Flourish or Flounder with Effective Performance Managment

Before this week ends I will have met with or spoken with five new clients about performance management. I don't recall five in-depth conversations like these over the entire past 12 months or even longer.

Previous discussions about performance management generally were little more than requests for different annual performance review forms or attempts to "pick my brain" on how to get managers and employees to like the whole dreaded employee appraisal process.

Fortunately change is constant and the time has come when C-level executives and senior managers are moving discussions about performance management out of HR department meetings and into the board room.

That's doesn't surprise Matt Angello, founder and principal of Bright Tree Consulting Group, because performance management begins with the end in mind - a company's operating objectives developed by the CEO and his/her executive team. Angello, a former Senior Vice-President of Human Resources for several Fortune companies including Armstrong World Industries and Pepsico, believes passionately that performance management will distinguish businesses that flourish from those that will flounder.

A significant challenge to implementing performance managment is ensuring that individual employee behavior and actions turn activities into results. The next step then becomes sharing the goals and plans in a relevant and actionable way with all the employees - the people who actually will do the work. "As you can see," Angello notes, "performance management isn't a new, trendy management tool or fad. It doesn't require new servers, new software, new employees, or retaining a few 'black belts.' What it does take is focused and disciplined communication.

"Performance management is the single most important lever that any organization has in its toolbox to achieve its growth and success objectives," according to Angello who emphasizes "single most important lever," when he speaks. Despite its critical role in growing an organization effectively, performance management in many companies consists primarily of annual appraisals. Human resources and managers get hung up on writing and re-writing performance review forms instead of creating a strategy that drives business change and growth. Revising the forms is like getting your car detailed while ignoring the flat tire. Afterwards the car looks great and smells fresh, but still is running on a flat tire.

A second significant problem with current performance measurements is that in most organizations there is no standard by which all employees are measured. In most cases performance appraisal consists of one supervisor's rating system versus another supervisor's rating. Different managers expect different things of their employees, even if they are doing similar jobs.

With effective performance management in place, individual goal achievement feeds organizational momentum. Without it, employees and management face off in the unenviable job of explaining how and why each of them ended up where they did, neither of them in the place they intended.

Without employee-organization alignment, individual and organizational goal achievement moves full steam ahead on separate parallel tracks. As the year end approaches, the individual or the organization - or both - often find themselves peering at one another from different destinations. When an individual employee fails to meet his/her goals, the organization fails to meet its strategic objectives.

Aligning employee performance with key operating objectives is imperative for organizations that want to flourish, not flounder. To be effective, organizations must understand what skill sets they need now and in the future at every level of the organization - from the clerk to the CEO.

Success Performance Solutions has set a new standard for hiring success using best practice assessments for fitting the right employees to your organization's values. Learn more about aligning people with performance. For training and certification, register for CriteriaOne certification - continue reading the newsletter for more information.

Simplify the complexity of performance management by calling 800.803.4303 or visiting www.super-solutions.com.

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According to a recent study conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism:

"I gave one of your tests to a current employee and it said she wasn't detailed-oriented and might have problems multi-tasking. But she is one of the busiest, most reliable and accurate employees I've ever had. Does that mean the test is wrong?"

Your question is an excellent one. And although I hate to admit it, behavioral and personality assessments are not perfect. So it is possible that the results don't accurately reflect who this person really is.

HOWEVER (you knew that was coming), the tools we use demonstrate accuracy that is higher than 80% (varies depending on the assessment). When predicting human behavior, 80% accuracy is really, really good.

Where discrepancies often show up is when employees have learned skills to close performance gaps. For instance, your employee's natural tendencies and preferences is to ignore the detail and complete one task before moving on to the next one. But sometime in the past, she recognized that in order to become more successful, she would have to be more careful and juggle multiple projects even if it made her a bit uncomfortable. She has obviously succeeded in improving her skills.

Where employers and employees alike need to be careful is that under stress, pressure, or tension, people then tend to revert back to their natural styles. So just like people eating comfort food under stress, a red flag should go up, warning you that your employee is getting stressed out, or even burned out, when she starts making unusual mistakes, missing details or complaining about too many things to do.

An effective way to evaluate the difference between natural styles and tendencies and effectiveness on the job is to complete 360 degree feedback. Behavior tests (DISC) and Personality tests (ASSESS and Prevue) will accurately predict an individual's natural approach to other people and the job. 360 degree feedback assesses how they actually perform. Any discrepancies between behavior/personality and 360s are then do to learned skills, extra effort and motivation.

To learn more about assessing your future managers and leaders, call us at 800.803.4303.

4. Order your advanced copies of Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)- release set for September 2007.

"A tremendous work and one that could (and hopefully will) change attitudes and promote proper hiring/training/retention actions."
"Powerful stuff - enough to make any manager gasp."
"The policy and practical ramifications of the Perfect Labor Storm are astounding. It should be required reading for every Human Resource Professional."

Place your orders for advance copies today by calling 800.803.4303. Available in soft or hard cover. Below you will find just a sampling of the trends, stats, and facts that will change the way you do business.

Below you will find just a sampling of the trends, stats, and facts that will change the way you do business.

China's Generation Y accounts for nearly one-sixth of the Chinese population, equivalent to two-thirds of the entire U.S. population.

By 2025 more than 75% of the workforce in India will be from Generation Y and younger generations.

Trends and stats like this are just an inkling of the information you'll find in the revised, updated and expanded Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, including several chapters about managing generational clashes.

Keep reading future issues of this newsletter for more announcements about the book release and updated Perfect Storm Indicators.

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KeyneLink is part process, part software, part roadmap, and all about successful performance.

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"A must for anyone interested in lowering turnover and improving productivity," says another.

7. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching."

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2007 Ira S Wolfe." We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.