Performance management is one of the foundational building blocks to successful corporate culture and better business. It’s defined by Business News Daily as, “a formal performance management program helps managers and their employees see eye-to-eye on expectations, goals and career progress, and how those things align with the company’s vision…Performance management begins with an aligned set of objectives against which each employee can be measured. It also emphasizes learning and development for a higher level of workplace performance. Each employee should be motivated to improve his or her skills, competencies, development and delivery of results.”
Performance appraisal is one part of performance management, but the performance management process includes several elements that need to be coordinated and handled to effectively drive performance. Modern-day performance management process has been streamlined over time to drive better employee performance and business success.
What’s the secret to the best possible performance management process?
The top performance management techniques to know
1. Start with strategy
Performance management begins with an understanding of how employee performance is really linked to the goals of the company. What are the metrics to understand how employees are really contributing to the success of your brand? How do you know if they’re making an impact? You need to know what your strategic organizational goals are before you can start your performance management in earnest, otherwise, you won’t know what you’re measuring against.
2. Use a performance management software
One of the best ways to support your performance management objectives is to ensure that you’re using the performance management tools that work for you. Finding performance management software can help automate many things, making the overall process more streamlined and more effective. Good performance management software helps you facilitate better, more regular feedback between employees, managers, and HR. It also offers a storage solution for written feedback, questions, review documents, goals sheets, and even training materials for employees and managers to access.
3. Set a schedule and stick to it
Whether you’re planning weekly one-on-ones with your team members or annual employee reviews, it’s important that these are a priority. It’s too easy for businesses to slack off with check-ins and reviews because other projects come up. Managing your performance process means managing your time and making sure that employees know when their reviews will be to give them time to prepare questions or other feedback. Keeping to a schedule helps to build trust and enables better communication and relationships. Performance management tools also give businesses more data to use to grow a better understanding of productivity and goal alignment as they relate to employee performance and projects, as well as improve overall employee engagement.
4. Incorporate regular recognition
Employee performance is affected by several things, the most important of which is the recognition of their work and meeting their objectives. Recognition can come in the form of verbal or written communication, compensation, or other incentives, but it’s important to make sure that your performance management is driven by more than just criticizing or critiquing. These things certainly have their place and are necessary, but if all conversations involve some kind of criticism it will effectively reduce morale – the exact opposite intent of good performance management. If you find that that is the case with certain employees, it’s important to consider other employee performance management techniques, such as additional training.
The importance of the performance management process
Business News Daily reminds businesses, “Consistent performance management shifts the focus away from annual reviews to a more ongoing form of accountability. Implementing periodic meetings ensures a continual push for progress, rather than a sudden rush to meet objectives at review time.”
Recognizing the benefits of performance management as an integral part to employee success is one of the secrets to establishing the best performance management process possible – once you know how performance management can boost your business productivity, you are more likely to make the changes and take the steps necessary to create the best process. Your performance management techniques matter when it comes to getting the most out of your performance management process.
The benefits of good performance management include:
!. Better communication
Employees and managers who communicate more regularly can more clearly align on goals and decrease the likelihood of misunderstanding or lost information.
2. Better understanding
The rules and expectations are more clearly defined, giving employees and managers both a better sense of what they need to pay the most attention to.
3. Less stress
When performance management is limited to annual performance appraisal, employees can start to stress about what that conversation will hold. With clearer expectations comes reduced stress. Employees aren’t panicking about if they’re on track and managers can have regular conversations about productivity and performance.
Performance management techniques require some practice – not everything will work for every business. But finding the best performance management techniques that work for you will be a sure way to help retain talent and raise productivity.