The concept of performance management isn’t new. The vast majority of organisations have some form of performance management in place. In most cases, this relies on line and middle managers to take steps to improve employee performance. Although this is where many organisations run into trouble, with careful thought costly mistakes can be avoided.
Over-reaction: the enemy of performance management
One of the worst things that a manager can do to improve performance is to over-react. When people over-react, it is often difficult to retain an unbiased and objective opinion. This leads to the accentuation of factors that do not really contribute to performance, and allows critical factors to be ignored. It is extremely important to remain fair and consistent, developing a clear picture of what has contributed to performance.
Personality or performance
Many managers have difficulty distinguishing poor performance from personality conflicts. While it may appear as though performance is dwindling, this can often be perception on the managers behalf. To a certain extent workforce diversity can contribute to such perceptions. Culture differences can lead to differing opinions on how work should be performed, which leads managers to question performance. In such circumstances it is often helpful to obtain a third party opinion, or perhaps manage the performance process for that employee.
Poor Objectives, Poor Performance
If your performance management system relies on objectives that are vague, unachievable, or not applicable at the front-line, managing performance will be difficult. Objectives for performance management need to be clearly acheivable in a short time frame. This enables poor performance to be identified faster and with more precision. The earlier performance issues are identified, the easier they are to address.
Time is of the Essence
With meaningful objectives in place, it’s not difficult to identify poor performance. However, once it is identified, it must be addressed as soon as possible. Bring up the performance issue with the employee concerned as soon as practicable, remembering to follow your organisations processes. Set key milestones to monitor the performance back to an appropriate level. In some circumstances it is appropriate to have staff monitor their own performance, but an overall watch needs to be kept.
Thanks for these great tips and pointers. I know that everything I can gain on this topic will go towards making me a better manager.
You site really offers a lot of quality info, keep up the great work.
With meaningful objectives in place, it’s not difficult to identify poor perÂformance
that you had meen?
possible more detailed post?
Thank you for your comment. If you find that topic interesting, I can definitely do a more in depth article around objectives, goals and the link with exceptional performance.
Daniel
Hmm informative article. I come again later to read more post.
Another equally important factor in boosting performance in the workplace is to permit people to think, to allow them to agree and disagree even to the point of getting personal so long as discussions are left in the office. The point is people must be allowed to be creative and free enough to explore new possibilities.
Very true.
Daniel
What do you think of collaborating with the employee on objectives and giving them a sense of ownership towards their performance requirements?
I think it is an excellent idea! I’m in the process of writing a more in depth article on objectives and the relationship with performance, I’ll try to include some detail on management by objectives and other ways of building employee buy-in to objective settings. In short, it’s only foolish to exclude the people who know volumes about your business from building meaninful objectives for it…
Thanks for your comment!
I think the best way to maximize employees potentials that would lead to better work performance is through motivation and letting them explore new possibilities. Trust is also another equally important factor.Great article, very informative.Keep it up!
This is such a good article. I agree that as a manager you really should have a wider perspective on things especially in dealing with your people so you could bring out the best in them to let them perform at their best. One should also have a heart to feel his employee’s sentiments towards work.
Performance management is all about building up trusting relationships and motivating your staff.
I agree with your idea of getting a third party opinion when assessing performance, it’s all too easy to let personal assumptions and sentiment affect your judgment.
I think that you make many valid points here. All in all good managers produce good employees; if employees enjoy working for their superiors and respect their superiors because they feel respected and valued as well, they are more likely to be motivated to perform at a higher level. I think that quite often managers identify poor performance and instead of trying to remedy the situation they view their employee as replaceable. I think it is important for management to set ground rules and expectations early on and to follow through with those but to also be open to different personalities and respect and value diversity in the workplace as a positive trait versus a negative (within the right context/boundaries).
It is also very important to know the difference between managing and micromanaging. When employees are being micromanage it can make them feel like they are not being trusted with their work and can create frustration. Great post Daniel!
Thanks for your response Roger!
Daniel
In a business, it’s really important for a manager to be aware of the performance management to maximize the working potential of his employee which would lead to better and productive result.Ignorance of this may result to low business productivity. Very informative post, thanks for sharing.
Performance management is very essential in employer-employee relationship for a fact that good working environment in a company leads to better work performance of the employee. This will of course result to better business productivity. Managers should really be aware of this to avoid any problems in the future. Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts. Keep it up!