Performance Management For Dummies

Introduction

Performance management is a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning their performance with the strategic goals of the organization. So performance management is a key tool to transform people’s talent and motivation into a strategic business advantage.

But because you are reading this book, you already know that performance management is broken. You hate wasting time dealing with “HR cops” who ask you to fill out useless performance evaluation forms. And you surely hate those dreaded soul-crushing annual performance review meetings. I don’t need to tell you, because you already know, that performance management is not even close to living up to its promise of turning human capital into a source of competitive advantage.

Though you may see media headlines proclaiming “Performance Evaluation is Dead” and “The End of Performance Reviews,” performance management is not going away. On the contrary, many companies such as GE, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Adobe, and Accenture are transitioning from performance appraisal (once-a-year evaluation and review) to performance management (ongoing evaluation and developmental feedback). In other words, performance management is becoming a normal, routine, built-in, and ever-present aspect of work in 21st-century organizations, particularly considering demographic trends about Gen X and Gen Y employees who are digital natives, demand ongoing feedback, and thrive ...