Performance mgt challenges Week 9

Business o Acceleration of processes (faster reporting, shorter planning cycles, fast close) across all existing PM processes is the major improvement priority. o Creation of better links between strategy management and other PM processes is the major integration priority. Organization o PM processes are becoming more complex, with more people involved and an increasing number of tools used. o This requires careful management. It is important to better align IT and business so they share a common vision of performance management. Technology
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Companies do increasingly use more specialized software tools to automate their PM processes, as opposed to using basic spreadsheet tools such as Excel. There is an increasing need for integrated technology platforms that allow companies to manage performance across the different PM processes.

Challenges in PMS as: 1. Cascading Corporate Goals to individual goals 2. Linking PMs with other existing Corporate Performance MEasurement systems - Balanced scorecard,Policy Deployment Matrix, Annual Business Plan etc 3. Quantifing the targets Measuing them 4. Elimination of duplications in KRAs 5. Minimising the overlaps while maintaining the links between KRAs 6. Ensuring that all responsibilities are allocated and nothing is overallotted/ underallotted 7. Having a monitoring mechanism in place to run it through out the year- instead of making it a seasonal process [usually March-June!] 8. Ensuring participation of Top Management in the process of goal setting, monitoring, measuring 9. Ensuring -both Long Term and short term goals are evenly represented in the scorecard 10. Planning for expected Financial outflow due to this process- vide promotions increments corrections etc 11. Succession planning process to be linked to this 12. Communicating the PMS process to all staff, their appraisers, reviewers and the roles in the process. 13. training the evaluators- appraisers, reviewers

14. methodology to follow for rewarding - normal curver, forced ranking etc 15. having action plans for all groups falling under normal curve 16. Ways to recognise and treat top performers, middle level, bottom level performers. 17. Communicating the results - at various business conditions 18. Counselling the non -top performers 19. managing the compulsory separation of non performers

Role of Line Managers in Performance Management

The line managers or the front line management play a very crucial role in implementing and enacting the HR policies. Hence, it is very important for the management to ensure that the line managers possess a right attitude towards the performance management approaches and equally possess the right competencies for executing it. The line managers mostly consider the performance management process as a mere bureaucratic chore and hence they consider it as a sheer waste of time. Some managers lack the required skills for reviewing the performance of the employees, providing feedback and identifying objectives along with them. These limitations can be overcome by adopting the following remedies:
    

By providing leadership from the top. By communicating with the line managers about the importance of performance management in driving successful results and how it is a part of their responsibility. By maintaining simplicity in the overall process of performance management. By reducing the pressure from the line managers by making the process an ongoing one instead of an annual review. By involving the line managers in the design and development of the performance management processes by representing them in pilot studies.

Role of Employees in Performance Management

The employees have a vital role to play in the performance management cycle as the entire process revolves around them. They play an active part in formulating performance agreements along with their line managers and participate in 360 degree assessment schemes. They discuss their roles and the competencies required and define objectives in conjunction with their superiors. Hence, the employees should be trained in all these activities.
Role of HR in Performance Management

The HR department today is a strategic partner and plays a vital role in pursuing a particular strategy. For facing the challenges of a globalized world, Indian organizations have reformed their HRM strategies for managing the employee performance by considering part time work, outsourcing and temporary workers. HR no longer today plays the role of a rubber stamp department, rather is a performance enabler by closely working with the to management and all the major functional departments of an organization. Companies like Maruti Udyog Ltd. and

Mahindra and Mahindra, revamped their entire organizational set up and were able to create performance efficiency due to the efforts of the HR department. Who are line managers? Line managers are those managers to whom individual employees or teams directly report and who have responsibility to a higher level of management for those employees or teams. The term front-line managers is rather more specific and normally refers to line managers in the lower layers of the management hierarchy that is, where the employees who report to them do not themselves have any managerial or supervisory responsibility. Front-line managers are often promoted from within and are unlikely to have formal management education. Typically the management responsibilities carried out by line managers (particularly front-line managers) might include:
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day-to-day people management managing operational costs providing technical expertise organisation of work allocation and rotas monitoring work processes checking quality dealing with customers/clients measuring operational performance.

Management Training and Development the role of the Line Manager Too often management training and development is left to the province of HR or Training Specialists when in reality line management has an important part to play. The potential advantages of line manager involvement in learning and development has long been recognised. The line manager is in a unique position to reinforce learning from management training or other forms of development, by integrating them into an employees working life and promoting a positive approach to these types of activities. So how should a line manager be involved in their staff s management training and development?
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first area of involvement is for the line manager to set clear expectations with their staff, both in terms of what they need to deliver (job responsibilities, targets etc) and how they are expected to deliver these things (approach, behaviour at work, etc).

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The next area of involvement is conducting performance appraisals and agreeing personal development plans, i.e. measuring the gap between what an individual delivers (and how they do it) and what is needed. In agreeing personal development plans line managers should not just ask What are this persons weaknesses? but should also ask Where will learning and development add the greatest value to their performance? Line managers should understand the breadth of learning and development interventions that are available to them. For example, too many turn to the ubiquitous Management Training Course , or Presentation Skills Course , when in reality there are hundreds of development actions that an individual can take from reading a book to learning to play chess. Line managers should also take on more of a coaching role with their staff. Significant relationships exist between the effective provision of coaching and guidance by the line manager and levels of employee satisfaction, commitment and motivation. Finally, to be truly effective line managers need to understand their role as a sponsor of an individual s or team s learning and development. For example, it sends completely the wrong message to someone if a manager asks them to attend a management training course but then prevents them from attending some or all of it.

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