I am running a Performance Management Systems Strategy Development Workshop on April 17 and 18, 2018. I invite you to join me if you think you need help with some of the issues I’m discussing in this article.
Many organizations are not really benefiting from having a performance management system. They have a semblance of having one, but it does not work to align people’s behavior towards the pursuit of organizational goals. There are a number of flaws or issues in their system that needs addressing if their system is to work. Here they are:
- They don’t really have a performance management system. What they have is an annual performance appraisal event that they use to decide on salary adjustment. This seldom works, and if it does, it works contrarily to its purpose. Without a real system in place for clarifying goals, monitoring performance, giving or regular or real time feedback, coaching and mentoring, performance appraisals are bound to be expensive, time consuming way of adjusting people’s salaries and not much else. A good performance management system aids in improving people’s performance. If that is not happening, your system is failing.
- Lack of clear policy and guidelines on the implementation of the system. A good number of times, I’ve asked clients to show me their performance management system policy, and what they’ll show me is their appraisal forms with instructions, and that’s about it. A good performance management system provides clear guidelines to managers and employees about the process, their roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. It’s clear about its goals, how performance is rewarded and how non-compliance is dealt with.
- Appraisal forms are generic. This is one reason why people don’t take their performance appraisal seriously; they don’t understand why the form is exactly the same for two very different roles with very different expectations. People go through the motion of filling out the form to comply with the requirements of HR. A good system provides clear guidelines on behaviors that support performance. A competency-based performance management system, clearly defines behaviors that are aligned with results delivery. A good tool provides opportunity to link key performance indicators with competencies and behavioral expectations.
- The most important part of performance management is not part of the program. Performance Management has five components; performance goal setting, monitoring, developing capacity to perform, appraising, and rewarding good performance. Developing capacity to perform is remarkably absent in many performance management programs. Managers fail to recognize that the most important hat they wear in the process is that of a coach and not of a judge.
- Absence of regular or real time feedback mechanism. Many global companies are putting less emphasis on appraisal while some decided to remove it all together in lieu of regular feedback. They realize that the conversation between managers and their direct reports is very important in aligning their behavior and actions with what is necessary to improve performance.
- Ill-equipped managers. This is one big reason why performance management systems fail. HR develops a performance appraisal tool on their own. Does a quick (few hours) cascading on how to fill out the form and that’s it. Without ownership or buy-in, managers do the minimum required to submit the form. That’s not performance management. That’s just going through a futile motion of subjectively rating performance. One key to performance management system is well-trained and motivated managers. It takes more than just walking them through the tools. They need to learn the fundamentals of performance management system and the skills that lead to effective implementation.
If you feel that these issues exist in your organization and you are seeking to change it. Let me tell you what I plan to do on April 17 and 18. I will provide you with all the tools and knowledge you need to set up a competency-based performance management system in your organization. It starts with engaging your organizational counterparts, writing your performance management system policy (I’ll give you a template), Setting performance goals (KRA, KPI, Performance Standards, yes, I’ll give you a template) Competency based performance indicators (Yes, I’ll share not just a template but a competency dictionary for you to start with), Ways and tools to monitor performance (yes, templates), Strategy for developing capacity to perform and how to link it with your L&D strategy (yes, with templates), how to develop performance scorecards and competency-based appraisals (yes, with excel templates), Rewarding and Correcting performance. All of them, with sample tools you can customize because they’re all electronic copies and products of my years of experience working with dozens of companies putting together their performance management system.
Join me? Enroll now! Click this link for more details.
