Performance Management eBook

About This Product

In the increasingly competitive and complex business world, a company's profit margin is often determined by how effectively it utilizes and evaluates its employees. It could even be said that the very survival of these organizations depends on management's ability to make optimal use of a fair, reasonably accurate, and objective performance evaluation system. Manuals and guides for performance evaluation abound, I believe most lack an integrated system which encompasses not only performance appraisals, but the daily performance management as well.

This book, Performance Management, goes beyond a simple discussion of the performance evaluation and instead lays out the guidelines for effective management and how to encourage optimal performance on an ongoing basis.

Every manager knows that employee productivity directly affects company productivity; and one of a manager's primary responsibilities is to assure that each employee works as effectively and efficiently as possible. Unfortunately, many managers do not realize the pivotal role that a comprehensive performance management system can play in improving employee productivity. This enhanced productivity in turn leads to greater company-wide productivity and profit.

What is performance management? An effective performance management system helps both managers and employees to work smarter instead of harder to achieve productivity and profitability. This book describes performance management, shows how effective performance management can lead to increased profits and outlines the manager’s role in the process, including: employee development, setting standards, on-going monitoring and aligning performance management with company goals.

This book gives managers quick and easy access to the information they need each step of the way along the path to implementing and maintaining a successful performance management system.

Once you’ve read this book, you’ll understand the purpose and benefits of performance management systems, the components of these systems and the roles of the manager, employee and the company. You will also have concrete evidence of the success of such systems in actual businesses.

Outline:

Chapter 1: Understanding Performance Management
Good people make businesses successful. If you know this, then you are on your way to understanding performance management. A properly implemented and maintained performance management system does more than just retain employees—it keeps people motivated and productive. The system works because it is a continuous collaboration of employees, and managers observing, giving feedback, setting and evaluating goals, planning and coaching.

Chapter 2: Understanding the Job and Setting Standards
Chapter 1 explained the basics about performance management: what it is, whose using it, why they’re using it, and what happens if such a system is implemented poorly or not at all. Use this chapter to begin implementing a performance management system. The first step in implementing performance management is to fully understand the employee’s job, so that appropriate standards can be set for the employee.

Chapter 3: Ongoing Monitoring and Feedback
Once a position’s goals and standards have been defined, the next step is to determine how these objectives can be evaluated. If you know that your library cataloguers need to average 20 full entries per day, then you have a quantifiable goal. A cataloguer who falls short of this requirement needs assistance, and since the position has a standard and defined goal, the cataloguer is less likely to resist guidance and training. Incorporating performance standards into job descriptions enables managers to exercise greater authority in regulating employee output. It also ensures that employees understand the expectations what is expected of them, which may reduce resistance to supervision and constructive criticism.

Chapter 4: The Performance Appraisal
The performance appraisal itself is the part of the performance management system that parallels the old employee review. Even here, though, you will find that certain changes that will boost the positive impact and long-term value of the appraisal procedure to the employee and the company.

Chapter 5: Development and Compensation Programs
At this point you understand the concept and benefit of performance management, and you know more about the steps involved in performance management, including feedback and the performance appraisal. The final piece to the puzzle is the development of your employees and selecting the right system to link compensation to performance. This chapter is placed last so that issues of reward and compensation don’t get confused with performance evaluation, and so that you have all the preliminary terms, definitions and concepts in place before tackling the idea of employee development. In practice, development should happen throughout the performance management process, and compensation should be linked to at least some parts of the performance management system.

Conclusion
Simply put, Performance Management systems pay attention to people. The company realizes and communicates the value of people resources, and of working together. Managers and employees take this message and work together toward company goals. Employees communicate what they think they should be doing, where they see problems with their own performance or the attention or feedback they get from the manager, and where the employee wants to go. The manager gives the employee feedback, accepts feedback, and re-moves obstacles or works out employee problems to ensure productivity.