Performance management in creating a performance oriented culture

A key to redirecting employee performance toward organizational goals is to establish a performance-oriented culture in which employees understand the importance of and the connection between their performance and the organization's success. Organizations with performance-based cultures acknowledge that their success is contingent upon the successful performance of their employees.

Effective performance management is crucial to achieving an organization's vision and process of becoming a performance-based culture. Performance management helps avoid performance chaos, the situation that exists in many organizations where employees are working hard, but their efforts don't combine to move the organization in its desired direction. Gaps can occur when work efforts don't connect properly. Redundancies can happen when multiple employees tackle the same tasks without proper coordination. In the worst case, employees can actually contradict each other.

A performance management system that aligns individual work efforts with the organization's strategic plan and that ensures employees are adhering to the plan is the best way to avoid wasted resources, including the inefficient and ineffective use of employee effort, time, and talent.

Additionally, performance management systems provide a fundamentally fair way to guide employees' performance. People need and want to know what's expected of them, how they are doing, what's working well, and what needs improvement.

Finally, the ability to distinguish and meaningfully recognize achievements and desired behavior speaks volumes about what is important and valued in an organization. People need to know how they are contributing to organizational success, and they need appropriate recognition and rewards for their efforts. Performance-management systems are essential for linking recognition and reward to accomplishment of the organization's goals. They move the organization away from a seniority-based or best-effort culture to a true performance-based culture.

The following performance management practices, as being associated with performance-based cultures:

• A well-articulated mission and operating system that is understood and accepted by employees
• A management climate that encourages taking on new tasks/problems and improving ways to accomplish goals
• Organizational goals that are measurable and credible
• Clear alignment of department, work unit, and team goals
• Employees participate in the development of their individual goals and measures 
• Investing in training and development 
• Regular communication with employees about performance results
• Regular feedback to employees for career development 
• A recognition and reward system that supports the importance of good performance at all levels 
• Adequate funding to acquire the tools and technology needed to succeed. 
• Continuous quality improvement efforts are utilized to address areas of strategic importance.
• Customer surveys or other means of soliciting customer needs and preferences are used.
• Employee surveys and other tools are employed for assessing workplace issues

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