By Dinesh Weerakkody
The skilled people who staff an organization bring the greatest competitive advantage for a firm. Finding the right fit talent is just the first step. To succeed in today’s ever-changing marketplace, optimizing the potential of the people in the business should be a top priority for any company. Therefore when a company attracts the best people to their organizations, they need to ensure they create a work environment that helps employees to succeed. Managing employee performance is the key to an effective performance management system. Setting goals, making sure expectations are clear, and providing frequent feedback help people perform most effectively. Also recognizing that most employees in a company are potentially great performers - is a key to being a great manager of people and performance. Recognizing and accepting this principle helps us to focus on helping employees to find positive solutions, rather than focusing blame, criticism and recrimination, the traditional resorts of old-style autocratic or incompetent management and organizations.

Different philosophy
Today a very different philosophy of people management is emerging. We are now moving beyond strategy to purpose; beyond structure to process, and beyond systems to people. Performance management is about people. It’s not about systems or processes or rules or computer systems. It’s about people getting the best out of their people. This is not rocket science - it’s mostly about helping people to do a great job. A big part of what people need from their superior is a clear understanding of what is expected of them - in other words - explanation and clarification and agreement of performance expectations for the year.

A second big part of what people need from their supervisor is help and resources in meeting these standards and expectations - which logically requires the supervisor to first find out what help and resources they need, because it’s different for everyone, and if you don’t ask them, then you won’t know. So why guess? Ask people what they need. A huge proportion of performance problems in organizations can be traced back simply to a failure to explain and agree expectations and/or a failure to understand and provide the help and resources that the employee needs. These are the responsibilities of the supervisor - not the employee.

Role of Manager
Managers should not assume that everything is understood and perfectly within people’s skills and competencies. If companies want their employees to feel rejuvenated, engaged and deliver their best performance, managers should take time to explain, check and ask until their key employee are fully aware and sure of what needs doing, why, and also how. Assessing performance however is a complex process. Although individual assessment is based on demonstrable results and competencies at a specific point of time, effective assessment itself is a culmination of having a robust Performance Management System in place that includes the following key elements:

• An accurate process for evaluating performance across multiple appraisers
• An integrated set of measures at the organization, team and individual level
• A clear line of sight between the individual and organizational goals
• A process of on-going review, feedback and coaching
• Reinforcement of the desired performance and behaviours through both monetary and non-monetary rewards