Whether you've done your performance reviews already or you're squeezing them in before year's end, odds are they aren't as effective as they could be.
Seventy-four percent of companies reported their performance management systems to be ineffective, according to Willis Towers Watson, and research from Gallup found that 95% of managers are not happy with their organization's
To achieve a more holistic look at an employee's effectiveness and potential — and to make them feel more valued — employers should look beyond their technical performance and embrace soft skills, too.
"Employees have realized that skills like creativity, problem solving, advanced communication are going to future-proof their pathway and their growth within the position they have," says Tim Taylor, president of research organization America Succeeds. The company partners with business leaders to promote workforce readiness, and emphasizes soft "durable" skills as a critical element of job preparation and retention.
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However, "the review process doesn't value that as much because it's very difficult to evaluate those skills," Taylor says. To give employers a simplified view of what these skills are and how they can be interpreted, America Succeeds published a diagram of 10 major durable skills, each with 10 additional associated terms.
The company's analysis of 80 million job postings between 2020-2021 found that 70% of the most commonly-requested skills were durable skills, which Taylor notes transcend educational level and industry sector. A company's continued focus on these skills by embedding them in the review process gives employees a better understanding of what their employer is asking for, leading to
"These are the skills that are going to allow somebody to succeed in their position, and they last a lifetime," he says. "You build on them, you're never done. In the onboarding [process], identifying these skills and then signaling to employees that you want them to upskill through their entire time with the company, [and] this is what they're going to be evaluated on is really important."
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To be most effective, Taylor notes that manager training is a vital part of this process, as it's necessary to be able to say how a skill such as communication can be improved, not just that it is required. The same skills that were requested during the hiring process are the same an employee should expect to be evaluated on moving forward, he says. A manager can ask how a particular skill was used by the employee on the job, allowing them to demonstrate their knowledge of how to put it to use.
"[Say] 'Tell me the last time you collaborated with someone. What did that look like? What did you learn in the process?' [Depending on their answer,] you can say, 'I understand you did a very good job,' or 'you did not do such a good job,'" Taylor says. "Being that specific is almost non-existent in the process currently."
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To help prepare future
"There's real value in these skills, and there's a return on investment for durable skills that companies should pay attention to," he says. "Being really clear about the culture and values that the company has, and how employees will be rewarded as it relates to these durable skills — whether that's being promoted or whatever it may be — is aligned with their performance and matters just as much as other things."
