Effective employee performance management

Performance management is one of the important issues when it comes to governance in general. Without knowing how to manage performance, it is difficult for businesses to measure work efficiency as well as exploit resources more optimally. In this article, BEMO will point out 3 mistakes in employee performance management and solutions to the problems.

1. 3 mistakes in performance management

Many businesses often make 3 mistakes in management that affect the overall goals of the organization. Specifically:

1.1 Lack of performance targets:

Setting targets for the work of personnel contributes greatly to the organization’s achievement of overall goals. For example, the sales department is associated with sales, the production department has to commit to the number of defects per thousand product units, or the marketing department will be responsible for the new product launch strategy. The above targets should be directed towards the overall goals of the business.

Or set goals that are difficult to measure, like the effectiveness of customer relationships, that take years to build. Therefore, the specialized department sets the goal of building relationships with customers in the next year, very vague goals for employees, making them less productive because they do not clearly define specific targets.

1.2 A big goal with small benefits

What reduces employee performance is that the rewards are not commensurate with the effort they put in to achieve the goal. Therefore, managers should remember that rewards are an important driver of employee performance. Businesses can use many forms such as promotion, salary increase, additional training, travel, organization of skill courses, …

In addition, when the enterprise gives a new orientation, the goal is different from the original but still retains the compensation policy, which will affect the working psychology of the employees, resulting in reduced output quality.

1.3 Lack of challenges at work

For some managers, because they are concerned about their employees’ ability to meet difficult goals, they choose to lower the target standard to match the team.

This is a wrong mindset. Non-challenging tasks do not create motivation to overcome difficulties for employees, as well as for managers themselves. Instead, management must set target pressure, letting employees know how important the work they need to do is. However, the given tasks need to ensure that employees must be able to complete them, that is, management needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of employees.

You can refer to how to effectively assign work to employees here

2. Solutions to effectively manage employee performance

A manager needs to have an overview of the performance and the ability of subordinates, and motivates the team to work more excitedly. The following performance management solutions will be useful for the work of managers.

• Communicating core values: The core values ​​of the business, including the vision and mission, will be the driving force to promote employee productivity, they will always rely on it to make efforts at work. Typically, Microsoft, all employees must remember 6 core values ​​and implement them in each job.
• Planning common goals and linking specific goals for employees: To build annual goals, each employee and each department must commit to their own annual objectives. Usually, people will choose what they can do. Therefore, the management board will decide the overall goal of the whole company after meeting with the department heads.

To be effective, when assigning a goal to an employee, the management must give convincing arguments that the goal is feasible for each person, and provide the necessary support if the employee needs it. Make sure the goals when delivered are clear, measurable,and have policies to encourage and motivate employees according to the level of accomplishment.

• Give performance evaluation: Leaders should give weekly and monthly evaluations depending on the specificity of the job. After 6 months, the leadership, management and employees need to discuss again, give official reviews, as well as provide timely feedback to employees to achieve the commitments set out. ERP management system will be a great choice to help track the process and evaluate the work results of each employee.
• Salary and bonus system in accordance with capacity: Salary and bonus regime is very important, and can be considered as the main motivation to promote employee performance. Businesses can apply the method like Microsoft to reward the whole team, not just each individual. Teams must have their own goals, group members who receive more targets will be rewarded more. The bottom line of the whole commitment must come from the overall goal of the company.
• Human resource development: People are an important factor for the success of the business, enterprises should invest in training and developing employees. The leaders when conducting recruitment need to calculate how much time it will take for them to advance, and develop appropriate training programs.
• Trust employees: Employees holding themselves accountable and ensuring commitment, is an effective way to increase performance, but still requires trust from management. Management should not control, force employees into the framework of the plan, instead let them be flexible, or share part of the work for them. This action will make employees feel competent and trusted.
• Overcoming fear: A talented boss is someone who helps employees achieve goals with the best results, without causing obsession or fear in subordinates. If employees feel pressured and afraid of being fired when they make mistakes, they will not be able to have good work results and affect the overall work. Management should build a comfortable working environment, freely express opinions in meetings, and must know how to listen to employees’ opinions. Thus, employees will actively contribute to the work and can come up with many unique ideas.
• Dismissing poor-performing employees: It can not be said that businesses are harsh when making decisions to fire poor-performing employees because they are the ones who affect the collective. Conspicuous signs of employees refusing to work such as “it’s not my job”, “I don’t get paid for it”, and similar situations. Their actions and mindset will create a bad “culture” for the business, reducing the productivity of the whole team. Good managers know when to fire lazy employees and hire more suitable people to accompany the team.
• Empowerment instead of manipulation: It is undeniable that employees will feel more confident and comfortable when given the right to make decisions at work. If superiors hold all the power, employees can not make decisions and have to to ask the leader again, wasting time and being evaluated for poor performance.

These are not too new statements, but are always true and have not been applied much in businesses. Therefore, BEMO hopes this article will motivate managers to consider their performance management perspectives and apply them to solve the performance problems their organizations are facing.