Embrace Performance Management

This is a question I receive so often from readers that I decided to share my response. The work setting and the jobs are variable, but the question remains very much the same: what should we do if we don’t want to do the traditional, annual performance appraisal?

In the case of this reader, and a far flung retail setting, I also made a couple of additional recommendations of articles and processes for her to think about.

Reader Question:

If you don't recommend traditional performance appraisal systems and uses, what do you recommend? My situation includes retail clerks, retail managers, and a retail district team, employees who are not receiving training and development. As a new Director here, I wish to enhance the present performance appraisal by either replacing it with something more agreeable to all or making the appraisal more of a group effort. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Answer:

I recommend performance management, across the board, as a substitute and replacement for performance appraisal. For people just getting started who’d like a quick overview about why I recommend performance management, see my Quick Start Learning Guide: Performance Management and Development. Familiar with the concept? Then, you might want to take a look at my Performance Management Process Checklist.

I would think that goal setting and performance measurement would be critical for people in sales roles and a performance management system provides a framework for goal setting success. It also ensures that the employees receive regular feedback.

Additionally, depending on the work environment and culture you seek to create, a bonus or commission based partially on individual performance and partially on team performance is recommended. Money is a powerful motivator within a performance management system.

It’s probably not the first process I would implement, but 360 degree feedback is a powerful tool for obtaining more than the manager’s feedback about an employee’s performance. You may find it would work in your setting to provide a broader view of the employee’s performance.

Even if you don't provide external training, your in-house training could use documentation of best practices and checklists to guide performance and teach expectations. These are also useful in performance development planning with employees.

Quotes of the Week - More Quotes

These quotes moved me powerfully today.

• "Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying."
  --Martin Luther (1483-1546)
• "If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
  --Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

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