Tag: Event Management

Role of Top Managers in Performance Management

The top managers play a lead in the entire process by setting trends for the lower rung and acting as role models for the employees. Their responsibility is to design policies which ensure an efficient management of performance in an organization and to define and act upon the core values relating to performance. Top management plays a vital role in convincing the line managers that performance management can be instrumental in the achievement of business goals and thus ensure that they take this aspect seriously in their work front for maximizing employee satisfaction and productivity.

Top managers are expected to develop a high performance culture in an organization by ensuring the following:

• By communicating an organization’s mission and values to its customers and employees.
• By clearly defining the work expectations and communicating to everyone for ensuring success in the achievement of business goals and facilitating an overall performance improvement.
• By keeping the employees informed about their progress towards the achievement of goals and suggesting corrective actions for non-achievement of performance.
• By establishing a shared belief amongst the employees regarding the importance of continuous improvement in performance.

Managing your employees, helping to develop their skill sets and growing their productivity in a meaningful way is no easy task! Fortunately, there are some excellent tools available today to make it all a lot easier.

Orientation

It sounds pretty basic but we’ve seen time and again that Managers get the following wrong! Simply put, managers should provide each new employee with a copy of their specific job description.

Ideally, candidates get a copy of their job description during the recruitment and selection process. A manager’s primary role is to provide new employees, as well as seasoned employees with the tools necessary to perform their job functions. Identifying key KPIs sets the stage for ongoing performance evaluation and ensures accountability within the workforce.

Managers also are responsible for workforce planning as it relates to performance evaluation workforce planning matches the right job assignments and tasks with employee skills, qualifications, and interests.

Training

We believe that an enormously important part of the performance evaluation process includes employee training and development, which are within the purview of an HR and management role.

Although managers may use the talent of experienced, long-term employees to assist with skills training, the ultimate responsibility for training rests on the shoulders of the department manager. In addition to developing the skills and capabilities of their employees, managers identify employees who have high potential. Such employees are distinguishable from high performing employees. Managers use their own skills and talent to select employees who demonstrate aptitude and promise.

Feedback

Managers are responsible for providing employees with constructive feedback on a regular basis.

Throughout the evaluation period, managers give their employees ongoing support, feedback and counseling on performance issues and, when necessary, disciplinary and corrective action. When employee performance suffers, managers are the first ones to observe the decline. It’s their responsibility to address performance issues and determine whether an employee needs skills training or corrective action to return her to an acceptable performance level.

Appraisal

The culminating stage in the performance review is the actual performance appraisal. Managers complete leadership training that enables them to understand the importance of performance management and evaluation, as well as how to prepare for and conduct an annual performance appraisal. Preparing for an appraisal requires that managers know how to rate employees; their duty is to rate employees according to the company’s expectations and performance standards. Therefore, a manager’s role includes observation and assessment. It’s up to the manager to conduct an appraisal meeting that employees look forward to and one that encourages employees to achieve their goals year after year.

As a manager, you are expected to:

• Use the performance management process as a valuable tool for supporting employee development and improvement.
• If your employees sense a lack of interest on your part, they’ll lose interest too.
• When talking with your team about the process, be sure to emphasize its benefits, and encourage employees to take ownership of their own performance and development.
• Determine an appropriate schedule for regular performance conversations with those you manage directly.
• Conduct short, regular meetings to discuss and record milestones, accomplishments, successes and challenges as they occur, when details are fresh in both your minds. This will allow you to better monitor progress on goals, and provide coaching as required. Plus, these short meetings reduce the effort it takes to prepare for and conduct your annual performance reviews because you’ve tracked progress and performance and provided the needed feedback when it was most valuable.
• Use the annual performance review meeting to review the achievements, setbacks, development and training that have already been discussed throughout the year — and then use this information to establish goals and a development plan for the coming year.
• Deliver regular positive and constructive feedback.
• Give employees feedback during one-on-one meetings and informally as regularly as possible.
• Commend your employee in front of their peers.
• Make performance notes about each employee in the period between conversations, so that come conversation time, you have concrete examples to share.
• Remember that the goal of feedback is to describe desired behaviors and expectations, not to dwell on undesirable behaviors.
• Check-in on goal progress
• Regularly check in with employees on their progress on goals; offer coaching or assistance, or revise goals as necessary.
• Communicate and revisit performance expectations.
• Communicate your organizations’ performance standards and expectations to your employees. This will help your employees differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and results and reduce any misunderstandings.
• Gather feedback on employee performance from multiple sources. Use a 360-degree feedback or survey tool to complete and validate your own observations and perceptions.
• Improve your management and leadership skills.
• Take the time to learn how to be a better manager and coach. Invest in your own development!
• Acquaint yourself with the different management needs of the different generations.
• Employees from the Millennial generation may have different needs and different expectations of managers. Research tells us they require constant feedback and recognition, and expect quick career advancement. Workers from other generations have different needs. Learn what motivates each employee, and adjust your management approach accordingly.
• Coach your employees in a way that strengthens two-way communication and reinforces desired behaviors.
• Coach when you want to focus attention on a specific aspect of the employee’s performance.
• Advise the employee ahead of time of issues you want to discuss.
• Focus on describing your expectations and the desired behaviors rather than describing the gaps.
• Take the time to understand why their performance is what it is, and get them to take ownership for performance improvements.
• Support your employees’ professional and career development while making them accountable for it.
• Regularly ask employees about their career aspirations and help them identify areas they may wish to improve or develop, as well as resources available.
• Ensure each employee has a well-defined job description and understands the skills and competencies they must develop in order to progress up the career ladder.
• Give your employees the time and flexibility they need to complete learning and development activities.
• Ensure development is having an impact on performance.
• Submit your completed employee reviews by the designated deadline.
• Failing to complete your formal performance review documentation on time sends your employees the message that recognition of their success and support for their development is not your top priority. It may also delay any pay for performance/ merit increases or bonuses your organization allocates to employees based on their performance ratings.
• Understand and correctly use your organization’s rating scale.
• Be objective and have quantitative/qualitative facts ready to substantiate the ratings you give.
• Provide details on how the employee demonstrated the core and job specific competencies you are rating them on.
• Provide details on how they accomplished their goals, the milestones they met and work products they delivered.
• Assign each employee a development plan to help them improve their performance and support the organization’s success.

Employees’ responsibilities

• Work towards achieving your individual goals, which help the organization reach its objectives.
• You and your manager should have set these goals collaboratively as part of your performance management activities.
• Keep track of your progress on your goals and regularly communicate their status to your manager, especially if you’re facing challenges that could prevent you from achieving your goals.
• Take responsibility for your own professional and career development.
• Be clear about how you would like to grow professionally.
• Know what knowledge, skills and experience you want and need to develop.
• Actively seek opportunities for professional and career development, both in the organization or through external learning resources.
• Be open to feedback
• Accept constructive feedback and take the initiative to improve.
• Complete any development plans assigned to you and apply the learning to improve your performance.
• Seek support as required
• Work to establish and maintain a healthy relationship with your manager.
• Ask your manager for feedback and guidance, especially when you encounter challenges.
• Solicit feedback and guidance on your performance from others you work with.
• Keep a record of your performance achievements, successes and challenges.
• Keep a performance journal and share things like your successes, and the feedback and recognition you receive from others with your manager.
• Give others feedback.
• Just as you need feedback and recognition to improve your performance, your co-workers need it too. Give feedback verbally, as well as using online communication and social collaboration tools available to you. And don’t be afraid to copy managers on your written feedback so they can gain more insight into their employees’ performance.
• Complete your self-appraisal by the specified deadline.
• Reacquaint yourself with your job description, critical competencies for the role and performance expectations as defined by the organization.
• Understand and correctly use the organization’s rating scale.
• Be honest about your performance but don’t underestimate your abilities.
• Be objective and have quantitative/qualitative facts ready to substantiate the ratings you give yourself.
• Provide details on how you demonstrated the core and job specific competencies you are being rated on.
• Provide details on how you accomplished your goals, the milestones you met and work products you delivered.
• Consider your current knowledge, skills and abilities as well as your career aspirations and identify learning activities that could benefit you and your organization.
• Draft your goals for the coming period, making sure they in some way contribute to the organization’s goals, and are appropriate for your role.

As managers add performance documentation to their processes, they should keep in mind that these bits of documentation are all part of a profile for each employee. Documentation should be reviewed regularly to look for trends, changes in performance or repeated issues.

Managers should use this documentation to set goals and define challenges. Documentation paints a picture of the employee, one that is worth taking a look at.

Documentation provides management with a guide to improvement. They are able to see areas of weakness, as well as strengths. If performance reviews are consistently showing improvements, perhaps it is time for a raise, promotion or added responsibilities.

If the same negative issues arise with an employee, maybe it is time for a written and verbal warning, or suspension. Documentation should be used as an unbiased tool for improvement.

Documenting performance not only helps management lead, it can help them plan. Documentation allows management to see what path each employee is on. Are they steadily headed for the top, or are they going south?

Documentation will make it clear if an employee is on the path to a termination meeting, or a succession-planning meeting. In the case of highly-skilled or hard to place positions, management might need this information to plan accordingly. Documentation works both ways. Leaders shouldn’t only use this information to properly give employees the boot. They should use it to hone in on their key players and keep them on the right path.

Documenting performance is such an easy way to fortify a positive employer brand, help guide the workforce and protect the organization.

Whether your company is just starting to document performance, or improving this process, it is a worthwhile step to take. No one’s memory is not perfect, nor is it unbiased. Documenting performance helps everyone from judges to managers make better decisions.

Performance reviews and write-ups will also be very helpful in the case of a reduction in force. Although we are in the upswing of the recession, layoffs are still quite common in businesses across the nation.

Having documentation of both the good and the bad can greatly assist in choosing who goes in the reduction in force. Layoffs are a virtual minefield of legal issues. When management has taken the time to properly document each employee’s performance, they are taking steps in guarding the brand and the organization.

A Performance management system is a tool that should be aligned with overall organization goals followed by department goals and individual goals. In other words, the organizational strategic goals should be linked with each activity performed by every department or employee.

Administrative

The performance management system is also set as the deciding factor for employee promotion, demotion, salary increment, transfer, and terminations. It enables to identify the performers, non-performers, or underperformer employees in an organization. It merits the competency and skill level of employees. Hence, it clearly defines the administrative role as well and supports the management decisions.

Communication

It is an effective communication channel to inform employees about their goals, job responsibilities, key deliverables, and performance standards. Further, it is also a structured method to indicate the key areas of improvement required by the employee in order to improvise his performance. In other words, it provides the platform to learn and train on skills, and knowledge for better performance and results.

Developmental

It is the structured method of communicating positive feedback, improvement areas, and development plans. The manager can use various methods like training, mentoring, coaching, etc., and their team members perform better.

Organizational Maintenance

The performance management system is the yardstick for measuring employee, department, and organization achievements and evaluating the performance gaps through various tools and techniques. Hence, it maintains the health of the organization and its performance standards.

Documentation

The performance management reviews, feedback, and forms should be documented and maintained periodically by every organization. It would enable them to look forward, set new targets, design developmental needs, design training and learning programs, and career progression of employees and for the department. Hence, it helps in driving the organizational needs to desirable objectives.

1. Establishing performance standards

The first step in the process of performance appraisal is the setting up of the standards which will be used to as the base to compare the actual performance of the employees.

This step requires setting the criteria to judge the performance of the employees as successful or unsuccessful and the degrees of their contribution to the organizational goals and objectives. The standards set should be clear, easily understandable and in measurable terms.

In case the performance of the employee cannot be measured, great care should be taken to describe the standards.

2. Communicating the standards

Once set, it is the responsibility of the management to communicate the standards to all the employees of the organization. The employees should be informed and the standards should be clearly explained to the employees. This will help them to understand their roles and to know what exactly is expected from them. The standards should also be communicated to the appraisers or the evaluators and if required, the standards can also be modified at this stage itself according to the relevant feedback from the employees or the evaluators.

3. Measuring the actual performance

The most difficult part of the Performance appraisal process is measuring the actual performance of the employees that is the work done by the employees during the specified period of time. It is a continuous process which involves monitoring the performance throughout the year. This stage requires the careful selection of the appropriate techniques of measurement, taking care that personal bias does not affect the outcome of the process and providing assistance rather than interfering in an employees work.

4. Comparing actual performance with desired performance

The actual performance is compared with the desired or the standard performance. The comparison tells the deviations in the performance of the employees from the standards set. The result can show the actual performance being more than the desired performance or, the actual performance being less than the desired performance depicting a negative deviation in the organizational performance. It includes recalling, evaluating and analysis of data related to the employees’ performance.

5. Discussing results [Feedback]

The result of the appraisal is communicated and discussed with the employees on one-to-one basis. The focus of this discussion is on communication and listening. The results, the problems and the possible solutions are discussed with the aim of problem solving and reaching consensus. The feedback should be given with a positive attitude as this can have an effect on the employees’ future performance. Performance appraisal feedback by managers should be in such way helpful to correct mistakes done by the employees and help them to motivate for better performance but not to demotivate. Performance feedback task should be handled very carefully as it may leads to emotional outburst if it is not handing properly. Sometimes employees should be prepared before giving them feedback as it may be received positively or negatively depending upon the nature and attitude of employees.

Purpose of Performance Appraisal

Provide continuous feedback

It is essential for the employers to know what performance and achievements have been made by their employees. But, it is also equally important for an employee to know where they stand, where they are going and how they are going to get there. Thus, giving feedback to employees is also a major purpose of performance appraisal.

Measure performance accurately

Every company has to set mutually acceptable criteria or performance standards so that it could compare employee’s performance with it. This helps in accurate measurement of employee’s job performance which is necessary for the company to know where it is heading towards.

Provide clarity of expectation and actual result

Every employee wants them to be told about their duties; what the organization really wants them to do. However, this is not enough to get good output from them.

They should also be told how well they have done their duties and how can they improve their performance. They should be made clear about how near they are to do their expectation.

Determine training and developmental needs

Only determining weak points is not enough. A company should also make efforts to abolish them. A properly carried out performance appraisal is a tool to determine what necessary steps are to be taken in order to help the employees in improving their performance. The increment in skills and knowledge develop an overall personality, attitude and behavior of the employees.

Provide career path

Performance appraisal works as a mirror to employees and it clearly shows what they are professionally and where they stand.

On the other hand, it helps the company in recognizing employees with potential. Companies provide career development opportunities to such employees and pave their way to a successful and stable career.

Arguments against Performance Appraisal

Creates Negative Experience: If not done right, the performance appraisal can create a negative experience for both the employee as well as the manager. Proper training on processes and techniques can help with this.

Time Consuming: Performance appraisals are very time consuming and can be overwhelming to managers with many employees. I’ve known managers who were responsible for doing an annual PA on hundreds of employees.

Natural Biases: Human assessments are subject to natural biases that result in greater errors. Managers need to understand these biases to eliminate them from the process.

Waste of Time: The entire process can be a waste of time if not done appropriately. Think about the time investment when the end result is negative. It is time wasted on all fronts.

Stressful Workplace: Performance appraisals can create stressful work environments for both employees and managers. Proper training can help to reduce the stress involved in the process.

Importance of Performance Appraisal

• To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job.
• To maintain records in order to determine compensation packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc.
• To maintain and assess the potential in a person for growth and development.
• To provide a feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
• It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees.
• To review and retain the promotional and other training programmes.

Promotion: Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to chalk out the promotion programmes for efficient employees. In this regards, inefficient workers can be dismissed or demoted in case.

Compensation: Performance Appraisal helps in chalking out compensation packages for employees. Merit rating is possible through performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal tries to give worth to a performance. Compensation packages which includes bonus, high salary rates, extra benefits, allowances and pre-requisites are dependent on performance appraisal. The criteria should be merit rather than seniority.

Employees Development: The systematic procedure of performance appraisal helps the supervisors to frame training policies and programmes. It helps to analyse strengths and weaknesses of employees so that new jobs can be designed for efficient employees. It also helps in framing future development programmes.

Selection Validation: Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to understand the validity and importance of the selection procedure. The supervisors come to know the validity and thereby the strengths and weaknesses of selection procedure. Future changes in selection methods can be made in this regard.

In the world of human resources and employment, documentation about an employee’s performance can make or break your ability to discipline, terminate, or fairly promote, reward, and recognize employees.

Documentation is essential for managers and HR staff because you need to make a serious effort to record all of the events in the employment history of your employees both positive and negative incidents of performance.

Need:

• Documentation offers a history of the employee’s improvement or failure to improve performance over time. It is chronological and a precise description of the employee’s actions, the manager’s actions, and events as they occur.
• Documentation provides evidence that performance issues were discussed with the employee in a timely and concise fashion.
• Documentation provides evidence that supports management decisions to take unfavourable action such as discipline or termination with an employee.
• Documentation offers proof that an employee deserves an available promotion or opportunity over other employees who are also eligible.
• Documentation provides evidence to justify salary increases, decreases, or why an employee received no raise.
• In the event of a lawsuit, complete and thorough documentation protects an employer’s interests. The documentation can support management’s actions in terminating an unsuccessful employee. It also can prove that the employee was terminated for reasons that are legal as opposed to others such as illegal discrimination.

Things to remember when recording your annual staff assessments.

1. Follow a consistent format.

The payoff is that a well-documented assessment makes it easy for you (and your employee) to review performance progress or regress. It can help reduce your legal risk if an employee needs to be performance managed or perhaps dismissed. To help guide you through how to document the performance reviews, here are some key components worth factoring in.

2. Record essential information

This should come at the top of the document and include the basics such as the date, employee name, department, employment status, manager’s name and performance period. Get this information right now, and you will only need to make minor amendments for the next review.

3. Have a performance goals rating system

To determine the rating you wish to assign to each of your employee’s performance goals, we suggest using a numerical system for example:

• Being outstanding
• Exceeds targets
• Meets targets
• Needs improvement
• Unsatisfactory

NA for developing or not applicable

Using this system means when you and the employee both give a separate rating it should be clear what your agreed rating will be. This also helps form the discussion points around Key Performance Indicators, and whether the employee is performing as expected.

4. Include job skills and personal attributes

These objectives might include sections such as Accountability, Initiative, Attention to Detail and Teamwork. Your review document should include space for the employee to comment including examples that back up the rating they give themselves. There should also be a space for you (or the manager) to comment in addition to a section for explaining the final rationale for the agreed rating.

Remember to record your observations about your employee’s job performance as objectively as possible, and tie your conclusions to hard data. By supporting your assessment with specific examples the employee can see exactly where they can improve. If the employee’s work is substandard, you suspect they might need to be performance managed, or even dismissed being able to provide documents that outline the steps you took to try and correct any performance issues will help reduce your legal risk if the matter ends up in court.

5. Include a position description review

Before going any further, it’s important to review your employee’s existing position description to make sure it’s still relevant. During the course of a year, or even six months, many aspects of your employee’s role can change as your business grows or targets shift. Now’s the time to make any updates necessary to ensure your employee’s position description and key performance indicators reflect their current and ongoing role.

6. Have development objectives

This is where you ask the employee to indicate what areas they would like to focus on during the coming months. In this section of the review document you can include questions such as: What new skills or behaviours would you like to work on in the coming year to support you in your role? Or: Are there any professional development opportunities you would like to undertake, relevant to your career goals?

7. Overall performance review rating

Ask the employee to give an overall rating of their performance for the year. Then you do the same, and together you agree on the final rating. This is also where some forethought into the final message you would like to leave the employee with can be helpful. For example, Performance Reviews suggests writing down three things the employee did well during the year and two areas that most need improvement. Then, ask yourself: “What’s the single most important take away I want the employee to remember?” Refine your message to one key idea as your overall impression of their performance.

8. Make sure you both Sign off.

It seems obvious, but be sure both you and the employee sign and date the document to show you’re in agreement about its contents. Technology now ensures companies can digitally document when a document is read, updated, and signed off. In the past HR administrators would utilise paper files and perhaps a spreadsheet, but with childHR the entire process can be documented online and stored for future reference.

A 360 degree appraisal involves 4 groups of people. The appraiser/manager, the appraisee (self-appraisal) plus feedback gathered from peers and subordinates or customers/clients.

It is one of the most crucial modern performance appraisal methods because this is the only group that determines the organization’s success as a whole.

Nowadays, companies use the modern methods of performance appraisal, which have a broader scope than the traditional methods and provides a more accurate and comprehensive evaluation of an individual.

Stages of the 720-degree performance appraisal process

1. Pre appraisal feedback

Before a manager or supervisor sits down with their employee, feedback is collected from all the notable and worthy touchpoints. Who does an employee interact with who could weigh in on their performance in a meaningful way? Who has input that could help shape employee progress and success? Managers and HR work to define who these valuable points of feedback are and also work to set targets and goals to go over in the official appraisal.

2. Self-appraisal

How an employee sees themselves matters. Using a self-report questionnaire, employees fill out a performance review on themselves, ranking and rating their strengths, weaknesses, performance, and more. This is a useful discussion tool, as it helps managers and employees both see gaps in communication or understanding and work to address them.

3. Coworker/colleague appraisal

Feedback from peers can be very useful in helping employees understand their team impact and contribution to the team dynamic. Cultural fit is just as much a measure of success as any other metric that an employee is being reviewed on, so understanding how an employee relates to and with their peers is an important factor in the assessment.

4. Customer Appraisal

What do customers think of your employee? Customer satisfaction is key to the success of any organization, and having an understanding of your employee’s ability to relate well with and serve their customer base is indicative of their overall success in meeting your company goals. Sometimes customers aren’t outside clients, but other business departments. An IT department, for instance, services other employees and those employees are the IT teams “customers.” These relationships are equally valuable to ensuring long-term business success.

5. Direct report and subordinate appraisal

Getting feedback from the people that your employee manages or oversees is useful in analyzing the organizational, communication, motivational, leadership, and delegation skills.

6. Manager or Supervisor appraisal

This is one of the most common parts of any performance appraisal system – the performance, responsibilities, and attitude of an employee being assessed by those who oversee their projects and ultimately their job success.

7. Post appraisal feedback

Researchers of the 720-degree appraisal method note that this is its key differentiator between this method and others. This step includes additional guidance to help employees meet their goals and stay in regular communication with their managers.

Benefits of implementing a 720-degree performance appraisal method

Does this method hold up when compared to other performance appraisal processes? Here are some of the benefits that some businesses have reported seeing:

• More holistic and comprehensive feedback leads to a better understanding of performance. Hearing from customers, teammates, managers, and other stakeholders can help identify any performance gaps or places of improvement.
• Multi-dimensional feedback helps employees better cooperate and communicate more consistently.
• Can greatly reduce appraisal barriers such as prejudice, bias, and discrimination. These are much more common when employee reviews are conducted as feedback between employers and managers only.
• Greater transparency: Such as regular feedback and consistent communication with other feedback channels, such as coworkers leads to more engaged employees who feel that they are valued, respected, and that their contributions and success matter to the overall future of the organization. Better employee relationships are built on trust, communication, and feedback and ultimately lead to better employee retention, which reduces both costs and lost productivity for companies.

Bureaucrats and their service records are now going to be assessed by the Central government to take a call on retiring the non-performers or identifying those lacking integrity.

The government will seek a list of non-peforming officers every month from each department and take further action.

Centre will also assess the performance of all officers who have turned 50 or have completed 30 years of service to decide whether they be allowed to continue in service or compulsorily retired.

Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had earlier launched an Online Probity Management System, in 2017, to assess the integrity and performance levels of officers. It was planned that the portal would be extended for other employees to help the government coordinate between Probity, Sparrow (Smart performance appraisal report recording online window) and Solve portals to assess officers on the basis of performance and integrity.

Currently the performance of civil servants is assessed through Annual Confidential Report (ACR) prepared by superior authority. If the 360 degree performance appraisal report supplements the ACR, it will lead to a hazy conclusion on the performance of the employees evaluated. The questionnaire meant for evaluation must be based on relevant aspects the employees are associated with. In the corporate world the system of 360 degree performance appraisal fits well assessment is done on specific metrics such as sales growth, targets, customer satisfaction etc. However, bureaucracy in India cannot be evaluated on such metrics as it involves intricacies of public service. Further, bureaucracy in India is said to be infatuated with unfounded apathy to the existing work culture and suffer from lack of values and ethics. The second Administrative Reform Commission highlighted this deficiency in the existing performance appraisal system. As such bureaucracy in India suffers from sense of closely-knit fraternity, where assessment of the subordinates by the superior authorities’ remains always biased. Moreover, the 360 degree performance appraisal system is less an instrument to facilitate promotion than to enhance performance and efficiency. The validity of the system in bureaucratic performance evaluation in India cannot be fully assessed unless it is implemented properly.

Critically examine the performance Appraisal in governance system in India.

Performance evaluation holds a great importance in every organization i.e. corporate, business and also government organization. It is an essential medium through which the organization concerned prepares blueprint for future development and growth. The performance of every government servant is evaluated on an annual basis through his/her Annual Confidential Report (ACR). ACR is an important document providing the basic and vital inputs for assessing the performance of the Government servant and his/her suitability personal advancement, promotion, deputation, foreign or any other important assignments purported to be undertaken by him/her. The system of confidential reports about the performance of government servants is a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

It is not a fault-finding process, but a development one.The main performance measure is the amount of money spent and the success of the schemes, programmes and projects is generally evaluated in terms of the inputs consumed. Its primary objective is to realize successful utilization of government policies and programmes. As the appraisal process is solely conducted by the superior authorities, chances for biased opinions are many in the final report. If the evaluated employee is not found in the good book of the evaluator, the report may be antithetical to the fact. If the true intent of personnel performance evaluation is meant to increase efficiency and boost morale of the employees, ACR practised in government sector does not fit the bill. A greater weightage is given to subjective factors than objective in the performance appraisal, from which promotions and postings flow. The current system assigns 60% weightage to personal attributes and functional competency (a subjective assessment) and just 40% to work output (an objective assessment).

The need of the hour is to infuse corporate blood into the bureaucracy by giving more weightage to results than to the personalities of the employees. The performance appraisal system should be tuned with the demands of changing time when competency of the employees matters a lot for improving the quality of bureaucracy. It should aim at enhancing core competencies of the civil servants in order to make them essential for carrying out good governance in India.

Real-time Visibility to Performance Trends

The management need not wait for performance reports to be generated or collated periodically as they tend to get obsolete before reaching the top tiers. There is a growing need for greater transparency and visibility, which is where real-time performance reports and trends help tremendously.

Automated performance management systems can also come in handy to provide the management with up-to-date analytical reports and insights to make data-driven decisions. Continuous feedback, ratings, and evaluation is a precursor to such reports.

According to a report, 91% of companies that have adopted continuous performance management using automated technology and tools have better data for making informed people’s decisions.

Support for Regular Performance Reviews

Experts are now challenging the tradition of annual performance reviews, arguing that frequent feedback and evaluation is good to both the employee and the company. Employees may put in extra effort where it’s needed and quickly improve their performance with a performance management system like Digital HRMS, which helps to develop a culture of frequent feedback.

Manage Performance Management Workflows to Innovate, Customise, and Streamline Performance Processes

Automated performance management systems enable the organisation to devise dynamic and custom feedback forms relevant to each role. This manages the workflows efficiently, without the need to create cumbersome manual records. Typically, performance management software comes with in-built functionality to control access, update forms, and pass it to the next action item according to workflow, etc.

Automation significantly reduces the administrative burden of delivering performance evaluations on time. Organisations can thus conduct frequent performance reviews to monitor progress and assess development needs, culminating in the year-end performance appraisal.

Instant Feedback

In this digital era of instant gratification, we want everything in-the-moment, and that includes feedback too. Employees don’t want to sit around and wait for their yearly performance reviews. Instead, they prefer frequent, informal, and development-oriented performance discussions.

Automated employee performance management systems can facilitate managers and HR to keep in touch with employees constantly. Thereby, consistent and constructive feedback results in on-time communication that matters the most to employees.

Less Time on Administrative Tasks, More on Strategic Execution

In manual practice, HR is generally inundated with loads of administrative tasks during performance evaluation. This includes distributing relevant forms; Self-appraisal, manager appraisal, and following up with people to complete the tasks. In short, processes are never completed on time.

In contrast, an automated performance management system eliminates manual tasks to achieve on-time completion so that HR can now focus on process improvement.

Cost Savings

In addition to saving time and energy, automation also enables significant cost savings. As organisations are making a shift from manual paper-based evaluations to web-based performance management software, these tools are relatively cost-effective.

According to a survey, using a performance management system or tool, increases both organisational sales and profits, and reduces overhead costs by 25%.

Accessible Repository of Information

It’s hard to keep track of progress, milestones, and achievements over time if it’s not recorded and retrieved at the right time. Performance review automation software helps employees and managers refer to past activity and performance records and brush up their memory during the discussion sessions.

This way, managers can deliver fair, transparent, and meaningful reviews and development recommendations to employees.

Improved Employee Alignment

Finally, with an automated review management system, the organisation adopts an overall focus on employee performance and development. This, by itself, serves to ensure that employees are well-aligned with the goals of the organisation.

Employees benefit from consistent feedback, coaching, and development. Tracking progress is easily implemented with a tool so that everybody understands what needs to be done. This improves employee engagement and retention levels as the basic needs of employee recognition are met.

The power of performance management automation can be leveraged to break conventional barriers and achieve efficient performance management that results in higher productivity, faster growth, and greater collaboration.

Wrong Design

The performance management system and tools must fit with the specific needs of the organization. It cannot be a duplication of a system designed and implemented in another organization, even an organization in the same industry or the same business group. Intense consultation with various stakeholders and users of the system is necessary. User trust is an absolute necessity for the success of the system. The design should be tried out on a pilot basis before it is rolled out to the organization as a whole. All documents and forms must be in place. The system should be fair and equitable. Performance management should be viewed as a continuous process and not an activity conducted once or twice a year. The design should also include mechanisms for rewarding performance and handling poor performers.

Lack of clarity in vision and objectives

One of the first performance issues which prevents effective performance management is a lack of clarity in what needs to be achieved. A vague vision and unclear objectives leads to situations where employees do not know what is expected of them and the leadership is unable to identify parameters to evaluate their performance. Without specific objectives, there will always be an ambiguity in what constitutes effective performance.

Absence of Integration

The performance management system has to be integrated with the strategic planning and human resource management systems as well as with the organizational culture, structure and all other major organizational systems and processes.

Lack of Leadership Commitment

Leadership commitment and support is a must for smooth implementation of the system. Leaders must drive the process and make performance management an integral part of the management of the company. Leaders contribute not only in setting the strategic direction and performance measures but also in monitoring and reviewing performance across the organization. They also reinforce the performance cycle by recognizing and rewarding performance.

No alignment between employee and leadership thinking

Another performance issue is a lack of alignment between employee and leadership thinking. This is again more relevant to fast growing companies, where a dynamism of vision and best practices leads to conflicting views between employees and the leadership. They may have different notions of what constitutes effective performance, and, thus, achieving the same will have different pathways and metrics for evaluation.

Ignoring Change Management in System Implementation

Strategic management of change is a vital part of implementing the system. Driven by the top management, it involves careful management of resistance. Communication would be a major intervention and a key tool in managing the change. Implementation milestones and schedules must be followed. Proper documents must be in place.

Incompetence

Competence to use the performance management system is necessary to ensure smooth implementation of the system. Some of the major skills would include:

• Defining strategic objectives, performance indicators, core competencies and performance contracts
• Defining performance measures that correspond to the KPIs
• Giving and taking feedback, conducting appraisal interviews, and active listening
• Performance coaching