AI Transforming the Annual Performance Review

Performance management is becoming digital — and it maybe alternating the role of the manager.
As more companies invest in artificial intelligence, the technology is assumed to play a more significant part in helping employers evaluate their workers, as per a report from Mercer. With the aid of technology, the consulting firm foretells that the manager role will move from gauging past performance to more of a mentor, that guides workers future progress.
“We understand that AI, by scraping communication programs such as messages, emails, and calendars, will help recognize those colleagues and customers that are most associated to an employee,” states Lori Holsinger, global performance administration study leader at Mercer. “Based on these touchpoints, it will support those most connected to present coaching to the employee – face-to-face, video chat, or online — based on the employee’s choice. We believe that this program will increase feedback that will assist employees and coaching in person.”
HR technology is now starting to play a part in performance management and coaching. For instance, tools, including Bravely and BetterUp, are mobile apps that enable managers to give personalized coaching to workers. The fast-casual restaurant Dig Inn and M&M’s manufacturer Mars both give coaching tech to employees. Mars chose the digital tool BetterUp because it needed something that would be ready to reach its global workforce.
“We understand one should have the Mars experience,” Summer Davies, global senior manager of leadership at Mars told Employee Benefit News in May. “[That] suggests if you work at Mars in Topeka, y’ all should have the same entrance to growth development and maintenance as if you operate in Cape Town, South Africa or Guangzhou, China.”
But the amount of employers implementing new technology continues small, and some are fighting to obtain the return on investment. Even though there remained a 19 percent increase in the practice of performance management merchant technology in the least six years — and 25 percent of employers combined that tech into other people management platforms — the effectiveness of talent analytics has not improved. Less than 15 percent of employers have actually embraced new tools, Mercer obtained.
If companies do decide to use technology to increase their review process, Holsinger states it should be used as a complement to in-person coaching. Tech can present valuable information on developing an employee’s occupation, exploring career pathways, and understanding what a day-in-the-life can be for essential jobs, she adds.
“This technology requires to be supplemented with personalized career mentorship by someone who invests in the employee’s occupation and helps them attain their short- and long-term career goals,” she states. “This will be the new position of the traditional manager.”