By Claudine Hodges


Having the most qualified employees in your organization is not a guarantee that they will deliver. They require performance assessment programs that review their work with the aim of guiding them and offering insights in areas where weaknesses have been detected. The success of any business performance assessment program depends on the strength of several key pillars. The pillars touch on the management and personnel at all levels.

Deliberate hiring and continuous development of your workforce- only individuals with particular skills should be hired. Their skills provide realistic chances of delivering to your expectation. The organization must put in place mechanisms to ensure that these individuals sharpen their skills through continuous learning. Lack of skills cannot be compensated by any scale of motivation.

Flow of ideas and action up and down the organizational ladder- supervisors must make known their expectations to juniors while juniors must make supervisors know what they need to perform. This is the best way to synchronize expectations and ensure that everyone is working towards one goal. With this knowledge, appraisal will be justified.

A culture that includes performance management as part of supervisory duties- resources must be devoted to goal setting and feedback which forms a core element of supervisory responsibility. Feedback must not appear to disrupt normal activities. This is likely to doom the entire appraisal process.

Explicit and objective appraisal criteria- businesses should publicize evaluation methodology and levels. This method should be uniform to individuals performing similar tasks with no exception. Any obscurity leads to a disgruntled feeling among employees. This dissatisfaction with the program or a feeling that some workers are favored will negate any gains.

A performance and reward connection- the management must reward workers based on their output. This can be done in monetary or non-monetary terms. Workers who are not appreciated lack the drive to go the extra-mile and will be demoralized.

Appreciation of the existence of exceptional and extraordinary cases- extreme delivery cases exist in all work environments. Top performers must be rewarded through promotions while action is taken on poor performers. They require counseling to help them identify their flaws and work on them. You are allowed to release perpetual poor performers who do not respond to motivation.

Involvement and recognition of assessment programs by management- management must appreciate, recognize and assign resources to programs aimed at assessing delivery by employees. This eliminates the cynicism and contempt that characterizes some interactions. The effort must be recognized in all management and operation levels with the results being crucial in HR decisions.

At the point of hiring employees, each of them should be given a role based on expected behavior and competence. Five or six competencies should be used to define success in his role. The employee should clearly understand the responsibilities and skills required to perform a certain role. Review will be based on these competencies.

Time is of essence in any assessment program. Supervisors are given a duration over which they should file returns. The reviews should be frequent enough to stem negative attitudes and behaviors that are likely to hamper delivery of set targets. The entire organization must embrace the process for it to succeed.




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