Performance Management: Concepts and Definitions

The rise of the “Corona” pandemic has made it so every individual on the face of earth cannot escape its grasp. What with it being the age of technology, Corona has brought us all together while tearing us all apart. As technology works its magic and businesses learn to cope in a time way different from the one they grew up in, business management becomes more relevant than ever before. The question that irked many managers was that of how one could manage a group of employees working from their tiny cubicles day in and day out, going back home with the same attitude that managers then had to fix. Providing appraisals, appreciation, bonuses and much more, these managers left no stone unturned when it came to boosting their employees’ morale in the name of management. However, the pandemic we all are facing makes it extremely difficult for one to manage employees as they sit behind their screens in the comfort of their homes day after day.

What Does Management Mean?

In order for one to understand what performance management means one needs to understand what management really is. Managers look over the office in order to figure out whether there is any space for greater efficiency and work output. It involves the allocation of tasks and maintaining suitable office atmosphere while making sure that the employees are as satisfied as they can be. Failing to take into account these minute details might instil haphazardness into the office activities, raise cost for the company, lead to rifts between employees and so on. When it comes to the planning definition in management, it relates to the important ways with which managers carefully draw out marketing or business plans for a particular company, first mapping out the goal towards which the business would need to work as a whole and then assigning particular responsibilities to particular candidates that work within the company. There exist many kinds of managers, however in general a manager makes sure that the work environment in a particular business is focused enough to reap specific benefits in the business’s long term plan.

What Does Performance Management Mean?

If one considers the goal of the company to be something they work towards for the entire year then performance management is that relationship between a manger and their employee that lets the company achieve that particular goal. The employee’s contribution in the day to day operations of a company maps out the performance concept.

The performance management system works in a loop of sorts. Once a manager sits down with their employee and builds a road map for how the rest of the year would look like for them, the performance management process is kick started. Certain goals and milestones are discussed and are then reviewed over the rest of the year to confirm whether the employee is meeting them or not. These milestones are then discussed at the end of the year and reviewed. The next year’s plan is built accordingly.

Business performance management heavily depends on the kind of goals one sets for their company. The best place for a company to start out would be to set certain corporate goals and then go on to the steps that they would have to take to achieve such goals. The goals should be ones that parallel the company’s vision and mission statement. If the goal works and leads to performance enhancement the manager notes these goals down and boosts the goal for the following year. If the same goal leads to a downturn in the morale when it comes to the employees the goal may be adjusted or discarded.

Information monitoring is another great way of keeping a track of business performance. This is whereby data is taken from the business, over the past year, and analyzed against certain metrics. These, if proven to be sub optimal, are then further analyzed and the company’s goals are changed accordingly. A very important thing to note would be how these changes in the goals of a company effect the stakeholders and whether the stakeholders can manipulate these goals in any way. If yes, what would be some of the ramifications on the business and the performance management of the company?

Thus performance management is all the more relevant in today’s age as managers scramble to manage their employees virtually. Keeping up with techniques one used before the pandemic works. For example, performance reviews could be a great way to hold employees accountable while at the same time engage them further in the work that they are performing. Making use of techniques that one would not normally use in an office setting, is key. For example, holding employees accountable for the number of hours they put in through basic time sheets but, more importantly, not expecting them to be able to produce the same quality of work from home. Communicating with one’s employees and offering them the support systems they need to work remotely is essential if one wants to leave this pandemic with their business intact.