Managers on different levels should use performance management methods to maintain work processes and make them more effective. I worked several years ago in a company where I was a project manager and managed a team of writers and designers. Evaluation of the work performance of my team was one of my responsibilities, and I had to use performance management methods extensively to ensure that my team fulfilled all work requirements.
Performance management methods include measuring employees’ performance and validating those measures to ensure that they actually describe the firm’s effectiveness. An example of such a measure is a net profit of a firm. To validate the performance measures, managers study the relevance of this information and see whether it is contaminated or deficient (Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M., 2021). Contaminated information is not relevant to the firm’s efficiency; deficient information is incomplete, and thus it does not represent the actual firm performance. Feedback is gathered from employees to obtain the information; it is evaluated to measure its reliability and acceptability (Noe et al., 2021). All those measures help monitor the firm’s performance and ensure that it will be maintained at an acceptable level.
Based on my experience in that company, where I was a project manager, I can describe the performance management process: we used those methods actively to reach the necessary output. The company worked with high-tech companies: it provided them with promotion materials, such as presentations, brochures, and business reports. Our teams created those materials; to maintain the efficient workflow, I had to monitor the team’s form performance and check each team member’s work. To do that, I gathered feedback from team members and our customers to ensure that they were satisfied: this is similar to the 360-degree feedback technic (Noe et al., 2021). To ensure that all team members were motivated, their salary depended on the amount of their work. In that way, we used the feedback system to ensure that our clients and employees were satisfied; still, there was a lack of evaluation of this information, and its reliability and acceptability were not measured.
We did not use the formal appraisal system in the company; instead, we preferred to decide everything in the discussions and personal conversations in private messages. My work as a project manager included watching if the company’s strategy was met and whether everyone had the work and did it efficiently (Noe et al., 2021). Each day we checked the work processes of each writer and designer, and each week we reviewed which materials were ready and for which companies they had been done. When someone was stuck with the workflow, he or she could write a message in our group on social messenger and obtain support. Everyone’s work was saved, and they could see how much work they did; salaries were calculated based on this amount. Everyone was satisfied because it was possible to work more or less without a strict schedule, and the work was paid evenly and quickly. It was convenient and efficient, and our team was happy with this informal work appraisal system.
However, despite good communication in our team, it was a lack of communication between teams. My supervisor often was late in providing the information to me, and thus the work process got stuck. The information deficiency, as mentioned, is the frequent reason why the performance of the company or the working team drops. Eventually, due to this deficiency, the work processes became unorganized, and our team disbanded. Thus, performance management is essential for the working process: all work processes should be measured and evaluated to see are they essential and, if yes, are they efficient. Lack of information and its evaluation will reduce the firm’s productivity and eventually lead to its dissolution.
Reference
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2021). Fundamentals of human resource management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.