PS Reviews: Marianne Chrisos’ Article on the Purposes of Performance Management

In the recent TechFunnel article, “6 Purposes of Performance Management in HRM,” Marianne Chrisos discusses the positive effects that performance management brings to a business. Traditional performance management processes are outdated and ineffective, but this is changing – and technology is the driving force. “Performance management tools are meant to create lasting change and grow a positive culture in your business,” establishes Chrisos. How many businesses would describe their performance management process as creating lasting change and a positive culture? As case studies have shown, not many. Tools, like Performance Scoring, are ushering in a new era of performance management, one that is focused on driving business solutions, and forward-thinking companies are experiencing the impact. Effective performance management touches every part of an organization, and Chrisos hits on 6 of the primary benefits that a business will experience.
1. “Alignment” & 2. “Guidance and support”
Businesses operate under the belief that employee development is aligned with company values and goals inherently, but this simply is not true. And if it were to be true, how is this tangibly measured? “Performance management helps to align the job responsibilities with company objectives in a meaningful way that helps employees feel more engaged,” explains Chrisos. Performance Scoring measures the custom ScoreCard Categories and Factors that allow an organization to directly align growth with core values and goals. After alignment, Chrisos mentions how performance management brings a new element to the guidance and support that managers exhibit towards their employees. “Employees benefit from open, honest, direct communication with their managers and supervisors to help keep them informed of everything from their successes to their potential promotions or even their problems.”  The reporting features of Performance Scoring’s Performance Management Application will objectively display areas of high, medium and low performance for a manager’s team so that they can ensure continuous improvement and development occurs. Performance management tools are bringing new, actionable data to management teams and empowering them to improve productivity like never before.
3. “Pre-emptive problem solving” & 4. “Improves productivity”
The next two purposes of performance management stick with the narrative that Chrisos has told thus far. When a manager or supervisor is active in employee development, they will all be pre-emptive in problem solving and able to course correct proactively. “This might be through formal training or even just some clear conversations and plans, but no matter what form it takes, investing in your employees is almost always a benefit to your business.” One key feature of Performance Scoring that empowers managers to be pre-emptive is that all of the actionable data is accessible in real-time. A manager identifies where their team is objectively performing low and can be proactive in improvement in these areas. This leads to the purpose of performance management that affects the bottom line: improved production. “Employees who understand their place in the business and have clear expectations about their role are more productive and engaged in their work,” Chrisos writes. This is easy math to follow so far: alignment of development + guidance and support + pre-emptive problem solving = increased performance and improved production. Performance Scoring has released case studies on the improved production that is seen after implementation of the performance management system, and businesses have seen an ROI of $20 for every $1 spent on Performance Scoring.
5. “Identifying talent gaps” & 6. “Documentation”
The last remaining two purposes of performance management have to do with the lasting impact of capturing employee performance data. First, is the increased ability of an organization to identify the talent gaps that exist within their workforce. “Having a more holistic view of the entire process can give your business more information to make better business decisions that ultimately serve everyone from individual employees to overworked teams to lagging business units,” Chrisos suggests. One of Performance Scoring’s reporting features, The Dynamic Performance Org Chart, provides this holistic assessment at a glance by mirroring a company’s org chart and then color-coding it by performance level. The final purpose of performance management is something that a business can never have too much of: documentation. “Formal performance management gives your business the opportunity to document everything from complaints and problems to praise and promotions.” Chrisos observes. Performance Scoring’s system takes this even further by documenting the underlying Factors that promote or prevent success within each unique company role. Managers manage better, and employees perform better, with a performance management tool in place, like Performance Scoring. Implementation is not a burden either, in fact Performance Scoring’s Implementation Team is able to offer next-day availability to its clients. The purposes of performance management benefit everyone at a business, and implementation is simple, so there is no better time to get started than today.