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Performance management is the key to guiding your organization towards growth and prosperity. Employees are essentially the building blocks of your organization, and their contributions help you attain your goals and objectives. Managing their performances over time helps you keep the momentum going and understand critical business decisions. The performance management process chosen by your organization dictates the overall productivity and engagement of employees within your organization. According to Betterworks' statistics, companies with continuous performance management processes are 39% more likely to attract top talent and 44% more likely to retain it. Poor performance management can result in employees leaving. Thus, the performance management process is essential for every organization’s growth.

In this blog, we have outlined the importance of performance management and highlighted the crucial steps that every employee should follow.

What Does Performance Management Mean?

In simple words, performance management is a set of processes dedicated to planning, monitoring, measuring, and reviewing the performance of your employees. The performance management process is collaborative and requires seamless communication between the management and employees to bring out the best from your team members.

Performance management helps you set specific goals to be achieved by your employees, the skills to be taught to them, and the changes to be made within the management to attain the common organizational goals. An effective performance management process makes your employees feel valued and recognized by the organization they work in. It provides them with a clear sense of direction and the resources required to give their best.

Read More: How to revamp your organization's performance management process?

The Performance Management Process Steps Every Employee Should Know  

Although there is no standard procedure to be followed while charting out the performance management process for your organization, employees need to be aware of a few basic steps involved in the process. Following these processes would help you and your employees work in sync to obtain the desired results.

Here are some of the critical performance management steps that every employee should be aware of: 

1. Creating An Extensive Plan
   
   Never make the mistake of taking performance management likely. Like all the important projects your organization handles, building an extensive plan for your performance management process is vital. From ideation to execution, make sure that you create a blueprint of the tasks to be performed and the time required. During the planning process, HR managers must define the management processes, the goals (long-term and short-term) to be achieved, the employees to focus on, and the milestones to achieve throughout the performance management process.
   
   Always make sure that you involve your employees in the planning stage. Ultimately, they are the ones who would be trained and equipped with the required resources to leverage their performances. Take their opinions and integrate them into your plan to have a comprehensive outlook. The performance management plan would provide you with a direction to head towards with the end goal in sight. This would help you follow an organized approach and reduce the chances of committing errors.
   
2. Getting The Employees Trained
   
   This is the most crucial step in any performance management process. Here, the workers are trained effectively based on the specific skills to be taught to the specific employees. Ensure you organize dedicated training sessions and hire experienced coaches as and when required. Make sure management holds regular meetings to discuss the training to be provided to your employees and the channels for the same. If you are dealing with remote employees, implement digital learning technologies such as learning management systems (LMS) and microlearning. These methodologies would help you get your employees trained irrespective of the location they work from.
   
   Always ensure that the training provided to your employees does not involve one-way communication. Keep the training sessions interactive to help your employees add value to your programs. Just like communication, it is important to have a two-way feedback system. Make sure that the managers receive and provide honest feedback regarding the training provided to your employees. Moreover, while you train your employees, it is advisable to teach them skills and technologies that are in sync with the current trends in the market. This will help your team stay ahead of the curve and adapt to the latest technological advancements.
   
   Relevant Article: How to enhance employee performance management in just a few simple steps?
   
3. Reviewing Employee Performance
   
   Towards the end of your performance management cycle, it is important to conduct an extensive review of the performance of every employee. Make sure that the employees and the managers focus on the metrics identified during the planning stage. Effective performance appraisal would help you identify the high-performing employees within your organization and allow you to provide them with better opportunities.
   
   Here are some important questions that you should ask while reviewing your performance management process:
   
   Were you able to meet the organizational objectives through the process?
   
   What challenges did managers and employees face during the performance management process?
   
   Which training methodology proved to be the most effective?
   
   What changes do you need to make to your existing performance management process?
   
   How useful did the employees and the management provide the feedback?
   
   Was the time taken to train your employees spent effectively?
   

Answering these questions will help you analyze the effectiveness of your performance management process and make necessary changes in the same. 

4. Tracking Employee Work Hours

The idea of tracking employees' working hours was introduced to monitor employee activity and encourage mindfulness at the office. Learning about your employees' work habits can be challenging without efficient employee hour-tracking software. Investing in robust employee hour tracking software allows managers to review an employee's tasks and learn what he or she is working on without going to their desks.

This enables you to understand employee productivity, attitude, and methods thoroughly.

5. Employee Recognition

Once you are done with the review, make sure you acknowledge your employees' contributions to your organization. Employee recognition helps you reward employees who perform well and boost their morale. Rewards and recognition need not be monetary. Company-wide recognition, a physical award, paid leaves, or a simple "Thank You" would make your high-performing employees feel special.

Moreover, it is essential to note that the performance management process does not end after employee recognition. It is a cyclical process that needs to be ongoing to stay proactive. Based on the results of one performance management process, prepare for another cycle and aim for new goals to be achieved by your team members. This helps you work towards your employees' professional and personal development, allowing them to build a skill set that stays with them wherever they go.

Conclusion  

These were some essential steps involved in a standard performance management process that every employee should know. While charting out the process, always make sure that you aim for a wholesome collaboration between the workers and the management. Successful performance management helps you build healthy relationships with your employees and retain valuable talent within your organization.