Performance Management

          Figure 1:Performance management

In essence, performance management  is an ongoing conversation between a manager and an employee about their job performance and how they can continue to improve, grow, and sharpen their skills. Throughout the year, this process helps set clear goals, measure progress, implement regular employee feedback, training, and coaching, and recognize areas of improvement and achievements, all with the goal of boosting individual performance and productivity.

The beauty of performance management is that it ultimately fosters an environment in which everyone can thrive. An added plus is that it also allows organizations to identify and address performance issues  in real-time, rather than waiting for that old school annual performance review to roll around.

Common Steps in Performance Management

          Figure 2:Steps in Performance management

• Aligning employees' activities with the company's mission and goals. Each employee should understand how their job contributes to the company's overall goals. Supervisors and employees together should define a job's duties.

• Developing specific job-performance outcomes. Through performance management, employees should understand: What goods or services does my job produce? What procedures does my job entail? What effect should my work have on the company? How should I interact with clients, colleagues, and supervisors?

• Creating measurable performance-based expectations. Employees should have the opportunity to give input into how success is measured. The expectations can include results, which are the goods and services an employee produces; actions, which are the processes an employee uses to make a product or perform a service; and behaviors, which are the demeanor and values an employee demonstrates at work.

• Defining job-development plans. Employees should have a say in what types of new things they learn and how they can use that knowledge to the company's benefit.

• Meeting regularly. Instead of waiting for an annual performance appraisal , managers and employees should engage actively year-round to evaluate progress.

Benefits of Performance Management

          

          Figure 3:Benefits of Performance management

 1. Enhances efficiency

Performance management tools help capture details about employees, including salaries, targets and goals, and performance. These data points enable organizations to consistently select the right employees for specific roles and promotions. They also help identify those who are not performing optimally, so that plans can be made for additional training or performance improvement plans (PIPs), etc.  

 2. Provides clarity

Performance management gives employees a clear understanding of their expectations, goals, and deliverables. It creates an amicable work environment as team leads and members are on the same page concerning deliverables and outcomes. Such work cultures, in turn, experience reduced conflict, increased efficiency, and enhanced performance quality.

3. Promotes job satisfaction

As employees gain clarity about their deliverables, and the expectations from them, it also creates opportunities for self-assessment, improved performance, and agency in defining one’s career path. This autonomy empowers employees to take charge of their growth and professional development, which in turn promotes job satisfaction.

4. Increases motivation

A performance management system identifies and showcases star performers in an organization. Such recognition helps develop a culture of excellence that motivates employees to produce their best work and put their skills to best use.

Organizations can choose to recognize and reward employees with monetary benefits, awards, or promotions. This drives home the message that the organization will reward good performance, and encourage others to strive for exceptional achievements. 

5. Enables objective decision-making

Humans often carry unconscious bias, which is hard to recognize and reduce. And while working with teams, there could be a natural tendency to favor a few. But a robust performance management system enables managers and leaders to make objective decisions while reducing biases, nepotism, favoritism, etc.  

A performance management system can provide data based purely on merit and map them to expected targets and goals, thereby making the process transparent and objective. This in turn enables objective decision-making.

6. Helps plan for training needs

While all employees undergo a series of mandated training programs in every organization, some employees might need extra support or assistance in certain areas. Training sessions can be curated and tailor-made to match the needs of poor performers so that the organization can enable them to improve their output.

What Is the Difference Between Performance Management and Performance Appraisal

Conclusion 

Conclusion. Performance management has come a long way from its traditional roots. The latest research highlights the importance of data-driven decision-making, employee-centric approaches, continuous feedback, and development-oriented practices.

Tard.C ,Investopedia,Performance management 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/performance-management.asp#:~:text=Performance%20management%20is%20a%20tool,with%20the%20organization's%20overall%20goals.

Workleap,2023,benefits of performance management

https://workleap.com/blog/benefits-of-performance-management/

Drawin box ,2024 benefits of performance management

https://blog.darwinbox.com/performance-management-benefits-challenges-advantages

Seynergy,2024,Different between performance management and performance appraisal 

https://www.synergita.com/blog/differentiate-employee-performance-management-and-performance-appraisal/#:~:text=Performance%20appraisal%20evaluates%20the%20employee's,core%20values%20of%20the%20organization.