To succeed in today’s fiercely competitive business environment, an organization needs to keep employees’ work and professional development aligned with its strategic objectives. Implementing a performance management process will help you to establish and maintain that alignment so that your employees develop skills and knowledge that increase their value to your company. In addition, performance management helps your people focus on the company’s long-term goals and helps them set their own measurable goals.
The best way to launch a new performance management process is to create a checklist of steps that will facilitate consistent preparation and delivery of performance audits. Proper implementation will help managers and their team members set feasible expectations and determine how well they are helping the company progress toward its strategic goals. In addition, the checklist can provide a framework for productive conversations during and after a performance review.
Your performance management process checklist should have the following components:
Preparation
Managers will have ample time to prepare to do performance reviews if they use a review calendar and automatic reminders. The reviews should not take team members by surprise either. In fact, make employees aware of your performance management process from the very start, during their interviews and orientation process. Once they have been through one or more reviews, the information from those previous events can be used to create a guideline for future performance evaluations. Use a cloud-based performance management solution to make the process paperless and enable employees and managers to have more interaction.
Expectations
Performance management is designed to provide employees with a snapshot of how their current contributions benefit the company. Never assume that employees know what is expected of them; share the specific objectives you have for them. Discuss their achievements as well as areas that need improving. Also, be realistic with your expectations; don’t push employees too far out of their comfort zone without giving them opportunities to receive training that expands their skillset.
Discussions
Managers often must discuss difficult topics such as mistakes that a team member has made or other performance issues. However, your team member may see things very differently. Provide specific examples of their issues or errors to help them understand your perspective. Also discuss ways in which they can overcome those issues and improve. It is equally important to discuss the positive aspects of their performance and how their contributions support the company’s goals.
Goals
Setting performance goals enables employees to better understand what is expected from their position. The goals should include measurable outcomes. Knowing what the outcome should be will help you to know what performance standards and what parts of their job functions you’ll be discussing with team members during evaluations.
Continual Training
As part of your performance management process, identify which of your team members’ responsibilities will require additional training (e.g., for new processes or skills). Expanding and refining employees’ knowledge and skills will enhance their productivity and workplace experiences, so they are able to reach and even exceed set goals.
As you can see, performance management can help you efficiently evaluate the capabilities of individual employees and even an entire department. So, consider creating a performance management process checklist as a best practice for providing consistent and productive reviews for all your employees.
Also, consider investing in an effective enterprise solution. It’s a tool that can expedite efforts to look at the big picture of whether worker performances are aligned with your company’s strategic goals.
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