Employee Performance Management – Basic Concepts

“In business, the idea of measuring what you are doing, picking the measurements that count like customer satisfaction and performance… you thrive on that.”  – Bill Gates

There has been and there is a need for a business organization to assess time and again the progress towards the considered necessary and the desired goals.

The employees are the integral part of a business and they play a vital role in running the business organization. It’s therefore of great importance to ensure if they fulfill their responsibilities to the best of their abilities and expectations.

The management is at all times keen to make certain if the goals are unfailingly being met. If so, then, it’s to be ensured whether or not they are in an effective and efficient manner. Above and beyond, the management sees to it if there is a need to add the pertinent communication, coordination and action on the progress to be made, so that it may help the organization in the attainment of its long term and strategic goals. With the aim of above activities to be performed successfully and smoothly, performance management has come in to practice.

The process of performance management entails monitoring the progress of a business as well as measuring the performance of the employees in order that the corrective measures may be taken in case there are deviations. Without this conceptualized function, the activities will be on ad hoc basis- without considering wider or long term issues — there is no control in the specified activities of a business organization. The example may be as though a horse rider has submitted his will and wish to the horse and does not even bother it takes wherever it wills and wishes. As regards organization, the management, not giving careful attention, cannot monitor whether the organization performs well and leading itself towards growth or fails to do so. Thus, the implementation of performance management at any organizational level is indispensable.It is through the process of performance management that the individual objectives are linked with the organizational objectives and are accomplished accordingly.

Performance management concentrates on such tools that create the desired qualities in the employees in order to get the jobs done. In its most positive form, performance management will not only help the employees in understanding what is expected from them but also how they can contribute to achieving organizational goals. Development is not limited to the employees; it rather addresses the whole team. It builds the personalities of the employees and develops their necessary skills to allow them to reach to their full potentials, so that there may be a great satisfaction in respect of jobs and skills, overall maximization and expansion of business, in terms of profits – organizational development, effectiveness and efficiency.

The Process undertaken by means of performance management should be regarded as a sort of test and evidence to the desirable qualities and the integrity of the employees as well as their shortcomings. Just as the capacity and the acquired knowledge of students is tested through their exams, so that they may be aware of what they possess and what is needed to improve and that they may get maximum percentage of marks in case of their lower performance, performance management takes on its process through which the employees of the organization can excel in their abilities and performance at work. They can enhance their skills and competencies. Above and beyond, they can be aware of their short comings while they are able to focus on their possible areas of improvement.

Performance management is carried out continuously- it is not one time action. It favors effective communication and relevant coordination with timely feedback in relation to the organizational goals. Feedback is the process of communicating the evaluations to the concerned authorities while evaluation is of much use to know what is being done and whether or not it is being done in an appropriate manner so as to proceed for further corrective actions. In this way,performance management is meant to evaluate employees’ performance at work in terms of predetermined standards in order that a sound system may be established which in turn leads to submitting the reports to the appropriate authorities. It is through this system that the eligible employees may be rewarded and promoted as well as the employees whose performance is lower than the expected standards may be aware of their weaknesses and inefficiencies.

Performance management focuses mainly on the achievement of results. It differentiates the aspects, such as being engaged and producing results- which means, being busy should not necessarily be indicating that the results are being produced. There may be times when employees seem to be very busy but in terms of their performance, the results are in contrast to what has been expected. Systematic performance appraisal provides much assistance in assessing the potentials of the employees. Thus, all in all, performance management directs and leads the business organization to the overall achievement with the assessment of employees’ effectiveness and efficiencies by the implementation of performance appraisals at regular intervals.

Written by:
K. A. Fareed (Fareed Siddiqui)
Writer, Trainer, Author, Blogger, Software Developer
BBA, MBA-Finance, MPhil-Financial Management, (PhD-Management)
MA-English, MPhil-English
Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications and Programming
Level 1 – Leadership and Management ILM – UK
Pursuing CMA-USA
Individual Member of Institute of Management Consultants of India