Performance Essentials

You thought having a Performance Management System was the end of the exercise and all would be well after that! We are all interested in creating better performing companies, increased productivity, competiveness, value and your organisation reputation in the community. Having a performance system can be the start of a long, but very rewarding, path to improve your company’s performance. There are several elements which are not mentioned in a Performance Management System, but which have an important bearing on the performance of your company. I will highlight these issues, which are as important in any company’s Performance Management System: -

A.   Employees.

Employees are of major importance in any performance. Selecting the right employees is where performance management starts, as without the right employees no one is going to be successful.

Look out for employees who have a positive attitude towards work and life in general. Employees, who have a compelling reason to come to work, are more productive than employees who just come to work. Employees who believe and understand the company and believe in themselves will be more motivated to go the extra mile. Hire employees who can communicate your company’s message to clients and who will communicate, in a positive way, issues which they encounter on a day to day basis which need to be solved. Choose employees who are disciplined and will come to work every day and who stay focussed at work day after day; employees you can rely on. Recruit employees who can handle change, because if there is one certainty in business it is that all will change. Remember how quickly business has changed in the last number of years.  Select employees, who look after themselves, employees who take care of their general well-being. If your employee’s can’t look after themselves, why would you expect them to look after your interest?

B.   Teams

People who work as a team can achieve a multitude, compared to a group of individuals. But a team needs to have clear procedures and rules of what is expected of each group member in each given situation. They need to be trained how to act in a given situation and how to communicate effectively if something new happens in order to find a quick response to the issue at hand. The frustrating part of a team is that it is ever changing, once you think you have achieved the perfect team, circumstances will change and a new team effort is required. Teams need to keep working on themselves and renewing themselves. A quick team workshop will work only for so long and then will fade away. That’s when most managers say I tried it but it didn’t work...they don’t understand it is a never-ending effort!

C.    Supervisors

You can have the best ever Performance Management System and selected the best employees but if you don’t have pro-active supervisors who can communicate effectively with their staff and management it is all of no use. Supervisors need to be well- trained in how to give constructive feedback to their staff members. They need to be able to explain to your employees what is expected from them and how they can improve their performance. If you have supervisors and managers who can do that very well, you will only need a very simple Performance Management System, because this is the essence of good performance management.

D.   Organisations

Organisations need to have identified what they are about and need to have this well communicated to all staff members. They need to have identified a clear goal, why they exist, and a goal that everyone in the organisation understands. They need to have identified behaviour, which all staff members need to display on a daily basis, will make them successful. The organisation needs to have a strategy which will help them to achieve their goal in an ever changing environment. This strategy needs to be revised regularly, at least once a year in order to keep the whole organisation on track to solve your changing clients needs.

I have explained the essential ingredients for an organisation, which need to be put in place, next to a Performance Management System. I see too many organisations, which have only a paper Performance Management System, which will increase the bureaucracy of the organisation without the productivity. Keep the performance of your organisation alive and focus on the essential issues!