Effective Performance Management
Recently the Aberdeen Group completed a study on performance
management. They found that companies with best-in-class
employee performance management systems produce 50 to 70 percent
more revenue than those that don't have a good system. That
finding gets my attention.
We also know, from earlier studies, that top performers are four
times as productive as the weakest performer in an organization.
Bob Rogers, the president of Development Dimensions
International (www.ddiworld.com), has said, "The majority of the
workforce is randomly trying to achieve success without any real
understanding of how success is measured for them in the
organization." The need for an effective employee performance
management system is clear.
An effective employee performance management system establishes
goals and measures results regularly.
A major performance management problem in organizations today is
ignoring poor performance. Ignoring poor performance tells
everybody that mediocrity is acceptable. In a hyper-competitive
world this is deadly. The negative impact on even the top
performers is only a matter of time.
Typically, managers can identify poor or mediocre performance,
but they choose to ignore it. Very often these managers have
past experiences when they did not receive positive support from
higher management when they attempted to confront poor
performers. A lack of high level support leads to a culture of
"looking the other way."
Senior leaders in the organization set the tone for performance
expectations. Developing managers throughout the leadership
pipeline requires training and rewards for effective performance
management. Managers must be trained and evaluated on their
ability to provide feedback to employees about performance.
Developing employees is a critical task for all managers.
Organizations must make the role of every employee clear. At
Dell Computer, the company's "The Sole of Dell" program shows
how every employee contributes to the success of the company.
Michael Dell believes individual accountability begins with his
role and the roles of senior management.
Every organization must make performance expectations and
performance measurements clear. Only with clear expectations and
measurements can we compete in any field.