Performance Management in HRM

What is a Performance Management System?

 This is a process of evaluation of performance of the employees to ensure that the  employees are aware of the levels of performance is expected by the management from them, ensure there given targets are met, identify the shortfall if any and where the employee should improve themselves in achieving the organizational objectives

According to   Aguinis 2009, Performance management is a continues process of identifying measuring and development of employees and aligning their performance wowards the targets of the organization.

                                                                                               

 Any goal and objectives setting  has to be mutually agreed upon between the employer and employee,  smaller organisations adopt an informal approach while  larger organisations  tend to have a more formal documented process in place for managing employee performance mainly for transparency..

It is generally considered good practice to communicate what form of performance management system your organisation uses for its employees during induction process. By the end of the induction process the employee should be aware of their goals and objectives they need to achieve within their role to ensure they are performing satisfactorily.

The sole purpose of a performance management system is to assess and ensure that the employee is carrying out their duties which they are employed to do in an effective and satisfactory manner, which is contributing to the overall business objectives.

Impact of performance management in workplace…..

In workplace employee may subjectively feel that they are carrying out the duties for which they were engaged in a satisfactory manner. However employer objectively feels that the employee is not carrying out those duties satisfactorily. If there is no feedback from employer to the employee on their progress, then the employee will not realize that they are aligned  or not  with the objectives of the organisation.

Hence if the employee is identified to be working below the expectation of the organisation and their  capacity, then this performance deficit will need to be addressed sooner rather than later as this performance issue will have direct consequences for the individual, department and organisation performance.

When dealing with an employee  performance  it is important to identify the  areas that they are  under-performing such as effective behavior, effective performance, achieving business targets or personal reasons or purely performance related.

A performance management meeting organised to discuss the employee performance should be a two way discussion which will provide you the opportunity to find out whether there are any underlying issues that you may not be aware of that are affecting the employee's performance. For example: clashes of personality, domestic situations, lack of training, etc.

At the end of the meeting the employee should be aware of the following outcomes:

·         Aware of their performance goals and expected behaviour required by the organisation

·         Agreed action plan to rectify the employees performance issues, with clear guidelines.

·         Mutually agree a date to review the employee performance

·         Consequences that could result from the employee performance not improving

·         Areas identified to improve performance through Development and Training

An effective performance management system will have positive  effect of focusing employees on the organisation and individual objectives through identifying  training and development needs, and by providing constructive feedback to  employees on their performance.

A  rewards process can be also integrated into the performance management system to encourage employees to continually improve their individual performance and personal targets. In return  the organisation will have motivated and trained workforce which will be directly focused on the achievement of its strategic goals and maintaining business productivity through staff retention and succession planning.

References:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-7908-2197-0_4

Barrick MR, Mount MK (1991) The big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. Pers Psychol

Armstrong, M. 2008. Performance Management: Key Strategies and Practical Guidelines. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Limited.

Arthur, W. B., Durlauf, S. and Lane, D. 1997. The Economy as Evolving Complex Systems II. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.

Beer, M., Ruh, R., Dawson, J.A., McCaa, B.B., and Kavanagh, M. J.. (1978). “A Performance Management System: Research, Design, Introduction and Evaluation,” Personnel Psychology