Are Your People Review KPIs Focusing on the Wrong Metrics?

Every year, companies spend hours evaluating their employees. One people review meeting follows another, armed with performance tables and carefully prepared KPI reports. These often lively discussions seek to identify talent, plan promotions and prepare for the future. And yet, despite all this hard work, one question remains unanswered: are we really measuring what really matters?

The usual KPIs - individual performance, potential, engagement - capture important dimensions, but they miss something fundamental. In an organization, individual success is never built in a vacuum. It relies on a web of relationships. Strong connections between colleagues foster collaboration, inspire creativity and enable us to overcome challenges together.

However, too few companies include the strength of interpersonal relationships in their assessments. Not out of carelessness, but because it's a difficult dimension to measure. Relationships are complex, intangible, and often invisible in traditional evaluation grids.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, let's explore the KPIs that make up a successful people review, while proposing a new indicator. A KPI designed to capture the power of interpersonal relationships, to reveal the connectors and catalysts within your teams. Because numbers only tell part of the story, and it's time to complete the picture.

Classic KPIs for a good people review

People reviews are often based on a set of well-established KPIs. These indicators, although usefully standardized, focus mainly on visible and directly measurable dimensions. They provide an overview of performance and potential, admittedly at the cost of a certain organizational myopia, but they already constitute a good basis on which to build. Here are the main ones:

1. Individual performance

This is the classic. This KPI measures the extent to which an employee achieves his or her objectives, whether quantitative (sales achieved, deadlines met) or qualitative (quality of work, creativity). Clear and directly measurable, this indicator nevertheless remains limited: it captures what the person does, but not how they influence their environment.

2. Development potential

The aim here is to identify those who are ready for greater responsibility. This KPI is often based on 360° feedback, soft skills assessments (leadership, ability to solve complex problems) and personality tests. It is a predictive indicator, but can be biased by subjective perceptions or unconscious prejudices.

3. Commitment and retention

An engaged person is motivated, proactive and aligned with the company's objectives. This KPI can be measured via internal surveys (such as the employee Net Promoter Score) or indirect signals such as the turnover rate. However, an employee can be individually committed while contributing little to the collective.

4. Team contribution

This KPI measures the extent to which an individual helps his or her team to achieve its objectives. This includes the quality of collaborative work, the ability to adapt to the needs of others, and the contribution to collective successes. It is often assessed through cross-feedback with managers.

5. Diversity and inclusion

In a world where diversity has become a strategic priority for many companies, this KPI assesses whether promotions and decisions taken respect commitments to equality and inclusion. It is crucial to building a fair and dynamic culture, but sometimes remains confined to statistical analysis without going beyond the surface.

These KPIs each play an important role. They provide a basis for assessing performance and preparing for the future. But taken in isolation, they only capture part of the picture. They speak of individuals, not relationships. Yet it's these relationships that often make the difference between an average organization and an exceptional one.

In the next part, we'll explore an aspect that these traditional KPIs ignore: the strength of interpersonal relationships. And we'll see how you can integrate this key element into your people reviews, thanks to an indicator designed to measure it.

Measuring the strength of interpersonal relationships: KPIs to reveal connections

While traditional KPIs are indispensable, they overlook an equally critical dimension: the quality of the relationships an employee maintains with his or her peers. Organizations are not machines; they are ecosystems in which human connections play a decisive role. Measuring these relationships gives us a new perspective on what really makes a company tick.

At Serendly, we have standardized a series of KPIs designed to capture this relational strength. These indicators make it possible to assess not only who collaborates with whom, but also how these links are built, evolve and last. Here are the three key dimensions to integrate:

1. The share of people the employee has established relationships with

This KPI measures the extent of an employee's relational network within the organization. It answers the question: how many colleagues has an employee connected with through meaningful interactions?

• Why it's important:** A broad network promotes the flow of information, inter-departmental collaboration and innovation. Broadly networked employees often act as bridges between teams or departments, breaking down organizational silos.
• How to measure:** By analyzing data from collaboration tools, and using the statistics provided by your employee networking tools.

2. Relationship density

Forging links is one thing, maintaining them is quite another. This KPI evaluates the frequency and intensity of exchanges an employee has with the members of his network.

• Why it's important:** Strong relationships help solve problems faster, build mutual trust and strengthen team cohesion.
• How to measure:** By tracking the regularity of exchanges in a variety of contexts (collaborative projects, informal discussions, knowledge sharing).

3. The durability of links (the ability to maintain relationships over time)

A network is only valuable if it lasts. This KPI measures the stability of relationships over time, highlighting an employee's ability to maintain ties even after the end of a project or a change of team.

• Why it's important:** Lasting relationships reflect mutual trust and respect, two essential pillars for high-performance, resilient teams. Corporate social connectors often have this rare ability to maintain ties, no matter what the circumstances.
• How to measure:** By observing the evolution of interactions over time, and identifying the relationships that remain active over the years.

These three KPIs form a comprehensive framework for assessing an employee's collaborative connectedness. These are not abstract notions: they are based on concrete data, derived from actual interactions within the company.

Serendly makes it possible both to generate the intercations that will create, reinforce and maintain these links, and also to measure the strength of these links, so as to integrate them into a 360° vision of an employee's impact on the organization. The value of these KPIs goes far beyond the numbers: they highlight a fundamental truth about the world of work. What makes a company successful is not just its people, but the quality of the links they forge with each other.

Interpersonal relations redefine performance, some examples from trendsetting organizations

Some pioneering organizations have understood that performance is about more than individual results. They have integrated the measurement of interpersonal relationships into their appraisals, transforming their approach to talent management. Here are a few inspiring examples:

1. Google: Fostering bridges between teams

At Google, interpersonal relations are seen as a strategic lever. The company uses 360° surveys and organizational network analysis (ONA, for Organizational Network Analysis) to understand who collaborates with whom and how information flows. This data is used to identify “key connectors”: individuals who promote collaboration between departments and speed up decision-making. The result? Greater fluidity in cross-functional projects, and greater recognition for employees who help to break down silos.

2. Salesforce: a culture of mutual support

At Salesforce, mutual support and mentoring are cultural pillars. The company measures not only individual performance, but also employees' contribution to collective success. Those who stand out for their ability to support colleagues, share knowledge or resolve conflicts receive special recognition during people reviews. This approach strengthens cohesion and fosters an environment where strong relationships are a priority.

3. Unilever: Champions of sustainable collaboration

Unilever tracks the sustainability of relationships by monitoring collaborative projects. By analyzing data over several years, the company identifies employees who are able to maintain ties, even after role or team changes. These employees are often promoted to strategic positions where the ability to build consensus is essential. This approach enables Unilever to capitalize on the talent that connects and aligns the whole organization.

Measuring interpersonal relationships is not just a trend: it's a logical evolution in the way employees are assessed and valued. Companies that adopt this approach gain in agility, resilience and collective commitment.

By integrating these practices into your people reviews, you're not just looking to optimize individual performance. You're building an organization where the strength of relationships becomes a competitive advantage.

Conclusion: The strength of relationships, a strategic lever for your organization

People reviews are much more than a simple evaluation exercise. They determine how an organization identifies, develops and values its talents. Yet to limit ourselves to traditional KPIs - individual performance, potential, commitment - is to ignore an essential strategic lever: the quality of interpersonal relationships.

These relationships are the connective tissue of a company. They influence collaboration, accelerate problem-solving and foster innovation. Organizations that integrate KPIs such as the proportion of people connected, and the strength and durability of links, are not just measuring interactions: they are valuing connectors, those individuals capable of transforming a fragmented organization into a truly collaborative ecosystem.

At Serendly, we've designed a tool specifically for this purpose. By facilitating the creation, strengthening and maintenance of links, Serendly doesn't just measure these interpersonal relationships: it nurtures them. With features that encourage cross-functional interactions, foster unexpected encounters and strengthen lasting relationships, Serendly helps your employees become essential connectors.

Adopting this approach means broadening the scope of your people reviews to better reflect the human reality of your teams. It's not just a new way of evaluating: it's a fairer, more complete and more forward-looking way.

How about rethinking your KPIs to build an organization where the strength of relationships becomes the foundation of collective performance?