Managing People and Performance management

Managing Performance

Before getting into the issue, let’s define performance management:

It’s a systemic continuous process of planning, coaching and reviewing that is used for the improvement of the organization effectiveness.

As a first step before you set a plan you are to consider several aspects mentioned below :

- Review an employee’s Job description is in order to define his work responsibilities

- Review organization’s goals, objectives and strategic plan - Characterize training project for employee that help employee skills and competencies which are related to the work

- Characterize key performance objectives for the year so employees maintain a desire to contribute into the general outcome by accomplishing his certain part of the job with greatest possible quality.

It’s always an excellent idea that is wrapped with hardship when it comes to setting up a plan along with goals and a clear procedure to achieve objectives.

So, first thing first :

Smart Objectives

1. Setting a goal, the most affective technique to achieve our objectives, and define it.

2. Use measures to ensure that you are on the right path to achieve the goal

3. Ensure to obtain the approval of whomever is expected to achieve the objectives

4. Have an answer to where what you are doing is relevant to the company operations, and do overall goals measure and predict the outcomes.

5. Set a project/job life span i.e. Time, without time or a deadline the job is worthless

Now after coming to a comprehension of the above let us tackle a point that is widely spread at any working institution and that is :

what if the case is where one of team members is not performing nor carrying out his/her job and duties as expected and should be?

As a fundamental measure, after having a set of smart objectives set for the prosperity of a business, it is essential to come to an understand of the core reason behind why an employee is slacking in his/her performance and is not being capable of carrying out duties as it is expected. To achieve that, a simple method is taken into consideration and that is to hear out that team member, ask him/her if any problems have aroused whether internally (inside the institution) or on a personal level that might interfere with the quality of performance and trigger a distraction.

Afterwards, we define and identify his/her problem.

Internal problems might occur due to misunderstanding the objectives and/or the job description hence, we review the employee’s job description to determine what are his/her exact obligations are. In addition to that, we identify goals, objectives and a strategic plan and manage them (prioritize). We, also, identify critical areas of the key performance objectives. And, we, always, provide employees with training programs that will enable and insure the growth and advancement of their skills and knowledge that is related to the work. Lastly, we make it a point to always remind them of the points mentioned above.

As a second measure for any business to prosper and to make sure team members are performing profoundly, we are to do as follows

Setting Goals

It is a vital for us to set goals for managing a whole team and whenever I am to set goals questions such as follows usually do cross my mine:

What do we do? What is that we want to achieve? How can we achieve these goals? What is our strategic plan? Should we set a SWOT analysis?

Initially, we should have a set knowledge in our mind of what it is that we are aiming to achieve. Such understanding is to take place before I start to communicate with my team. It is crucial to figure out what suits the company best, what material is need need, have we got the qualifications we need to achieve the goals, can we train team members or should we hire new employees, how much would the training cost and is it feasible, how much would cost us to hire a new qualified member.

Afterwards, it is necessary to meet with team members and clarify the goals, explain both the points and the objectives, and discuss the goals, which is a step that fits within the company’s policies and strategy. It’s always better to have them believe in those goals rather than have them force upon them and oblige them to do them.

Always, pick the right person for the right position, it’s really important to give objectives to the right people, your team is qualified but everyone have his/her strength points in certain points.

Allow your team members to have enough authority and space to set their own goals, give them the autonomy to develop their own goals, and make sure you are always available to provide them with support.

Set a deadline, the whole work/project is worthless if it is lacking a life span and a deadline. Deadlines enables the team to set and develop their responsibilities which makes goals more meaningful. A goal without a deadline won’t achieve its purpose. Also, deadlines provide the team the sensation of assigned tasks, commitment to a goal and eagerness to achieve.

It is a must to always keep up with employees’ goals, track their progress, see if they are on the right path, help them to progress faster, supervise and keep an eye on them, and always motivate them to attain their goals. By doing this, you assist your team succeeding at achieving their goals which is a responsibility of yours. In addition, you are required to be there to lend them a helping hand in understanding their goals and show them you are open for guidance by allowing questions to be asked and being dictated to giving a feedback.

Review

As one of the main procedures you are to do, is to review your employees’ work, summarize their performance and evaluate their inputs, outputs, the difficulties they have stumbled upon in addition to enlisting their weaknesses and strengths.

Measurement

Measurement is a technique that is used in order to determine and assess the quality of a team’s performance and its efficiency. To achieve a pleasing assessment, the following is to be taken into consideration

• Behaviour; employees’ behaviour and how well they handle pressure at work.
• Accuracy; how accurately and profoundly the work has been done,
• Productivity and work quality; it’s extremely important and it reflects on how accurately work has been done.
• Communication skills; tests whether the employee is open to helping his/her colleague and how he/she communicates with costumers.
• Attendance; No matter how good the employee is at work, his/her commitment to showing up at work and to work itself is a must
• Outputs and efficiency.
• Timing; They should have a strict commitment and devotion for deadlines.

How to help your team to succeed at work?

If we got the answer for this question, we can rest assured that we will have a good output.

Good managers are not defined by bossing around and giving orders to the team but are known to help them accomplish the work they have been requested to do and fulfil. No matter how qualified a team is but a manager has an insight on how best a work can be done hence a manager is to be characterized by the following:

• Be positive and smile always
• Motivating; work can be hectic and hard, you always need to motivate your team members, engage in talks and remove the barriers (to a certain degree) between you and your employees. It should be a leadership-based relationship rather than an oppressive one.
• Coaching; always be there to motivate and encourage employees to ask you, be open for any question or discussion.
• Able to listen; every person has his/her own opinion and view, and they see cases from different aspects hence at times they might have a better idea on how the job can be accomplished faster and in utmost quality standards.
• Ability to provide immediate feedback; discuss with employees their jobs and provide them with a feedback regarding it.
• Flexibility; world is changing day by day and you have to keep up with market, technology, and methods of accomplishing work.
• Ability to review job description with the team every now and then in order to ensure they are still on the correct path.

Zaid Mousa