How does my organization manage people's performance?

Performance Management is one of the key processes that, when effectively carried out, helps employees know that their contributions are recognized and acknowledged. Performance management is an ongoing process of communication between a supervisor and an employee that occurs throughout the year, in support of accomplishing the strategic objectives of the organization. The communication process includes clarifying expectations, setting objectives, identifying goals, providing feedback, and evaluating results.

Overseeing performance and providing feedback is not an isolated event, focused in a performance assessment or evaluation. It is an ongoing process that takes place throughout the year. The Performance management process is a cycle, with discussions varying year-to-year based on changing objectives.

Organizations that take this seriously manage performance via a set of inter-related techniques that fall under the headings Plan, Act, Monitor and Review:


(a) Planning.

• Mission - purpose, or what your organizations is trying to achieve.
• Vision - what things will look like in the future.
• Strategy - a long term sense of direction that will lead to the vision.
• Business plans - immediate targets and plans for reaching towards the vision.
• Values - the things we value, especially how people should behave.
• Culture - especially in which improving performance is valued and developed.
• Clear goals - at corporate, unit and individual levels.
• A set of competencies - to describe what good performance looks like.

(b) Taking Action.

• Good job design - creating jobs that satisfy. 
• Team working - interaction and mutual responsibility.
• Personal development - anything that would help people perform better including off the job training, coaching, reading , 'sitting with Nellie' etc.
• Management development.

(c) Monitoring.

• Monitoring  of performance - at individual, unit and corporate levels.

(d) Review and Rewards.

• Feedback of monitoring to staff.
• Appraisal discussions.
• Intrinsic rewards - the satisfaction of doing a worthwhile job.
• Extrinsic rewards and recognition - basic pay, performance pay, awards, saying 'well done'.
• Effective remedies for under performers.

A performance management process sets the platform for rewarding excellence by aligning individual employee accomplishments with the organization’s mission and objectives and making the employee and the organization understand the importance of a specific job in realizing outcomes. By establishing clear performance expectations which includes results, actions and behaviors, it helps the employees in understanding what exactly is expected out of their jobs and setting of standards help in eliminating those jobs which are of no use any longer. Through regular feedback and coaching, it provides an advantage of diagnosing the problems at an early stage and taking corrective actions.

To conclude, performance management can be regarded as a proactive system of managing employee performance for driving the individuals and the organizations towards desired performance and results. It’s about striking a harmonious alignment between individual and organizational objectives for accomplishment of excellence in performance.

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