Frequency, Purpose, and Process of Performance Reviews
Performance management is one of the crucial components that promote success and effectiveness of any organization (Cardy & Leonard, 2014). One of the duties of a Line Manager in the company is to develop performance reviews/appraisals. It is a significant part of career development that has to be organized properly and meets all the expectations set by a team. For example, there are several practices in performance management process that can be offered to new managers: the records of accidents, monitoring of a workers’ entry, and self-assessments. The frequency of the chosen practices and performance reviews varies (Bussin, 2012). As a rule, it is expected to get the appraisals once per month. Such frequency should help to understand if everything is under control, if there are the workers, who need additional help or motivation, and if there are some steps that can be done to improve the results.
The purposes of such practices are numerous. It is possible to use the information from the reviews in order to gain some new information from staff about how to improve the quality of the services, discuss skill development, and even reduce stressful situations among employees and supervisors. The process of performance reviews consists of several steps. First, it is necessary to establish the standards according to which employees have to work, inform employees about the expectations, measure performance accordingly, compare the actual work with standards, discuss the reviews with employees (no self-regulations are allowed), and develop the actions that can change the situation.
How to Deal with Good and Poor Performance
One of the crucial aspects of a performance management process is dealing with good and poor performances. The main task is not to make fast decisions and use the information without a proper evaluation. Group discussions are appreciated. Workers have to understand how their achievements can be analyzed. As soon as progress is made, it is not necessary to reward a person and introduce the results as the best examples. It is better to use the achievement as a chance to inspire other workers and motivate them. Poor performance is not the reason to punish an employee and underline the weaknesses only. It is possible to inform about possible challenges in the work and provide the employee with an opportunity to correct the situation, take some activities, and achieve better results.
Information Division
Finally, performance management aims at dividing the information according to its appropriateness. Some facts have to be available to both, managers and employees, and some information has to available to managers only. For example, both, a manager and an employee, may know that the quality of work has been worsened considerably. However, managers may not inform employees that they know about the cases when employees neglect their duties but provide employees with a chance to improve the situation independently. If the next month the appraisal shows the same or even lower results, a serious discussion, punishment, or even a dismissal should take place. It is also possible that during the preparation for an appraisal, a manager may have the information about the criteria according to which employees’ skills can be evaluated. Employees should not have this kind of information in order not to be prepared for particular questions only. They have to analyze all aspects of their work the way they see it.
References
Bussin, M. (2012). The performance management handbook for emerging markets: A practical and informative handbook for managing performance for the world of work in emerging markets. Randburg: Knowres Publishing.
Cardy, R. & Leonards, B. (2014). Performance management: Concepts, skills and exercises. New York, NY: Routledge.