Smart Performance Management – A Few Tips

Whether you’re running a nonprofit or a retail store, workforce management is essential but not necessarily easy or intuitive.  It’s not rocket science either, but it is an important skill that can be developed and improved with information and training.  Don’t worry, if you’re not good at it, admit it and get support.  Uninformed managers, even if well intentioned, can be the cause of low morale, which can translate into low productivity and high attrition at otherwise solid organizations.  High attrition rates can be costly to an organization in terms of human resources as well as increased need for recruiting and training new employees.  A poorly managed workforce is also often the source of litigation.  In short, consistent and effective workforce management is a business necessity.

SMART PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT – A FEW TIPS

• Understand specifically, what performance you expect from your employees.  
• Know their job descriptions and assignments so that you can assess objectively how the employee is performing.
• Make sure that the performance expectations have been clearly and consistently communicated to the employee
• Ensure that you can communicate to your employees what kind of performance is considered average, poor or above and beyond.  I know you can’t be exhaustive but try to be specific. 
• Give feedback consistently and before there is a problem.  Your job as manager is to manage the workplace and that includes performance.  Try to get the best level of performance from the employee – not to catch them in wrong doing so that you can ding them later. 
• Communicate with your employees.  Employees should not be surprised by their performance evaluation or if there are complaints about performance.  In most cases, if the employee thinks they’re doing a great job but the evaluation states otherwise, you could do a more effective job managing them.
• Document the steps you've taken with a problem employee and provide regular, scheduled feedback and guidance.  Your goal should be to help the employee improve to the extent possible.
• Set measurable, quantifiable goals for the problem employee.

In addition to these tips, you should have written job descriptions and written performance evaluations/management plans.   

BOTTOM LINE

Make sure that employees are treated fairly and in accordance with your company’s policies.  More importantly, in order to minimize litigation risk, your performance policies and procedures must be applied consistently to all employees.  Workforce management is a business necessity.  Inconsistently managed employees are often the source of complaints and costly litigation.   

Contact me if you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment.  Please visit my website for additional information.