Performance Management

According to Coffman, "Performance refers to all activity of an individual which occurs during a period marked by his continuous presence before a particular set of observers and which has some influence on the observers". According to Louis R. Gomez and David B. Mejia, "Performance management is the process through which managers ensure that employee's activities and Outputs contribute to organizational goals". According to Armstrong, "Performance management is a: means of getting. better results from the organization, teams and individuals by tinder-standing and managing performance within an agreed framewo. C of planned goals, standards and competence requirements."

Objectives of Performance Management

The overall aim of performance management is to establish a culture in which individuals and groups take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes, and of their own skills and contributions. . These systems can be used to communicate and reinforce the organization's strategies, values and norms, and to integrate individual and corporate objectives. But they also enable individuals to express their own views on what they should be doing, where they should be going and how they should be managed. Thus, they provide a means whereby expectations can be shared between managers and their staff. Managers can clarify their expectations of what they want their staff to do and staff can communicate their expectations on how they should be treated. Performance management systems can also be used as an integrating process, which meshes various human resource management activities with the business objectives of the organization. They identified two broad thrusts towards integration: I) Reward-driven Integration: It emphasizes the role of performance payment systems in changing organizational behavior and tends to undervalue the part played by other human resource development (HRD) activities. 2) Development-driven Integration: It stresses the importance of ensuring that appropriate HRD activities are in place to meet the long--term objectives of the organization and, furthermore, to ensure business needs and HRD are coordinated. Although performance pay may operate in these

organizations, it is perceived to - be complementary to HRD activities, rather than dominating or driving them. The specific aims of performance management are to: i) Achieve sustainable improvements in the organizational performance; ii) Enable individuals to develop their abilities, increase their job satisfaction and achieve their full potential to their own benefit and that of the organization as a whole. Develop constructive and open relationships between individuals and their managers in a process of continuing dialogue, which is linked to the work actually being donethroughout the year; iv) Provide a framework for the agreement of objectives as expressed in targets and standards of performance, so that mutual understanding of these objectives and the role both managers and individuals have to play in achieving them, is increased v) Provide for the accurate and objective measurement and assessment of performance in relation to agreed targets and standards, so that individuals receive feedback from managers on how well they are doing; i) On the basis of this assessment, to enable individuals with their managers to agree improvement plans and methods of implementing them, and jointly review training and development needs and agree how they should be satisfied ; vii) Provide an opportunity for individuals to express their aspirations and concerns about their work; viii)Provide a basis for rewarding people in relation to their contribution by financial and/or non-financial means the former consisting of performance related pay, and the latter including recognition of achievement and opportunities to take on more responsibility or enhance knowledge and skills.

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Philosophy of Performance Management Performance management seeks to link individual and team job performance to the objectives and strategy of theA organization. It is a continuous process that involves managers and employees in the identification and evaluatio. of key performance, objectives and competencies that contribute to the attainment of the objectives and strategy of the organization. Performance management fosters and rewards excellent performance by motivating allek employees to perform at their best, keeping in view the principles of fairness and transparency. It is a. dynamic. process Which involves active involvement of both managers and their employees on an equal footing.

philosophy behind performance management can be captured in the following six care strategies: I) Clarify job responsibilities and clearly state agreed-upon goals (or performance expectations/performance Standards/performance criteria). 2) Communicate regularly by giving and receiving feedback throughout the year on performance, goals, directions, and changing expectations.

3) Counsel to improve performance problems and/or develop employee performance. 4) Compare performance to agreed-upon goals periodically and evaluate results. 5) Cultivate continuous learning, employee growth, and development. 6) Celebrate exemplary performance.

Process of Performance Management Performance management is the systematic process by which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and goals. Performance management process includes. planning, monitoring, developing, rating and rewarding

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rewarding

monitoring

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developing

1) Planning: In an effective organization, work is planned out in advance. Planning means setting performance expectations and goals for groups and individuals to channel their efforts 'toward achieving organizational objectives. Getting employees involved in the planning process will help them understand the goals of the orgailization,what needs to be done, why it needs to be done, and how well it should be done. The: regulatory requirements for planning employees' Perfermance include establishing the elements and standards of their performance appraisal plans. Perfcnnance elements and standards should be measurable, understandable, verifiable, equitable, and achievable. Through critical elements, employees are held accountable as individuals for work assignments or responsibilities. Employee performance plans should be flexible so that they can be adjusted for changing program objectives and work requirements. When used effectively, these plans can be beneficial working documents that are discussed often, and not merely paperwork that is filed in a drawer and seen only when ratings of record are required. 2) Monitoring: Monitoring well means consistently measuring performance and providing ongoing feedback to employees and work groeps on their progress toward reaching their goals. Regulatory requirements for monitoring performance include conducting progress reviews with employees where their performance is compared against their elements and standards. Ongoing monitoring provides the opportunity to check how well employees are meeting predetermined standards and to make changes to unrealistic or problematic standards. And by monitoring continually, unacceptable performance can be identified at any time during the appraisal period and assistance provided to address such performance rather than wait until the end of the period when summary rating levels arc. Assigned. In an effective organization, employee developmental needs are evaluated and addressed. Developing in this instance means increasing the capacity to perform through training, giving assignments that introduce new skills or higher levels of responsibility, improving work processes, or other methods. Providing employees with training and developmental opportunities encourages good performance, strengthens job-related skills and competencies, and helps employees keep up with changes in the workplace, such as the introduction of new technology .Carrying out the processes of performance management provides an excellent opportunity to identify developmental needs. During planning and monitoring of work, deficiencies in performance become evident and can be addressed. Areas for improving good performante also stand out, and action can be taken to help successful employees improve even further.

3) Developing: In an effective organization, work is plarined out in advance. Planning means setting performance expectations and goals for groups and individuals to channel their efforts toward achieving organizational objectives. Getting employees involved in the planning process will help them understand the goals of the organization, what needs to be done, why it needs lobe done, and how well it should be done. The regulatory requirements for planning employees' performance include establishing the elements and standards of their performance appraisal plans. Performance elements and standards should be measurable, understandable, verifiable, equitable, and achievable. Through critical elements, employees are held accountable as individuals for work assignments or responsibilities. Employee performance plans should be flexible so that they can be adjusted for changing program objectives and work requirements. When used effectively, these plans can be beneficial working documents that are discussed often, and not merely paperwork that is filed in a drawer and

seen only when ratings of record are required. In an effective organization, assignments and projects are monitored continually. Monitoring well means consistently measuring performance and providing ongoing feedback to employees and work groups on their progress toward reaching their goals. 4) Rating: From time to time, organizations find it useful to summarize employee performance. This can be helpful for looking at and comparing performance over time or among various employees. Organizations need to know who their best performers are. Within the context of formal performance appraisal requirements, rating means evaluating employee or group performance against the element.; and standards in an employee's performance plan and assigning a summary rating of record. The sating of record is assigned according to procedures included in the organization's appraisal program. It is based on work performed during an entire appraisal period. The rating of record has a bearing on various other personnel actions, such as granting withingrade pay increases and determining additional retention service credit in a reduction in force. Note: Although group performance may have an impact on an employee's summary rating, a rating of record is assigned only to an individual, not to a group. 5) Rewarding: In an effective organization, rewards are used well. Rewarding means recognizing employees, individually and as members of groups, for their performance and acknowledging their contributions to the agency's mission. A basic principle of effective management is that all behavior is controlled by its consequences. Those consequences can and should be both formal and informal and both positive and negative. Good performance is recognized without waiting for nominations for formal awards to be solicited. Recognition is an ongoing, natural part of day-to-day experience. A lot of the actions that reward good performance like saying "Thank you" don't require a specific regulatory authority. Nonetheless, awards regulations provide a broad range of forms that more formal rewards can take, such as cash, time off, and many non-monetary items. The regulations also cover a variety of contributions that can be rewarded, from suggestions to group accomplishments.

Performance appraisal

according to Flippo, "Performance appraisal is a systematic, periodic and so far as humanly possible, an impartial rating of an employee's excellence in matters pertaining to his present job and to his potentialities for a better job". A formal definition of Performance appraisal is that, "It is the systematic evaluation of the individual with respect to his or her performance on the job and his or her potential for development

Objectives/Purpose of Performance Appraisal

I) Providing Feedback: Providing feedback is the most common justification for an organization to have a performance appraisal system. Through its performance appraisal process the individual learns exactly hoNieee, well lie did during the previous twelve months and can then use that information to improVe h&.e performance in the future. In this regard, performance appraisal serves another important purpose by making sure that the boss's expectations are clearly communicated. 2) Facilitating Promotion Decisions: Almost everyone in an organization wants to get ahead.. How should the company decide who gees the brass rings? Performance appraisal makes it easier for the organization to make good decisions about making sure that the most important positions are filled by the most capable individuals. 3) Facilitating Lay-off or Downsizing Decisions: If promotions are what everybody wants, lay-offs are what everybody wishes to avoid. But when economic realities force an organization to downsize, performancC appraisal helps make sure that the most talented individuals are retained and that only the organization'S' marginal performers are cut loose. 5) Motivating Superior Performance: This is another classic reason for having a performance appraisal system. Performance appraisal helps motivate people to deliver superior performance in several ways. First, the appraisal process helps them learn just what it is that the organization considers being "superior." Second, since most people want to be seen as superior performers, a performance appraisal process provides them witic, a means to demonstrate that they actually are. Finally, performance appraisal encourages employees to avoid being stigmatized as inferior performers'(or, often worse, as merely "average"). 6) Setting and Measuring Goals: Goal setting has consistently been demonstrated as a management process that generates superior performance. The performance appraisal process is commonly used to make sure that every member of *he oiganizetion sets and achieves effective goals. 7) Counseling Poor Performers: Not everyone ineets the organization's standards. Performance appraisal - forces managers to confront those whose performance is not meeting the company's expectations". 9) Encouraging Coaching and Mentoring: Managers are expected to be good coaches to their tearn, members and mentors to their proteges. Performance appraisal identifies the areas where coaching is necessary and encourages managers to take an active coaching role. 10) Improving Overall Organizational Performance: This is the most important reason for an organization to have a performance appraisal system. A performance appraisal procedure allows the organization to communicate performance expectations to every member of the team and assess exactly how well each how he is

person is doing. When everyone is clear on the expactations and knows exactly performing against them, this wili result in an overall improvement in organizational success

Performance Coaching

Meaning of Performance Coaching Performance coaching involves establishing a collegial partnership between managers and their staff for the purpose of improving performance. Through teaching, mentoring. counseling, and providing feedback, managers inspire and motivate their employees to succeed. Performance coaching is a developmemal process in which all personnel grow and develop, improve their performance, and advance their careers. Performance coaching is a continuous process of equipping individuals with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop themselves and to be more effective.

Performance Coaching Process Performance coaching process involves five strategies: 1) Forging a Partnership: Building trust and understanding so that people want to work with you. 2) Inspiring Commitment: Developing insight and motivation so that people focus their energy on goals that matter. 3) Growing Skills: Building new competencies to ensure people know how to do what is required. 4) Promoting Persistence: Developing a "never say die" attitude among managers and employees. 5) Shaping the Environment: Creating conditions that foster growth and development. Purposes of Performance Coaching The performance coaching process improves individual performance, helps people to work through change, assists individual and team problem-solving, and helps individuals, teams, and the organization secure desired results. Purposes of Performance Coaching are as follows: 1) Improving Performance: Improving performance is a five-stage process focused on performance outputs, the results required by the organization. Coaches are intimately involved throughout each stage, constantly assessing, communicating, and providing and receiving feedback 2) Embracing Change: Change is the heart of performance improvement. Improvement cannot and will not occur without change. Understanding the fundamentals of change and human reactions, it enables coaches to leverage their knowledge of the individual and the organization to make change happen. Individuals are inherently resistant to change, a fact not lost on performance coaches. Overcoming resistance and improving performance requires that coaches.

3) Solving Problems: Performance coaching is an effective means to creatively solve problems. Performance coaches employ a variety of problem-solving techniques that challenge others to think "outside the box". One of the most effective approaches to solving problems includes the following steps: i) Identifying the problem, ii) Isolating the root cause of the problem, iii) Generating possible solutions, iv) Analyzing solutions, v) Selecting a viable solution, vi) Implementing the solution, and Vii) Evaluating the solution. Although a common and proven approach, it is important to remember that employees are responsible for integrating the problem-solving process on the job. They must be encouraged to systematically execute each step of the process. Problem-solving thus becomes the responsibility of every individual rather than a technique employed for them. 4) Searching desired Results: Perhaps the most important benefit of the performance coaching process is that it helps the hrm to achieving the results it needs. Desired results may include increased sales revenue, greater productivity, better customer service improved quality and efficiency, or fewer production defects, to name a few. Managers cannot obtain desired results by themselves they rely on their staff. This is where classic management techniques begin to fall apart because directing, organizing, and controlling may not produce positive results. Fortunately, making the transformation from manager to performance coach offers the process necessary for securing desired results through people.

Performance counseling is a key ingredient of performance management because it essentially deals with human feelings. However, a key step missing in today's performance managerrieni is performance counseling. The results of PMS are at best used to decide training needs, and at worse, not followed upon. However, without a discussion or reflection on what the training needs are, or why the employee had these needs, the employee often fails to participate in the rest of the cycle. The root cause for this situation is the inability of managers and FIR professionals to effectively counsel others. Performance Counseling According to William R. Tracy, "performance counseling is a manager-initiated strategy for improving employee's performance". - 200 Steps in Performance Counseling In effective performance counseling, following steps are followed: 1) Rapport between Employee and Counselor: At the initial stage, rapport between the employee and his counselor is developed so that there is open and free communication between them. Rapport betweenake employee and the counSelor can he developed by building trust, mutual respect; and empathy. All Nee -1 result into bringing the employee and the counselor together by heart 2) Exploring Information about Performance: At this stage, the counselor with the help of the emplce-explores about the employee's current performance, his strengths and weaknesses

particularly the key AM, I .and his key job requirements. The basic objective is to stimulate the emplcyee to define himself in the light ofjob content and context. 3) To Define Future Goals: Once the employee assesses his strengths and weaknesses, the counselor tries to .., make hint realize what his problems are and to make a realistic assessment of the nature of these prolake. Though there may be some contextual problems, often people tend to attribute theic shorteeming:tb external reasons only. The assessment of the problems in real perspective helps to understand their real cause. Baseci ui l.c understanding of the problems, the counselor helps the employee in setting performance goals More realistically. 4) Drawing Action Plans: The counselor helps the employee to draw action plans that would result they continuous performance improvement. The pros and cons of each action plan are evaluated and weiAtion. and the most appropriate action plan is selected for step-by-step execution with a time table. The execution of action plan is monitored by the employee himself and progress made is shared with the counselor. action plan is reviewed periodically with the help of the counselor to take corrective action, if required.