Performance Management For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Getting Started with Performance Management 5 Chapter 1: Introducing Performance Management 7 Why Do You Need Performance Management? To Succeed (of Course) 8 Why performance management is alive and well 8 Imagining an organization without performance management 10 Making Performance Management Work in Your Business 10 Distinguishing performance management from performance appraisal 10 Adapting performance management to today’s reality 11 Adapting performance management for different generations 14 Designing and Implementing a Performance Management System 14 Step 1: Establishing prerequisites 15 Step 2: Planning performance 20 Step 3: Executing performance 22 Step 4: Assessing performance 23 Step 5: Reviewing performance 25 Chapter 2: Making the Case for Performance Management 29 Using Performance Management to Achieve Multiple Purposes 30 Strategic objectives 30 Administrative objectives 30 Informational objectives 30 Developmental objectives 31 Organizational maintenance objectives 31 Documentation objectives 33 Answering the “What’s in It for Me” Question 33 Convincing top management of performance management’s value 34 Building support in the entire organization 34 Realizing the awesome benefits of performance management 36 What an Ideal Performance Management System Looks Like 39 Contextual issues: Making everything fit 39 Practical issues: Striving for effectiveness and fairness 41 Technical issues: Sweating the details 42 Taking Care of Talent Management Functions 45 Training and development 45 Workforce planning 46 Compensation 46 Chapter 3: Designing and Implementing Effective Performance Management 47 Ensuring Performance Management Delivers Strategic Value 48 Key ingredients of a strategic recipe 48 Making performance management strategic 49 Developing Performance Management Leadership Skills 50 Becoming an effective coach 51 Giving effective feedback 52 Defining and Measuring Performance 54 Measuring performance as behaviors 55 Measuring performance as results 55 Developing Employee Performance 56 Creating development plans 56 Implementing development plans 57 Assessing Performance Management Effectiveness 57 Using quantitative measures 58 Using qualitative measures 58 Chapter 4: Anticipating and Minimizing Negative Consequences 61 Anticipating Damage Caused by Flawed Performance Management 63 Damage caused to employees 63 Damage caused to managers 63 Damage caused to relationships 63 Damage caused to the organization 64 Learning from Flawed Performance Ratings 64 Why Performance Ratings Are Here to Stay 65 Setting Up an Appeals Process 66 Dealing with judgmental and administrative issues 66 Setting up a three-level appeals process 67 Setting Up a Communication Plan and Dealing with Resistance to Change 70 Questions that your communication plan should answer 70 Dealing with cognitive biases 73 Part 2: Designing an Effective Performance Management System 77 Chapter 5: Delivering Strategic Business Results 79 Linking Performance Management with Strategic Business Objectives 80 Making sure the strategic plan does what it is supposed to do 80 Making sure HR does what it is supposed to do 84 Conducting an External and Internal Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats 86 Analyzing the external environment 86 Analyzing the internal environment 88 Conducting a gap analysis 89 Creating and Understanding Your Organization’s Mission and Vision 91 Creating your mission 91 Creating your vision 91 Setting Up Objectives and Strategies Based on Your Mission and Vision 94 Setting up objectives 95 Setting up strategies 96 Linking Your Organization’s and Unit’s Strategic Plans with Job Descriptions 96 Linking the strategy of the organization and its units 97 Linking the organization and units with job descriptions 98 Chapter 6: Becoming a Performance Management Leader 101 Becoming an Effective Coach 101 Four guiding principles of effective coaches 102 Seven behaviors of effective coaches 103 Understanding your coaching style 105 Observing and Documenting Performance 106 Why documenting performance is so important 108 Documenting performance accurately 109 Giving Feedback Effectively 110 Making sure feedback serves a purpose 110 Avoiding the very high cost of NOT providing feedback 111 Making sure feedback is beneficial 112 An example of effective feedback 113 Giving praise 115 An example of effective praise 115 Giving constructive feedback 116 Giving feedback to Millennials, Post Millennials, and Baby Boomers 118 Chapter 7: Defining Performance 121 Performance is All about Behaviors and Results 121 Defining performance as behaviors 122 Defining performance as results 123 Causes for Excellent and Poor Performance 123 How individual differences affect performance 124 How knowledge and skills affect performance 126 How context affects performance 127 Anticipating performance problems 129 Focusing on Four Different Performance Dimensions 130 Task and contextual performance 131 Key differences between task and contextual performance 133 Counterproductive performance 134 Adaptive performance 136 When to Define Performance as Behaviors or Results and Why 137 When to define performance as behaviors 137 When to define performance as results 138 Chapter 8: Measuring Performance as Results 143 Measuring Performance as Results 143 Determining accountabilities and their importance 144 Determining objectives 146 Choosing a Measurement System Congruent with Context 149 Considering the role of organizational culture 149 Considering the role of industry trends 150 Considering the role of leadership 150 Chapter 9: Measuring Performance as Behaviors 151 Measuring Competencies 151 Measuring two types of competencies 152 Describing competencies 154 Measuring Behaviors Using Comparative Systems 155 Rank order 155 Alternation rank order 155 Paired comparisons 156 Relative percentile 156 Forced distribution 156 Considering Advantages and Disadvantages of Comparative Systems 158 Anticipating problems caused by forced distributions 159 Understanding the shape of the performance distribution and producing star performers 161 Measuring Behaviors Using Absolute Systems 163 Essays 163 Behavior checklists 164 Using a graphic rating scale system 169 Chapter 10: Using Performance Management Analytics 173 The Jury is Out: All Firms Collect Performance Data 174 Why all organizations collect performance data 174 Setting the evaluation period 176 Including Critical Components in Effective Performance Appraisal Forms 177 Saying goodbye to paper performance evaluation forms 177 Nine critical components of effective evaluation forms 177 Evaluating the components of a sample evaluation form 179 Including Critical Characteristics to Make Evaluation Forms Effective 182 Eight critical characteristics of effective evaluation forms 183 Evaluating the characteristics of a sample evaluation form 184 Computing Overall Performance Score 185 Using judgmental and mechanical procedures to compute overall score 185 Using Multiple Performance Touchpoints 189 Using supervisors 189 Using peers 190 Using direct reports 191 Using employees themselves 192 Using customers 193 Using electronic performance monitoring 193 Chapter 11: Minimizing Rating Distortion 197 Dealing with Disagreements across Performance Touchpoints 197 Why disagreements across performance touchpoints is not always a problem 198 Dealing with disagreements when giving feedback 198 Minimizing Intentional Rating Distortion 199 Understanding rater motivation 199 Why raters inflate ratings 200 Why raters deflate ratings 201 Increasing accountability in performance ratings 202 Minimizing Unintentional Rating Distortion 203 Designing rater error training 203 Designing frame of reference training 206 Designing behavioral observation training 208 Part 3: Implementing Performance Management Effectively 209 Chapter 12: Creating and Implementing Personal Development Plans 211 Creating Personal Development Plans 211 Using development plans to answer four key career questions 212 Using development plans to improve your short- and long-term career goals 212 Using development plans for succession planning 214 Setting your development plan objectives 214 Setting the content of your development plan 216 Setting the activities of a development plan 218 Facilitating Employee Development 221 Performing five functions in the development process 223 Using the feedforward interview 223 Motivating supervisors to facilitate employee development 225 Using Multisource Feedback Systems in Implementing Development Plans 227 Maximizing benefits of multisource feedback systems 228 Minimizing risks of multisource feedback systems 229 Deciding whether a multisource feedback systems will work in your organization 230 Implementing a state-of-the-science multisource feedback system 231 Chapter 13: Conducting Effective Review, Disciplinary, and Termination Meetings 233 Conducting Effective Review Meetings 234 Setting up review meetings 234 Implementing an optimal sequence for review meetings 236 Dealing with employee defensiveness 238 Making the Tough Calls: Disciplinary Process and Organizational Exit 241 Offering decision-making leave 241 Avoiding five common pitfalls in the disciplinary process 243 Dealing with terminations 244 Chapter 14: Implementing Team Performance Management 247 Not All Teams Are Created Equal 248 Reasons why teams exist in all organizations 248 Designing a State-of-the Science System 249 Anticipating dangers of poorly designed systems 250 Setting necessary conditions for an effective system 251 Implementing a system for virtual teams 251 Accountability as a key purpose of team performance management 254 Implementing a State-of-the-Science System 255 Step 1: Establishing prerequisites 257 Step 2: Performance planning 259 Step 3: Performance execution 260 Step 4: Performance assessment 261 Step 5: Performance review 263 Connecting team performance management with team rewards 265 Chapter 15: Evaluating Your System 269 Pilot Testing the Performance Management System 269 Reasons for doing a pilot test 270 Selecting the pilot test group 270 Ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performance Management System 271 What to measure 272 How to measure 273 Part 4: Connecting Performance Management with Rewards and the Law 275 Chapter 16: Offering Financial and Nonfinancial Rewards 277 Not All Rewards are Created Equal 278 Financial rewards 278 Nonfinancial rewards 278 Different Types of Financial Rewards 278 Base pay 278 Cost-of-living adjustments and contingent pay 279 Short-term incentives 279 Long-term incentives 280 Income protection 281 Allowances 281 Different Types of Nonfinancial Rewards 282 Relational 282 Work-life focus 283 Linking Performance Management with Different Types of Rewards 283 Rewards with low dependency on performance management 284 Rewards with high dependency on performance management 284 Rewards with moderate dependency on performance management 285 Chapter 17: Setting Up an Effective Pay System 287 Setting Up Traditional and Contingent Pay Plans 287 Traditional pay plans 288 Contingent pay plans 289 Implementing Contingent Pay Plans 289 The benefits of CP plans 290 Reasons why contingent pay plans fail 291 Selecting a Contingent Pay Plan 294 Traditional versus involvement cultures 295 Strategic direction 296 What pay can and cannot do about improving performance 297 Turning recognition and other nonfinancial incentives into rewards 301 Chapter 18: Staying on the Right Side of the Law 305 Implementing the Golden Rule 306 Implementing the golden rule around the world 306 When the golden rule breaks down 306 Six Legal Principles Affecting Performance Management 307 Employment at will 307 Negligence 308 Defamation 309 Misrepresentation 310 Adverse impact/unintentional discrimination 311 Illegal discrimination/disparate treatment 311 Laws Affecting Performance Management 313 Laws affecting performance management around the world 314 Lawful performance management in global organizations 315 Putting it all together: A legally defensible performance management system 315 Part 5: The Part of Tens 317 Chapter 19: Ten Reasons for Implementing Effective Performance Management 319 Six Useful Purposes 319 Self-Insights, Development, Motivation, and Self-Esteem 320 Better Understanding of Job Requirement 320 More Employee Engagement and Voice Behavior 321 Improved Commitment and Decreased Turnover 321 Early Detection of Performance Declines and Less Employee Misconduct 321 Differentiation between Good and Poor Performers 322 Common Understanding of What is Good Performance 322 More Fair and Legally Defensible Administrative Decisions 322 Easier Organizational Change 323 Chapter 20: Ten Key Factors for Delivering Outstanding Results 325 Congruence with Strategy and Context 325 Thoroughness and Inclusiveness 326 Meaningfulness 326 Practicality 327 Reliability, Validity, and Specificity 327 Identification of Effective and Ineffective Performance 327 Standardization and Thoroughness 328 Openness 328 Correctability 328 Acceptability, Fairness, and Ethicality 329 Chapter 21: Ten Tips for Becoming a Great Performance Management Leader 331 Become an Effective Coach 331 Develop a Good Coaching Relationship and Facilitate Employee Growth 332 Understand Your Own Coaching Style 332 Make the Employee the Director of Change 333 Learn How to Evaluate Performance Accurately 333 Document Performance Accurately 333 Give Feedback Effectively 334 Conduct Effective Performance Review Meetings 334 Be Fair and Direct in the Disciplinary Process 335 Be Fair and Direct in the Termination Process 335 Index 337