EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL LEADS TO EXCELLENT PRODUCTIVITY IN WORKPLACE!!!!

Performance is completion of a task with application of knowledge, skills and abilities. In work place, performance or job performance means good ranking with the hypothesized conception of requirements of a task role, whereas citizenship performance means a set of individual activity/contribution (pro social organizational behavior) that supports the organizational culture. In the performing arts, a performance generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers present one or more works of art to an audience. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. A performance may also describe the way in which an actor performs. In a solo capacity, it may also refer to a mime artist, comedian, conjurer, or other entertainer.

Williams and Krane found the following characteristics define an ideal performance state:

• Absence of fear
• Not thinking about the performance
• Adaptive focus on the activity
• A sense of effortlessness and belief in confidence or self-efficacy
• A sense of personal control
• A distortion of time and space where time does not affect the activity

Other related factors are motivation to achieve success or avoid failure, task relevant attention, positive self-talk and cognitive regulation to achieve automaticity.

Performance management is a shared understanding about how individuals contribute to an organization's goals. An effective performance management and appraisals process focuses on aligning your workforce, building competencies, improving employee performance and development, and driving better business results.

Strategy

Performance management isn’t just about rating employee performance in an annual performance appraisal. Best-practice performance management processes will help align your workforce, improve employee performance, support development and increase your business returns.

How to ensure consistency in employee performance appraisals

Evaluating employee performance is often a very subjective process, with every manager having their own standards and ways of rating and ranking performance. However, since so many other business and HR processes use performance evaluation data as input, it's important to ensure employee performance ratings are consistent and fair. So how do you ensure your employees are getting fair, consistent performance appraisals?

Choose the right way to evaluate competencies

The way you evaluate competencies can have a big impact on the consistency of employee performance appraisals.

Your first decision is whether to have a standard set of competencies that you evaluate all employees against, a different set of competencies for every job or employee, or a combination of standard and job/department specific competencies. Having a standard set of core competencies to evaluate all employees against is one of the key ways you can introduce consistency in your employee reviews, as well as encourage corporate culture and values, which ultimately strengthen your organization.

Your second decision is how to evaluate employees' performance of the competencies you've chosen. You can use: no rating, a short rating, a long rating or a matrix rating.

• With no rating, evaluators simply provide comments about the employee's performance of a competency.
• With a short rating style, evaluators are asked to rate performance on a simple scale, using short behavior descriptions (e.g. met expectations, unsatisfactory) and provide additional comments if desired.
• With a long rating style, evaluators rate performance using detailed descriptions of the different levels of demonstration and provide additional comments as needed. The style tends to bring better consistency to ratings, because evaluators have a better understanding of what each level of performance looks like.
• A checklist/matrix rating style allows you to capture a number of different rating criteria and comments in a compact space by putting all the competencies in a table/matrix format. In addition to providing a rating on performance you can also capture information like the frequency of performance, the method of observation, the date of observation, etc.

Gather multirater feedback

There are many different work contexts where it can be challenging for a manager to provide performance feedback and accurate ratings for an employee, for example: shift work; project or team based work, especially if they are cross-functional; and new or fluid reporting structures. Gathering multiple perspectives on performance can help eliminate subjectivity and give a broader more consistent evaluation of performance.

Use consistent language in comments

Writing detailed comments on employee performance can be a challenge. Getting the words just right, and including a consistent level of detail and information takes time and skill. So give managers suggestions for wording that they can copy, adjust and edit. Performance appraisal software tools like Halogen Performance? come equipped with this type of comment library that not only reduces the time it takes for managers to write comments, it makes comments more consistent, less subjective and more uniformly descriptive.

Include a second level manager review or a manager peer group review

To help ensure consistency in your performance appraisals, it can be helpful to include a second-level manager review or a manager peer group review in your process. This allows someone other than the manager to review performance ratings and ensure they're well calibrated. But it also allows another manager or group of managers to review the quality and consistency of comments and feedback, ensure development plans are appropriately assigned where needed, and ensure goals are appropriate and achievable. This form of secondary review can be a real learning opportunity for managers that improves their performance management skills.

Review process metrics to identify inconsistencies

To ensure consistency in performance appraisals, your HR team should also review a host of metrics from your performance appraisal process, including things like:

• Completion rates
• Ratings distributions
• Development plan assignments
• Goal alignment

Looking at your process metrics can help you identify inconsistencies so you can address them. But more importantly, it helps you ensure that employees and the organization are actually getting value from the process.

Provide ongoing training and communication to set shared expectations

Perhaps most importantly, you need to provide ongoing training and communication to both managers and employees to level-set expectations about performance and ratings. Unless managers and employees have a solid and shared understanding of your performance rating scale and the performance expectations, you'll never achieve fairness and consistency in your employee performance appraisals.

For example, if you're using a five point rating scale, you should explain and regularly communicate that you consider 3 to be an appropriate rating for every employee who is demonstrating consistent, solid performance and meeting expectations and who occasionally goes above and beyond expectations. If you want a 4 rating to be reserved for more exceptional cases, where an employee exceeds expectations more than 50% of the time, you need to explicitly communicate that, and take steps to ensure ratings are being assigned appropriately.

We live and work in a culture where everyone is encouraged to "excel" and "average" performance might be viewed as a negative thing. It may be only natural for solidly performing employees to want a 4 rating, and they may put pressure on their managers to do so. Similarly, a manager may want themselves and their team to be perceived as better than average, so they might inflate ratings to showcase or even safeguard their group. And don't forget that more recently hired staff bring with them the rating definitions and expectations from their previous employers.

Worth the effort

Ensuring your employee performance appraisals are consistent takes time and effort. But the impact of your efforts can be far reaching, including: improved participation rates, better employee satisfaction and engagement with the process, more effective compensation programs, better workforce management decisions, and most importantly, better employee performance.

Goal-setting is a crucial element of winners' performance management practices. Organizational goals are "cascaded" down through the individual level and aligned with strategic business priorities. ... Example: CBIZ defines performance management as a business process necessary for achieving sustainable high performance.

Characteristics and Examples of Effective Performance Management Systems

Employers of chighly effective performance management processes, typically share three common characteristics.

1. Performance management is a cycle.

Performance management is not viewed as a one-time annual occurrence at winners. Instead it's an on-going cycle of performance planning (setting goals and expectations); execution (performing projects and tasks); supporting and developing (providing on-going coaching and feedback as well as training and development); and evaluating (reviewing performance behaviors and results against goals and standards; recognizing performance with rewards and promotions; or redirecting performance) that occurs between managers and employees and with the support of HR and leaders throughout the year.

Example: Clinical Research Management is committed to fostering a high performance culture and strives to provide each employee with clear performance objectives, on-going coaching and feedback, professional development, and recognition for outstanding work. During the performance management cycle at Clinical Research Management, top performers are given the opportunity to request additional assignments designed to grow their capabilities and skills in addition to receiving an assessment of their skill set and career goals. Employees also engage in a formal discussion with their managers to discuss career paths and advancement opportunities. Professional development plans are typically put into place for top performers at this time.

2. Performance management is a strategic business process.

Performance management is viewed as a business process, and not just an administrative HR process, that is critical and necessary for achieving high company performance. Goal-setting is a crucial element of winners' performance management practices. Organizational goals are "cascaded" down through the individual level and aligned with strategic business priorities. Talent outcomes like promotions, pay for performance, succession planning, and leadership development are linked to the performance management process.

Example: CBIZ defines performance management as a business process necessary for achieving sustainable high performance. Leaders are expected to model effective performance management behaviors and support the process. They are required to transition the perception of performance from just an HR process to something that is critical to the organization and for achieving business results. Leaders are held accountable for increasing the frequency and quality of conversations about performance expectations, feedback, and developmental planning. In addition, individual goals are aligned vertically and horizontally in the organization and leaders must tie performance management outcomes to all talent consequences like promotions, incentives, and succession planning.

3. Performance management is systematic and cultural.

Performance management does not simply include a performance evaluation and a performance improvement plan. Instead, performance management is a system of integrated programs, activities, and tools developed by winners that are consistently carried out at the organization. Additionally, an emphasis on high performance is a norm and expected behavior in the company culture. These programs and activities include...

• Assessments and appraisals
• Coaching and feedback
• Goal-setting
• Assignments and projects
• Meetings and discussions
• Check-points
• Training and development opportunities
• Career development planning
• Formal and informal mentoring
• Performance management training for supervisors and managers
• Technology/software platforms or systems

Example: The Cleveland Foundation’s performance management process includes a variety of on-going activities. At the beginning of the process, each employee completes a self-assessment and identifies the goals or objectives they would like to work toward in the following appraisal period. The employee and their supervisor use the self-assessment to complete the performance appraisal and work together to develop challenging and achievable objectives. During the performance management process, developmental opportunities are also discussed and a plan for fulfilling training needs either internally or externally is created. Employees and their supervisors evaluate progress towards these objectives during bi-weekly meetings and at a midyear check-point. Employees are encouraged to address any obstacles preventing them from achieving their objectives at this time.

Many organizations don't achieve the results they want from performance management because their processes are lacking in these three areas...performance management isn't a cycle; it's not viewed as a business process that is aligned with strategy; high performance is not a cultural norm; and the organization lacks a system of integrated performance management activities, programs, and tools.

It's no wonder that most performance management processes do not produce, because based on our research on the NorthCoast 99 winners, performance management is the "crux" behind everything in their organization, including their business results.

Performance Management Cycle

Understanding Performance Management Process and Practices

In order for the performance management process to be efficient and effective, supervisors must master the process and apply it consistently. The Federal Competency Assessment Tool - Management (FCAT- M) assesses whether, and to what degree, supervisors have specific competencies. One of these competencies is Understanding Performance Management Process and Practices. A supervisor equipped with this competency will be able to better focus employee efforts on achieving organizational and individual goals.

What is performance management? According to A Handbook for Measuring Employee Performance, performance management is the systematic process of

• planning work and setting expectations
• continually monitoring performance
• developing the capacity to perform
• periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
• rewarding good performance

Planning. The supervisor should meet with employees to create their performance plans. The supervisor should establish measurable goals that align to the agency's strategic and operational plans and consult with his/her employees when creating these goals. It is in this planning stage that the supervisor has an opportunity to explain to employees how their performance directly impacts how the agency and work unit will achieve their goals.

Monitoring. The supervisor should monitor employee progress, not only when there is a progress review due, but on a continuous basis throughout the appraisal period. Monitoring gives the supervisor an opportunity to make a course correction or adjust a timeline if it is needed so that employees will produce the desired outcome of successfully achieving the agency's or work unit's goals. It also provides the opportunity for the supervisor to make employees aware of their progress, whether favorable or unacceptable. Should the supervisor determine the employee has unacceptable performance on any critical element, monitoring performance enables the supervisor to identify the problem early and get an opportunity period in place well before the rating of record is due.

Developing. The supervisor should be able to determine from continuous monitoring whether employees need additional development to achieve their assigned responsibilities. It is important to remember that employee development includes not only remediation but enhancing good performance as well. Types of development could include

• formal training (classroom)
• informal training (online)
• coaching or mentoring
• new work assignments (additional responsibilities)
• details (within current agency or to an outside agency)

Rating. The supervisor will use the knowledge gained from monitoring the employee's performance during the appraisal period to compare that performance against the employee's elements and standards and assign a rating of record. The final rating should not be a surprise to the employee, particularly when the supervisor and the employee have had numerous performance discussions during the rating period.

Rewarding. The supervisor must make meaningful distinctions when granting awards. Award amounts should be clearly distinguishable between different performance levels that are fully successful or above. Performance management should support compensation decisions.

Every agency has policies that govern performance management that are unique to the agency. Supervisors must, in addition to mastering and consistently applying good planning, monitoring, developing, rating, and rewarding practices, learn and apply those policies as they relate to the agency-specific practices of performance management. For more guidance on agency-specific performance management systems, refer to the agency's policy and procedures manual.

To determine whether they have implemented their agency's performance management system successfully, supervisors need to answer the following questions:

• Does my application of the system encourage better performance, and
• Has performance improved during the appraisal period?

Positive answers reflect effective application of good performance management policies and practices.

What is the Performance Management Process?

Performance management is a management style that has grown increasingly popular. It involves a process in which a company, organization, or institution creates a work environment that empowers employees to work to the best of their abilities. The process that an employer uses to accomplish this often varies from one business to the next. Despite these variations, the performance management process generally involves some form of goal setting, evaluation and reward. In addition, coaching is often offered throughout the process.

Planning

The planning stage of the performance management process is meant to set achievement goals for the employee and discuss the expected level of performance for the job. The expectations for any given employee will typically depend on the work they are doing or the department they are in. At the end of the planning stage both the employee and management must be in agreement in terms of what is expected. In addition, the goals that are set are ones that should be achieved within the course of one year.

Assessment

The assessment is an annual evaluation of the employees' performance. This often takes feedback from co-workers and clients into consideration, in addition to observations by management. Assessments also include a review of the previous years' evaluation and an assessment of skills. Some employers may have an employee complete an evaluation of their own performance that is then discussed during the evaluation and compared to the official evaluation.

Recognition

This portion of the process is about recognizing the employee's accomplishments as well as any areas that need improvement. During this process the manager/employer and the employee should discuss ways to make improvements. Management should also be open to things that they can do differently in efforts to help the employee. In terms of accomplishments, employees may be given recognition verbally and/or in the form of bonuses or promotions.

Career Development

This phase of the process is to promote and encourage future improvement and development of the employee. It should meet the needs of the business or organization, enhance the strengths of the employee and work to eliminate areas of weakness. This may involve training on site as well as sending the individual to off-site training. As with other phases or stages of the process, communication between management and the employee is important.

The Performance Management Framework

The Performance Management Process can be

thought of as a continuous cycle focusing on

planning performance, coaching, reviewing, and rewarding.

Summary of the main stages of the Performance Management process include the following:

1. Planning Performance is the way in which we define what we expect of people and how they are to contribute to achieving the agency’s goals.

2.Coaching Performance is about reinforcing and supporting the efforts made by individuals in pursuit of those same goals throughout the year, modifying priorities and resources with the changing external world.

3. Reviewing Performance concerns evaluating the successes and failures of the year, learning from them, and preparing for the coming year.

4.Rewarding Performance is the means by which performance is to be recognized. Recognizing and RewardIng PerFormance Performance Planning Coaching and Feedback Reviewing and Appraising Performance Management.

There are two basic criteria against which all Employees will be measured against:

Objectives = "What"

Competencies = "How"

What are Objectives?

Objectives describe the specific performance results an Employee will be expected to achieve forthe year.

Why are Objectives Important?

Objectives provide Managers and Employees with the criteria needed to objectively discuss performance results. Clear objectives prevent surprises during Mid-Year Discussion and Annual Performance Review, more effectively managing performance on a continuous basis.

Objectives:

?Provide an up-front, objective, mutually understood and accepted basis for reviewing and discussing performance results.

?Reduce misunderstandings between the Manager and the Employee about what performance results he/she is expected to achieve.

?Specify each Employee's role in accomplishing tasks that are important for achieving the agency's and the State of Kansas’ goals.

Effective Objectives should be S.M.A.R.T.:

?Specific: Think micro, not macro; a goal that is too general will require more action steps than are effective.

?Measurable: Manager should be able to monitor and gauge progress in objective terms.

?Attainable: It’s frustrating to have a goal that you don’t have control over or that can’t be achieved in a reasonable amount of time. Be realistic and consider the obstacles and the resources needed.

?Relevant: The goals should relate directly to departmental and overall agency objectives.

?Time-Based: Manager should be able to track your progress against specified timeframes.

Performance Management Process Checklist

Step-by-step to a Performance Management System

Performance appraisals, performance reviews, appraisal forms, whatever you want to call them, let's call them gone. As a stand-alone, annual assault, a performance appraisal is universally disliked and avoided.After all, how many people in your organization want to hear that they were less than perfect last year? How many managers want to face the arguments and diminished morale that can result from the performance appraisal process?

How many supervisors feel that their time is well-spent professionally to document and provide proof to support their feedback - all year long? Plus, the most important outputs for the performance appraisal, from each person's job, may not be defined or measurable in your current work system. Make the appraisal system one step harder to manage and tie the employee's salary increase to their numeric rating.

If the true goal of the performance appraisal is employee development and organizational improvement, consider moving to a performance management system. Place the focus on what you really want to create in your organization - performance management and development.

As part of that system, you will want to use this checklist to guide your participation in the performance management and development process. You can also use this checklist to help you in a more traditional performance appraisal process.

If you follow this checklist, I am convinced you will offer a performance management and development system that will significantly improve the appraisal process you currently manage. Staff will feel better about participating and the performance management system may even positively affect performance.

Preparation and Planning for Performance Management

Much work is invested, on the front end, to improve a traditional employee appraisal process. In fact, managers can feel as if the new process is too time-consuming.

Once the foundation of developmental goals is in place, however, time to administer the system decreases. Each of these steps is taken with the participation and cooperation of the employee, for best results.

Performance Management and Development in the General Work System

• Define the purpose of the job, job duties, and responsibilities.
• Define performance goals with measurable outcomes.
• Define the priority of each job responsibility and goal.
• Define performance standards for key components of the job.
• Hold interim discussions and provide feedback about employee performance, preferably daily, summarized and discussed, at least, quarterly. (Provide positive and constructive feedback.)
• Maintain a record of performance through critical incident reports. (Jot notes about contributions or problems throughout the quarter, in an employee file.)
• Provide the opportunity for broader feedback. Use a 360-degree performance feedback system that incorporates feedback from the employee's peers, customers, and people who may report to him.
• Develop and administer a coaching and improvement plan if the employee is not meeting expectations.

Immediate Preparation for the Performance Development Planning Meeting

• Schedule the Performance Development Planning (PDP) meeting and define pre-work with the staff member to develop the performance development plan (PDP).
• The staff member reviews personal performance, documents self-assessment comments and gathers needed documentation, including 360-degree feedback results, when available.
• The supervisor prepares for the PDP meeting by collecting data including work records, reports, and input from others familiar with the staff person’s work.
• Both examine how the employee is performing against all criteria, and think about areas for potential development.
• Develop a plan for the PDP meeting which includes answers to all questions on the performance development tool with examples, documentation and so on.

The Performance Development Process (PDP) Meeting

• Establish a comfortable, private setting and rapport with the staff person.
• Discuss and agree upon the objective of the meeting, to create a performance development plan.
• The staff member discusses the achievements and progress he has accomplished during the quarter.
• The staff member identifies ways in which he would like to further develop his professional performance, including training, assignments, new challenges and so on.
• The supervisor discusses performance for the quarter and suggests ways in which the staff member might further develop his performance.
• Add the supervisor's thoughts to the employee's selected areas of development and improvement.
• Discuss areas of agreement and disagreement, and reach consensus.
• Examine job responsibilities for the coming quarter and in general.
• Agree upon standards for performance for the key job responsibilities.
• Set goals for the quarter.
• Discuss how the goals support the accomplishment of the organization's business plan, the department's objectives and so on.
• Agree upon a measurement for each goal.
• Assuming performance is satisfactory, establish a development plan with the staff person, that helps him grow professionally in ways important to him.
• If performance is less than satisfactory, develop a written performance improvement plan, and schedule more frequent feedback meetings. Remind the employee of the consequences connected with continued poor performance.
• The supervisor and employee discuss employee feedback and constructive suggestions for the supervisor and the department.
• Discuss anything else the supervisor or employee would like to discuss, hopefully, maintaining the positive and constructive environment established thus far, during the meeting.
• Mutually sign the performance development tool to indicate the discussion has taken place.
• End the meeting in a positive and supportive manner. The supervisor expresses confidence that the employee can accomplish the plan and that the supervisor is available for support and assistance.
• Set a time-frame for a formal follow-up, generally quarterly.

Following the Performance Development Process Meeting

• If a performance improvement plan was necessary, follow up at the designated times.
• Follow up with performance feedback and discussions regularly throughout the quarter. (An employee should never be surprised about the content of feedback at the performance development meeting.)
• The supervisor needs to keep commitments relative to the agreed upon development plan, including time needed away from the job, payment for courses, agreed upon work assignments and so on.
• The supervisor needs to act upon the feedback from departmental members and let staff members know what has changed, based on their feedback.
• Forward appropriate documentation to the Human Resources office and retain a copy of the plan for easy access and referral.

Many organizations are looking to reinvent the performance management process to better assess employees, provide valuable feedback, drive peak workforce performance, and support employee engagement. APQC created this checklist to assist organizations in these endeavors. The checklist is organized into four sections.

1. Design—structuring the system for success
2. Prepare—building commitment and competence
3. Implement—adhering to the plan
4. Evaluate—identifying areas for improvement

Performance management is an integrated approach to helping an organisation to achieve its aims and objectives by monitoring and improving the performance of individuals, departments and the organisation as a whole.

A performance management system uses agreed targets and objectives to enable managers to measure and review performance, giving a clear indication as to whether the activities undertaken by individuals are contributing to the achievement of organisational goals.

Current levels of performance are not always what the organisation and its employees would like them to be. Individuals can work to narrow this gap by becoming more productive, developing their skills, or becoming better informed; organisations can improve processes, systems and procedures. To be effective, performance review must be conducted in the context of the organisation's overall strategic plan, with the aim of generating the momentum required to achieve corporate goals.

Performance Management Best Practices

Performance management best practices involve:

• Understanding current practice
• Identifying future or intended practice
• Recognising the processes and driving forces which will improve performance
• Agreeing targets and objectives to meet organisational goals
• Using tools, techniques, support from managers and colleagues and training and development activities to develop capabilities and achieve the desired progress
• Measuring and monitoring changes, improvements and progress towards goals
• Reviewing progress, renewing goals and moving on.

Process Management Process Checklist

At the organisational level

1. Align objectives with organisational strategy

2. Set standards, criteria, indicators

3. Choose evaluation methods

4. Assess the suitability of quality/customer care programmes

5. Build performance appraisals into the business planning cycle

6. Ensure clear communication

7. Monitor and review

At the individual level

1. Identify where you are

2. Identify where you want/need to be

3. Agree objectives and indicators

4. Make use of relevant tools and techniques

5. Test and trial

6. Evaluate performance

7. Carry out performance appraisals

Explain the process.

Meet with your employees to explain the performance management process. Emphasize that it is a process (not an event) that provides UAB employees with the opportunity to set goals, discuss expectations, and develop themselves as professionals. 

Prepare for each planning meeting.

Prepare to meet individually with each employee by thinking about your expectations for this individual and how this person’s role fits in with your goals for your department or unit. You will also want to review the individual’s job description.Make sure that your employee prepares for the meeting by thinking through his or her proposed goals for the year. 

Conduct planning meetings.

Meet one on one with each of your employees. There are three main objectives for this meeting: to identify expectations for your employee, set a few developmental goals for your employee, and to articulate how those goals fit with broader departmental goals. 

Help each employee create a professional development plan.

Your employees’ plans should include a range of development activities designed to help them meet their goals. Resources: Professional Development Plan Template.

Support implementation.

As they work to implement their plans, support them by identifying additional opportunities for development as needed and by removing obstacles so that they can accomplish their goals. 

Check-in with employees on their progress.

It is critical that you discuss your employee’s progress on his or her plan at regular points throughout the year. You might consider holding regularly scheduled development check-in meetings or building that in as an agenda item to existing staff meetings. By checking in with employees, you can encourage and motivate your employee and reassess if the employee has gotten off track. 

Provide coaching throughout the year.

Coaching your employees throughout the performance management process is as simple as listening to them. Keep in mind that positive reinforcement and praising employees for small achievements will keep them on track to accomplishing their goals.

Prepare for the evaluation meeting.

Review the goals you set with your employee at the beginning of the year. Review any notes you may have taken about the employee’s performance during check-ins or other meetings. Complete a draft of the performance evaluation. Resources: Performance Evaluation Form.

Ensure that your employee prepares too.

Ask your employee to review the goals you set at the beginning of the year. Also ask your employee to complete a self assessment using the Performance Evaluation Form. The self assessment is critical. Resources: Performance Evaluation Form.

Conduct evaluation meeting.

The performance evaluation meeting should be an opportunity for you and your employee to have a candid, productive discussion. Do your best to make the employee comfortable, provide constructive feedback, and end with praise. 

Performance Management Checklist

Performance management is an integrated approach to helping an organisation to achieve its aims and objectives by monitoring and improving the performance of individuals, departments and the organisation as a whole.

This checklist aims to provide an understanding of the key principles of performance management. It outlines key issues to be considered in the introduction and operation of a performance management scheme at organisational level, and provides guidance for individuals on how to take advantage of performance management to improve their personal performance and develop their potential.

A performance management system uses agreed targets and objectives to enable managers to measure and review performance, giving a clear indication as to whether the activities undertaken by individuals are contributing to the achievement of organisational goals.

Current levels of performance are not always what the organisation and its employees would like them to be. Individuals can work to narrow this gap by becoming more productive, developing their skills, or becoming better informed; organisations can improve processes, systems and procedures. To be effective, performance review must be conducted in the context of the organisation’s overall strategic plan, with the aim of generating the momentum required to achieve corporate goals. Effective performance management should always include pre-planned elements supported by informal reviews as appropriate.

At times, it may be helpful to bring in external assistance, or to consider 360 degree feedback for individuals and groups. Performance management should always be a shared process between employees and managers.

Performance management involves: understanding current practice identifying future or intended practice recognising the processes and driving forces which will improve performance agreeing targets and objectives to meet organisational goals using tools, techniques, support from managers and colleagues and training and development activities to develop capabilities and achieve the desired progress measuring and monitoring changes, improvements and progress towards goals reviewing progress, renewing goals and moving on .

Definition

Armstrong and Baron define performance management as “a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved”.

They stress that it is “a strategy which relates to every activity of the organisation set in the context of its human resource policies, culture, style and communications systems”. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Action checklistAt the organisational level

1.Align objectives with organisational strategy

The purpose, values and goals of each unit or department of the organisation should support or relate to the purpose, values and goals of the organisation. This will create a situation where each time that a departmental goal is achieved, the organisation moves forward.

2Set standards, criteria, indicators Competitiveness requires organisations to stay in touch or benchmark with best practice, or best in class. Benchmarking will enable you to compare your key processes with similar processes in other industries. For example if prompt telephone answering is a key process, then look to organisations in the service industries such as the AA, or an other high profile organisation that excels in that process.

All standards and indicators should be SMART - Specific, Measurabl e, Achievable, ealistic, Time - bound.

As individual performance management grades are often linked to salary levels, organisations need be very clear about the standards that will apply to each grade. It can be de-motivating and counter - productive, for example, if an unqualified achievement of agreed objectives does not lead to the award of the highest grade, because the company has pre - determined the percentage who will be awarded the highest grade in any particular year. Honest management of expectations is fundamentally important for the credibility of the process.

3. Choose evaluation methods Output - based evaluation is more useful than a ranking or rating system with criteria which are vague, or subjective. While performance management is about helping people to improve, there may come a time when, after all possible support and encour agement have been given , performance issimply unsatisfactory . In this case remedial or even disciplinary action may be necessary. When selecting evaluation methods, keep the purpose for which they are to be used clearly in mind. This is particular ly important when performance management is used to inform decisions on pay.

4 .Assess the suitability of quality/ customer care programmes When implementing performance management, take account of the quality management programmes currently in place and review their suitability. For example, ISO9000 quality systems, are perhaps best suited to stable operations which are not undergoing radical change. Kaizen, as a continuous improvement scheme, is a more philosophical approach to improvement rather than a prescriptive system.

The Business Excellence Model provides an adaptable framework for setting realistic and challenging standards.

5.Build performance appraisals into the business planning cycle As performance management is dealing with personal objectives which feed into the organisation's strategy for achieving its corporate objectives, performance appraisals should become an integral part of the business planning cycle, particularly in relation to the delivery of products and services.

6. Ensure clear communication Successful performance management depends on the engagement and involvement of all employee s, so good communication about all aspects of the scheme - what it is seeking to achieve, how it will operate, how objectives will be set, what criteria will be used for evaluating performance and whether there is a link to pay or bonuses - is essential. A culture of open communication across the whole organisation is vital. This will provide feedback to enable management to detect and prioritise, realistically, where and when performance criteria need to be adjusted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

7.Monitor and review Continue to monitor and review the operation of the performance management scheme. All organisations operate within dynamic environments and changing circumstances may make adjustments necessary. Take note, also, of any problems which arise and make amendments to improve the operation of the scheme. At the individual level

1. Identify where you are An objective assessment of how you are currently performing forms the starting point. This means that you must have a clear idea of what you are expected to deliver, to what standard, and by when . A personal SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) can help here, but a regular communication process with line managers is the best approach. Colleagues and peers can also help in assessing your performance Make a clear record of your current position so that later on you can assess what improvements have been made.
2. Identify where you want/need to be This may be to perform a task better, faster, or to carry out a new task. It may mean learning new skills or acquiring knowledge, capitalising on present strengths or tackling an individual weakness. This position needs to be describable, and preferably measurable. Be mindful that there may be some degree of divergence between what you as the individual‘ want’ to do and what the organisation ‘needs’ you to do, for example, in terms of skills for the current job role, versus s kills for your career in the longer term.

3. Agree objectives and indicators Objectives should be agreed between you and your line manager, in line with organisational and departmental goals and the criteria by which performance will be judged should be agreed not imposed. Make sure that you will be able to measure progress towards the agreed objectives and that the indicators set will give you a direct insight into whether you are improving your efficiency or effectiveness. For example, if a plan to deliver outputs is agreed with your line manager, an indicator for efficiency would be the extent to which you stick to the plan; an indicator of effectiveness would be the level of success in delivering the outputs.

Setting standards or indicators for some tasks can be straightforward and based on time, accuracy and productivity. Other, 'softer' areas such as personal skills development are not so easy to quantify.

4.Make use of relevant tools and techniques A number of tools can be used to monitor progress, identify shortcomings, and even measure how well you are performing.

Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams, and input - output diagrams are useful for qualitative progress; Pareto analysis, moving averages and the CUSUM technique are more suited to quantitative measures. But don’t forget that an honest open discussion between you and your line manager remains an effective way to assess your progress. Record the key elements of the conversation on an official appraisal/review form, and jointly agree and sign it off.

5. Test and trial Having worked out the causes of shortcomings in your performance, consider whether to opt for the simplest, cheapest, most efficient, most easily understood solution , the solution which will elicit the most support, or the one likely to have the greatest impact. The latter is not necessarily the best; take things one step at a time and reflect and adapt as you go.

6. Evaluate performance The evaluation of performance is a key stage making all the effort worthwhile. What and how you evaluate depends on the standards and objective s agreed. Meeting a budget or sales target will be easy to identify.

Hitting a target objective -or progress towards it - is also measurable. In softer skills acquisition, sometimes gut feeling will tell you how near or far you are from the targets. Performance evaluation should be carried out on a regular basis and both line manager and report must be aware of or agree on the timeframe at the All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. beginning of each reporting year. Mid -year reviews will also be helpful to improve the quality of work throughout the year and to make any necessary adjustments.

7. Carry out performance appraisals Performance appraisals should cover the points covered in points 1 to 6 above.

Learning and development needs should also be addressed. A personal development plan can be helpful in identifying development needs, making plans to meet these, recording development activities and demonstrating what has been learnt.

Managers should avoid taking an ‘all or nothing ’ approach - build incrementally on knowledge and experience being rigid or adopting a ‘command and control’ approach to goal setting looking for a quick fix giving employees ‘surprises’ related to poor performance – problems need to be addressed at an early stage neglecting ‘soft’ issues such as building relationships and giving feedback.

Since most business owners do not really know where to begin, below are five helpful steps to an effective performance management process:

• Lay a foundation. ...
• Process for performance evaluation. ...
• Begin the appraisal process. ...
• Analyse the collated data. ...
• Evaluate the process.

Performance management is the process you put in place in order to measure the abilities of your employees to meet and exceed organisational goals and also reward them accordingly.

For your organisation to outperform its competitors, the employer has to motivate the employees, improve their morale, create loyalty and improve their overall productivity.

Most business leaders often downplay the importance of performance management, never making time for it and feeling their employees are too busy to carry out the programme. Some feel like it's too expensive or they just aren't sure about where to begin, so they just wave it aside.

There are so many benefits attached to an effective performance management process. A major one is the production of quality data which helps in creating better business decisions.

Since most business owners do not really know where to begin, below are five helpful steps to an effective performance management process:

1. Lay a foundation

You're about to take this huge step, so laying the foundation for the entire performance management process is essential. And that involves you carrying your employees along.

Let them know exactly what you expect from them by writing out a list which is usually called "employee competencies" and ensuring it gets to everyone. This makes them fully aware of what is expected of them, especially in terms of their responsibilities and behaviour.

2. Process for performance evaluation

The next step would be to create a certain period of time during which you evaluate how your employees have been responding to the employee competencies, if their performance has improved or declined, if their attitude towards their duty is lackadaisical or diligent, and so on.

A very good model for employee evaluation is having a one-on-one meeting with your employees. You can meet with them at a designated period of the week to evaluate their performance, listen to their concerns and even receive any ideas they have that can improve the company's performance.

This method gives room for employees to relay their concerns without fear of opposition. Although it is time consuming, but it’s very effective. You have to find the perfect balance between taking care of the company and also listening to your employees’ concerns.

3. Begin the appraisal process

Having laid the foundation and taken into consideration their opinions, the next step to achieving an effective performance management process is to start employee assessment using a standard that scores the employees based on the company's training system and the information they received.

4. Analyse the collated data

After the appraisal process, the managers can then proceed to analysing the results, relating the outcome with potential organisational decisions to see what works and what doesn’t.

Furthermore, the outcome of the analysis can be used in making certain changes to the organisation, such as the hiring process and upgraded training programmes within the organisation.

5. Evaluate the process

Now that you've carried out a performance management process, how did it go for the company? Did the rating scale assess the necessary? Are you spending too much or too little time on evaluating the employees? Was the data properly collected?

All these questions will further improve the performance management process, which will lead to better business productivity.

Effective performance management is the major key that opens the door to an aligned and engaged workforce – which is the bedrock of every successful company. Without it, the organisation would not only run at a loss of time and money, but also employees. And eventually, their competitive edge will follow suit.