The recently released report, The Current State of Performance Management and Career Development 2010, from Hewitt Associates, provides us with an interesting look at current practices in this business discipline.

Some of the key findings:
  • 73% align employees'performance goals with the company's business strategies.
  • The fact that only 15% of organizations surveyed said their employees' goals are "very aligned" with organizational priorities suggests real room for improvement in clarifying this important connection. 
  • Performance weighting is tipped toward results, particularly for executives. 62% of respondents indicate that executives are either measured solely on results (30%) or more on results than competencies/behaviors (32%).  At the individual contributor level, the most popular approach is 50/50, with 48% indicating they use this relative weighting.
  • Calibration meetings are increasingly common as a way to ensure consistency in ratings.  61% of responding employers conduct some form of calibration meeting - either to simply provide guidance to managers or to literally compare, discuss and reach consensus on employee performance ratings.