How To Develop A Successful Business Performance Assessment Program

By Claudine Hodges


Hiring the best employees does not guarantee that they will deliver on their own. Performance assessment programs offer reviews, insights and guidance that help them deliver more and easily. Even the best business performance assessment program will fail terribly if it lacks several critical pillars. These conditions are supplied by the organization and the workers to ensure overall success.

Target selection and continuous as well as conscientious development of your workforce- only employees with a realistic chance of delivering should be hired. The opportunity to improve their skills must be provided. No effort will produce results if the employees have little aptitude or are not trained for the job.

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.

An objective criterion for appraisal- the method used to assess output needs to be clear and open. The targets must be spread uniformly and include all workers in the same category. Ambiguity becomes a source of disgruntlement and makes other people to feel as though there is favoritism.

A connection between excellent work and reward- monetary and non-monetary rewards must accompany recognition as a top performer. This is a clear signal that those who work hard and deliver on set targets are appreciated. Failure to appreciate employees demoralizes them leading to collapse of the entire program.

Recognition of extraordinary and exceptional cases- the management must take cognizance of both extremes in the process of delivering on targets. This means promotions and rewards to employees who deliver the best results. Poor performers should be guided on methods of achieving their targets. If no improvement is noted, they should be released and replaced by fresh employees.

Upper management that appreciates the appraisal tools, processes and products- the active participation and recognition of the program by management is crucial for its success. They must not ignore it or appear to be cynical. Failure to recognize it leads to laxity and demoralizes the entire team. Actions on employees must be based on the outcome of this process.

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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