director, North America Marketing, Retail Practice, Tyco Integrated Security.

3. Become a part of a B2B e-procurement network.

“B2B [or e-procurement] networks can help companies predict supply chain disruptions and act quickly to adapt business processes,” says Sundar Kamakshisundaram, vice president, Procurement and Business Network Solutions, Ariba, an SAP company.

4. Make sure your marketing and supply chain teams are in sync.

“When executing a promotion, a lot of retailers overlook the alignment of the supply chain and marketing teams, which is crucial [if you want] to successfully launch a promotion,” says Pat Sullivan, senior vice president, Promotions Management, HAVI Global Solutions, a consulting company.

Read more at 4 ways retailers can improve supply chain management

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