What your people are measured on

Usually what is easy to count in each team, rather than what the organisation needs from them.

Objectives are usually set team by team, around what each team can easily count: campaigns launched, courses run, requests closed. What the organisation needs from them — customers whose experience improves, standards that hold, relationships that last — sits outside anyone's objectives, so nobody is reviewed on it. And reviews vary with whoever is doing them.

Reviews that measure the right things help employees understand expectations and develop in their roles.

For every role, the same system works as a standard review against objectives.

How it works, and what you get

Objectives drawn from your strategy, feedback from the people who see the work, and one review process for everyone.

Our organisational psychologists and change management consultants design the system with you: which objectives each role carries, which competencies sit behind them, and who gives feedback on whom. It runs online in your branding, and reports show managers and HR where reviews are progressing and where they have stalled.

For every role, that means objectives that come straight from the organisation's priorities, and feedback from the people who see the work — including clients, wherever a role serves them.

The same process everywhere

Everyone reviewed the same way, against objectives that connect to the strategy.

The system is built to collect information, measure performance, set expectations and assign goals in the same consistent way across the whole business. One role is reviewed on the same logic as another, and the same role in one team the same way as in another, against objectives that add up to the same plan.

When reviews depend on whoever does them, people can easily conclude the process is arbitrary. When they follow the same logic everywhere, the review becomes something people can work towards.

What happens after the review

Each person's development needs go into a plan, and patterns across the team shape what training comes next.

Reviews identify training needs as well as results. Individual needs go into a development plan — which is where our coaching can pick up — and patterns across a team show where training or support should go next.

Our consultants help make the system part of how your business runs, rather than a form filled in once a year. Separately from the formal review, a development-only 360 gives people candid feedback that isn't tied to their rating.

The evidence behind it

Decades of research on managing by objectives, and on what makes it work.

A review of 70 studies of management by objectives — setting objectives from the organisation's goals, and reviewing people against them — found productivity gains in 68 of them. The gains were largest where senior leaders were visibly committed to the system and used it themselves. (Rodgers and Hunter, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1991.)

That second finding is why we design the system with your leadership team, and help put it in place across the business, rather than handing over a template. Our performance review systems are designed by organisational psychologists. Psych Press has developed and published psychometric instruments since 1995, in-house and in partnership with universities and international test publishers.

Who it suits, and who it doesn't

Organisations that want reviews that measure what the business needs, the same way for everyone.

Frequently asked questions

What your people are measured on

Usually what is easy to count in each team, rather than what the network needs from them.

At a franchisor, almost everyone at head office exists to serve the network — operations, training, marketing, franchisee support. Yet objectives are usually set team by team, around what each team can easily count: campaigns launched, courses run, requests closed. What the network needs from them — franchisees whose businesses improve, standards that hold, relationships that last to renewal — sits outside anyone's objectives, so nobody is reviewed on it. And reviews vary with whoever is doing them.

Field consultants are the sharpest case. They are often reviewed on visits made and audits completed, because those are easy to count, while the results of those visits go unmeasured. Reviews that measure the right things are how you grow the people who lead your network, and they keep head office focused on what franchisees need from it.

For roles with no link to franchisees, the same system works as a standard review against objectives.

How it works, and what you get

Objectives drawn from your strategy, feedback from the people who see the work, and one review process for everyone.

Our organisational psychologists and change management consultants design the system with you: which objectives each role carries, which competencies sit behind them, and who gives feedback on whom. It runs online in your branding, and reports show managers and HR where reviews are progressing and where they have stalled.

For every role, that means objectives that come straight from the network's priorities, and feedback from the people who see the work — including franchisees, wherever a role serves them. A marketing manager can be reviewed partly on whether franchisees found the campaigns useful; a trainer on whether new franchisees were ready to open; a field consultant on whether the franchisees they support improved, not just on how many visits they made.

The same process everywhere

Everyone reviewed the same way, against objectives that connect to the strategy.

The system is built to collect information, measure performance, set expectations and assign goals in the same consistent way across the whole business. A trainer is reviewed on the same logic as a field consultant, and a field consultant in one region the same way as one in another, against objectives that add up to the same network plan.

That consistency matters more in a franchise than in most businesses. Your people are split between head office and the field, and many spend more time with franchisees than with colleagues, so they rarely see whether they are being reviewed the same way as everyone else. When reviews depend on whoever does them, people can easily conclude the process is arbitrary. When they follow the same logic everywhere, the review becomes something people can work towards.

What happens after the review

Each person's development needs go into a plan, and patterns across the team shape what training comes next.

Reviews identify training needs as well as results. Individual needs go into a development plan — which is where our coaching can pick up — and patterns across a team show where training or support should go next.

Our consultants help make the system part of how your business runs, rather than a form filled in once a year. Separately from the formal review, a development-only 360 gives people candid feedback that isn't tied to their rating.

The evidence behind it

Decades of research on managing by objectives, and on what makes it work.

A review of 70 studies of management by objectives — setting objectives from the organisation's goals, and reviewing people against them — found productivity gains in 68 of them. The gains were largest where senior leaders were visibly committed to the system and used it themselves. (Rodgers and Hunter, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1991.)

That second finding is why we design the system with your leadership team, and help put it in place across the business, rather than handing over a template. Our performance review systems are designed by organisational psychologists. Psych Press has developed and published psychometric instruments since 1995, in-house and in partnership with universities and international test publishers.

Who it suits, and who it doesn't

Franchisors who want reviews that measure what the network needs, the same way for everyone.

Frequently asked questions