Performance Management System

• An ideal performance management system makes all employees aware of performance expectations and aligns everyone with the company's goals by setting subgoals and overarching objectives.
• Supervisors should establish clear performance expectations that are easily understood.
• The alignment between employees and the performance management system can be determined by regularly checking the current performance of the organization.
• It is important to assess if employees are engaged with their jobs and if the performance management system syncs effectively with business outcomes.
• Alignment can be ensured through regular employee surveys or focus groups to provide valuable insights into satisfaction and engagement levels.
• Feedback from employees and focus groups should be analyzed to identify potential issues and areas for improvement within the system.
• Managers and their teams should meet for performance reviews where both assess their own and their direct reports' performances.
• Focus groups consist of demographically diverse people assembled to participate in guided discussions.

Levels of Management

• Top-level (Senior) Management
• Middle-level Management
• Frontline Management
• The number of managers per department depends on the size of the organization.

Top-level (Senior) Management. The Strategic Decision-Makers

• Includes C-suite personnel like the CEO, COO, CFO, department heads, and board of directors.
• Responsible for overseeing the organization's survival and success.
• Has a dual focus on internal business activities and external influences like competition and economic disruptions.
• Senior managers directly influence company policies, goal setting, strategic planning, budgeting, and employee responsibilities.
• Individuals in senior management interact with shareholders and external stakeholders.

Middle-level Management. The Crucial Link.

• Middle managers are a key link between top and lower levels of management.
• Middle managers are also responsible for managing other managers and translating strategy into action by creating systems and procedures.
• Ensures organizational plans and policies are properly executed, maintaining communication about strategies and goals.
• Middle managers play a key role in employing necessary staff and developing lower-level or frontline management.
• Middle managers handle everyday issues within specific business sites or departments and concentrate on interactions with workers.
• Yes, middle managers monitor the performance of frontline managers.

Frontline Management. The Frontline Supervisors

• Frontline managers oversee the daily functions of workers.
• They ensure deadlines are met, customer issues are addressed, quality and quantity of output are attained, and organizational policies are followed.
• Frontline supervisors maintain consistent communication with workers, provides feedback on performance, and shares information as needed.

Traditional vs. Progressive Performance Management Systems

• Traditional systems share feedback annually, are static, and are HR-driven, comparing reviews among employees.
• Progressive systems share feedback periodically, are flexible, and are collaborative, involving joint effort between employee and supervisor.

Importance of Flexible Strategic Plans

• Circumstances change, and plans should adapt with team and stakeholder input.
• New competitors, technology, or legal requirements can make static plans misaligned.
• Business plans should be updated and adjusted constantly, and change is necessary due to external factors.

Essence of Good Performance Management System

• A good performance management system is effective, allows continuous employee performance monitoring, and fosters communication and collaboration.
• Motivates employees to share information and assists in highlighting successful activities.
• Fair and objective, allows employees to develop and learn, sets clear goals, provides regular feedback, and rewards performance.

Characteristics of an Ideal PMS

• Accurate and fair, using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and 360-degree feedback.
• Efficient.
• Elevates performance, not just measures against lower limits.
• Compensation decisions should be a byproduct of performance management.
• Uses multiple data sources to enhance decision-making and investment decisions.
• Includes formal development on coaching skills to enhance team performance and leadership.
• Individual performance is influenced by skills and job context; fair PMS should develop measurable standards and review criteria for discrimination.
• Internal appeal process should be set up for employee concerns, and multiple perspectives should be obtained.
• Data should be used to make informed decisions, and 360/720-degree appraisal is used.
• A role where the primary focus is completing tasks for compliance should be improved for efficiency.
• Employees should optimize organizational processes to maximize output with minimal input.
• Linking individual performance to strategic objectives means being accountable and fulfilling assigned duties.

Expectations on Minimal Performance

• Emphasize individual responsibility, going beyond just feeling accountable.
• "Going beyond" means building trust, communication, ownership, knowledge sharing, respect, and fixing mistakes.

Compensation Decisions

• Decisions should be a byproduct of performance management, planned and distributed as a pay and benefits package.
• Ensuring salary and bonuses remain competitive and equitable within the organization.
• There is a symbiotic relationship between performance management and compensation.
• Fair compensation is necessary to make employees feel valued, inspiring them to work harder.
• Performance management lays the groundwork for compensation decisions and enables monitoring work against objectives.

Poor Implementation of a Performance Management System

• Results in detrimental outcomes, ineffectiveness, permanent shutdowns, unclear rewards, biases, and high employee turnover.
• Leads to a constant need for recruitment and training.
• Retaining an employee is more advantageous than hiring a new one, rehabilitation of the employee through training may be a good idea.
• PMS should align skills and objectives, integrating employee skills with organizational goals.
• A poorly implemented PMS demotivates employees, leading to low job satisfaction and productivity.

Reasons Why Performance Management Systems Fail

• Unstructured process
• Incorrect employee goal selection
• Overemphasis on recent performances
• Annual performance evaluation
• No employee recognition or rewards

Management Structure basics

• The structure describes how a company organizes its management hierarchy.
• There are three management levels: top, middle, and first-line managers.
• The hierarchy determines how roles, power, and responsibilities are assigned, controlled, and shared.
• Consists of delegation roles, power, responsibilities, and there is a smooth flow of information.

Unstructured vs. Structured Performance Management System

• Unstructured system: An unstructured performance management process has no well-defined PMS, and the employee goals are not correctly selected.
• Structured system: Involves clear expectations, regular feedback, performance appraisals, and development plans.

Structured Feedback - Characteristics

• Structured feedback follows a consistent framework, allowing for comprehensive and specific evaluations and is planned, systematic, and facilitated through predefined formats.
• Uses consistent criteria or questions to guide the feedback process and involves specific metrics or categories where structured feedback ensures consistent evaluation across all employees.

Unstructured Feedback - Characteristics

• Unstructured feedback is given in a freeform manner without predefined categories and structured feedback is conversational, informal, spontaneous, and impactful.
• It is qualitative, more intuitive than standard comments, but may lead to inconsistencies if not managed carefully, but it encourages open communication.

Structured Questions

• These questions have a predefined format and are often used to measure specific skills objectively.

Unstructured questions

• These questions are open-ended, used to explore motivations and encourage dialogue.

Benefits of Structured Questions

• Achieve consistency, clarity, and efficiency and help avoid bias, confusion, but may limit the respondents ability to elaborate or explain the answers.

Benefits of Unstructured Questions

• These questions achieve depth and insight, build trust and stimulate creativity, but may make standardizing and analysis more difficult.

Employee Engagement

• Includes employee commitment, job satisfaction, and motivation.

Goals Importance

• Not having specific goals can seem liberating.
• Goals motivates, provides intention, a clear goal is needed for direction.
• Without a clear goal there is no direction or a a plan to follow
• In essence, goals make employees organized.
• Poorly used goals can stress employees.

Supervisors Role

• Supervisors need to help employees develop effective goals and involve them in goal setting
• Non-goal is an objective that managers deliberately choose not to pursue.

Wrong Goal mistake examples

• Setting Unrealistic Goals.
• Neglecting Goals That Bring You.
• Underestimating Completion Time. Frustration/Demotivation.
• Its important to learn from failure
• Goals need to be your own and not other people's goals
• Its also equally important to check for progress.
• Setting too Mainy Goals can be too hard to manage

Examples for Goals that may NOT Be Good

• Unmeasurable/no time frame = Terrible goal (The product must give us profit)
• Unrealistic = Bad Goal (The company must earn 2M from the produce a weak after its launch)
• A Goal that is SMART = A Good Goal = We should penetrate at least three big retail outles within 6-month after the product launch
• In every goal should be realistic

Performance - Recent

• Recency bias leads to an overempahizes

Annual Performance Evaluation

• Lacks constant feedabck
• This allows system dosupport cganing demands of business
• The evaluation set up does not really helpprove people, it actully dissuades them. An ideal performance evaluation shoulld engage and motivate

Annual Evaluation - Cons

• Infrequent feedback hinders timely communication
• Possible bias and subjectivity that relies on supervisor and personal perceptions
• Focusses on past performance with less time to real time
• Can cause andxiety

Management Feedback

• Lacks continues feedabck and coaching
• Can be burdensome
• Employees need recognition that they are motivated and feel like their important
• Performance evaluation identifies strengths and weakness

Review Structure

• Managers need to be trained
• The PMS Provides development
• Training equipse management

Manager Traning - Topics to cover

Include: Communication, Conflict resolution, strategic planning, and compliance with company policies.

To make for feedback

• Use the 360 appraisal
• Give more feedabck weekly to identify
• Managers ned to take feedback on performance

To review feedback carefull and streamling

The supervisor and employee need to prepare. The supervisor needs to review past performance of the employee and feedback

Focusing in feedback with the team

Emploees should also knowh what they do well so they can perform feedback

Supervising a Team

Supervisors should not dominate conversation. and both team leader and emplooye understand the active listening

Plan for the future

reviews should all be about setting goals