The Performance Management Cycle: A Comprehensive Guide

In sports, coaches with the best records are often the best recruiters; the same applies in the workplace. The performance management cycle is part of the performance management process or strategy, and is a shorter, continuous four-step procedure for planning, monitoring, reviewing and rewarding. The planning stage is where the foundations for success are laid. Before management talks to the employee, the management team must meet and decide on the organization's goals and objectives for the year.

Without this crucial information, any planning with employees won't be effective. The monitoring stage is key to achieving the objectives set in the planning stage. It is recommended that management meet with employees on a monthly or quarterly basis to check progress, offer help if needed, help resolve any problems that may have arisen, and adjust goals if necessary. This is an opportunity to establish collaboration with the employee and motivate them to continue working diligently to achieve their objectives and those of the organization. The review is an opportunity for management and employees to evaluate both the final result and the process itself. An effective performance management cycle aligns employee and business success through an ongoing process of planning, monitoring, reviewing and rewarding employee performance. There are 4 key steps in an effective performance management cycle.

Planning and goal setting are an integral part of your performance management cycle. It's where the objectives of the employees, the team and the company are aligned and established. The monitoring stage is where progress of the goal is tracked. To monitor employee goals, schedule regular visits and one-on-one meetings to address any obstacles that hinder employee productivity.

These conversations must be ongoing to keep up to date with progress of goals and necessary adjustments. Provide resources, analyze performance and monitor goals with effective monitoring. As these steps are taken advantage of, employees grow and adapt to produce optimal results. In the review stage, a thorough evaluation of final results of employees is carried out. This is where a performance review is implemented to assess employee success or potential deficiencies. If leaders have used monitoring stage effectively, they should already have an idea of an employee's performance to achieve their objectives.

However, review helps managers evaluate final results and process used to achieve them. The last step in an effective performance management cycle is rewarding. This is where leaders reward and recognize employee efforts and success. When planning an objective strategy, involve your employees. Employee participation is necessary for maximum performance, so it's best to create objectives collaboratively.

Help employees understand importance of their initiatives to better drive motivation and success. Employees often need help to achieve their goals. Make sure your monitoring strategy is effective in keeping up with employee needs. When employees feel prepared to meet their objectives and are supported in face of obstacles, productivity levels increase. Throughout performance management cycle, constant monitoring must be carried out to make necessary adjustments.

Business metrics are often unpredictable; adjusted so that goals are achievable and relevant when objectives change. Ongoing one-on-one meetings are a key part of an effective performance management cycle. A valuable personalized tool helps streamline individualized conversations about performance, improving alignment and connectivity between leaders and their employees. Rewarding is an integral step in performance management cycle, and recognition is a motivating reward. A beneficial performance management platform supports public and peer recognition so that employees feel valued for their contributions. Reviewing results of your employees can be difficult.

However, with a robust talent assessment tool, you can identify best and risk of talent across your entire workforce. Discover ongoing insights into employee growth and performance to create strategies for success. Feedback turns out to be a necessary component of employee satisfaction and provides them with relevant information to achieve success. Therefore, performance management must be an ongoing process within your organization. When it comes to business initiatives, implementing a performance management plan is affordable and relatively simple.

It's no surprise that employees who feel aligned, productive and recognized in their roles perform better; taken together this allows a performance management cycle to work as a holistic process and deliver best results to employees. With a robust performance management platform, leaders are equipped to support strategies for employee, team and company success. The employee can present their point of view on how well they did during year and receive feedback from management team on how well they met or exceeded their objectives. The goal of performance management is to help ensure that employees have what they need to perform their job functions successfully; an effective performance management cycle can help you create competitive advantage your organization needs. After rewards stage of performance management cycle model, management team and employee may choose to meet one last time to review cycle as a whole. When company objectives are clear, managers and employees can create strategic plans to achieve individual performance objectives; however it's not always sole fault of employees which...

Tina Roth
Tina Roth

Certified social media fan. Evil music maven. Professional travel evangelist. Hardcore food enthusiast. Passionate food expert. Infuriatingly humble tv scholar.

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