PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AS TOOL TO CONTROL AND DEVELOP WORKFORCE

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AS TOOL TO CONTROL AND DEVELOP WORKFORCE

Introduction

Human capital plays a significant role in running a business organization.  This explains why big and reputable business firms are putting extra efforts to hire qualified and skilled human resources (Simmonds, Porter & Bingham, 2008). A useful human resource is significant in maintaining the right image and reputation for the organization. However, choosing the best team for human resources is not an easy task. For this reason, most of the reputable business firms have separate human resource departments.  Human resource management plays various roles in the success of an organization. Their roles include training of employees, recruitment of employees, rewarding, and performance management (Simmonds, Porter & Bingham, 2008).  The paper will focus on performance management and its negative and positive impacts on the performance of employees in a business.

Performance Management

Performance management has gained popularity as a critical feature for labor management in both private and public organizations (Marther & Seifert, 2011).  It is an integrated and strategic approach to assessing the performance of a team or individual towards achieving the objectives of an organization (Sewell, Barker & Nyberg, 2012).  It is the most preferred approach in most organizations because it can cause improvements in labor performance at lower costs (Marther & Seifert, 2011). Performance management is a crucial factor in the success of a business.  Employees should be aware of their goals and objectives from the beginning of the years. The awareness will help them to direct their energy in the right direction to achieve the set goals.  Employees should be aware that their performance will be analyzed by comparing the desired results with the actual results.  Performance characterizes employees as over-performed, satisfactory, and underperformed (Sewell, Barker & Nyberg, 2012). This characterization makes employees have varying attitudes towards performance management.  Some employees may view performance management as a tool used to promote an organization and individual effectiveness. However, some employees view the whole process as a way of oppressing and having unnecessary control over the employees.

Performance management also involves the creation of a working environment that empowers and motivates employees to work to the best of their capabilities (Marther & Seifert, 2011). The process used by employees to achieve the highest productivity or performance varies across businesses. However, despite the differences, the performance management process mainly involves the setting of goals, performance appraisal, and reward. Furthermore, training is provided to the employees through the whole process (Kinle, 2016).   Employee productivity is a significant issue in business because most organizations have difficulties in recruiting qualified staff and retaining them and employee development.  However, these issues can be resolved through performance appraisal, training, and the use of reward systems.    In addition, the process of performance management also affects employee productivity.  Employee productivity is a significant threat to the success of a business; thus, companies should adopt performance management systems that will favor the employees. The process can involve motivation techniques that can improve the morale of the employees (Kinley, 2016).   Employee productivity is characterized by several factors such as the reduction in complaints among customers, improved quality of the services offered and increased sales. Thus, performance management evaluates if the employees were committed enough to achieving the objectives of the business. Performance appraisal is a commonly used method of assessing employees.

Almost all organizations to evaluate employees in the world.  Performance appraisal is the systematic evaluation of individuals or employees about their performance in their particular obligations in a business (Fletcher, 2004).  Its main aim to examine how employees are working and if there is a probability for the future development of the organization.  Performance appraisals are devised by business managers who are responsible for particular employees.  They are used by organizations to evaluate and determine the behavior and accomplishments of employees within a specific period (Fletcher, 2004). If the performance appraisals are designed and implemented properly, they can be advantageous to a business.  However, there are critiques of both performance appraisal and management. Notably, performance management and appraisal can develop the workforce of a business organization by rewarding and motivating employees. Nevertheless, if poor performance management systems are used, they may have negative impacts on employees, such as exercising unnecessary control and discouraging them.

References

Fletcher, C., 2004. Appraisal and feedback: Making performance review work. CIPD Publishing.

Kinley, N., 2016. The end of performance management: sorting the facts from the hype. Strategic HR Review.

Mather, K., and Seifert, R., 2011. Teacher, lecturer, or laborer? Performance management issues in education. Management in Education, 25(1), pp.26-31.

Sewell, G., Barker, J.R., and Nyberg, D., 2012. Working under intensive surveillance: When does ‘measuring everything that moves’ become intolerable?. Human Relations, 65(2), pp.189-215.

Simmonds, D.A., Porter, C., and Bingham, C., 2008. Exploring human resource management. McGraw-Hill.