Performance Management That Makes A Difference: An Evidence-Based Approach

 

When it comes to defining performance management, it refers to a wide collection of several tasks planned for maximizing performance of individuals as well as organization. This complete process includes goal setting, measuring behaviors and results, providing feedback and coaching to employees and finally evaluation of performance that further aids in making important decisions within the organization. The main objective of performance management is to align efforts made by individuals in order to accomplish organizational goals.

Why Performance Management Fails So Often ?

The process to design performance management needs a lot of efforts and time, still in some companies, it fails to bring the desired results. Why is that so? Let’s explore some reasons.

• Performance Management Aims to Fulfill Many Objectives

The program not just provides the foundation for talent decisions, it also improves communication and relationships, enhances career development and deals with legal challenges. Even though, these are important issues to address, but due to multiple goals, this leads to conflict with each other.

Basically, there is a need of different system, assessment and measure for each purpose, but here performance management is dealing all objectives with a single approach.

• When The Basis of Performance Management is Mistrust

Sometimes, the company beliefs that managers might favor their favorites in performance appraisal, thus to overcome this problem, careful monitoring is ensured. This kind of mistrust results in rigid and tightly controlled process, adding complications to the systems and delivering no value. 

•  Poor Implementation of Whole Process

When a performance management system is not implemented correctly, it results in absence of buy-in from employees and leaders. Actually, poor implementation of the program include lack of communication, processes and rules that undermine investment and effective conversations in development, no support from seniors and insufficient training.

• Emphasizing on Completion of Steps
  
  

The company focuses on processes and rules at the expense of devoting in feedback, good communication, relationships among managers and employees. However, most of the approaches in     performance management emphasize on the steps, such as filling all forms and adhering to the rules. These elements have little effectiveness on actual performance. The factors that make a difference are relationships between employees and managers and effective communication.

How to Design a Sensible Performance Management

If an organization does not want its performance management system to fail, then it has to work on designing a sensible approach that is an agile performance management. This requires a company to make several shifts from old procedures to creative ways of thinking.


The modifications focus on communication, relationships, flexibility and simplicity and stopped blind obedience to procedures and policies, rigidity and complexity. For instance, instead of having detailed documentation to validate ratings for every employee, companies can simply provide tools or checklists to make documentation uncomplicated. Moreover, there should be no requirement of written narratives to justify ratings for employees who are already meeting expectations.

How to Implement Successful Agile Performance Management ?

Now after designing a sensible approach to performance management, the next step is its careful implementation. Here is a guideline that explains the tips for successful implementation of performance management.

•  Transition

Your leadership needs to aware the managers and employees of the company regarding the advantages of making the transition to agile performance management. Good dialogue and transparency are key for easier transition. Poor communication will result in frustration, confusion and resis­tance.

• Effective Training 
  

The company needs to properly spend time to train­ the lead­ers so they get an idea as what to pass on to managers. In this way, man­agers will also get con­fi­dence to achieve leader’s objectives, which ultimately provide support to employ­ees as well.

• Offer Devel­op­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ties
  

When managers and employees will get to know the benefits of agile performance management, they will get ready for this transition with loyalty. For this, you need to explain that how this sys­tem will aid them in achieving their career goals as well as their per­son­al devel­op­ment objec­tives.

• Set Smart Goals
  

The company needs to have SMART objectives instead of long-term annual goals. Short-term SMART objectives encourage employees to know the current position of the company and what it needs to achieve.

• Con­duct Ongoing Reviews
  

After implementing a new system, it is necessary to mon­i­tor the adop­tion lev­els regularly and identify the con­cerns and address them as early as possible.

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