A study has found that establishing effective performance management remains a challenge for many businesses.

The Mercer’s 2013 Global Performance Management Survey questioned business leaders at 1,050 organisations in 53 countries.

It found more than a quarter of organisations in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region have substantially changed their performance management process within the last year.

In fact 58% of managers were deemed marginally skilled in providing career development coaching and direction and just 7% of managers were felt to be highly skilled at having candid dialogued with their direct reports about performance.

Roughly one in three organisations worldwide said improving managers’ ability to have candid dialogue with employees has the greatest impact on overall company performance.

The research also found that no region or country can claim to leading the world when it comes to performance management best practice. Generally, organisations in Asia Pacific are more likely to have tools, guidelines, and metrics in place compared to those in Europe that typically place more emphasis on career development in their pay-for-performance policies.

Sue Filmer, principal at Mercer, is reported as saying that having a robust process is important, it is critical to have managers who are skilled at effective performance conversations for setting performance expectations and providing feedback on achievements and outcomes.

Overall, there is a lot of scope for improving performance management within European organisations.