Business Administration for Performance Management
The success of any business enterprise depends upon the performance of its executive staff. A good business manager has to continuously monitor the performance of the company’s employees and implement measures to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance assessment not only allows the business manger to review the achievements of the employees and performance in the past year but it also helps develop a plan of action for the next year.
The goals of this process can be best achieved through positive communication and mutual respect with the aim of improving employee performance and promoting individual growth and career development. Performance assessment however can be a complex task if the managers do not have a clear cut idea as to how to proceed and get their point across without raising the hackles of the employees.
How to make a beginning? There are certain tools and templates that help in defining and assessing the competence of the working staff. For example, you can take the help of a performance management flow chart. Basically, the flowchart helps you identify the key steps that as a business administrator you must take to assess the performance of an employee. Apart from the flow chart there are other templates also that help you chart out the course that you take to document the performance of an employee.
The leading management staff should be encouraged to deal with the questions of performance issues and the possible employee responses.
The management staff should also understand their role as leaders and the responsibilities associated with the leadership role. It is their responsibility to ensure that all the employees meet the minimum standard for performance.
There are certain steps that you can take when confronted with a dwindling performance of an employee. They are:
A friendly chat: Quite possibly the employee has some personal problems that are affecting his performance. As a manger you can have a friendly chat over a cup of coffee to enquire about any problem that was affecting his performance. This will help you view his situation more sympathetically and help you plan the further course of action keeping this in mind.
A verbal warning: If the performance factor continues to remain adverse despite repeated efforts to check it, you can issue a stern warning and also fix a time line for the employee to correct the situation.
Written warning: If the verbal warning carries no impact, the employee should be given a formal warning in writing. He should be made aware of the consequences of non-performance which may include reduction in salary, demotion or even dismissal, depending on the severity of the case.
Final warning: If the employee does not show any improvement in performance despite the above mentioned steps, he can then be served a final warning that his services would be terminated if he does not improve his performance as per company’s expectations within a time frame.
Termination of services: This is the inevitable step if all the previous steps fail.