Performance management dos and don'ts

Here are the dos and don'ts of performance management.

Tip one:
One of the first things that you are going to want to do when it comes to performance management is that you are going to want to follow a sequential approach. What this means is that when you look at the activities that are associated with performance management you are going to want to categorize the activities into three different phases. Basically what these phases are going to do is involve a series of activities in a certain order that are completed effectively. And once these activities are completed effectively they are going to help move your company to the next level of performance management. The three phases are:
- Report performance to bring transparency to the organization
- Manage and control to align the organization
- Improve performance to drive the organization

Tip two:
Another thing that you are going to want to do is to focus on alignment, which would include collaboration, resource optimization, and tying planning to strategy. The reason why you are going to want to focus on alignment is that many companies struggle with alignment issues so they look for tested performance management initiatives to help with the issues. But the main reason that you want to focus on alignment is that it is extremely important, in fact it is essential, to operational efficiency and effectiveness at the enterprise level. What this basically means is that if the goals and metrics are not aligned to an overall strategy than they might not advance the company as a whole.

Tip three:
Another thing that you are going to want to be sure that you do is to make use of analytics. The reason for this is that using analytics greatly improves the success of performance initiatives, which means that companies that have used analytic technologies have achieved greater success in areas of innovation, competitive advantage and agility. But the use of analytics also correlates with other measures of success, such as higher levels of performance maturity, broader scope of performance management initiatives and a higher level of involvement from all departments.

Tip four:
The last thing that you are going to want to make sure that you do is to make sure that you address cultural issues. The reason for this is that people who answered a survey about performance management indicated that cultural resistance in their company to performance measurement was the biggest obstacle to the success of performance management initiatives. And the other obstacle was that departments don't share information or collaborate.

Tip five:
One thing that you don't want to do when it comes to performance management is ignore the importance of C-level sponsorships. What this basically means is that the top executives of the company should not only buy into the concept of performance management but they should actually own the concept. It has been proven through studies that executives need to actively manage the culture to break down any resistance to measurement and help to encourage the employees to collaborate and share, basically the employees learn by example.

Tip six:
One of the most important things that you need to make sure that you don't do is to make sure that you don't leave anybody out. What this basically means is that you need to include everybody and every department that works for the company if you are going to be successful with your performance management.

Tip seven:
And finally the last thing that you want to make sure that you don't do is to make sure that you don't rush into measuring the performance too early. If you are putting pressure on the company to measure the results and to report progress you might cause the company to not address the most important issues. What you want to remember is that measuring the progress should be a phase two activity, not a phase one activity.