Improving Company Results with a Performance Improvement System |
Posted: July 11, 2011 |
Does Your Company Struggle With Performance Appraisals?Summary: Performance appraisals are often a stressor for managers and employees alike. They are put off, ignored and each party hopes they will just go away. But the performance appraisal does not have to be a negative event, in changing the framework of the appraisal it can be a positive experience for both and with positive outcomes for the company. Do you do your performance reviews? Do you stress for weeks ahead of time, avoid, procrastinate and just put it off? Performance appraisals and reviews are one of the biggest stressors for managers and leaders. They get put off, not done at all or ignored. Some companies don’t even use them at all, failing to see their value in performance improvement, while other companies do them but with negative impacts on their employees. For many companies performance appraisals are the tool that use to fire or terminate employees. With the rising cost of turnover to the company you really CANNOT afford to fire people that you have invested in. Of course, sometimes that is the only option and that is true, but often it is not the best option because the employee can participate in an effective performance improvement program and become one of your BEST employees. Performance appraisals are usually the leader or manager telling an employee what they did well and what they didn’t do well. The employee dreads this as does the manager. Telling people that they are not doing well in their job is hard work and uncomfortable for all. It is time to change your paradigm about the performance appraisal and perhaps even shift how and why you do them. What if you took that appraisal and instead of it being the once a year time when you delivered bad news you shifted it to be a positive plan for performance improvement? What do you think would happen to employees; to your company productivity and results? And how would the manager’s experience change? Perhaps they would focus more on the performance improvement plan. The Performance Improvement Paradigm suggests that you shift performance appraisals to performance improvement plans. There is still room for feedback and room to improve in areas where there needs to be improvement. The big paradigm shift is in the approach. The Performance Improvement System takes you to a positive planning process, teaches coaching skills to managers and tracks goals throughout the year. Through monthly Gold Time meetings employees are able to discuss with their “coach” and manager what is going well, what is still not going well and the road blocks to success. When managers learn to coach staff through the barriers and road blocks then performance can continue to shift and improve. The Performance Improvement Plan is conducted in employee groups with an outside facilitator that takes the burden off of managers and leaders. Their role is to provide input into areas of focus and need, but the employee and facilitator create the actual plan. By teaching coaching skills to managers, employees begin to benefit from a positive coaching approach. Coaching skills and a performance tracking give the manager tools that they can use to help employees to stay on track. By shifting to a positive framework, employees see that the company is interested in them beyond their work performance because the planning can also include their personal goals. As a manager, when you know your employees personal and career goals, you are in a position to support them in their goals. This positive strategy results in better work performance, company loyalty and overall company results improve. The performance improvement system is implemented in conjunction with the overall company vision and strategic plan. It brings the entire company into the fold of working in a focused and performance based way. Tracking goals and providing regular feedback and coaching accelerates results for individuals, teams and the company. Having employee performance improvement plans that each tie to the overall strategy of the company; increases the results that the company can achieve. No longer are employees working on non-essential tasks that don’t better the company’s vision. By shifting to a positive performance improvement focused appraisal instead of a punitive appraisal system shifts the entire outlook of the team and workforce. Positive outcomes are numerous and turnover costs reduced. So in addition to increased performance results the company saves money in turnover, retraining, rehiring etc. The company has created a positive energy that runs throughout the entire workforce. The shift is vibrating results throughout and the overall company vision comes to life for the entire company instead of just the leaders. To learn more about the Performance Improvement System that Compass Rose Consulting provides contact Business Success Coach, Donna Price at www.performanceimprovementsystem.com Or call 973-500-8094.
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