Performance Management

Performance management is the systematic process by which an organisation involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organisational effectiveness in the accomplishment of the mission and goals of that organisation (Office of Personnel Management, 2012). It includes activities that ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organisation, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas (CIPD, 2011). Performance management simply put is a way to get all employees to reconcile personal goals with organisational goals and increase productivity and profitability of an organisation.

 

Typically, the performance management process as illustrated in Figure 1 below includes:

    * Planning work and setting expectations,

    * Continually monitoring performance,

    * Developing the capacity to perform,

    * Periodically rating performance in a summary fashion, and

    * Rewarding good performance

                      Figure 1: Components of a Performance Management process

                      Source: Office of Personnel Management (2012)

It is also worth noting that the nature of the performance management process depends on the organisational context and can vary from organisation to organisation.

The benefits associated with effective performance management can be in categorised under three folds namely: direct financial gain, motivated workforce and improved management control (Schiff, 2011; Cokins 2009; Daniels, 2006). These are briefly looked at below.

Direct financial gain

    * Growth in sales

    * Reduce costs in the organisation

    * Aligns the organisation directly behind the employers’ goals

    * Decreases the time it takes to create strategic or operational changes by communicating the changes through a new set of goals

Motivated workforce

      * Optimises incentive plans to specific goals for over achievement, not just business as usual

    * Improves employee engagement because everyone understands how they are directly contributing to the organisations high level goals

    * Create transparency in achievement of goals

    * High confidence in bonus payment process

    * Professional development programs are better aligned directly to achieving business level goals

Improved management control

    * Flexible, responsive to management needs

    * Displays data relationships

    * Helps audit / comply with legislative requirement

    * Simplifies communication of strategic goals scenario planning

    * Provides well documented and communicated process documentation

APPRAISAL AT WORK

At NEXT we do have appraisals every 6 months to review staff performance and develop measures to improve upon areas where there are shortfalls.

The appraisal gives employees the opportunity to discuss all their concerns. During such meetings, the manager will comment on the performance of each staff and rate it under three categories which were either "White, Green or Red". White indicated an excellent performance, green an average performance and red a poor performance. In my opinion, this appraisal system was not the best because, staff knew the period for the appraisal and therefore decided to work extra hard in order to score good points during the appraisal session because they knew they were been monitored by the manager. However, the level of commitment of staff during the off-appraisal period was very low which sometimes affected sales in general.

SKILLS OF A MENTOR

A mentor is an individual, usually older, always more experienced, who helps and guides another individual’s development. This guidance is not done for personal gain (Reh, 2012). In other words, a mentor is someone willing to spend his or her time and expertise to guide the development of another person. A mentor is sometimes referred to as a coach, guide, tutor, facilitator, counsellor and trusted advisor. A mentee on the other hand, is someone who wants to learn from someone who knows and seeks their valuable advice in order to grow personally and/or professionally. A mentorship is a relationship formed between a mentor and mentee with the goal of sharing knowledge and expertise between the mentor and the mentee. It can be a formal relationship with written goals and scheduled meeting times or it can be as informal as an occasional chat or email exchange (Management Mentors, 2012).

Whatever the circumstances, mentoring is an exclusive one-to-one relationship, is completely confidential and can be a useful complement to other staff development tools.

According to Barry (2008) a mentor’s primary role is to provide guidance and support to a mentee based on his or her unique developmental needs. At different points in the relationship, the mentor may take on some or all of the following roles:

Coach/Advisor

    * Give advice and guidance, share ideas, and provide feedback

    * Share information on "unwritten rules for success" within environment/organisation

Source of Encouragement/Support

    * Act as sounding board for ideas/concerns about school/career choices; provide insights into possible opportunities

    * Provide support on personal issues if appropriate

Resource Person

    * Identify resources to help mentee enhance personal development and career growth

    * Expand the mentee's network of contacts

Champion

    * Serve as advocate for mentee whenever opportunity presents itself

    * Seek opportunities for increased visibility for mentee

Considering the various roles of a mentor, it is just appropriate that, a mentor develops certain skills to make mentoring effective. These skills are explored below.

·         Listening Skills: The old adage that the God gave us two eyes, two ears but only one mouth so that we could look and listen four times as much as we speak, can certainly be applied to the Mentor. It is the ability to listen ‘actively’ that defines the good communicators. This involves really concentrating on the message being transmitted, by trying to understand not only what is being said, but also how and why it is being said. When in discussion, the mentor must listen for a note of confidence or hesitation in a mentee’s voice. This will indicate whether he really understands the topic or is still to grasp what is being discussed.

·         Credibility:  Mentoring is based upon trust which comes from believing in what the mentor says and does. Being honest about what the mentor knows or does not know and modelling what is said to the mentee is critical. Providing information that is timely and accurate is also an important part of credibility.

·         Vulnerability:  Mentoring requires a mentor to be willing to share his/her own failures and successes as a way of encouraging the mentee's sharing. It also means being willing to listen when a mentee provides feedback that one may not want to hear about how the mentor is relating to the mentee.

·         Independence:  Successful mentoring happens when a mentor focuses his/her attention on the mentee's needs and not vice versa. One of the benefits for mentors is the sense of satisfaction derived from mentoring. What is important to remember is that this is a by-product of the relationship and not its purpose. Effective mentors have a strong sense of who they are and do not become dependent on the mentee.

·         Be a positive role model: Good mentors are respected by their mentees. A mentee can learn a lot from their mentor simply by watching how their mentor behaves in any particular situation. Good mentors will also look out for experiences, or even create situations in which their mentees can become involved to learn new things, for example, providing a look behind the scenes or a glimpse at how other people live or do things.

A successful mentor who does possess the above techniques will soon discover they are very useful, as they will quickly enable him to gain a true picture of the mentee’s strengths and abilities.

MENTOR IN MY LIFE

The most effective mentor l have ever had in my life is my maths teacher in college. I did fail my GCSE maths at school so had to resit at college during my A levels. At college, Maggie was my Maths teacher and she took great interest in my academic life. After failing the Foundation Tier at school, l decided to meet with Maggie in order to seek assistance. Her reception was very affable as she listened to me patiently to identify the problem. She then encouraged me and motivated me to have belief in myself that I can pass my Maths exams.  Maggie gave me extra tutorials after the normal lesson period and also during holidays; we met in college where she assisted me in solving Maths questions. In order to monitor my progress, she made me take some tests and guided me in correcting my mistakes. She had a lot of confidence in me and therefore decided to put me down for Higher Tier in June 2010 and behold when the results came in August 2010, I had a C grade. From failing Foundation to C grade at higher tier. After the results were out, she made me talk to other students who felt they could not do Maths and were preparing to resit the next year. Even though I left college last summer, she still emails me and finds out how I am coping with my studies at the University.

Conclusion

Performance Management is a term used to improve team performance, based on the principles of measurement, appraisal, and action and monitoring. However, it can be manifested in very different forms depending on whether the aim is to further improve good performers, or deal with underperformance. Employee Performance Management is a process for establishing a shared workforce understanding about what is to be achieved at an organisation level. It is about aligning the organisational objectives with the employees' agreed measures, skills, competency requirements, development plans and the delivery of results. The emphasis is on improvement, learning and development in order to achieve the overall business strategy and to create a high performance workforce (Local Government Improvement and Development, 2011). 

In effective organizations, managers and employees have been practicing good performance management naturally all their lives, executing each key component process well. Goals are set and work is planned routinely. Progress toward those goals is measured and employees get feedback. High standards are set, but care is also taken to develop the skills needed to reach them. Formal and informal rewards are used to recognize the behaviour and results that accomplish the mission. All five component processes working together and supporting each other achieve natural, effective performance management.

REFERENCES

Barry, S. (2008) Examples of Mentor Roles and Tasks [online]. Available from: http://www.teachermentors.com/MRoleTask.php [Accessed 4 April 2012].

CIPD (2011) Performance management: an overview [online]. Available from: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/performance-management-overview.aspx [Accessed 4 April 2012].

Cokins, G. (2009) Performance Management - Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Daniels, A.C. (2006) Performance Management: Changing Behaviour that drives Organisational Effectiveness. 4^th ed. Atlanta, GA: Performance Management Publications.

Local Government Improvement and Development (2011) Performance management: introduction and background [online]. Available from: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=4405770 [Accessed 4 April 2012].

Management Mentors (2012) Definition of Mentoring, Benefits of Mentoring, & Other FAQs [online]. Available from: http://www.management-mentors.com/resources/corporate-mentoring-programs-faqs/ [Accessed 4 April 2012].

Office of Personnel Management (2012) Performance Management: Overview [online]. Available from: http://www.opm.gov/perform/overview.asp [Accessed 4 April 2012].

Reh, F.J. (2012) Mentors and Mentoring: What is a mentor? [online]. Available from: http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/mentoring.htm [Accessed 4 April 2012].

Schiff, C. (2011) What Is Performance Management? [online]. Available from: http://www.b-eye-network.com/view/15359 [Accessed 4 April 2012].