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What is Performance Management Planning?

By Tess C. Taylor
Updated May 17, 2024
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Performance management planning refers to the creation and setting forth of strategic plans for managing the workforce in order to achieve organizational success. Having a clear plan for how human capital can best be managed is vital to the success of an organization. In addition, having a performance management plan in place supports the overall mission and objectives of a company.

Putting a performance management plan into place often involves looking at the organization from the employee level up. As each employee brings unique talents and abilities to the table, the skills of each work-team need to be inventoried so that goals can be met more efficiently. It’s also important to determine what gaps exist within employee groups so that plans can be designed to meet those needs for the betterment of the entire organization and its ability to reach long term goals.

Another aspect of performance management planning involves putting a workforce training program into place to develop existing employees who have potential for greater performance. This enhances the company as a whole so that work gets done more effectively, which increases company profitability. The better employees perform, the better the company can operate and grow.

Performance management planning also involves designing assessment procedures. Having a clear set of objectives for each employee to achieve is vital to the success of work teams and departments. Performance management plans can be designed for each individual employee to make sure he or she is performing up to standards during set time periods. Generally, performance plans consist of performance evaluations done during the first ninety days of employment and then annually.

When designing performance management plans, human resources officers will generally meet with various members of management to determine the overall goals of each department or division. Then a plan will be drafted to best meet the needs of the departments as they relate to the existing and future employees. Goals for the performance plan should be measurable, achievable and enforceable to produce the most favorable results.

Once performance management planning takes place, a formal document can be created for each department to follow when assessing current employee talents and shortcomings. This plan should be discussed with each employee and an individual performance management plan can be designed for each individual employee. Once this is established, employees will understand what is expected from them and performance levels should improve with careful monitoring.

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Discussion Comments

By SteamLouis — On Mar 11, 2014

The best part about performance management planning is that when it's done routinely, it becomes very easy to measure how performance is changing. There is an assumption that with each goal/task assigned, that department should be able to deliver faster and more efficiently than before. And management can easily compare outcomes to see if this is taking place or not.

By donasmrs — On Mar 11, 2014

@ZipLine-- Absolutely. The size of an organization does not matter. Every organization or workplace needs to evaluate its performance and implement strategies to improve it. This means calculating costs and profits, efficiency and employee performance.

Without performance management planning, employees might get off track about their duties and efficiency. Employee appraisal and evaluation is necessary to make sure that every employee's goals match the goals of the organization. Performance management also gives opportunities for management and employees to engage in dialogue and help one another determine shortcomings that they can work on.

I actually think that smaller organizations are at an advantage when it comes to performance management planning because costs will be less and evaluations will be done much more quickly. For example, the 360-degree appraisal method is often very time consuming for large organizations but it would work great for a small workplace.

By ZipLine — On Mar 10, 2014

Planning and performance management seems to be suited for large organizations with many departments. Is this type of planning equally necessary and beneficial for smaller workplaces/organizations?

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