Making performance, pay and development conversations easier

Mid-year is often a key time for performance and remuneration reviews but it’s also an opportunity to have proactive professional development conversations with your team.

There’s often a tipping point for businesses where informal processes just don’t cut it anymore. Conversations about performance, pay or progression can lack clarity or become inconsistent.

When there’s no structure, we often see:

• Generic performance reviews with cookie-cutter questions that don’t lead to real change or development.
• Progression or pay conversations stuck in a “Let’s revisit it in 6 months” loop, frustrating for both sides when expectations aren't clear.  
• No growth pathways (and just a reminder , growth and progression doesn’t just mean promotion).
• Retention challenges when high performers leave for development or pay (and managers are left realising too late that a conversation 6 months ago might have led to a different outcome).

So, what does getting it right actually look like?

In our experience, a structured approach to performance and development can work as a proactive (and practical) guide. It helps:

• Clearly define what effective performance looks like and how individuals can grow/progress.
• Guiding meaningful conversations and remaining consistent when communicating expectations and feedback.
• Retain your team by recognising high performers and creating opportunities for development.
• Promote pay transparency and reduce the risk of pay disputes by having clear, consistent reasoning and measurable criteria to support pay decisions.

How it works in action

We worked with our client, a childhood education provider to put this into action. We started by clarifying:

• What competencies  (skills, knowledge, and abilities) and behaviours are needed for each role?
• What development opportunities and pathways are available in the business?

We laid the foundations by creating clear and practical Position Descriptions (PDs) and mapping their organisational structure for future growth. From there, we focused on team performance and development.

We developed:

• Competency Matrix, listing essential and desirable skills and capabilities for each role, with a guide on how to measure performance in each competency area.  
• Performance & Development Review Processes, aligning with the matrix, using open-ended questions and a 1-5 rating scale for both self-assessment and manager feedback.
• Remuneration Review Framework, including a practical guide to help managers explain how and why remuneration was tied to the Competency Matrix
• Performance Review Conversation Guides, designed to measure specific skills, with questions and examples linked to relevant scenarios from their workplace and role.

For this team we covered each role at different levels in their business including Educators (Cert III), Educators (Diploma), Room Leaders, Educational Leader, Assistant Centre Director, Centre Director.

Each role had competencies linked to the following:

• Curriculum knowledge
• Classroom skills (child engagement)  
• Communication and relationships with parents and carers
• Team cohesion and professional development
• Administration, organisation and professional attributes.

At each level, we then identified what someone would need to demonstrate or achieve for them to be ready for progression.

And while all components were important, with role progression came a bigger focus on capabilities like internal communication, organisation, planning, and having confidence to manage potentially difficult   conversations with stakeholders.

The results?

Managers had the tools and language to give specific, future-focused feedback. And team members knew exactly what skills they needed to build on between performance and development check-ins.

Conversations started to sound more like:

"Over the next 6 months, we’d like to support you in building more confidence leading activities for the children. How would you support different children to engage in X activity if you were leading the group?"

Or:

"It's great to hear you're interested in progressing. To support that, let's focus on strengthening your curriculum planning. We can arrange for you to shadow the team and observe how they approach session planning.”

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Want to take the guesswork out of setting performance expectations with your team?

We can help you build the right structure, whether it’s role clarity, competency frameworks, or reviewing your performance and pay processes.

Reach out to our team or book a call to chat about what might work for your business.