Performance Planning

Performance planning is completed when the manager and the individual have come to an understanding (ideally, an agreement) on the individual’s key job responsibilities, the goals that the person will achieve over the next year, the competencies that the organization expects of its members, and the development plans the individual will pursue. In most cases, [...]

What do I do if the individual disagrees with the goals I want set, or says that my standards are unreasonable, or that one of the key job responsibilities I’ve identified is not really part of the job? You’re the boss. You set the standards. Tell Me More When a difference of opinion arises in [...]

How hard should the goals be? Should I define in advance what it will take to get a superior rating or should I simply describe what will qualify as fully successful? Should I set my objectives at the level that I need the job to be performed, or should I set them based on what [...]

SMART is an acronym for the five components of an effective goal. An effective goal should be: Specific Measurable Attainable Result-focused Time-oriented Tell Me More The inherent advice contained in SMART—that an objective be specific, measurable, attainable, result-focused, and time-oriented—is certainly good advice. Keep in mind, however, that all SMART offers is a test. Once [...]

Here are some suggestions on creating workable goal statements: Start with an action verb. Identify a single key result for each objective. Identify costs—dollars, time, materials, equipment. State verifiable criteria that will demonstrate that the goal has been achieved. Ensure that the goal is controllable by the individual. Determine the relative goal priorities. Determine how [...]

There are several areas that will generate ideas for possible goals: The organization’s vision and values statement or mission statement Objectives from previous review period Critical job responsibilities Your boss’s objectives Division/department plans and strategies Discussions with colleagues/customers/internal clients Organizational problems and opportunities Tell Me More Mission Statement. Too often companies don’t make a clear [...]

Goal setting is one of the key elements of performance planning. In addition to identifying the key responsibilities of the individual’s job and the competencies or behaviors that the organization expects everyone to display, another critical element is setting appropriate goals for the upcoming year. When the manager and the subordinate talk about key job [...]

Descriptive measures seem subjective. Don’t we have to be objective when we evaluate someone’s performance? Of course we must be objective. But what do the words objective and subjective actually mean? The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language provides illuminating definitions: ob-jec-tive (ob-j k’t v) adjective 1: Of or having to do with a [...]

In addition to identifying what the key responsibilities of a position are, the manager and the individual need to discuss how the person’s performance will be measured and evaluated. There are four—and only four—general measures of output: 1. Quality 2. Quantity 3. Cost 4. Timeliness Notice that the last measure is ‘‘timeliness,’’ not ‘‘time.’’ That’s [...]

Some Big Rocks May Be Bigger than Others; Some Key Job Responsibilities are More Critical than Others. How do You Determine the Most Important Items? The easiest way to determine what the most important key responsibility in a subordinate’s job is to imagine that you’re having a conversation with that person. The individual asks, ‘‘Boss, [...]

Job descriptions should provide a lot of help in determining the key responsibilities of a job but they rarely do. Too often, however, job descriptions are written in very general ways to serve many different purposes: recruitment, compensation, legal requirements, etc. As a result, they sometimes provide little information that is useful for performance management [...]

Results include actual job outputs, countable products, measurable outcomes and accomplishments, and objectives achieved. Results deal with what the person achieved. Behaviors include competencies, skills, expertise and proficiencies, the individual’s adherence to organizational values, and the person’s personal style, manner, and approach. Behaviors deal with how the person went about doing the job. The following [...]

Start by making sure you’re fully prepared. Have all of the materials available that you will need: a copy of the employee’s job description, the goals that you have set for your department, your notes on ideas for goals that the employee might set, the company’s mission statement and similar documents, and—most important—a blank copy [...]

The best time is a week or two after you have completed the performance appraisal meeting when you reviewed the official performance appraisal and discussed the person’s performance during the preceding year. Tell Me More Ideally, every manager should close every performance appraisal discussion by saying something like, ‘‘Jane, I think we’ve had a really [...]

While the manager has six important responsibilities in the planning phase of performance management, the individual actually has seven. Again, most of the responsibilities involve activities that happen before the actual meeting. Before the Meeting 1. Review the organization’s mission statement and your own department’s goals. 2. Review your job description and determine your critical [...]

The manager has six primary responsibilities. Four of them you’ll work on before the meeting with the individual. The other two you’ll accomplish during the meeting. Before the Meeting 1. Review the organization’s mission statement, or vision and values, and your own department’s goals. 2. Read the individual’s job description. Think about the goals and [...]

Performance planning is a discussion. It is the first step of an effective performance management process. Performance planning typically involves a meeting of about an hour or so between an appraiser and an appraisee. The agenda for this meeting includes four major activities: 1. Coming to agreement on the individual’s key job responsibilities 2. Developing [...]