Revamping Performance Management System in my organisation

by Tito
(Nigeria)

I am the Team Leader for the performance management system in my organisation. We use the balanced scorecard, which has worked well for us. However, due to some reasons (cost related), we may not be able to promote as many staff as usual and this will be new to people.

How then do we avoid dissatisfaction and demotivation in the workplace when people are not promoted?

What other efforts can we make to motivate those who have done well, are due for promotion and are not promoted?

Thank you.

Shelley Replies

Hi Tito,

This is a challenging situation ... particularly if you have created a culture of expecting to be promoted if you get a good review. I have a client who had a similar culture and it created unending problems for them (which thank fully we come a long way toward fixing now!).

It definitely isn't as simple as do these two things and everything will be terrific. In fact, depending upon how embedded your culture of expecting promotions is, you may need to do some major changes in how you go about work and spend a lot of time talking with your people about moving your culture to a new model.

Having said that, here are a couple of thoughts to get you started.

Your leadership team would do well to use principles (explained in my ebook Creating an Inspiring Workplace) that ensure you are creating a work environment that enables your people to enjoy the work they are doing.

Get that part right and you are a long way toward keeping people engaged and focused.

Often people are looking for promotions because of a desire for more status and money.

In structuring your workplace you need to ensure that people can gain status from their current role - one simple technique is to enable them more authority and decision-making responsibility in their current role.

For some people, being able to go home and let their loved ones know that their job is important and makes a real difference in the business is all the status they need ... not just the job title.


In Creating an Inspiring Workplace, I explain that money isn't generally the most important thing on people's minds ... however, you do need to ensure that they are being compensated at rates that are on par with others in your industry and/or in similar jobs to the one they are performing and within your local area. E.g. an Accountant in New York might get $150,000 per year whereas someone in small town anywhere the rate might be $50,000 per year.

You need to ensure that the money they receive is enough that it doesn't demotivate them ... but understand that money never motivates (except for maybe the first month or so after the pay increase!)

Once you have decided on how you are going to keep people engaged e.g. by creating more autonomy, becoming a more strengths based organization etc, you must be upfront with people and explain that there are only so many promotions that can happen - otherwise you will have lots of bosses and very few people actually doing the work.

And then let them know that you are looking at ways that people can become more satisfied with the work that they are currently doing.

The leaders in your teams should sit down with each person in their team and ask ...

1) What gets you to work and
2) What gets you to work with a spring in your step?

It is their answers to question two that will reveal exactly what you need to do to keep each individual in your organization engaged. See Creating an Inspiring Workplace for more information on how to do this and how to keep your high performers engaged.

Good luck with it all Tito.

Warmest wishes
Shelley.