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Is there a danger we are over-complicating Performance Management?

In recent years we have seen an explosion in IT based solutions capable of supporting, and improving, the Performance Management processes within organisations. It is now possible to seamlessly link your Performance Appraisal process with competency frameworks, 360 degree assessment, succession planning, training support and many other features.

However, it is possible to miss the real point by believing that the implementation of technology will, in itself, improve the output of the Performance Management process within your organisation.

There is no doubt that the introduction of a system that can be accessed online easily by staff, Managers and HR Administrators alike can give enormous advantages over traditional paper-based procedures. The opportunity for staff to access their objectives and record progress against agreed targets at any point throughout the appraisal period opens up the opportunity to focus staff performance on the key tasks that are important to the organisations survival and growth.

The trap not to fall into is assuming that by implementing a clever computerised Performance Management system better performance of staff will be a natural consequence. The main issues that need to be addressed in delivering a first class Performance Management process revolve around the quality of data that goes into the process and how people use that data. The 3 key areas are Objective Setting, Monitoring Performance and Giving Feedback.

Objective Setting - The starting point for Objective Setting is for the organisation to have concise, powerful Business Goals that are clear to staff in order that they can be translated into planning priority activities for the coming year, and beyond. Staff should be fully involved in drafting their own Personal Objectives that deliver these Business Goals in their part of the business. Aligning Personal Objectives with the Business Goals prevents the common practice of staff continuing to work on non-priority tasks, that they feel comfortable working on, but do not directly contribute to the achievement of the Business Goals. If Personal Objectives are aligned to the Business Goals and contain both qualitative and quantitive targets a major impact on workforce efficiency will be seen, possibly up to 40% improvement.

Monitoring Performance - Monitoring Performance can be made to be a far less daunting experience if SMART Performance Objectives are written containing clear target dates. Any well designed, computerised Performance Management system producing personalised E-Mail reminders of upcoming target dates will keep the key tasks at the forefront of peoples? focus. The mindset should be to anticipate if a target might not be met, discuss ways in which the situation might be remedied and put this new plan into action. This ?real time? monitoring of performance is vastly different to the practice of retrospective justification of missed targets that often form the basis of one-off , end of year appraisal discussions that have dominated past practice.

Giving Feedback - Finally, Giving Feedback has probably been the area where most Managers in the UK have struggled in the past. The key is to ensure that the facts about a persons performance are obvious through the setting of clear, stretching objectives where the results are monitored regularly throughout the year, resulting in no new surprises at the year end interview, thus allowing openness and honesty to come to the fore.

Author: Malcolm Jones (FCIPD)
Published: 06/11/2009