What is Performance Management in HRM? (Introduction)

Human resource management (HRM) conducts performance management. Performance management systems consist of the activities and/or processes embraced by an organization in anticipation of improving employee performance, and therefore, organizational performance. Consequently, performance management is conducted at the organizational level and the individual level. At the organizational level, performance management oversees organizational performance and compares present performance with organizational performance goals. The achievement of these organizational performance goals depends on the performance of the individual organizational members. Therefore, measuring individual employee performance can prove to be a valuable performance management process for the purposes of HRM and for the organization.

For starters, performance management is the process of reviewing an employee’s performance during the preceding year or cycle and deciding where he or she stands as far as their peers in the same band are concerned. The process of reviewing results, arriving at a rating and then deciding upon the bonus or salary hike is what performance management is all about.


So, what is it that is so important about performance management?


Performance Management includes activities that ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas.

Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Performance management is a whole work system that begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves your organization.

An effective performance management process sets the foundation for rewarding excellence.

• By linking individual employee work efforts with the organization’s mission and objectives, the employee and the organization understand how that job contributes to the organization.
• By focusing attention on setting clear performance expectations (results + actions & behaviors), it helps the employee know what needs to be done to be successful on the job. 
• Through the use of objectives, standards, performance dimensions, and other measures it focuses effort. This helps the department get done what needs to be done and provides a solid rationale for eliminating work that is no longer useful.
• By defining job-mastery and career development goals as part of the process, it makes it very clear how the current position supports employee growth and the additional opportunities the employee needs to explore.
• Through regular check-in discussions, which include status updates, coaching, and feedback, it promotes flexibility, allowing you and the employee to identify problems early and change the course of a project or work assignment.
• By emphasizing that an annual appraisal should simply be a summary of the conversations held between you and the employee during the entire cycle, it shifts the focus away from performance as an “annual event” to performance as an on-going process.

An effective performance management process, while requiring time to plan and implement, can save you and the employee time and energy. Most importantly, it can be a very effective motivator, since it can help you and the employee achieve the best possible performance.

Performance Management deals with the tangible aspects of getting the best out of your people - systems, techniques, team working, structure, etc. it concentrates on the ways to organize your people, and is, therefore, about management. i.e.

"How I get my people to do what i want them to do, in the way I want them to do it!"

How does my organization manage people's performance? >>>

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