In the wake of ongoing economic challenges in 2025, businesses in the UK face increased pressure to maintain productivity while ensuring a positive, compliant, and fair working environment. One key area that directly impacts business success is effective and successful performance management. By adhering to the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinaries and grievances and following best practice principles, employers can manage their workforce effectively, build trust, and optimise performance.

Top ten tips for successful performance management

Here are ten practical tips to help you manage employee performance successfully while staying compliant with legal requirements and supporting your team’s wellbeing:

Set clear expectations from the start

Effective performance management begins with clear expectations. Ensure that every employee understands their role, the specific objectives they need to achieve, and how their performance will be measured. Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for clarity and direction. This foundation helps prevent misunderstandings and provides a clear benchmark for performance evaluations.

Regularly review performance

It’s important to conduct regular performance reviews – not just annually. Have regular one-to-one meetings to provide feedback, address any concerns, and offer opportunities for professional development. This allows you to identify areas for improvement early on and also provides an opportunity to celebrate successes.

Document performance discussions

It is vital to document all formal and informal performance discussions. Keeping accurate records of feedback, goals, and any disciplinary actions ensures that decisions are justified and transparent. Documentation also protects both the employee and employer should any disputes arise in the future.

Be fair and consistent

When managing performance, be sure to apply standards and processes consistently across all employees. Ensure that any performance-related actions—whether positive or corrective—are fair, objective, and based on clear evidence. Avoid biases, and make sure your approach to performance management doesn’t unfairly disadvantage any employee.

Provide constructive feedback

Feedback should be constructive, not punitive. When addressing areas for improvement, provide actionable advice and offer support to help employees meet performance expectations. Use the “SBI” method (Situation-Behaviour-Impact) for delivering feedback: describe the situation, the specific behaviour, and its impact. Constructive feedback should be a tool for growth, not a source of frustration.

Create an open dialogue

Open communication is essential for successful performance management. Encourage employees to share concerns, ideas, and feedback about their role, workload, or any obstacles they may face. This two-way dialogue can help you better understand challenges and work together to find solutions. Being accessible and approachable builds trust, which is essential in addressing issues early on.

Offer training and development opportunities

Invest in the development of your employees by offering training, mentoring, or coaching opportunities. Not only does this improve their skills, but it also signals that you are invested in their growth. By giving employees the resources they need to succeed, you can improve overall performance and job satisfaction, which leads to better outcomes for both the individual and the business.

Support wellbeing and work-life balance

A stressed or overworked employee is unlikely to perform at their best. Prioritise employee wellbeing by promoting a healthy work-life balance, offering flexible working options, and ensuring that mental health resources are available. Supporting wellbeing isn’t just about preventing burnout; it can also lead to higher engagement and better overall performance.

Implement and follow a clear disciplinary procedure

The ACAS Code of Practice outlines the need for a fair and transparent disciplinary procedure when performance issues are not resolved through informal discussions. Ensure that your disciplinary process is clearly documented, accessible to all employees, and consistently followed. Employees should be given an opportunity to respond to any concerns before any formal action is taken.

Recognise and reward good performance

It’s important to recognise and reward employees who consistently meet or exceed expectations. Acknowledging achievements, whether through formal rewards, public recognition, or career development opportunities, helps to motivate employees and reinforce positive performance. Acknowledgement encourages a culture of excellence, showing employees that their contributions are valued.

Why this matters

In 2025, businesses must adapt quickly to a volatile economic environment. By following these ten practical tips for managing employee performance, employers can enhance productivity, reduce the risk of legal disputes, and build a more engaged workforce. Clear expectations, regular feedback, fairness, and a focus on employee wellbeing are essential components of effective performance management.

In a challenging economic climate, businesses that prioritise performance management will not only improve operational efficiency but also cultivate loyalty and engagement. A workforce that feels supported, valued, and fairly treated is more likely to go the extra mile, leading to sustained success and competitive advantage in 2025 and beyond.

If you need any support or advice regarding successful performance management, get in touch.

In the workplace, managers and colleagues give feedback to others as part of their normal management and team practices.  Feedback should be constructive, and it’s a valuable process, aimed at improving skills, communication, relationships and success (individual and organisational).

In a study by Christine Porath[1], she found that higher levels of feedback were associated with 89% greater thriving at work, 63% more engagement and 79% higher job satisfaction.  She also found that giving honest, careful feedback and creating a ‘feedback loop’, (where team members provided feedback to each other), created stronger connections, and better relationships at work.  Adding recognition and / or reward in to the mix lead to employees becoming happier and more engaged.

The good and the bad

Provided the feedback is truly constructive, there’s no such thing as ‘bad’ feedback as all feedback of this nature will be valuable.

But if that feedback is not constructive, or not delivered in an appropriate way, I think we can probably call it ‘bad’ feedback, as it will often have the opposite effect of what is desired. i.e., it resulted in a disengaged, demotivated employee, and ultimately damage their success and potentially that of the team.

How to give good feedback

For many years there was a well-known saying linked to giving feedback which was referred to as the ‘**** sandwich’ i.e., say something nice, say something negative and then distract the person with something positive again. It seems this doesn’t work because the ‘negative’ points get lost, with people, understandably, clinging to the positive messages.

Here are our top tips for preparing and providing good quality feedback.

Preparation:

• Be clear what you’re providing feedback about and consider what you want the outcome to be
• Allocate enough time to the feedback session and make sure it’s in a confidential setting without interruptions
• Be factual, specific, kind and objective – describe behaviour / actions / outcomes, not personality, attitude or character
• Provide the context and describe what you noticed.  E.g., “I noticed that your reports have been submitted 2-3 days late on a couple of occasions lately”
• Outline the impact and why it’s a problem
• Write down the key points you want to get across.

The meeting:

• Present your prepared observations
• Be mindful of your body language and tone.  Keep it calm and respectful
• Ask for their perspective of your observations
• Encourage them to explore alternatives – ways to improve next time
• Present feedback as a positive opportunity, not a threat, and include a balance of feedback (i.e., if some things went well, say so)
• Listen actively, show empathy and demonstrate you’re listening – paraphrase and reflect what you’ve heard
• Acknowledge their feelings
• Reaffirm that your intention is to offer feedback to help them improve their performance, and help them progress, develop, grow in their role and the organisation.

Feedback should be given as close to an issue arising to ensure it’s relevant, and to demonstrate that it’s important.  Don’t wait for your next scheduled monthly or quarterly 1-1 to share the feedback.

If you need to give difficult feedback to an employee and you’re not sure how, get in touch.

[1] Mastering Community: The Surprising Ways Coming Together Moves us from Surviving to Thriving by Christine Porath 2022

Rudeness at work seems to be on the rise. In a survey by Professors Porath and Pearson, 40% of respondents said they had ‘no time to be nice’ and 25% said they were rude because their bosses behaved that way. We live in a busy world and people have many demands on their time. That’s not news, but in the words of Harry Hart (quoting William Horman) in Kingsman: The Secret Service, “manners maketh man”. Something has obviously gone wrong. Is politeness a thing of the past?

What’s the impact of rudeness?

There’s a great opportunity for business leaders and senior managers to have a positive impact on this issue, and ensure everyone in their business is treated respectfully as a result. 48% of employees on the receiving end of rudeness intentionally decreased their work effort and 47% intentionally decreased the quality of their work. Rudeness at work causes commitment to decline, turnover to increase, productivity to plummet and recruitment costs to increase. By creating a polite and respectful workplace, commitment and productivity will increase and your turnover and recruitment costs will decrease, because you’ll be able to attract and retain the best talent.

What can you do?

Small changes can make a big difference, so here are our top tips for creating a respectful workplace.

• Be friendly, greet people warmly, say ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome’.
• Give 100% of your attention in meetings. Put your phone down and engage in the matter at hand. The meeting will probably be shorter and more focussed as a result.
• Listen to your team members’ thoughts and ideas – they may be on to something.
• Make it clear that rudeness won’t be tolerated and there are no excuses for it. If you make politeness part of day to day interactions, it will be contagious, so the impact could be huge.
• If you see rudeness, address it directly, and encourage employees to report any incidents to their line manager.
• Establish a staff forum where employees can share concerns with a nominated senior team member and discuss how the concerns could be addressed.
• Hire and retain employees who exhibit the ‘right’ behaviours.
• Lead by example, regardless of who you’re talking to and your own stress levels.
• Carry out exit interviews to find out what employees really think.
• Train and coach line managers in respectful people management practices.

If you’re concerned about behaviours in your company and want to discuss ideas on how to address it, get in touch.

Anyone who has ever line managed will undoubtedly have had that sinking feeling at some point, knowing that they need to address some kind of problem with the performance or conduct of one of their team. All line managers should feel reassured that they are not alone in feeling this way.

The good times

When everything is going well, and your team are performing and behaving as you want them to, being a people manager is fantastic. You see great results through your people, and that reflects positively on you. Your bosses think you’re doing a great job and all is right with the world.

The harder times

Unfortunately this perfect world is very unusual, certainly in the long term, and there will be times when you have to address a problem directly with one of your team members. Whether it’s an issue with their performance or their behaviour, no-one looks forward to having a conversation about these issues and addressing it head-on. But it really is the best way to make a change for the better.

Top tips

Here are some top tips for preparing for, and having those dreaded conversations:

• Don’t wait.  If something has gone wrong, address it privately at the first opportunity you have. Don’t wait for the next 1-1 in a month’s time and don’t address it publicly in the open office.
• Prepare.  Make notes and identify the problem. Be specific and note exactly what went wrong and what you expected. Be prepared to share this information with the individual.
• Have a conversation.  Everyone has a different perspective on any situation, so allow the individual the opportunity to give their view of the situation.
• Keep it objective.  Keep it factual, balanced, constructive and objective and try to make sure that it doesn’t get personal, or heated.
• Check for understanding.  Seek confirmation that they understand why it was a problem, by asking questions such as ‘Can you understand why this wasn’t appropriate?’ and ‘What do you think you could have done differently?’ Probe them if you feel they don’t fully accept that there was an issue, or take responsibility.
• Follow-up.  Tell the individual that you will forward them a summary of what you’ve discussed, so that they can have a record of your expectations. It’s not a formal warning, just provided to support their learning and development.

The benefits

As managers and business leaders, if you address problems in your teams directly, you can ensure that all your team are contributing to the success of your business. One underperforming team member can do damage to your business success and potentially your brand. By ‘nipping it in the bud’ in a constructive way, you will avoid situations developing and taking a downward spiral. The longer performance or conduct issues go unchecked, the harder it is to address successfully. There’s also more chance of the wider team becoming unhappy.

If you or your management team need support in addressing difficult situations, HelpfulHR can definitely help – whatever the issue. Get in touch, and let’s get them back on track.