Managing Performance at Your Place

We are just starting a brand new (financial year) in one of the most challenging times ever. Many of us have had to change the structure of our business, lay off staff and rethink our priorities.
We have people in our organisations that we are trusting with the vision for our business and we are working hard to maintain productivity levels and customer satisfaction results.
What can we do to make sure we keep our people fired up and excited?
My previous newsletters have talked about many of the environmental and cultural things you can do in your workplace. But key to the business success is an effective performance management process.

So what should it include? I have 15 questions for you to consider how your business could benefit from improved performance and productivity from your people.

· Do you have a documented performance review process;
· Does the system apply to everyone;
· Is everyone trained in the use of the system;
· Are reviews undertaken regularly - 30 mins every 3 months;
· Does your system promote for continuous informal feedback;
· Are your position descriptions used as the basis for the review;
· Is the tool clear and simple to understand;
· Does it have objective measures, set down during the probation period and agreed by the employee;
· Are there qualitative and quantitative measures;
· Are poor performers easily identified;
· Are they managed swiftly – to improve or leave;
· Are there action plans for all under performers;
· Do you address managers with poor management skills;
· Are employees with poor communication and people skills never promoted to management roles?

It is good business practice to set up an effective performance management system; it helps improve the performance and productivity of individuals and teams. And that can only be good for the profit at your place!