Performance management is an ongoing process of communication between a supervisor and an employee that occurs throughout the year, in support of accomplishing the strategic objectives of the organization. The communication process includes clarifying expectations, setting objectives, identifying goals, providing feedback, and reviewing results.
Using your own job (current or past) and briefly discuss how your performance was managed and evaluated.
For this very particular assignment, I would like to describe how performance is managed and evaluated for my current job. Immediately after an employee is hired at my the organization, on-boarding schedules are therefore set where the new hire gets so much induction about the organization culture, areas of work, rules, and regulations or organizational policies and procedures. In case it is an expatriate staff, the organization often flies him/her to Home Office in Washington DC for a strong and comprehensive orientation and for the aim of meeting other based home office managers and colleagues playing the role of backstopping the country offices operations and program activities and other necessary field activities requiring Home Office expertise and support. Local staff also called Cooperating Country Nationals ‘CCN’ gets induction and onboarding support from the country office level. Next is the probationary period where simple and clear objectives are set. When this probationary period is conclusive, an employee gets then another long-term contract for which he/she and the supervisor jointly set objectives that are tied to the overall objectives of program/projects and /or mission of the organization. In this long journey of staff performance management, employees are asked to inform line management on the weekly assignments for close follow up and support on weekly duties. The management does not wait until the end of the year to conduct the annual appraisal. There are bi-weekly check-ins between the employee and supervisor to update each other on what the employee has been working on, what he/she has been able to achieve, the challenges he/she is encountering to avoid any hindrance and get the right and regular needed support from management. There are also monthly check-ins organized face-to-face for employees and supervisors working in the same work place and through online platforms when the duty stations for employee and supervisor are different. Monthly check-ins are followed by quarterly performance reviews which are a consolidation of all the monthly check-ins. Employees are given opportunities to point out their quarterly achievements, and express any needs for support from the supervisor. In case there are issues arising with the implementation of the projects /program activities, they are amply discussed between the two and get escalated to higher levels if needs be. If an employee is not demonstrating competences or job performance, the supervisor tries to coach and efficiently support him/her to enable him deliver. Otherwise, the supervisor starts documenting all the cases of underperformance to initiate the dismissal process which is very stressful and complex. Next are semi-annual reviews and annual appraisal which are somehow easy as they are combinations of all the previous performance management and evaluations. In the course of these structured monthly, quarterly and semi-annual performances management and evaluations, both the employees and supervisors will already have realized whether the staff is performing or not. Good annual appraisal are rewarded in accordance with the organization’s policies and procedures which are about providing motivating incentives, salaries increase and promotions, etc. I would further my discussions to talk about how retirements are handled for loyal employees but I would stop here as I don’t know how this is done because I have not yet reached retirement age.
Using your experience, consider the three most important job duties and design three (3) objectives or measurements using the SMART method.
Setting objectives to guide the way people do their work in companies or organizations is the Human Resources Management practice and requirement. It is not an easy task because the objectives have to meet standards. According to an article published by Reference for Business in 2019, goals and objectives provide organizations with a blueprint that determines a course of action and aids them in preparing for future changes.
For this particular assignment, I crafted job duties and objectives referring to my current job assignments.
Three Job duties:
1. Build the capacities of Core Regional Partners and Grantees working in the areas of natural resources management
2. Create new relevant blogs posts that document the achievements and success stories generated from the capacity development services
3. Facilitate capacity assessments workshops that inform the establishment of institutional strengthening plans
Three related Objectives using SMART methods with ‘Build the capacities of Core Regional Partners working in the areas of climate change and Biodiversity conservation’
Specific: Build the institutional and technical capacities of core regional partners in the areas of natural resources management
Measurable: Conduct 3 trainings on leadership and management skills for the management staff from our Partners and Grantees
Achievable: Design institutional and technical capacity building actions plans to measure and track the progress
Realistic: Conducting 3 coaching and mentoring sessions to enhance mastery of the topics of the training
Time-bound: Ensure all the 3 trainings and 3 coaching and mentoring supports are done within 12 months
SMART Method with ‘Create new relevant blog posts that document the achievements and success stories generated from the capacity development services’.
Specific: Create relevant blogs on the added-value of the institutional and technical capacity development services and post them on Mosaic and Intranet
Measurable: Craft 8 new relevant blogs describing key substantial achievement generated by capacity building services
Achievable: Design a plan of stories to be documented from the capacity building achievements
Realistic: Production of all those blog posts contribute to meeting the objectives of Program in its ‘knowledge Management and Learning’ practice
Time-Bound: Create 8 new relevant blog posts on the major achievements from capacity development in 12 months
SMART analysis for the duty ‘Facilitate capacity assessments workshops that inform the establishment of institutional strengthening plans’
Specific: Spearhead all the capacity assessments workshops to identify organizational and technical gaps within partner organizations
Measurable: Lead 5 capacity assessments workshops on organizational and technical areas of partner organizations
Achievable: Conduct these capacity assessment workshops from 5 selected partner organizations requiring robust institutional and technical capacity building support with collaboration from other organization’s departments
Realistic: The capacity assessment workshops inform on developing the institutional strengthening plans which are roadmaps in the capacity building process
Time bound: Conduct all the capacity assessments workshops to identify organizational and technical gaps within partner organizations within 24 months of the 1st phase of the project
Once you’ve done this, discuss your experience using this method. Did you find it difficult? Why or why not?
Designing SMART objectives has been responsibility during the 8 years of professional experience working for development organizations. My organization management is responsible for developing major duties (tasks and responsibilities), while I am asked to craft objectives that play key role in guiding and tracking the implementation of the project activities. Even though I have a long professional experience in this and developed familiarity in setting objectives, this particular assignment is a bit harder because it is asking details regarding the use of SMART method. At my organization, we do it but we are not required to make too much detail in designing the objectives as there are dynamics and other needs arising in the course of implementing the complex regional project and those needs are factored in as we go along in the project implementation.
To conclude, performance management plays a priceless role as pointed out by Kenton W, 2017 when saying that the ultimate goal of performance management is to improve the quality of work in the most efficient manner possible. Per an article published by Berkeley University of California in 2019, despite the time required for to plan and implement, performance management is also crucial as it can save you and the employee time and energy. As for setting objectives, this is very important as they provide guidance and direction, facilitate planning, motivate and inspire employees, and help organizations evaluate and control performance.
References
Berkeley University of California (2019) Human Resources retrieved from https://hr.berkeley.edu/hr-network/central-guide-managing-hr/managing-hr/managing-successfully/performance-management/introduction
Kenton W (2017) Performance Management. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/performance-management.asp
People Performance Management Toolkit. (2017). NHS Employers and Skills for Care. Retrieved from: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/Leadership-and-management/People-Performance-Management-Toolkit/People-Performance-Management-Toolkit.pdf or download the pdf.
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