 What is performance management? People often think that performance management is either just appraising people once per year, or only managing when performance is poor. The diagram below, shows that performance management has many elements, and is a process not an event.
Owl's commentary: The importance of establishing clear standards and objective/targets. The acronymn SMART has been around for some time to help us think about this. People should be able to answer the following questions
Performance agreements differ from standard job descriptions in that they are "flexible documents" continually updated to reflect what the job holder actually does. Therefore, they are best written by the job holder and "agreed" by the manager. If you conduct well documented one to one sessions, the formal once per year review become just that. This avoids the classic mistake of "No surprises" in reviews. Get into the habit of allowing the person to write up your meetings, including the annual review, then they have to get you to agree! If there is a disciplinary matter NEVER wait for the review meeting, deal with it straight away, using the procedure issued by your company. Try to separate "pay review" from "performance review" otherwise the review turns into a salary negotiation. Of course the two are linked in many schemes, good practice says that frequent "mini" reviews can ease the problem. Unfortunately, many other factors influence the organisation's ability to pay, so even brilliant performers can receive mediocre pay awards in difficult times. Finally, good performance management is good management, no fancy appraisal scheme will compensate for poor management. This page was last updated on: 24 September 2000 |
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