Staff performance management is a set of tools or procedures used by managers and supervisors to measure the ongoing success of the company and its employees. By using careful monitoring and assessment, managers can help employees better understand their jobs and improve performance to match goals. Although some may see staff performance management as a negative process, when done with professionalism, realistic goals, and a good attitude, an ongoing program of staff performance management can actually help create a positive workplace for everyone.
Much of staff performance management begins with understanding the current performance level of all employees. When implementing a performance improvement program, many suggest that it is important to do extensive monitoring to understand how much each employee gets done on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. In large office settings, it is also important to get a sense of how the duties of one job may spill into another employee's area as a result of convenience, agreement, or sometimes superior ability. Monitoring will help managers understand the reality of how the workplace functions, as opposed to simply understanding how it was originally meant to work.
Using company data regarding performance, it is then important to set up the goals and requirements for each position. Some companies may choose to bring in experts on staff performance management in order to help more clearly define how to make the company run better. While experts can be an excellent addition, it is also considered important by some to get employee feedback on how performance could be improved. This will allow employees to feel involved in creating the success of the workplace, and may help motivate them to improve and meet joint goals.
Once goals are set, staff performance management can truly begin to take effect. After meeting with each employee to redefine the goals and needs of his or her job, monitoring can be a daily process. By staying involved with staff performance management on a daily basis, managers are often in a position to offer excellent advice, as well as solutions if an employee is struggling to meet goals. How advice is given can be vital to the success of the performance management plan; while retaining authority, it is important that the supervisor or manager does not appear to be threatening or condescending. It is often better for everyone if a manager can be perceived as someone to go to for help, rather than someone to avoid for fear of consequences.
If staff performance management is practiced daily, it will be easy to see if goals are being met and efficiency is being increased. However, after a certain period of implementation, some experts recommend another period of observation and data collection, in order to see exactly how well the program is working. This second monitoring period will help work out any kinks in the new system, as well as giving management clear data that represents the progress made since the program began.
