What is performance management?

Performance management involves analyzing the performance of all of your employees as a whole. You need to look upon them as a team and look for different things they can do to improve and what they are doing right. Managers must be able to help their employees set obtainable goals and to constantly strive to accomplish them.

Performance management of individual employees
To understand the different types of performance management, we will begin with the performance management of your employees. Employees need the support and direction of their managers in order to learn how to perform well. Take a look back over your early years in the industry and the different managers you have had. Which ones have helped bring the best out of you and which ones stifled your creativity? You want to find a way to be the manager that encourages employees to work hard and to be creative.

To evaluate the performance of your employees, you need to be involved with several things including:

• Setting goals


• Planning projects and other work


• Providing feedback


• Offering support


• Education


• Rewarding employees and recognizing hard work

It is not easy to be thrust into a new project that you may not feel comfortable with. This is why a manager needs to be acutely aware of their employees and the different things they can handle so they don't push them too hard and cause them to become overwhelmed.

Part of employee performance management involves planning and setting goals that each employee can accomplish. You must be consistent with your goal setting and planning tasks for your employees. It helps to have a little bit of predictability as this will help employees learn what strategy they need to follow to please you and to have their hard work benefit the company.

Planning and setting goals
As we have previously talked about, each employee must have individual goals that are separate from one another. Your employees need to be included in the planning phase so they know what is expected of them and the criteria you will use to evaluate their hard work. The other smart thing about involving your employees in the planning phase is that you are allowing them to see the consequences of poor performance. This way you can be harsh on them in the end if they are unable to work hard as they were involved in setting some of the consequences.

Providing feedback
A large part of performance management involves providing feedback to your employees; your employees need to receive feedback from you along the way as it helps them do their job better. They will be able to understand if they are doing a good job and what they need to change in order to live up to your expectations.Don't just wait until the project is complete or at an annual review to provide feedback to your employees. Feedback is one of the best ways to keep them motivated about their job and its one of the best ways to encourage them to work harder.

Harbor growth and development within your employees. Do not criticize them in front of their co-workers as this can cause a negative work environment. You need to give your employees one-on-one time so each of them feels important and so they understand that you care about them. Provide them with ways to grow and develop into a stronger employee. Giving them opportunities to try out new projects is a great way to challenge them and to encourage them to work outside of the box. Offering greater responsibility is essential to maintaining happy and productive employees.