“It isn't the incompetent who destroy an organization. It is those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up." Anonymous "Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on." Donald Rumsfeld Performance management is about ensuring that organisational / business goals are consistently met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on organisational, departmental, individual or process performance. Armstrong and Baron (1998) defined it as “A strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors” A performance management system will typically involve identifying desired results at the beginning of the performance cycle and measuring those against actual results at intervals during and at the end of the cycle. The identified gap is sometimes known as the perfomance improvement zone. A performance cycle (or performance management process) normally includes: - Perfomance planning - goals and objectives are set
- Performance monitoring and coaching - performance is monitored on an ongoing basis, the manager provides coaching or other assistance to realign performance as necessary
- Performance appraisal - performance is formally reviewed, measured and documents with feedback given
Key benefits of Performance Management - Focuses on outputs and outcomes not on inputs and activities
- Aligns individual and departmental activities to organisational goals
- Cultivates a high performance culture
- Produces meaningful measurements
- Depersonalises issues - focuses on behavious and results rather than people and personailites
- Provides a fair and transparent system of appraisal
- Supports ongoing communication and feedback on organisational goas and enhance management - employee relationships
- Identifies skills gaps and learning and development needs
- Helps employees understand business goals and drivers and enhances engagement and commitment
- A robust performance management process will lead to increased productivity and reduced cost
Do you have a system in place to help you achieve performance improvements and maximise the contribution of every employee? Contact us today to find out today how Consulting Excellence can help you. | 
