Using Performance Management to Maximize Your Organization's

 Potential for Sustained Profits & Growth: a Process that Works

 

Far too many organizations, managers and frontline employees are less than satisfied with their current performance management program. This lack of satisfaction is due to numerous issues and we're confident you've heard many of the negative comments. Our experience is that the core of most of the dissatisfaction is the perception that performance management programs are not relevant in engaging employees to carry out business strategy.

 

After using a variety of methodologies over the years to assist many organizations in installing and enhancing their programs, we've found that successful programs are built on two cornerstones - Organizational Success Factors and Employee Competencies. These two elements allow you to align your HR strategy with the business strategy and positively impact your business. This is a proven  means of achieving business strategy - by coaching toward, training for and rewarding employee behavior that is aligned with priority competencies.

 

Organizational success factors are those few organizational goals, proficiencies and strategies in which an organization most needs to excel - in order to be successful and differentiate itself in its current business environment. Organization-specific success factors:

·        translate business strategy into understandable areas of focus

·        communicate to employees the business' objectives and strategies

·        and direct employee behavior toward the organization's priorities

 

Priority employee competencies are those skills, abilities, behaviors and types of knowledge which when utilized by employees result in achievement of the organization's success factors. Your priority employee competencies are your definition of successful performance on the job - how your employeees can contribute to your business' success. And the performance management program links employee performance to competencies and success factors - thus assisting the organization in addressing its challenges within its current business environment.

  

The Focus Group has found the best approach for identifying pertinent, priority success factors and competencies is through one-on-one interviews with the leadership/management team during which they respond to questions such as:

·        what are the most important elements of your business' mission, vision, strategy, etc. within the Balanced Scorecard categories?

·        what are the firm's most significant current strengths and weaknesses - and future opportunities and threats

·        if you could obtain accurate, current performance measurement regarding any areas of the business - which metrics would you want?

·        what competencies - for managers and non supervisory employees respectively - will be most significant and impactful in achieving your identified success factors?

·        which competencies constitute your definition of superior job performance?

 

These interviews are followed by a planning meeting allowing the leadership/management team to relatively easily reach consensus on their priority success factors and employee competencies - as well as commit to the steps necessary to properly implement their new program such as:

·        the best means of communicating to and obtaining feedback, acceptance and ownership from the remainder of the organization?

·        what skills do managers need to acquire through training to allow them to successfully carry out their role in the program?

·        how should the performance appraisal feedback be tied to monetary rewards, identifying training needs, designating high potentials, career planning, succession planning, etc.

·        how to leverage these competencies with other talent management processes such as interviewing and selection, new employee orientation, organizational communication programs, etc.

 

A Performance Management Program developed in this way maximizes your organization's potential for sustained profits and growth.

  

If you are interested in enhancing employee performance, productivity and engagement we encourage you to click on the link to a description of our new 'Employee Engagement & Union Vulnerability Survey'