- As the person responsible for HR,

you hold the key to ensuring your employees are performing

at their best.

Obviously, the better your people perform,

the better your organization performs.

So let's take a look at what your responsibilities entail.

Performance management is a systematic and ongoing process,

and it should be tied to organizational goals.

Consider your organization's strategy.

If one strategic goal is to increase sales by 10%,

your job is to ensure

the organization has the human resources available

to achieve that goal.

As a strategic HR partner to your leaders,

you should be working with them to determine

how that 10% will be achieved.

Does the sales team need to get better at upselling?

Does the marketing department need

to bring in more customers?

Do you need more people on board?

Work in partnership with leaders and managers

to answer these types of questions.

That leads us to manager training.

In my experience as an HR consultant,

I've come across hundreds of managers and supervisors

who simply didn't know how to do performance management.

And it's not their fault.

Just because they've been given

a performance evaluation form to fill out once a year,

it doesn't mean they are good coaches of performance.

They need you to provide them with the tools

and resources they need to guide the behavior

of their employees.

They need you to train them on how to set goals,

coach performance, provide effective feedback,

and reward improvement or discipline poor performance.

So let's take a look at the process

of performance management.

Notice the first step is to understand

how job competencies fit into the organizational vision

and strategic goals.

You will do that by conducting a job analysis.

Once you spend time understanding each job,

you can understand its value

and how it plays a part in organizational goals.

From there, you can work with your managers,

and your managers will work with their staff

to define performance goals and standards of behavior

that will achieve these organizational goals.

If the goal is to increase sales by 10%, for example,

then you will work with your managers

to determine how to make that happen

and what behaviors required to make it so.

Perhaps it is decided that the sales team is charged

with 5% increased sales by each team member,

and standards of behavior are focused on customer service.

Once performance goals and behavior standards are in place,

your managers become coaches of performance.

If the sales team is responsible for 5% increased sales

and some people are not upselling very well

in order to meet that goal,

the sales manager must coach those people to perform.

The manager might also seek outside resources

with your help,

such as the sales training program.

Coaching also involves meeting regularly

to provide feedback.

One company I know calls these monthly meetings one-on-ones.

Sometimes they're 10 minutes,

and sometimes they're an hour,

depending on what's happening during that month.

Meeting should include discussion about what's working well

and where the employees are excelling

and provide ideas for improvement.

The last step in the cycle

of performance management is rewards or discipline.

During the monthly meetings,

employees might receive rewards

in the form of a simple good job from their manager

or a gift card or a half day off or even a bonus.

As a strategic HR partner,

you and the managers would work together

to ensure substantial bonuses are in your payroll budget

and that they are being given fairly and consistently.

Unfortunately, sometimes after several chances,

employees still do not perform well,

and they must go down the path of discipline.

The best way to keep this from happening

is to encourage your managers to discuss performance

with employees as soon as they can

and as often as they can.

Keep the conversation going.

In the end,

an effective performance management system ensures

employees understand the importance of their contribution,

ties performance to organizational goals,

and facilitates a strong and a harmonious relationship

between employees, their managers, and you.

Performance management sets employees up for success.

The sooner you can get started,

the sooner they can be successful.

(upbeat music)