Lack of Coaching Is Killing the Performance of Performance Management

Effective performance management — true to its name — requires intentional, well-executed management. The driving force? Impactful guidance and development — fueled by managers.

But here’s the problem: Most managers aren’t delivering. Only 1 in 5 provide effective coaching and feedback to the employees working under them, according to recent research from consulting firm WTW — with significant challenges in individual goal-setting and helping keep goals on track and relevant year-round.

The result? Performance management underperforms.

Access a bonus Workspan Daily Plus+ article on this subject:

• How AI Can Help Managers Fix Their Performance Management Issues
• Elevate Leadership: A Checklist for Effective Employee Coaching

Why Managers Struggle — And the Impact on Performance

Successful managers take responsibility for developing a team rather than finger-pointing — but the blame for the coaching gap doesn’t fall solely on managers.

“Performance discussions are difficult, and it’s much easier for managers to avoid the conversation,” said Matt Kamensky, WTW’s senior director of employee experience. “Managers aren’t coaches by trade; most were put into their roles because of their technical skills.”

What’s more, he added, there’s little accountability for managers around providing feedback — and minimal “coaching to coach.”

“The reason most performance management processes fail to drive up performance is because organizations over-engineer the process and under-invest in the manager as a coach,” said Nehal Nangia, the senior research director at The Josh Bersin Company, an HR research and advisory firm.

A Wall Street Journal article, citing Gallup research, reported that fewer than half of managers have actually been trained in how to be a manager. And, organizations often fail to equip employees to receive feedback. As a result, Nangia noted, performance evaluations feel emotionally charged, productivity drops due to a lack of direction and employee morale suffers.

Managers are often left to rely on their own observations for performance reviews rather than having access to multisource insights from organizational data, coworker feedback and assessments from the employee themselves of their own performance or challenges. Lacking those inputs, “managers are coaching with one hand tied behind their back,” said Bobby Melloy, the director of people science, North America, at employee experience platform Culture Amp.

In the absence of a coordinated feedback framework, inconsistencies compound. Some workers regularly receive guidance. Others receive only biased or incomplete feedback. Still others get no coaching at all.

“That can have large consequences by propelling some employees forward but actually holding others back, depending on what manager they get,” Melloy said. “We’re really leaving it up to one manager’s individual skill — rather than doing our due diligence to coach and to have an effective capability framework — so that we have a level playing field for managers to operate with the basic standards that we expect of them.”

The Business Case for Enhanced Manager Coaching

The ties between performance management, pay for performance and employee experience point to a total rewards (TR) opportunity in the manager coaching gap.

“Here’s the crucial connection to total rewards that most organizations miss: The quality of management coaching and feedback is itself a core component of the employee value proposition — not a separate HR function,” said Kathi Enderes, the senior vice president of research and a global industry analyst at The Josh Bersin Company.

According to Enderes:

• Career development and recognition are elements of the full rewards package;
• Effective coaching rounds out other benefits rather than undermining them; and,
• Clear alignment between performance and rewards reinforces equity and fairness.

“Manager coaching capabilities directly support the flexibility and personalization that define modern systemic rewards approaches,” she said. “High-performing organizations consistently revisit and revise their reward strategies to fit the business strategy.”

The core of the TR function is demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of compensation and benefits programs, WTW’s Kamensky said, and this is no different.

“[TR leaders] need to work together with talent leaders to make the business case for why manager effectiveness in coaching and providing feedback is going to create ROI for the business,” he said.

The Rewards of Improved Performance Management

A revamped, meaningful performance management system drives value not only for the business but for employees themselves. Consistent, actionable feedback results in higher performance ratings, Culture Amp found. And, employee experience flourishes in a healthy feedback culture, pointing to a symbiotic relationship between performance and engagement, Melloy said.

A robust system of feedback and coaching supports employees’ career development and helps attract and retain talented performers by demonstrating an environment that allows them to advocate for themselves and grow.

“Imagine a world where recruiters are pitching the promise of their best-in-class performance processes to candidates as a draw to get people in,” Melloy said.

Enderes added that TR professionals should take the lead in this effort by:

• Funding manager coaching;
• Measuring coaching as a TR strategy metric;
• Enabling manager coaching through the design of rewards communications and career development tools; and,
• Explicitly tying employee experience — primarily shaped by their manager — to the organization’s TR philosophy.

“The bottom line: When we under-invest in managers as coaches, we’re not just creating a performance management problem; we’re creating a total rewards crisis,” she said. “Employees may have access to competitive pay, comprehensive benefits and robust development opportunities, but if their manager can’t help them understand, access and leverage these offerings through effective coaching and feedback, the value proposition collapses.”

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Employee Experience
• Employee Recognition
• Organizational Performance