Performance Management

Performance Management

Performance management reminds us that being busy is not the same as producing results. It reminds us that training, strong commitment and lots of hard works alone are not results. The major contribution of performance management is its focus on achieving results -- useful products and services for customers inside and outside the organization.
Goal of Performance Management
The overall goal of performance management is to ensure that the organization and all of its subsystems (processes, departments, teams, employees, etc.) are working together in an optimum fashion to achieve the results desired by the organization.
Activities of Performance Management
Achieving the overall goal requires several ongoing activities, including:
• identification and prioritization of desired results,
• establishing means to measure progress toward those results,
• setting standards for assessing how well results were achieved,
• tracking and measuring progress toward results,
• exchanging ongoing feedback among those participants working to achieve results, (rating)
• periodically reviewing progress,
• reinforcing activities that achieve results and
• intervening to improve progress where needed.

Steps in Performance Management
1. Organizational goals are often established during strategic planning.
2. Specify desired results for the domain -- as guidance, focus on results needed by other domains (e.g., to internal or external customers)
3. Aligning results with organizational results is another unique aspect of performance management process.
4. Weight, or prioritize, the domain's desired results.
5. Identify first-level measures to evaluate if and how well the domain's desired results were achieved
Measures provide information to evaluate accomplishment of results.
Identifying which measures to take is often the toughest part of the performance management process. You have to look at the appropriate level or domain in the...