Performance Management
Performance management is the process by which a company involves its employees as not only individuals but as groups to improve organizational effectiveness and the accomplishment of its mission and goals. It will look different in each organization but overall it includes planning work, setting expectations, monitoring performance, developing the ability to perform, rating performance periodically and rewarding good performance.
Performance management began about sixty years ago as a way to determine what an employee’s wage would be based on their performance, companies used this as a way to get their employees to get the job done. It was found that this method worked well for employees that were driven by financial rewards but for those seeking knowledge and skills it failed. Beginning in the late 1980’s it was realized that a more comprehensive approach was needed to manage and reward performance and the implementation of Human Resource management as a strategic driver in development of employees and the understanding that managing performance of employees is done throughout the year instead of once annually were two factors.
Performance management is a key tool for delivering better outcomes and one of the first steps is planning the work and setting expectations of your employees. In effective and successful companies performance expectations and goals for employees as individuals and groups are set up in advance to insure that the organizations objectives are met. Getting the employees involved in the planning will help them to understand what the companies goals are as well as what needs to be done, how it gets done and how well it should be done. These employee performance plans should be flexible so that they can be adjusted to organizational objective changes and changes in work requirements. Performance plans should be set up so that the elements and standards are measurable, understandable,...