Competency based Human Resource Management

 

Module 1

 

Performance management

Performance management can be defined as the development of individuals with competence and commitment, working towards the achievement of shared meaningful objectives within an organization which supports and encourages their achievement. 

According to Michael Armstrong and Angela Baron – ‘Performance management is a process which contributes to the effective management of individual and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance.’

Performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on performance of the organization, a department, processes to build a product or service, employees, etc.

WHAT IS PERFORMANCE? Performance could be defined simply in terms of the achievement of quantified objectives. But performance is not only a matter of what people achieve but also how they are achieving it. A high performance result comes from appropriate behaviour and the effective use of required knowledge, skills and competencies.

PMS

Performance management system is the systematic approach to measure the performance of employees. It is a process through which the organization aligns their mission, goals and objectives with available resources (e.g. Manpower, material etc), systems and set the priorities.

The execution administration framework is a constant procedure of characterizing and conveying the activity parts and duties, execution desires, goals and set their needs between boss (administrator) and subordinates (workers). It incorporates association, office and representative shared objective and targets which are lined up with frameworks and assets. It is the channel of providing clarity about goals and also to improve the business processes through various methods and mechanism.

The competency, skills and knowledge gaps are also identified through this process which can be improved by providing guidance, trainings, coaching and mentoring to employees or teams at different levels and designations. It optimizes the results through a roper channel and process which reduces the conflicts and grievances among teams or employees. Because each individual is clear about the expectations from his/ her role and put their efforts to meet performance standards.

This process can be applied to single department / function or to whole organization.  It aims to continuously monitor and measure the performance standards against the desired goals and objectives.

Purpose of Implementing Performance Management System

 

Managing employee’s performance is the key objective of establishing systematic Performance Management system in an organization. These process servers’ six main purposes in the company:

1. Strategic 

Performance managed system is a tool which should be align with overall organization goal followed through department goal and individual goals. In other words, the organizational strategic goals should be linked with each activity performed by every department or employee.

2. Administrative

Performance management system is also set the deciding factor of employee’s promotion, demotion, salary increment, transfer and terminations. It enables to identify the performers, non-performers or under performer employees in an organization. It merits the competency and skill level of employees. Hence, it clearly defines the administrative role as well and supports the management decisions.

3. Communication

It is the effective communication channel to inform employees about their goals, job responsibilities, key deliverables and performance standards. Further, it is also a structure method to indicate the key areas of improvement required by the employee in order to improvise his performance. In other words, it provides  the platform to learn and train on skills, and knowledge for better performance and results.

4. Developmental

It is the structure method of communicating the positive feedbacks, improvement areas, and development plans. The manager can use various methods like training, mentoring, coaching etc. and them their team members to perform better.

5. Organizational Maintenance

Performance management system is the yardstick of measuring employee, department and organization achievements  and evaluating  the performance gaps through various tools and techniques. Hence, it maintains the health of the organization and its performance standards.

6. Documentation

The performance management reviews, feedback and forms should be documented and maintained periodically by every organization. It would enable them to look forward, set new targets, design developmental needs, design training and learning programmes, and career progression of employee and for department. Hence, it helps in driving the organizational needs to desirable objectives.

Benefits of Performance Management​

In today’s global environment where the market is evolving at a very fast pace, it is important for an organization to understand the benefits of performance management. Therefore, managing employee’s performance is the ultimate need of an organization. The employees are considered as an asset by the organization. The performance management  system serves various benefits to the organization, which are as follows:

1. It supports to provide data to find the skills and knowledge gaps of employees in order to improvise them through trainings, coaching and mentoring systems.

2. It motivates employees to take new challenges and innovate through structure process.

3. It provides new opportunities to employees for their growth and development in their professional careers

4. It defuses the grievances and conflicts among team members through proper performance evaluation system.

5. It assesses the employee’s performance fairly and accurately against the performance targets and standards.

6. Employees would enable to provide better results because of clarity on their performance targets.

7. Performance management system provides the platform to discuss, develop and design the individual and department goals thorough discussion among manager and their subordinates.

8. The under performer can be identified through performance reviews and can raise their skills levels objectively. It quantifies the learning needs through individual development plans or performance improvement plans as well.

Performance management system consists of three phases which are as follows.

Phase 1: Developing and Planning Performance - which includes outlining development plans, setting objectives and getting commitment activities;

Phase 2: Managing and Reviewing Performance - which includes assessing against objectives, seeking feedback, coaching and document reviews activities;

Phase 3: Rewarding Performance which includes personal development, results of performance and link to pay activities

 

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT CHARACTERISTICS

 Performance management is a pre-planned process of which the primary elements are agreement, measurement and feedback.

Measures outputs of delivered performance

It is concerned with measuring outputs of delivered performance compared with expectations expressed as objectives. Its complete focus is on targets, standards and performance measures. It is based on the agreement of role requirements, objectives and performance improvement and personal development plans.

Concerned with inputs and values

Performance management is also concerned with inputs and values. The inputs are the knowledge, skills and behaviors required to produce the expected results from the individuals.

Continuous and flexible process

Performance management is a continuous and flexible process that involves managers and those whom they manage acting as partners within a framework that sets out how they can best work together to achieve the required results.

 Based on the principle of management by contract and agreement It is based on the principle of management by contract and agreement rather than management by command. It relies on consensus and cooperation rather than control or coercion. Focuses on future performance planning and improvement Performance management also focuses on future performance planning and improvement rather than on retrospective performance appraisal. It functions as a continuous and evolutionary process, in which performance improves over the period of time; and provides the basis for regular and frequent dialogues between managers and individuals about performance and development needs.

The Importance of Performance Planning

The purposes of the performance management program are  to:

q  Provide a link between work planning for individual staff  members and overall department and Division goals

q  Help staff members understand their job responsibilities and  improve job performance

q  Recognize and reward staff member contributions, and foster

professional development and career growth

q  Increase productivity and correct problems

q  Required in the determination of merit increases

 

INDIVIDUAL GOAL SETTING

Goal-setting is the process of taking active steps to achieve your desired outcome. Maybe your dream is to become a teacher, musician or physical therapist. Each one of these dreams involves setting and reaching small (and big!) goals. Each of these major goals can be broken down into smaller, more attainable goals that will propel you towards success.

Each employee will be charged with three to five individual goals. Unlike the institutional goals, individual goals are NOT intended to cover all aspects of an employee’s work product. Instead, these goals will focus on factors such as key results, outcomes, and/or deliverables.

There is not one specific way to write individual goals. Instead, the development of individual goals is a flexible process that allows the goals to be tailored to each employee and his or her role. As a supervisor, you are encouraged to work with your employee to discuss and determine his or her individual goals for the upcoming cycle. Making the goal development process a collaborative one will give your employee the chance to be fully invested in his or her role. The more invested an employee is in achieving a goal, the more likely the goal will be accomplished and completed well.

SMARTER Goals As you develop individual goals with your employee, follow the SMARTER model for the best results:

Specific – What needs to be accomplished? What are the outcomes?

Although specific tasks can be included in the description, the emphasis should be on the overall deliverable or end-product of the action. The specific details may come from your answers to the other SMARTER categories

Measureable – What data can be used to define success?

How will you know that this has been accomplished? How can it be measured? You may be able to use quantitative metrics, such as customer satisfaction ratings or fund-raising target amounts, but there can also be qualitative outcomes, such as compliance requirements like established report formats or design specifications.

Achievable – Is this challenging, but realistic?

If a goal is too easy to achieve, then it may not be an effective goal. At the same time, the outcome should not be too difficult to achieve. It may help to think about what level of outcome would not be value-added (too small a stretch for the employee) and what would be unattainable (too big a stretch for the employee).

Relevant – Does this align with broader goals and/or needs?

A goal should be relevant to an employee and the university. Does the goal advance the vision and mission of UNCC and does it help the university maintain its standing on the campus and in the community? Relevant goals help employees keep focused on what’s important.

Time-Bound – What are the deadlines/milestones?

Similar to the achievable aspect, is it reasonable that this goal be completed in this performance cycle? If so, what are the deadlines? What key milestones can be defined to measure progress along the way?

Expectations – Is it ethical, exciting, and enjoyable?

 This is sometimes called the E3 factor. Is the goal ethical? Does the goal generate some excitement in the employee or work unit (which is an indicator that it may be a worthwhile goal or fulfilling to complete)? Is it enjoyable for the person(s) who has to accomplish it? Of course, developing all “fun” goals is not always possible. However, it can give the supervisor some awareness of how much additional support and encouragement might be needed to help the employee succeed.

Resources – What will be provided to assist this endeavour?

There are many great goals out there, but if employees don’t have the resources they need to accomplish them, then they won’t get very far. The outcomes of the goal need to be consistent with the resources available, and the employee may need guidance to know what tools and resources are available to them.

 

 

 

 

There are three types of goals- process, performance, and outcome goals.

• Process goals are specific actions or ‘processes’ of performing. For example, aiming to study for 2 hours after dinner every day . Process goals are 100% controllable by the individual.
• Performance goals are based on personal standard. For example, aiming to achieve a 3.5 GPA. Personal goals are mostly controllable.
• Outcome goals are based on winning. For a college student, this could look like landing a job in your field or landing job at a particular place of employment you wanted. Outcome goals are very difficult to control because of other outside influences.

Process, performance, and outcome goals have a linear relationship. This is important because if you achieve your process goals, you give yourself a good chance to achieve your performance goals. Similarly, when you achieve your performance goals, you have a better chance of achieving your outcome goal.

General Goal Setting Tips

• set both short- and long-term goals
• set SMART goals
• set goals that motivate you
• write your goals down and put them in a place you can see
• adjust your goals as necessary
• Recognize and reward yourself when you meet a goal

 

linking individual goals to Organization goals

Individual goals are something set at an individual level for each employee in the organization whereas organization goals are set keeping in mind the different departments & levels working in the organization. ... Goals need to be very specific, measurable, time bound.

Every organization understands the importance of goal setting, but setting goals is not enough. It’s imperative to align employee goals to team goals, and team goals to organizational goals.

Everyone should be working to achieve the organization’s overall strategy, and aligning goals gets everyone on the same page and moving in the same direction.

Aligned goals create a familial atmosphere where everyone works together and understands their role. Simply put, if your organization isn’t aligning goals, you’re at a disadvantage.

1. Goals set the tone for your organizational strategy.

Organizational goals communicate what's important, and employees plan and execute their work based on those benchmarks. Organizational goals take the company's overall strategy and break it down into manageable chunks, providing checkpoints along the way to reach the overall strategic mark.

2. Employees get a sense of how their contributions are building toward team and organizational goals.

It's easy for an employee to feel lost and become disengaged when they don't understand where they fit in the organizational hierarchy. But when their goals are aligned with those of the company, they see the impact of their actions. It gives everyone a role to play and promotes accountability while providing natural points for recognition and celebration of good work.

3. Priorities are clarified.

Employees have many tasks on their agenda each day, and they're trusted to choose which should be accomplished first to propel the organization forward. When they understand how each task affects the team and organizational goals, it's easier for them to choose the job that needs their attention first.

4. Aligned goals connect employees and teams.

Alignment connects employees and teams to the organization and helps everyone get on the same page. Employees become disengaged when they feel they're a one-man crew. But when everyone understands how their work is contributing to the organization's main goals, bonds form as everyone works together towards common goals.

 

How to align goals across your organization

 4 steps to gain alignment on organizational, team, and employee goals.

1. Set clear organizational goals.

Goals alignment starts at the top. Get together as a leadership team to discuss the company vision and strategy, and identify the specific goals you want to achieve as an organization. Get crystal clear on your objectives. Company goals should be targeted, strategic, and built around a vision the entire organization can share.

Remember: The clearer your goals are, the easier it will be for others to understand the vision and rally around a shared purpose. Vague or general goals lead to vague or general results.

2. Get buy-in from leadership.

Once you have your organizational goals outlined, it’s time to share them with leadership. Meet with senior and middle managers to communicate your vision and outline the specific goals and benchmarks you’ve identified for the company.

Listen to their feedback and questions to ensure the goals make sense and further refine your messaging. You will need them to understand and buy into these goals in order to effectively communicate them and drive alignment on the ground.

 

3. Communicate goals on every level.

When goals and accountabilities are clear, employees are 2.8x more likely to be highly engaged. Yet only 40% of employees across organizations know what their company’s goals are. How can you get alignment and execute your objectives if more than half of your organization doesn’t know what they’re all working toward?

The key is strategic, clear, and consistent communication at every level of your organization. 

Make goals a regular part of leadership meetings, team meetings, employee one-on-ones, and performance reviews. Connect company initiatives and decisions to the underlying organizational goals. As you build goal conversations into your regular communications and messaging, you will reinforce, remind, and align employees across the organization.

 

4. Help employees achieve their goals.

Employees can’t succeed in a vacuum. They need team and organizational support to set and achieve their goals.

Support looks like:

• Robust on boarding for new hires to understand their role, company goals, and where to go for support
• Ongoing employee training and development to build the skills and knowledge they need to succeed
• Resources and tools to effectively get the job done
• Regular feedback and coaching from managers to ensure work is on track and aligned

Employees who have the support they need to succeed are better positioned to set and achieve goals that strategically align their work with company goals.

 

Performance Coaching

 

Performance coaching is an ongoing process which builds and maintains an individual’s purpose and helps to set the mindset.

Performance Coaching is a process where one person facilitates the development and action planning of another, in order that the individual can bring about changes in their lives.

Performance Coaching is not advice giving and does not involve the coach sharing their experience or opinions.

Performance Coaching helps you move forward at your pace within an equal and trusting relationship.

 

There are four major causes of performance problems: 

• Knowledge or Skills - The employee does not know how to perform the process correctly - lack of skills, knowledge, or abilities.
• Process - The problem is not employee related, but is caused by working conditions, improper procedures, etc.
• Resources - Lack of resources or technology.
• Motivation or Culture - The employee knows how to perform, but does so incorrectly.

 

Coaching performance = awareness increase

Our minds can only process a limited amount of information at the same time. We have a mechanism in our brain that filters all incoming signals and only those considered important come through. It would be impossible to function without it.

This selection process takes place automatically without any conscious effort. You don’t have to do anything. You can however feed your brain better input and influence the importance given to certain inputs. By being aware – or in other words by tuning your senses and engaging your brain – you are in control of the quality of input that your brain receives and the importance it is given.

 

 

 

Performance Coach Responsibilities and Duties

 

·        Identify skill gaps and schedule appropriate trainings to resources for performance improvements.

·        Conduct job trainings for new hires as per company policies.

·        Provide educational trainings to company employees for professional growth.

·        Address training related questions and queries from employees.

·        Educate resources on company procedures and regulations.

·        Work with management to determine training needs and training topics.

·        Coordinate with team members to develop and implement training models at all business levels.

·        Determine training timelines and develop training content.

·        Maintain training documentations and make updates as per business needs.

·        Obtain training feedback from participants and analyze and implement the suggestions.

·        Develop best practices to improve training quality.

·        Develop and maintain knowledge base and FAQs for employees.

 

There are many types of coaching elements that provide a framework of the coaching process. The following are examples of elements from the Idaho Division of Human Resources that are essential when it comes to performance coaching:

• Building Trust - Trust is key to coaching. The supervisor and employee relationship must have some level of trust for coaching to work. A mutual interest in the success of the other is critical. Trust can begin to develop through open, honest feedback and respect.
• Defining the Issues - The supervisor/manager should seek information from the employee to better understand the issue or performance in question. The emphasis is not on proving who is right or wrong, but on gathering information in a non-judgmental manner.
• Coaching for Success - Taking employees from compliance to commitment can be difficult. Finding or creating that factor means sometimes helping the employee get in touch with what matters to him/her - what are his/her internal goals. Sometimes this is best achieved through the use of open-ended questions leading to the employee's self discovery.
• Creating a Plan of Action - For the purpose of buy-in and commitment, the supervisor and the employee should jointly create an action plan. The plan should include performance goals that are simple, measurable and attainable.

Identification of Training Needs

Training bridges gap between what employee has (in terms of skills and abilities) and what his/her job demands. This clearly underlines the need for proper identification of training needs of employee.

Identifying training needs is a process that involves establishing areas where employees lack skills, knowledge, and ability in effectively performing their jobs. Training needs have to be related both in terms of the organisation’s demands and that of the individual employee’s. Many methods have been proposed for identifying training needs of the employees.

 

7 steps for identifying the training needs

 

1. Set clear expectations for each role

To identify training and development needs, you must first set clear expectations for each role within your business. This creates a benchmark to monitor performance against.

Review job descriptions when new positions are created, or when making substantial changes to existing roles. Remember to periodically account for smaller changes as well.

Doing this makes it easier to understand what skills an employee needs if they are to be successful in each role. And in turn this helps you identify skills gaps and potential training and development needs.

 

2. Monitor employee performance

Measuring and monitoring performance should be embraced as a means of supporting employees (not penalising them) and can be a valuable tool in identifying development opportunities.

Set clear goals for employees and respond to performance blips on an individual basis. Understanding why performance is off kilter puts you in a better position to respond positively and offer appropriate training.

Conversely, if an employee continuously over delivers, you could work with them to set more challenging goals to stretch their abilities.

3. Ask away

Now this may seem obvious, but employee feedback can be a valuable addition to your SMEs training and development plan.

Instead of traditional employee surveys, use focused employee evaluation to encourage honest and open feedback. This will create helpful dialogue about career development and help you identify specific training requirements.

You don’t need to set up special meetings – use regular one-to-ones or performance reviews for open conversations and honest feedback.

A simple way to do this is to ask employees to rate their job satisfaction and performance and then ask them what would make it better. Also ask them to comment on your current training and development programme and to understand whether it's supporting their career goals.

Don’t restrict your business to individual level feedback, ask managers for feedback on employees and compare that with employee self-evaluation to identify differences. It is equally useful to ask for employee feedback on managers.

 

4. Analysis (and lots of it)

You’ll already have your SME's strategies and goals set up. Complement this with an analysis of the work that delivers those goals. This should help you identify training and development needs that are specific to each team and job.

Tapping into what's going on under the surface will help you spot gaps in your training and development schedule.

It’s likely that training and development needs will fall into one of three categories:

• Improving staff knowledge about your industry
• Job-related needs
• Personal development

 

5. Make the most of personal development plans

Giving employees the opportunity to lead their personal development can have a profound effect on their motivation and their engagement in your business.

Well-managed personal development plans improve communication and will also help you identify any relevant training and development needs.

 

6. Use focus group to understand training and development needs

Focus groups are a useful tool to help you identify training and development needs within your business. A focus group looks at a cross-section of employees within your business under the guidance of an expert facilitator.

They are a useful way of gathering employees’ views and opinions about current training and how to improve what is on offer. Focus groups also help demonstrate that you are genuinely interested in your employees' opinions.

 

7. Set up a system of mentoring and coaching

Closely aligning staff with a mentor will help develop skills while identifying additional training and development needs. Mentoring programmes are a great way of helping employees succeed in their careers and can be as powerful for the mentors as they are for the mentees.

 

Training needs can be identified through  following types of analysis.

Ø  Organization analysis

Ø  Task analysis

Ø  Manpower or human resource analysis

Organization analysis

·        Systematic study of organization in terms of  its objectives, its resources, resource  allocation and utilisation, growth potential  and its environment .

• It’s purpose is to determine where training  emphasis should be placed in the  organization for increasing organizational  effectiveness.

It involves following elements

  1. Analysis of objectives

• Long term and short term objectives and  their relative priorities should be properly  analyzed.
• Specific goals for various departments should  be stated which will serve as means for  achieving the overall organization objective.
• Management would have to examine what  are the specific training inputs that would  contribute towards the achievement of these  objectives.

 

2. Resource utilisation analysis

· The allocation of human and physical  resource and their efficient utilization in  meeting the operational target     should be  analyzed.

ž    Following questions should be answered.

• Whether adequate number of personnel's are  available?
• Whether their performance is up to the  required standards?

3. climate analysis

• It reflects the attitudes of workers  trust, loyalty, openness, commitment towards  organizational goals.
• It should aim at determining whether the  environment in different departments is  fulfilment to their goals.

·        This will help in areas where training is  needed to improve climate of organisation

Example:

If there is a mismatch between value system  of the organization and value system of  employees. this mismatch may due to  culture, religion, social aspects etc. here the  training is required for all the employees  irrespective of their designation. Training is  requires in this type mainly in mergers and  acquisitions.

 

Task analysis

q  Systematic analysis of jobs to identify job  contents, knowledge, skills and aptitude  required to perform the job.

q  Attention should be given to

q  Tasks to be performed

q  Methods to be used

q  Way employees learn these methods

q  Performance standards required for  employees

q  Questionnaires ,interviews, personnel  records, observations and other methods can  used to collect information.

q  The main focus is on task or job.

q  Task analysis required the study of various  types of skills and training required to  perform job efficiently.

q  E.g. transfers and promotions

 

Manpower or human resource analysis

 

q  Quality of manpower required by  organization is carefully analyzed.

q  It has to be done in the light of both internal  and external environment.

q  Organization should be properly scanned to  determine the quality of human resource.

 

Job Specification

A job specification defines the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required to perform a job in an organization. Job specification covers aspects like education, work-experience, managerial experience etc which can help accomplish the goals related to the job. Job specification helps in the recruitment & selection process, evaluating the performance of employees and in their appraisal & promotion. Job specification, along with job description, is actually derived from job analysis. Collectively, job specification and job description help in giving a overview of the job in terms of its title, position, roles, responsibilities, education, experience, workplace etc.

Job specification is another aspect of job analysis. It describes the type of employee required (in terms of skill, experience, and special attitude, and test scores of various types) and outlines the particular working conditions that are encountered on the job.

According to Dale Yoder, “The job specification, as such a summary properly described is thus, a specialized job description, emphasising personnel requirement and designed especially to facilitate selection and placement.”

 

Importance of Job Specification

The importance and purpose of job specification is a thoroughly understand the specific details of a job. Jobs can be of different types and can require a different skill sets to get the maximum output from a particular. Job specification gives important details related to the job like education & skills, prior work experience, managerial experience, personality traits etc which would help an employee accomplish the objectives of a job. For a recruiter, job specification lays down the guidelines basis of which the company can recruit and select the best possible candidate who would be best suited for the job. Apart from actually finding the right candidate or employee, job specification can be used for screening of resumes & shortlist only those candidates who are the closest fit to the job. Hence, a job specification gives specific details about a job and what kind of skill sets are required to complete the job.

 

Components of Job Specification

There are many parameters which are considered while giving the job specification for a certain profile. 

1. Educational Qualification: This parameter gives an insight on how qualified a certain individual is. It covers their basic school education, graduation, masters degree, other certifications etc

2. Experience: Job specification clearly highlights the experience required in a particular domain for completing a specific job. It includes work experience which can be from a specific industry, position, duration or in a particular domain. Managerial experience in handling and managing a team can also be a job specification criteria required for a particular position

3. Skills & Knowledge: This is an important parameter in job specification especially with knowledge and skill based profiles. The higher the position in a company, the more niche the skills become and more is the knowledge required to perform the job. Skills like leadership, communication management, time management, team management etc are mentioned.

4. Personality traits and characteristics: The way in which a person behaves in a particular situation, handles complex problems, generic behaviour etc are all covered in the characteristics of a job description. It also covers the emotional intelligence of a person i.e how strong or weak a person is emotionally

 Job Specification Example

Here is a sample job specification, which is prepared for a marketing manager in a telecom company.

Education	Must be an engineer and MBA in marketing for a reputed MBA institute
Work experience	Must have prior work experience in marketing & sales (preferably telecom or FMCG)
Skills & Knowledge	1. Must be a good communicator and must be able to lead a team. 2. Prior experience in handling ATL-BTL activities and managing promotional events. 3. Must be able to handle social media like Facebook, Twitter and help build online brand 4. Experience in managing PR and media 5. Strong analytical skills and problem solving skills 6. Must understand business, come up with innovative products and launch them
Personality Traits & Characteristics	1. Must be presentable and a good orator 2. Should be calm in complex situations and show leadership skills in managing multiple teams 3. Should be emotionally strong and should give timely deliverables

The above table is a sample of job specification. More specific details can also be put to give a better understanding about the job.

 

Advantages of Job Specification

There are several benefits of having a comprehensive job specification. Some advantages are listed below:

1. Job specification highlights all the specific details required to perform the job at its best

2. It gives the HR managers a threshold and a framework on the basis on which they can identify the best prospects

3. Helps in screening of resumes and saves time when there are multiple applications by choosing those who are closest to the job specification

4. HR managers can used job specification as a benchmark to evaluate employees and give them required trainings

5. It also helps companies during performance appraisal and promotions

 

Disadvantages of Job Specification

There are certain limitations of job specification. Some of the disadvantages are mentioned below:

1. It is a time consuming process as it has to be very thorough and complete

2. Job description is time bound and changes with changing technology and changing knowledge & skill requirements

3. It can only give a framework of emotional characteristics and personality traits but cannot specify the experience or forecast complex issues is any

 

Identify the Performance Gap

 

A performance gap is the difference between intended and actual performance. This can happen at any level of the organization. For example there can be a performance gap with one particular salesperson who doesn't hit their target, with an entire sales team who falls short of the goal, or with the sales process itself not responding promptly to requests.

As a leader, you must considered the required performance standards and compare these requirements to the actual performance of the team member in the role. If the individual is not yet achieving the required standard a performance gap exists. Where a gap exists, you must work with the team to correct it.

Reasons for Not Performing

There are many possible reasons why people don’t achieve the required performance standard. Possible reasons include:      

• personal problems at home
• they may not fully understand their role
• physical conditions in the workplace
• lack of job knowledge
• ineffective management
• or leadership structural problems within the organisation

To uncover the REAL cause of the performance gap, you may need to ask a number of questions about the person’s performance. This will help you to identify the causes of the problem.

The next step is to talk to the person involved. The key here is to work with the person to ensure they are comfortable enough to tell you the real reasons without fear of reprisals. Only then can you remedy the situation

Conducting a Performance Feedback Session

There are many models for conducting feedback sessions or performance review discussions. Your store may have a preferred model or you may find one of your own in the reference books available on the subject. Alternately, you may develop your own method in consultation with your manager.

Feedback

Feedback is the primary tool used to provide employees with information and guidance. Feedback consists of two-way communication.

• Employee feedback provides managers with clues regarding how they are hindering or aiding their subordinates' work performance.
• Supervisory feedback should inform, enlighten, and suggest improvements to employees regarding their performance. Supervisors should describe specific results they have observed as close to the event as possible so ideas stay fresh and any needed adjustments can be made in a timely manner. Successful supervisors develop a routine that includes frequent, in-depth discussions about performance with employees. The routine should remain informal and the discussions should focus on how both the employee and supervisor view the employee's performance and development.

Training specification

Dale S. Beach defines training as ‘the organized procedure by which people learn knowledge and/or skill for a definite purpose’. Training refers to the teaching and learning activities carried on for the primary purpose of helping members of an organization acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes needed by a particular job and organization.

Need for Training

Every organization should provide training to all the employees irrespective of their qualifications and skills.

Specifically the need for training arises because of following reasons:

1. Environmental changes:

Mechanization, computerization, and automation have resulted in many changes that require trained staff possessing enough skills. The organization should train the employees to enrich them with the latest technology and knowledge.

2. Organizational complexity:

With modern inventions, technological up gradation, and diver­sification most of the organizations have become very complex. This has aggravated the problems of coordination. So, in order to cope up with the complexities, training has become mandatory.

3. Human relations:

Every management has to maintain very good human relations, and this has made training as one of the basic conditions to deal with human problems.

4. To match employee specifications with the job requirements and organizational needs:

An employee’s specification may not exactly suit to the requirements of the job and the organization, irrespective of past experience and skills. There is always a gap between an employee’s present specifications and the organization’s requirements. For filling this gap training is required.

5. Change in the job assignment:

Training is also necessary when the existing employee is pro­moted to the higher level or transferred to another department. Training is also required to equip the old employees with new techniques and technologies.

 

choose appropriate training module

A training module is one structured section of a course. The content within a training module should be designed, and created, to support the learner's intake and retention of the information it contains. Grouping training modules together is used to create step-by-step learning.

A training module is an instructional guide primarily used for teaching and learning step-by-step procedures. Training modules also can be used to present more factual information. Although most OJT is carried out for the purpose of teaching skills, practical experience indicates that employees also need a way to document facts, concepts, processes, and principles.

Use the “ADD” Concept

•      Assessment: What do your learners  need to know to accomplish job-  related tasks?

•      Design: What will your training  module look like?

•      Development: What content,  learning methods, and resources will  you need?

 

Counselling for Better Performance

Performance Counselling is a very important activity that helps employees to know themselves better. Performance Counselling refers to the help provided by a manager to his subordinates in objectively analyzing their performance. It attempts to help the employee in:

1. Understanding himself - his strengths and weaknesses.
2. Improving his professional and interpersonal competence by giving him feedback about his behaviour.
3. Setting goals and formulating action plans for further improvement.

 

Features of Performance Counselling

1. Conditions for effective counselling

• A climate of trust, confidence and openness is essential for effective counselling. Counselling cannot be effective if the subordinate does not trust his boss.
• It is necessary that the subordinate should feel free to participate without fear or inhibition as it is a dialogue between supervisor and subordinate and hence should be a two way communication.
• The main purpose of counselling is employee development.

 

2. Performance Counselling Phases

(a) Rapport Building: In the rapport building phase, a good counsellor attempts to establish a climate of acceptance, warmth, support, openness and mutuality. This phase involves generating confidence in the employee to open up frankly, share his perceptions, problems, concerns, feelings etc. The subordinate must be made to feel wanted and that his superior is genuinely interested in his development.

(b) Exploration: In this phase, the counsellor should attempt to help the employee understand and appreciate his strengths and weaknesses. He should also understand his own situation, problems and needs. Questions should be asked which help the employee focus on his problem. For example, if an employee feels that his problem is that others do not co-operate with him, the counsellor may ask questions to narrow down the problem to the employee’s relationship with a few individuals. Then the superior may ask questions to help the employee understand what he does (or says) to his colleagues that is making it difficult for him to win their co-operations. Problem identification is a critical step in planning for improvement. To help the employee make a correct diagnosis of the problem, open-ended questions may be asked.

(c) Action Planning: Counselling interviews should end with specific plans of action for development of the employee. The main contribution of the superior in this phase is in helping the employee think of alternative ways of dealing with a problem. For example, in case of an employee whose relationships with colleagues are poor, the superior may suggest “What three things can you do in the coming week to improve your relationship with X?” After helping the employee brainstorm, the superior may also add more alternatives to the solutions already generated.

 

Feedback Mechanism in Organization

 

Organizational feedback is essentially a process wherein the manager and the employee discuss possible ways to effectively work together to achieve organisational goals. Organizational feedback can either be informal oral communication or a formal report of performance appraisals, probation etc.

Importance of Organizational feedback

Companies work through various employees towards attaining certain objectives or goals set by the company. All the people perform the roles and responsibilities allotted to them. However, not everyone is able to perform extremely well and on the other hand some people do very well. Hence, it becomes important to understand the overall performance of people in the organization. This is where organizational feedback plays an important role. It helps to understand the performance of employees and managers and how they can improve the output for the benefit of the company. One method of knowing better about employees, is using a 360 degree feedback mechanism.

Steps of organizational feedback

There are basic steps which are followed when doing an organizational feedback:

1. Collect data: Collecting the most important data accurately is the foremost things which companies must do so that they can work and improve on the correct factors and parameters

2. Take action: Once the issues are understood, appropriate actions must be taken to rectify those processes so that improvements are done.

3. Communicate feedback: This is a two way communication process which helps to understand and evaluate whether the actions taken are working in favor of the company or not.

4. Refine changes: Once the feedback is understood thoroughly, changes are incorporated so that the processes and performances are improved further. Thus, this loop is followed again in an organizational feedback which helps in improving company performance through employees.

 

Types of Employee Feedback Survey

 

There are many types of employee feedback like 360-degree employee review, continuous feedback mechanism, employee performance evaluation to name a few.

1. 360-degree feedback: 360-degree feedback is a process in which an employee receives feedback from his/her superiors, manager, peers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of an employee so that immediate corrective measures can be taken to improve employee performance.

The purpose of a 360-degree feedback is to understand an employee’s performance and collect feedback and reviews, this mechanism of employee feedback allows a multi-pointer rating and serves as a benchmark for an employee’s development plan.

However, in a 360-degree feedback is it essential that feedback remains anonymous. The purpose of this anonymity is to keep it strictly professional, so it doesn’t lead to any differences between the employee receiving the feedback and the manager or peer giving the feedback.

2. Continuous feedback mechanism: Continuous feedback is a process where an employee receives feedback on a timely basis. Imagine an organization where employees are willing to get a feedback but managers are not willing to spend any time to give the needed feedback. No points for guessing, the lowered levels of employee motivation that it would bring.

There are a number of benefits of continuous feedback- it promotes a healthy workplace culture, helps employees and organization set better goals, boosts employee morale and this, in turn, leads to happy employees. However, continuous feedback is a complex process and should be done carefully.

The process should not be scary for employees, a feedback doesn’t have to negative, it needs to be constructive. No organization would want to promote a culture where employees don’t trust the leadership and vice versa. This is not a process where you will blame the employees for why they have not achieved their targets, this is a process to help employees improve themselves through constructive feedback.

3. Employee performance evaluation: Employee performance evaluation is a formal method of providing feedback to the employee’s performance based on their work and result based on their job responsibilities. It is used to measure the amount of value added by an employee in terms of organization growth, revenue generated and overall return on investment (ROI)

Any organization that has learned the art of winning from within, understand the importance of feedback. They rely on a systematic performance evaluation process and grade employees annually based on the feedback received from their managers.

Ideally, employees are graded, with a promotion or increase in the increment received and similar methods. Performance evaluation also plays a vital role in providing periodic feedback to employees to make them more self-aware in regards to their own performance metrics.

 

Advantages of Employee Feedback

Following are the advantages associated with employee feedback

1. Conflict resolution even before a conflict: One of the benefits of having an open feedback culture is it facilitates conflict resolution even before a conflict escalates. Employees in an organization should feel they can openly discuss with their managers or peers and vice versa. Feedback here will be a dialogue and not a monologue.

When employees are used to giving or taking feedback regularly they won’t be any anxiety associated with the process. This means they will know how to handle a tense situation and take the feedback in the stride.

2. Professional development: The more an employee becomes comfortable asking/giving feedback the more they will take this up as their own initiative. This will lead to a more organized professional development.  

3. Increased employee engagement: When an organization has a transparent culture, a well-designed feedback mechanism in place, immediate attention to any potential issues etc. there will definitely be an increase in the levels of employee engagement. Remember feedback is just not about employees or an organization improving, it is also about doing good work time and again.