Performance Management

The Key to Achievement: Performance Management

What do successful organizations frequently have in common?

In addition to a robust talent management strategy, they also have a firm and comprehensive performance management system in place.

In its simplest form, performance management means you’re not just measuring, but also rewarding the performance of employees, in the context of a set of predetermined goals and metrics.

When a performance management system is effective, the value to an organization is tremendous and includes employees that are more productive and engaged, as well as boosted morale overall.

Creating a strategy to manage the performance of employees is the best way you can improve the performance of your workforce, from the bottom to the top.

The Components of Performance Management

While every strategy for managing and measuring the performance of employees is going to vary based on the industry, some of the primary components you frequently see across the board include:

  • A coming together of individual goals within the environment of larger and more overarching corporate goals.
  • The goals of the company should be broadly communicated to the entire organization.
  • Monitoring progress is a necessity, and through this monitoring of this progress, it’s then possible to identify gaps and weaknesses, which can then be addressed through training and development, or coaching from company leaders.
  • There should be a system of defined and well-documented feedback in place.

Many organizations also opt to utilize performance management as part of their compensation management strategy—utilizing the monitoring of progress and achievement as a way to determine a pay-for-performance system.

Keys to Creating Goals for Performance Management

While a good or even great performance management system can increase a company’s profitability, improve engagement and lead to more talent retention, a poorly-run management system can have the opposite impact.

Some of the top performance measuring and appraisal systems are based on the science of human psychology, and share common characteristics, including:

  • The creation of defined and challenging goals. Typically, the more difficult a goal is to attain, the better the performance of employees.
  • When a company is able to create goals that are also self-serving in some way, or are easily translated to personal feelings, the result is more achievement.
  • Communication is key. There has to be constant and consistent communication to accompany measurement and appraisals of employee achievement.

The Intersection of Training and Development with Performance Management

There’s an increasing amount of intersection between the efforts of companies in terms of training and development and their performance management strategy.

Learning management systems are being used as a valuable part of the process to identify potential gaps and weaknesses, and then once it’s possible to immediately identifying these issues, it becomes easier to resolve them.

With the modern and extensive capabilities of today’s learning management systems, it provides just another layer in the ability to more precisely track and monitor employees—an indispensable tool in a successful performance management strategy or system.

Category : Performance Management

The Process of Performance Appraisal

November 26, 2014   

It almost goes without saying that the annual or semi-annual performance appraisal is one of the most maligned events in modern organizations. All you have to do is take a look at the titles of stories from various sources such as the following: Time to Scrap Performance Appraisals? (Forbes) Is it Time to Give Up […]

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The Difference Between Performance Management and Performance Appraisal

November 26, 2014   

If you think that your company’s annual performance appraisal or review means you’re doing performance management, think again. Understanding how the two are different and how they relate to each other is a key learning point for today’s HR and talent management professionals. The problem, of course, is that for the vast majority of employees […]

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10 Statistics About Performance Management That Will Blow Your Mind

November 22, 2014   

Few things in life produce more moans and groans in the workplace than the mind-numbing, fear-inducing ritual of annual performance reviews. In recent years, there have been calls for companies to free themselves from this burdensome practice. Download the free e-book: The Skeptic’s Guide to Performance Management eBook. 1.    45% of HR leaders do […]

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Retention Secret #10: Employee Engagement and Climate Assessments

November 18, 2014   

I’ve written in previous articles about how important it is that employees feel like they are valued members of tight-knit team. This can be accomplished through such practices as participatory decision-making that not only solicits input from employees, but actively engages them in taking that input from the divergent thinking phase into the convergent decision-point […]

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Performance Management System Overhaul: Autodesk Case Study

November 13, 2014   

If you’re considering making significant changes to your company’s PM system, it’s very useful to hear from someone who’s gone through the process, which is why I’m capping off my series of articles about performance management with a case study of a company that’s done it. Autodesk first made a name for itself with AutoCAD, […]

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