Introduction
An effective performance management process sets the foundation for rewarding excellence.
- By linking individual employee work efforts with the organization’s mission and objectives, the employee and the organization understand how that job contributes to the organization.
- By focusing attention on setting clear performance expectations (results + actions & behaviors), it helps the employee know what needs to be done to be successful on the job.
- Through the use of objectives, standards, performance dimensions, and other measures it focuses effort. This helps the department get done what needs to be done and provides a solid rationale for eliminating work that is no longer useful.
- By defining job-mastery and career development goals as part of the process, it makes it very clear how the current position supports employee growth and the additional opportunities the employee needs to explore.
- Through regular check-in discussions, which include status updates, coaching, and feedback, it promotes flexibility, allowing you and the employee to identify problems early and change the course of a project or work assignment.
- By emphasizing that an annual appraisal should simply be a summary of the conversations held between you and the employee during the entire cycle, it shifts the focus away from performance as an “annual event” to performance as an on-going process.
An effective performance management process, while requiring time to plan and implement, can save you and the employee time and energy. Most importantly, it can be a very effective motivator, since it can help you and the employee achieve the best possible performance.
