The process of performance management is an integral part of any organization’s business plan, as it helps to ensure that goals and objectives are being met. It can be used specifically to monitor the progress of an employee or department or it may be applied to marketing in order to build a service or product. Performance measurement is effective because it aligns the employees, systems and resources of the organisation in order to meet goals and priorities.

There are many benefits to performance measurement, making it such an important process that companies should employ a policy to ensure that all systems and human capital undergoes performance measurement on a day to day basis. Many companies only start to adopt policies of this nature when they want to make major changes or when they want to overcome an obstacle. If it is integrated it can help to ensure that any change management that needs to take place can do so seamlessly and with minimal disruption as employees will already have had the training and development to cope with bigger changes.

Some of the direct organisational benefits of performance management are:

• It can increase product or service sales.
• It can lower running costs and expenses.
• It ensures that projects are completed on deadline.
• It makes the process of transition and change management more efficient and streamlined.

Some of the benefits of performance measurement for human resource management include:

• Clearer communication about work responsibilities and roles within the workplace. Expectations are clearer when put in context of the greater goal that needs to be achieved.
• More accessible and transparent objectives and goals for employees.
• It can give employees an opportunity to align their own personal growth plans with those of the company if Training and Development is provided.

With those crucial aspects taken care of performance measurement techniques therefore make the business management process a lot simpler. Effectively, performance measurement takes over a lot of management responsibilities. A well-crafted performance measurement process can ensure that the output of the organisation serves management needs reflexively in order to meet the ‘bigger picture’.

Performance Management and Organisational Development

In terms of organisational development performance can be considered as the Actual Results that are achieved by the employee versus the Desired Results, as set out and expected by management and the organisation. When the Actual is less than what is Desired the situation can present a performance problem.

Performance improvement solutions would need to be discussed with the employee if a performance problem is identified. In order to do this management would need to decide on a performance measurement process, in order for everyone’s interests to be served. Companies all have their own ways of doing things, but the general procedure usually consists of the following steps

•  The work is requested and planned, usually by a senior staff member who may also provide mentorship where necessary, and expectations are laid out for the completion of the work.
•  The employee’s performance is monitored while the work is being completed. Areas of competency, diligence and whether the employee can complete the work by the required deadline should all be assessed.
•  The employee should be given opportunities to enhance his or her strengths through training and development and opportunities to improve areas that are weaker.
•  Employee performance is evaluated and measured.
•  Incentives and rewards can be made available to the top performers.
• Performance measurement processes should be employed for the benefit of everyone within the organisation, and the organisation itself. It gives everyone an understanding of what their role is and how it matters to the overall objectives the organisation has set in place.

To find out how Performance Management can improve your business output and the kind of procedures you should be considering contact Stan Horwitz.