In today's corporate world, many U.S. employers are less involved in performance management, but this could lead to workplace setbacks. An efficient performance management program helps an employer realize the full potential of its employees, and when that happens, it impacts all areas of the business, says Donna Parrey, senior research analyst at the Institute for Corporate Productivity, a network of corporations focused on improving workplace productivity in Seattle.
While most employers have performance management programs in place, the administrative tasks involved have become so bothersome that many employers are not using performance management to its full advantage, Parrey says. Instead, many are simply going through the motions of performance management.
This is particularly true when it comes to measuring the success of performance management programs, Parrey says. Rather than using reviews gathered during the performance management process to help employees achieve individual goals, many employers are measuring success by the number of completed evaluations. With that approach, an employee's potential is left untapped, and corporate goals suffer.
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"Filling out the form has become more important than actually using those results to push performance and productivity ahead for the sake of the greater good for the company," Parrey says. "The key element for performance management programs is to align individual goals with department goals, which are tied to the overall corporation's goals."
Although no one should be immune to performance management practices, Parrey also finds many employers fail to practice these programs among executives, she says. For the most successful performance management program, every employee should be held accountable, whether that person is in an entry-level position or ranks as an executive.
"Executives are drawn into the types of activities that directly affect the bottom line, but it seems the antithesis is instead on the individual employees. There's almost an it's 'for them, not me' mentality."
For employers practicing efficient performance management programs, they could see higher retention rates, Parrey adds. Today's work force is ambitious and wants an employer that provides advancement opportunities. By outlining an employee's strengths and weaknesses, that employee is more likely to find a development path within the company rather than having to look elsewhere when he or she is not receiving the necessary feedback.
Employers must also make sure the management team is well-trained in performance management practices, Parrey says. Helping employees through the performance management process takes a certain amount of tact, and there are many techniques to master, including maintaining ongoing documentation, giving feedback and writing performance appraisals.
"Performance management is a very complicated process," Parrey says. "Having those kinds of difficult discussions with employees is not something that comes naturally to everyone. Supervisors need to understand how to have those discussions because you want to maintain the person's self-respect yet still know let them know what they need to correct."
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