Performance Management is defined as a process by which an employee and his supervisor establishes a clear understanding about the job functions of the employee; how he can perform his job satisfactorily; how the supervisor can help the employee to improve his work performance; and lastly, how the employee can contribute to the overall objectives of the organization.

Often times, the root cause of poor performance is the lack of clear understanding and expectations between the supervisor and the employee which is why there is a need to implement performance management within the many departments or teams in the organization. Another reason for implementing this is because if there are no measures undertaken to help employees who are consistently performing below standards, this will never stop, and as a result, this will only cause them to be less and less productive.

Setting Expectations and Goals

Although it may not seem very obvious, many employees do not really know if they are performing well in their respective job functions or not. Others are craving for recognition for their accomplishments. There are those who wish they would be provided with opportunities to hone their skills or develop new ones. And there are also those who simply do not know how to do the job assigned to them, on their own.

Thus, setting of expectations and goals is deemed a very important facet of performance management. Take note that performance management is not the same as performance appraisal; the latter is the performance management tool used to evaluate the employee.

Setting of clear expectations and goals is a key predictor of an employee’s performance, and when this person is unclear of how his performance is measured, on what criteria, and also of what the organization expects from him, his performance will suffer.
It is wrong to think that employees are already aware of the outcomes they are expected to produce, and the criteria by which their performance are gauged upon. Communication (or a lack of it) plays a crucial part in the performance management of employees.

Individual Performance Assessment

Performance assessment systems comprise of several assessment criteria and scoring methods. Individual performance is evaluated through a series of tests and observation sessions conducted by the immediate supervisor of the employee being assessed. Tests are objective in form, usually multiple-choice tests or true/false tests. Observation sessions are usually held more than once in a period of time, wherein the supervisor sits down to observe an employee perform his job functions and note down remarks. This is used in order to identify an employee’s strong and weak points; the skills and competencies possessed, and compare it against organizational requirements.

Organizational Performance Assessment

Whilst this is not an entirely new concept, organizational performance assessment is something that not every employee is familiar with. Everyone knows that there are assessments conducted for employees at least once every year; however, unknown to many, organizational performances are being assessed, too.

The process involves conducting a series of tests and surveys to check the organization’s capabilities, and how well it is performing to achieve the overall goals.

Effective organizational performance assessments follow a specific framework, based on the following:

1. Identifying the challenges of the organization. This includes noting all the current issues and problems faced by the organization, and pointing out the indications of these challenges.
2. Finding out the root causes as well as information involving these issues. Fact-finding is done in order to understand why and how these issues have arisen.
3. Evaluating several alternative approaches to address these challenges. Interventions are made, and everyone involved discusses on the best possible solutions in order to remedy and fix the problems of the organization.
4. Selecting the best approach. Using the best problem-solving and decision-making techniques, the deciding body then chooses the approach that they deem is most sound and appropriate for the organization.

Surveys are effective in collecting ideas and opinions of the employees working for a particular organization. This is in fact considered important because employees are the key resources and it is recommended to get inputs from the front-liners- people who themselves are experiencing the issues first-hand, instead of relying solely on the wisdom and recommendations of management.