A truly effective Performance Management process is for the good of your company, your employees, your business culture and yourself. And it's more than meets many an eye.

Too often--and unfortunately for just about everyone involved--Performance Management is seen as only the appraisal-and-review process. That appraisal process amounts to

* setting objectives...
* "evaluating" performance...
* completing the evaluation form...
* conducting a review...
* starting it all again for next year.

And so it receives unfavorable reviews from managers and employees. And that may be a future posting you'll see here. But for today let's see how much more Performance Management means.

From Free Management Library:
Simply put, performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner.


From About.com: Human Resources
In a performance management system, feedback remains integral to successful practice. The feedback, however, is a discussion. Both the staff person and his manager have an equivalent opportunity to bring information to the dialogue. ......The developmental plan establishes the organization’s commitment to help each person continue to expand his knowledge and skills. This is the foundation upon which a continuously improving organization builds.

from US Office of Personnel Management

What is performance management? According to Handbook for Measuring Employee Performance (free, down-loadable version), performance management is the systematic process of

* planning work and setting expectations
* continually monitoring performance
* developing the capacity to perform
* periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
* rewarding good performance

Although there are differences in the above descriptions of Performance Management, they all clearly indicate a manager owns responsibility for the process. Support can be expected from Human Resources in designing the process, providing the resources, and training management in its effective implementation.

That final term--implementation--falls to the manager. The manager's should provide opportunities and options for an employee to develop and grow. A thorough and thoroughly effective process of Performance Management can offer that development.