Performance planning is a collaborative process between managers and employees where job activities are reviewed and performance standards and expected results are discussed and agreed on. The performance plan should be documented, including any training or development plans needed to help the employee achieve their objectives.
Managers and employees agree on:
This work forms the basis for ongoing meetings throughout the year to discuss progress and/or adjust expectations.
Important: This article is about a standard performance evaluation system based on a manager and employee relationship. However, some organizations use a 360-degree feedback process (also known as multi-rater feedback), which gathers feedback about the employee from other sources such as co-workers, peers, clients, other supervisors in an organization and sometimes external groups the employee may work with.
A performance appraisal form contributes to consistency in performance feedback and management across the organization and ensures performance management activities are properly documented. Forms should be kept as simple and clear as possible — the more complex the form the more opportunity for misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Organizations usually establish appraisal ratings to indicate the level of performance achieved by employees. The current trend is to simplify rating scales and move away from numeric scales to words descriptive of performance.
While performance results are often the key criteria for making compensation decisions, best practice organizations separate the two conversations to maintain a focus on performance excellence.
The value of a rating system is that it provides a clear indicator to the employee of the level of their performance. However, focusing too much on performance rating risks lowering the value of performance improvement.
Future performance should be emphasized over employee mistakes and past performance.
In general, activities in the performance planning phase include:
Both the employee and manager should sign the performance plan. The manager should give one copy to their employee and keep another as part of their supervisory notes.
While job descriptions establish the job activities that employee’s need to conduct to deliver the services of the organization, performance objectives define the qualitative and quantitative standards for key job activities. Employees at all levels in the organization should be able to clearly understand how their job activities and the level of their performance directly contribute to the success of the organization.
Often, the most challenging part of the planning phase is finding appropriate and clear language to describe the performance objectives and measures or indicators of success. Managers need to ensure that the objectives represent the full range of duties carried out by the employee, especially those everyday tasks that can take time but are often overlooked as significant accomplishments. If the performance plan focuses too heavily on larger organizational goals, important daily tasks may not be tracked in the document.
When setting objectives and measurements:
