heel” of

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performanc human
e resources
manageme manageme
nt systems, nt. Performance Management

which Systems, which typically include

performance appraisal and employee

typically
development, are the “Achilles’ heel” of
human resources management.
Performance management

include - is a tool that helps managers monitor

and evaluate employees' work.

performanc - is a communication process by which

managers and employees work together
to plan, monitor and review an

e appraisal employee’s work objectives and overall

contribution to the organization.

and Performance Management

Process

employee - Performance Management is the

continuous process of setting objectives,
assessing progress and providing

developme ongoing coaching and feedback to

ensure that employees are meeting their
objectives and career goals.
nt, are the Typical Performance Management
Process

“Achilles’ 1.
2.
Performance planning
Ongoing feedback
3. Employee input
4. Performance evaluation
 5. Performance review Guidelines for Providing Feedback
Effectively
Performance Planning
1. Provide immediate positive and
- it is important to review with developmental feedback in a
employees their performance private location.
expectations, including both the 2. Ask for the employee’s view
behaviors employees are expected to about what could have been
exhibit and the results they are expected done differently.
to achieve during the upcoming rating 3. Be specific about what behaviors
cycle. were effective or ineffective.
Guidelines for Establishing Effective 4. Focus on what the person did or
Performance Goals did not do, not personal
characteristics.
1. Goals must clearly define the end 5. Collaboratively plan steps to
results to be accomplished. address development needs.
2. To the extent possible, goals 6. Offer help in addressing
should have a direct and obvious development needs and
link to organizational success providing resources.
factors or goals.
3. Goals should be difficult, but Employee Input
achievable, to motivate
- refers to work structures and
performance.
processes that allow employees to
4. Goals should be set in no more
systematically give their input into
than three areas—attempting to
decisions that effect their own work.
achieve too many different goals
at once will impede success. - Employee input has been used
effectively in many organizations. It
Ongoing Feedback sometimes takes the form of asking
- Performance in both of these areas employees to provide self-ratings on
should be discussed and feed-back performance standards, which are then
provided on an ongoing basis compared with the manager’s ratings
throughout the rating period. In addition and discussed. An alternative way of
to pro-viding feedback whenever collecting employee input is to ask
exceptional or ineffective performance is employees to prepare statements of
observed, providing periodic feedback their key results or most meritorious
about day-to-day accomplishments and accomplishments at the end of the
contributions is also very valuable. In rating period.
fact, managers frequently avoid Guidelines for Writing Employee
providing feedback because they do not Accomplishments
know how to deliver it productively in
ways that will minimize employee 1. Include the situation or
defensiveness circumstances faced by the
employee.
 an ongoing
2. Describe what specific actions
the employee took to achieve
results.

basis, the
3. Describe the impact of the
accomplishment on the work unit
or organization

Performance Evaluation
- is defined as a formal and productive
formal
procedure to measure an employee’s
work and results based on their job perform-
ance
responsibilities.

- Evaluating Behaviors Today, many

organizations are using competency
models as a basis for their performance
management systems. Competency
review
session
models articulate the knowledge, skills,
abilities and other characteristics that
are deemed to be most instrumental for
achieving positive organizational
outcome. should
Performanc simply be a
e Review recap of
Assuming what has
that occurred
feedback throughout
has been the rat-
provided on
ing period. with
In other employees
words, their
there ratings,
should be narratives
no and
surprises in rationale
the for the
performanc evaluation
e review. given
During this
Performance Review
Assuming that feedback has been
provided on an ongoing basis, the
meeting, formal performance review session
should simply be a recap of what has

managers
occurred throughout the rating period. In
other words, there should be no
surprises in the performance review.

should
During this meeting, managers should
discuss with employees their ratings,
narratives and rationale for the

discuss evaluation given.

Implementation
Attention has thus far been directed to the commitment, the greater the
performance management tools and potential for program success.
processes. This is because what really
- a performance management system’s
matters in any performance
success relies so much on the effective-
management system is how effectively it
ness with which managers and
is used and how seriously managers
employees use the system, it is also
and employees take it. This is why both
essential to get organizational members
the most challenging and the most
committed to the new system. A
important part of developing an effective
strategy for accomplishing this is to
performance management system is
involve key individuals in the design and
successful implementation.
implementation process.
Cornerstones of Successful The design team performs four major
Implementation duties:
1. Ensure alignment with other I. Provide input that represents
HR systems. their constituency. The design
team leader works through
- it is important to ensure that it is various performance
aligned with other HR systems in the management options with the
organization. For example, design team.
competencies used as the basis for
performance management should be
the same as those used for recruitment,
staffing and training. This not only
ensures that employees are being hired,
trained and appraised on a consistent
Disseminat
set of critical job requirements, but it
also sends a strong message, internally e
and externally, about what is valued by
the organization.

2. Get organizational members

information
on board
- In order for any performance
about the
management system to be effective,
organizational members must be system.
motivated to use it properly. The
literature on many different types of
management programs shows that
Another
role of
effective program implementation
depends on the level of top
management commitment—the stronger
design
III. Serve as a champion to get
others on board. Employees will
be concerned about changes to

team
the performance management
system and how these changes
will affect them.

members IV. Involve others in contributing to

and trying-out the system. A final
role of design team members is

is to ensure to serve as a liaison between the

performance management team
and their units in the

that their development process.

constituent 3. Communicate.
- Communication should begin at the
s are kept launch of the design process. Design
team members should inform their

informed
constituents that revisions to the
performance management system are
planned, and gather input and feedback

about on desired system features.

- The communications and change-

progress in
management process must clearly and
simply explain to employees the
advantages and rationale for the new

the devel-
system. Organizational members should
also be provided with ample
opportunities to comment on the new

opment system, and their comments should be

responded to, if not actually addressed.

process
4. Automate
- Automation can greatly facilitate the
II. Disseminate information about performance management workflow and
the system. Another role of substantially reduce the paperwork
design team members is to associated with this process. In fact,
ensure that their constituents are evaluations of auto-mated performance
kept informed about progress in management systems show that they
the development process are viewed positively by managers and
employees, decrease workload, ensure
widespread access to performance based training can be used, each of
management tools and provide a which has advantages and
standardized, structured approach to disadvantages.
collecting and storing performance data.
- When employees and managers are
Basic, automated performance required to attend a structured
management applications typically contain: performance management briefing or
I. The functionality to conduct and classroom training session, this sends a
capture performance ratings, message that performance
including user interfaces for management is important. Classroom
displaying relevant competency, training is preferable when the training
performance standard and rating content requires hands-on practice or
process information. interactive discussions that are note
asily achieved with other training
II. Supporting Web pages that formats
contain help and information files. 7. Evaluate and Improve
5. Pilot Test Performance management systems
need to be evaluated and continually
- Another important factor in ensuring a improved overtime. There are several
successful implementation is to pilot test metrics that should be tracked to assess
the new process in a couple of units how effectively the sys-tem is operating.
prior to large-scale implementation. Pilot
testing will show if the system functions I. Track completion of training. This
smoothly and efficiently. It will also show involves verifying that all users of
if man-agers and employees understand the performance management
and support the process, or if further system have been trained prior to
change-management efforts are implementation.
needed. Importantly, a pilot test II. Track completion of performance
provides an opportunity to gauge management activities. In most
reactions to the system and make organizations, copies of
adjustments that will facilitate completed performance
organization-wide implementation. management forms are submitted
to Human Resources following
6. Train employees and managers. formal performance evaluations.
- Employees and managers need to be III. Management review.
able and motivated to use the Management review helps
performance management system ensure that narrative descriptions
effectively. Training helps accomplish match ratings, that ratings are not
both of these objectives. There are a positively or negatively biased,
number of training formats that can be that especially high or low ratings
used for performance management. have been properly justified, that
Classroom training, job aides or Web- evaluation criteria are being
applied systematically across
 circumstance
supervisors and employees, and
that proper distinctions are made
between employees.

EMPLOYEES KEY s faced by the

COMPETENCIES
a. Actualization of Mission
employee.
Q Describe
b. Accountability and Reliability
c. Budget Stewardship

what specific
d. Collaboration and College Ability
e. Effective Communication
f. Leadership and Talent
Management
g. Resourcefulness and Problem-
actions the
solving
h. Results Orientation. employee
took to
achieve
results.
Guidelines Q Describe

for Writing the impact of

Employee the
accomplishm
Accomplish ent on the
ments work unit or
Q Include the organization
situation or
-it is expected to
important exhibit and
to review the results
with they are
employees expected to
their achieve
performanc during the
e upcoming
expectation rating
s, including cycle.
both the Behaviors
behaviors are
employees important
are because
they reflect
how an -it is
employee important
goes about to review
getting the with
job done— employees
how the their
individual performanc
supports e
the team, expectation
communica s, including
tes, both the
mentors behaviors
others and employees
so forth are
expected to how an
exhibit and employee
the results goes about
they are getting the
expected to job done—
achieve how the
during the individual
upcoming supports
rating the team,
cycle. communica
Behaviors tes,
are mentors
important others and
because so forth.
they reflect