Six Steps Toward Meaningful Performance Management

Link the performance-management calendar to the organization's business calendar.
By Dayton Fandray

For individuals to be successful, the organization needs to be successful," says Jane Weizmann, senior consultant for Watson Wyatt Worldwide. "So at best-practice organizations, the assessment period gets the least amount of energy. The biggest part of the energy is in the planning period."


Weizmann offers the following tips on channeling that energy constructively:

1. Link the performance-management calendar to the organization's business calendar. This way, performance planning is coordinated throughout the entire organization. "You tell your employees, 'Here's what we've got to deliver this year and here are the roles everyone's going to play. We need to know what development interests you have, and by the way, we have some development needs that you'll have to grow with.' "

2. Conduct a mid-year review. With mid-year financial results in hand, you can recast your plans to meet changing conditions. "By the end of the year, then, it's in the bag. And as much energy goes into planning for the next period as goes into evaluating the past."

3. Articulate a set of role-based competencies. First, let every employee know the five or six qualities that define success for every member of the organization, regardless of job description. Then let every employee know how those qualities translate into performance in specific jobs. "This tells the employee what they can expect of their leaders, as well as their coworkers. Expectations, then, are not disputable. They're in the role. They're well-documented."

Thus, when reviews are conducted, employees and managers do not get bogged down in discussions of whether or not a specific behavior is important. The focus is shifted to a discussion of how well the employee met expectations and how those expectations might change in the coming year.

4. Set developmental guidelines for your employees, based on their roles in the organization. Make sure that employees understand the kinds of developmental opportunities they will have to take advantage of if they want to grow in their jobs and move on to positions of increasing responsibility.

5. Don't get bogged down in paperwork. "Paperwork has to facilitate the process. Anything you can do to assure the face-to-face discussion of performance between the individual and the manager is what counts. The paper can't be the end result."

6. Focus on leadership. "One of the things that leaders do is set expectations and coach. You want to line up your needs with the employee's needs. Do whatever needs to be done to get that to happen."

Workforce, May 2001, p. 38