When most people think of performance management, what comes to mind is the dreaded annual performance review. If that’s what is happening in your business, you’ve got some work cut out for you. Why? The reason is simple: If your company’s approach to performance management is an annual, semi-annual, or even quarterly performance review, then you’re missing out on what continuous feedback can do for productivity. The old-school approach to performance management fails your employees, and your employees in turn will inevitably fail to give you their best potential performance.

In this skeptic’s guide to performance management, we’ll explain the details of what a PMS can and cannot do for your company. Our goal with this guide is to show you how the right PMS improve productivity and the bottom line of your business. Do we think your company should have a PMS? Yes, we do, but only after understanding what it can and can’t do in order to ensure your expectations align to what you’re going to get when you adopt one.