The Evolution of Performance Management at LBG

On the 6th December 2018, Lloyds Banking Group announced significant changes to its performance management system following a joint review with Accord and Unite.

As part of the 2018 Pay agreement, LBG committed to undertake a review of the performance management system with both unions — and the results have been a year in the making. Accord has been heavily involved in pressing for change and developing a new approach that addresses the consistent feedback our members have given us over a number of years.

In a message to members, Accord’s general secretary, Ged Nichols, said:

“The changes are exciting but there’s plenty more work to be done.”

So what do the changes mean?
The new approach will be rolled out early in 2019 and is welcome news for many of our members. It introduces a simple, straightforward and collaborative approach to performance management, marking a departure from the masses of paperwork that went along with the old system. The bank is calling the new approach ‘Your Best’.

From 2019 onwards, there will be no performance ratings, no mid or end-of-year reviews, and no calibration or distribution curves. Instead there will be regular informal check-ins with line managers. These should be open and honest conversations to ensure colleagues get the right learning and development opportunities and so that timely and effective support is available should a colleague need it.

For the 2018 end of year review process, nothing changes, but right now full training and support for line managers is being rolled out to ensure colleagues get all the support they need as the new process evolves.

Almost all colleagues within LBG will be moving to the new approach early in 2019, although there may be some variations for colleagues with specialist regulatory requirements. Colleagues outside of the UK will join the new scheme later in 2019.

A new, fairer system for all
You might be wondering why I’m talking about performance management systems on our equality blog. It’s a good question to ask and one that requires a deeper analysis of some of the feedback we’ve received as well as our own experiences of the previous system.

Over the years we’ve encouraged the business to look at, and inform, decision makers of their unconscious biases (Accord and Unite were heavily involved in pushing for the bank to adopt training). As a society, when we think about bias in the context of a discussion on equality, we tend to focus on the visible or more obvious aspects such as race or gender. Less obvious are those unseen or hidden disabilities.

Let’s, for a moment, consider the dreaded calibration process. The bank’s own guidance says that mitigating factors like disability should be taken into consideration, but the number of performance related grievances the union has supported in 2018 alone where disability has been a factor for consideration shows that members don’t believe there’s been sufficient consideration or adjustment to expectations.

Part of the reason for this distrust in the process is that it was conducted behind closed doors, with other managers that had little or no interaction with the colleagues on a day to day basis. It created an environment where unconscious biases could perpetuate. How many times have we heard comments like, ‘you need to raise your visibility’, ‘you don’t volunteer to do anything extra or work overtime’?

Whilst this type of feedback could have been levelled about any colleague, we’ve often seen part-time or disabled colleagues given feedback like this, often lacking understanding of a colleague’s circumstances. Part-time colleagues are statistically more likely to be women, or have a disability that requires reduced hours working.

Does the new system fix this problem?
The removal of calibration, and the focus on regular check-ins by the colleague’s line manager should help to make the system fairer. Performance conversations are changing too, based on five key questions which should encourage a positive conversation, focusing on collaborative efforts rather than pitting colleague against colleague.

The area that will concern some is the greater discretion for line managers to reward performance. While we won’t see any impacts in 2019, it’s an area that will need a greater degree of scrutiny to ensure that biases (conscious or unconscious) don’t creep into the decision making process.

Any feedback or thoughts on the performance management system changes can be emailed to us at equality@accordhq.org