Why employers shouldn’t treat performance management like a fad diet

Dieting is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions performance management, but a group of academics insist the struggle to lose weight and keep it off is a good metaphor for the problems of implementing effective employee performance management.

Viewing performance management as a once-a-year tick and flick compliance exercise on top of one’s regular workload is akin to approaching weight loss with a fad diet instead of changing habitual practices, argue Deborah Blackman, Fiona Buick and Michael O’Donnell of UNSW Canberra in a paper for the Australian Journal of Public Administration.