Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Performance management is a whole work system that begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves your organization.
Too often in the past, we have seen performance management as a process managed by the Human Resources Department to rate people for their performance appraisal and annual review and to ensure all people are being provided with training. It is far more than this. It is a process to be owned by operational managers to provide clarity of expectations and consequent delivery for all their direct reports and to ensure that all activities are aligned with delivering the strategy of the organization.
In providing each person their outcomes, it allows them to work towards clear goals, it allows them to recognize when they need help and it provides them with a positive feeling of success when they deliver. For managers, it is a tool to allocate work and outcomes to the right member of their team; it gives them the means to review on a regular basis the performance of their people and ensures they allocate their time to coach people as appropriate.
As part of the development process, the performance management system allows a regular review of what additional training and development is beneficial to the team members and through the Personal Development Plan it links development needs to the Training Department on an in-time basis.
The whole process needs to be dynamic and not an activity undertaken a few times across the year. Used effectively by an operational manager it provides regular meetings with their direct reports to review performance and delivery of outcomes, to discuss changes in goals, to coach improvements and to define training and development needs.
Performance management helps everyone in the organization to achieve the highest levels of output in line with the strategic needs of the organization and creates opportunities for regular reviews. Managers need to ensure they are setting appropriately stretching targets and objectives for their employees to ensure that performance will increase year on year creating a challenging and invigorating business environment.
Philosophy of Performance Management
Performance management is a joint responsibility of individuals and line managers.
The focus lies in capturing learning to improve future performance, not merely assessing past performance.
It provides the catalyst for discussions regarding developing individual performance going forward. Performance management is a part of daily work life and not an annual drill.
The process provides input for rewarding and recognising individuals.
the process provides a mechanism for identifying a shortfall in performance every working day of the year
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