Whether your company does quarterly, mid-year, or annual performance evaluations, one thing is consistent: it’s hard to remember what you accomplished since your last review.
The SAP® SuccessFactors Continuous Performance Management (CPM) module can help you track accomplishments, improve your performance, and achieve your goals.
I’ve found three tips and tricks for building and maintaining effective habits while using the module.
1. Turn to-dos into successfactors CPM activities
If you want to start using CPM, you really have to start using CPM. The first step that got me committed to the module was transferring my to-do list into the Activities section. I went through my active, upcoming, and paused projects and added each one as an Activity. As I did this, I prioritized them so I knew what to focus on.
Manager Visibility
Your to-do’s will be visible by your manager. This saves time in your touch point meetings and allows you to collaborate and reshuffle tasks when your list gets unreasonably long.
By moving your to-dos to the module, you’ve done the hard work. To reinforce the new habit, I keep a tab open to this page in my browser. Any time I want to check my list, it’s right in front of me, staying top of mind.
2. Turn CPM Activities into Achievements
Once you start using CPM to track your activities and finish projects, you’ll mark activity statuses as “complete.” When you do, CPM will let you create an Achievement from the activity or edit the activity description.
I use this opportunity to rename the activity from a passive to an active statement. For example, my initial activity above was “WRITE EBOOK – overlooked SAP SuccessFactors features”, but while creating an Achievement, I would rename it to “Generated XXX inbound leads through SAP SuccessFactors though leadership eBook on overlooked features”.
Because each activity is directly tied to your goals, your performance evaluation will automatically pull the corresponding activities. Renaming it better demonstrates what you accomplished in relation to a specified goal.
Track Progress
As you have more achievements, you can track your progress towards your goals by reviewing the Achievement by Goal and by Time report.
For example, if too many of your activities are tied to one goal, and too few activities are tied to another goal, that’s a good indication you should ask your manager to assign tasks tied to the goal you are behind in.
I also like to review my goals by month to see how many things I accomplished. Some activities are more time consuming than others, however, so quantity isn’t always an indicator of quality.
3. Solicit Feedback through CPM after Important Activities
When I’m done collaborating with someone on a project, I’ll send a CPM feedback request. I also do this on independent projects that require approval from my manager.
This is one of the most important features of the CPM module because it helps you to succeed.
Worst-case, you’re provided with constructive criticism so you can improve your performance. Best-case, you get kudos for a job well done.
Either way, you’re better off.
Choose What Feedback to Share
Remember how activities are tied to the appropriate goal? Feedback works the same, but you can choose which feedback is visible to your manager. SuccessFactors is really setting you up for success here.
Before you send a feedback request, first check with the person you’d like to get feedback from. Many users don’t capitalize on this feature, so people often overlook the email linking to the feedback form.
In the spirit of collaboration, you can also send a feedback request to your direct reports and teammates – even if they haven’t requested it. This will help their performance evaluation – and it’s always nice to give and receive.
Why Use SAP’s Continuous Performance Management Module to Build These Habits?
Getting into these habits can help you by:
- Keeping track of what you’re working on
- Prioritizing activities by importance and by goal relevance
- Auto filling your performance evaluation with your activities
If you need help building out your SAP SuccessFactors Continuous Performance Management module or need to better align your current performance process to your current solution, contact us.