One of the biggest challenges for managers is getting top performance from employees. While performance management can be a complicated process, there are three essential components: 1) establishing a clear definition of the position and an expectation of what is to be done; 2) providing feedback on performance as compared to expectation; and 3) rewarding success or correcting failure. Below is an ABC guide to help you define your expectations and manage performance.
Accountability: What exactly do you need your employees to do? Think about this and capture it in a job description. To be effective, the description should take into account all aspects of the job. If you don’t have a job description for a position, a good starting point is to have the employee and his/her supervisor document what is actually being done. Even if the employee wears many hats or performs multiple functions, try to catalogue all of these functions – what you learn about how the employee is spending his or her time may surprise you.
Basics: In addition to the duties and functions that are being performed, make sure to capture the basic requirements of the job, especially its mental, physical and environmental aspects. Then weigh how much time should be spent doing each of the functions in a work week and then rank the importance of each. If you find that someone is spending a significant amount of their time on a function that is not highly weighted, you may want to realign the duties of the job
Consistency: One of the most important things to do when addressing employee performance is to establish a process that is applied across your workforce in a fair and consistent manner – to treat your worst employee the same as you treat your best employee. Once the standards are established and communicated, every employee should be held accountable to meet the standards for his or her job. Your goal should be to compare employees’ performance without bias or consideration of personal circumstances (and thereby you will very likely reduce your exposure to legal challenges down the road).
Documentation: Document! Document! Document! We can’t say it enough. Job descriptions, goals and evaluations should be written in detail and signed off on by employees and their supervisors. This written documentation helps ensure that everyone understands the expectations. It also provides an opportunity for two-way feedback on past, current and future performance. (As a suggestion, if an employee refuses to sign this or any such paperwork, a non-confrontational response can be to call in a second supervisor, reiterate the discussion and have both supervisors sign as witnesses.)
Evaluation: After job requirements and employee goals are established, you and the employee should constantly monitor and evaluate progress. Formal annual evaluations should be supplemented with interim sit-down meetings. Touch base on what the employee has accomplished, what still needs to be done, any new duties and responsibilities and any obstacles keeping the employee from completing their goals. Each meeting should have an appropriate level of written documentation. But don’t stop there – you should also be providing informal feedback on a regular basis. Make it a habit of providing feedback once a day to at least one person you work with. Consider something like this: “Lisa, I liked how you handled that difficult client call. I liked the way you remained positive and promised to follow up on his order tomorrow. Please be sure to follow up. Good job.” This sort of feedback is timely, factual and effective.
Follow-through: All of the work involved in creating and maintaining your performance management system is wasted if you do nothing with it. After evaluating the employee’s job performance, you must take action to reinforce the result. This is the time to reward your star performers in a personalized way and correct poor performers in a productive way. If the employee exceeded expectations, what can be done to reward a job well done – a monetary increase, recognition, additional responsibilities, further career development such as cross-training in another area, added perks such as more personal time off or a more flexible schedule? Want to get creative? Ask your employees to come up with some incentive programs of their own. If the employee did not meet expectations, what can be implemented to improve results next time – additional training, reassignment of duties, reduction in responsibilities (and perhaps in corresponding pay), disciplinary action?
Performance management is a daunting prospect for many employers. While it does require an investment of time and commitment, a good performance management system will help you ensure the work employees perform align with your company’s needs and culture. And don’t forget, your Affinity HR team is here to help.
By Paige McAllister, SPHR, Contributor – HR Affinity Group
