The Management Bible

Chapter 9. Monitoring Employee Performance

IT'S A NEW WORLD OUT THERE ...

Monitoring and ...

• How employee performance can be tracked and improved.

• Understanding what to measure (and how).

• Important indicators of performance.

• Necessary tools for monitoring employee performance.

• Understanding what to do with the results.

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION PERFORMING?

It's one thing to set goals—most managers know that this is an extremely important part of their jobs—but it's another thing altogether to ensure that employees are making progress toward the successful completion of the goals they have been assigned. An organization's overall performance depends on each individual who works within it, so monitoring employee performance is a critical skill for every manager today.

But measuring and monitoring the performance of individuals in your organization is a real balancing act: On one hand you don't want to overmeasure or overmonitor your employees—detracting from their work. And, on the other hand, you don't want to undermeasure or undermonitor your employees. A failure to monitor employee performance can lead to nasty surprises when a task is completed late, over budget, or not at all—nasty surprises that will do little to enhance your career.

As a manager, your primary goal in measuring and monitoring your employees' performance should be to help your employees stay on schedule and find out whether they need additional support, not to punish them. But remember: Many employees are reluctant to admit ...