Performance management systems and practices

Performance Management: Action Plans and Coaching

The overall goal of performance management is to create an organization where all of the organization's components, including its human resources, are working together to meet the same goals. The objectives of this management technique include, but are not limited to "identification and prioritization of desired results, establishing means to measure progress toward those results, setting standards for assessing how well results were achieved, tracking and measuring progress toward results, exchanging ongoing feedback among those participants working to achieve results, periodically reviewing progress, reinforcing activities that achieve results and intervening to improve progress where needed" (McNamara 1999).

Talent acquisition

For example, in the realm of talent acquisition, a HR recruiter might note that the organization has prioritized expanding its forays into informational technology. The recruiter would make soliciting individuals with this major a priority for the organization. Various strategies of recruiting top talent in general would be 'benchmarked' -- it might be noted that particular campuses produced graduates with strong backgrounds in the fields the company needed. This method of tracking desired results would act as a performance indicator and motivate a shift in HR policy, such as intensifying recruiting efforts on these campuses, or creating an internship program with the universities.

Talent retention

Of course, recruiting individuals is not enough -- so is retaining top talent. Top talent may be defined as individuals who meet specific company benchmarks of quality. Within the organization as a whole, performance management requires a specific process of creating a performance plan, a performance appraisal of how to measure the organization's success in achieving the desired results of its plan and a development plan of how to achieve its goals. Likewise, candidates with talent must be recruited, goals must be set for their expected contributions, and a plan must be created -- with rewards -- of how they should meet those goals. The employee should be given clear goals, to avoid employee frustration, and to avoid the use of the company for purely self-serving reasons. The employee is to be used as a resource, so he or she can feel involved in a meaningful fashion in the company, but must be appropriately compensated for his or her effort. And the effectiveness of these rewards, such as pay vs. performance, should also be tracked so as to inform future company policies.

Talent development