July 2005
The following article was first published in the Eastern Daily Press' 'The Business' on 20 July 2005
Managing performance - an oxymoron?
Staff appraisals, annual reviews, performance management systems - do you, as a manager, dread these words? Or, perhaps, do you simply ignore them in the hopes they'll go away? Do you anticipate the annual round of meetings with members of your team about their performance with a feeling of panic, worrying that you'll not remember all of the things you need to say? Or even that you'll not know what to say in the first place? As I was preparing for a workshop on the topic of performance management for a client, I wondered how many readers of this column struggle with this issue.
I've written here before about the importance of engaged employees in any organisation, the benefits that come from having happy, high-performing people working for you. A fully engaged team brings improved productivity, efficiency, customer satisfaction and profit. But how does a business owner or manager go about realising such improvements?
You may also recall in a previous article a number of questions that the Gallup Organisation uses in assessing the degree of employee engagement in the workplace. I detailed six of the 12 used by Gallup and it's appropriate here to look at four of those questions:
Do I know what is expected of me at work?In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?Does my boss, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?Is there someone at work who encourages my development?The key to productive performance management that can lead to significantly improved business performance and happier, more engaged employees is consistent and constant communication - not an annual form-filling exercise.
To begin with, your people need to know what is expected of them - objectives against which their performance will be measured. Some of these might take the form of targets to be met or tasks to be completed by a specified date. They should be both work-related, referring to the results to be attained, and personal, taking the form of developmental objectives for the individual.
Next, you need to talk to your people regularly (and by this I mean every day or week at least) about how they're doing. Be quick to praise for something well done, but don't shy away from confronting behaviour or progress against an objective that is below that which you expect. It's important to recognise people when they do something well - a brief `well done' in the corridor or, even more powerful, a simple handwritten note saying `thanks' have immense impact. Continuous monitoring and feedback should then be supported by formal reviews, but these reviews should contain no surprises for either party and should be focused mainly on the future: what new objectives should be agreed and what developmental needs does the employee have? If you have spent your time with your employees wisely throughout the year, the review of past performance might only take five minutes and you will be able to concentrate the rest of your time on what's right for the individual - and the organisation.
So, improving business performance is not really more complicated than managing the performance of every individual within your organisation. Simple, isn't it? I didn't say it was easy - merely simple. But, constant communication with your team about the way they perform, thanking them when they do something well, but being prepared to criticise them when they don't, makes the annual performance review far less frightening for both parties - and far more useful as a tool to make your organisation more successful.