Friday 11 September 2009

Performance Management


The most common Google search term that directs people to the HR Case Studies site is "Performance Management." Although there are a couple of brief references on here to this subject, it's not one that has been covered in depth, so it's planned to develop a series of more detailed case studies over coming weeks, starting with design and implementation, and then progressing to more sophisticated appraisal systems and covering the problems commonly encountered in organisations which have formal Performance Management systems.

Important! If there are specific issues that you would like to see addressed in the forthcoming series of HR Case Studies on Performance Management, please leave a comment!

Although clearly humorous, the Dilbert cartoon above still addresses some of the factors required in appraisal systems, such as how to rate individual employees, how to give feedback, how to ensure that the employee remains motivated (regardless of appraisal rating) and the importance of keeping records of appraisals in case they are required in future (during a disciplinary hearing for example)

  • What ratings or rating scale would you expect to see in an effective Performance Management system?
  • Why is the retention of accurate Performance Management records important?
  • Are there sometimes external pressures for a manager to rate an employee either higher or lower than they would prefer?
  • What skills and training do managers need in order to undertake effective employee appraisals?

1 comment:

  1. The sad truth is that this sort of thing happens. Current performance management tools and processes let it. This needn't be the case. Take PerformanceHub for example, amongst all it's other great features, it does 2 things to prevent this sort of gaming from happening:

    1) If your boss rates you as performing poorly on an objective, but your boss then tried to rate themselves as performing well on their own related objective, this is flagged to both HR and the manager's manager. It can do this because PerformanceHub links objectives together in a relational cascade.

    2) PerformanceHub tracks all objectives in real time, forcing reviews whenever they are needed. In this way people are reviewed for the work they actually did at the time they did it. All work in the system is a real-time view of what the company is trying to achieve at any one moment in time. Bad bosses have nowhere to hide.

    Check PerformanceHub out here http://www.cogendo.com

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