Remember the movie Face-off? Nicholas Cage and John Travolta switch faces and each other has to understand and learn about their new lives, the people in it and how they will make it out alive. That’s what the HR professionals today are experiencing. One minute the market favored the employer and the next it favored the candidate.

Now HR professionals are trying every next best thing to meet the demands of a workforce that has seemingly changed its needs and desires overnight. Guess what? It’s 2016 and the theme of the year is “out with the old, in with the new.” So many old, or ahem, traditional processes to all things HR are now being questioned or thrown out. And one being seriously put to the test is annual performance reviews, for good reason!

The infamous annual review is now attached to studies of disengaged workers, decreased morale and failure to have any effect on business goals. Performance management is undergoing huge changes and if employers want to grab hold of the reigns before they’re left without a worthy workforce, they’ll pay attention to how performance management is changing and why.

Blended Workforce

This is a working world. The job market is up and we’re at a point where we have four different generations working under the same roof. What this means from a performance management standpoint is that there is a dire need for performance review processes to have some flexibility and versatility in order to satisfy and reach workers with different backgrounds and expectations. Despite all the differences among them, here are some things that ARE consistent:

• There is a trend towards self-improvement. Did you know 1 in 5 Americans own a wearable device? And research suggests that these kind of individuals perform better in their careers. From wellness to attendance, HR pros are trying to find ways to incorporate these devices into the workday.

• The workforce desires regular communication with their superiors and consistent communication leads to higher engagement. According to a recent Gallup study, 54% of surveyed employees with managers who are open and approachable are more engaged. We’ve always talked about feedback loops, but when done correctly, they are incredibly effective. Today’s “always on” feedback mentality has been deemed “real-time feedback.” ™

• Employees demand transparency. In fact, 96% of job seekers say it’s important to work for a company that embraces transparency. And with transparency comes control. Employees want more control over how they receive information and what they can do with it. While it may be scary to implement transparency, it’s not actually difficult.

Just these three trends tell us that the workforce wants to be accountable, in control and employers aren’t really in the position to argue with that if they want to attract and retain high performers.

What’s Changing in Performance Management

As we start to see companies phase out annual-only performance reviews, new and innovative solutions are popping up left and right. But which ones actually work? That depends on the company, but here are some facts that are driving some of today’s biggest innovations and they’re all centered around communication:

• Engagement: According to the 2015 Mobile Trends in the Workplace study, 68% of Millennial and Generation X workers feel the frequency of communication from their employer directly impacts their job satisfaction. Employees who regularly communicate with their managers are 3 times more engaged than those who don’t.

• Support: A recent Trinet survey revealed that 85% of Millennials would feel more confident in their current position if they were able to have more frequent performance conversations with their manager. Additionally, employees who feel their managers are aware of their strengths are more engaged in their work.

• Direction: HBR recently did a study on self-awareness and found a gap between employees’ perceptions of their own self-awareness and the reality of their self-awareness, begging the question, how do we bridge this gap? With continuous feedback, employees are constantly evaluating their strengths and weaknesses with the help of constructive feedback from their managers. This creates a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

What Can You Do Now

Bill Gates innovated performance management when he invented DRIs (Directly Responsible Individual), which does wonders for employee engagement and accountability. And though we can take his lead by using his methodology, we aren’t all geniuses with our own groundbreaking performance management practices. What we do have is a world of technological innovators with the kind of tools that can help us get better at providing the right kind of feedback at the right time to ignite change in employee performance. Continuous feedback solutions, like iRevü, offer easy to use, all-in-one platforms that keep managers accountable, organized and on-the-ball when it comes to performance feedback. And what’s more is that if you do your homework right, it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Don’t wait until the world has turned to start improving how you manage performance. There are too many resources out there yelling at you to get a new process. Listen to them. Looking to overhaul your current performance management process? iRevü is your one-stop-shop to a more enlightened workforce. Sign up today for a free demo!