Performance Management

“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”

Chinese proverb

In today’s competitive market, it is absolutely essential to systematically manage the performance of employees to make them as motivated and productive as possible. Any organisation that risks neglecting this important systematic review, is bound to fail when competing against those who use such optimisation.

It is well known that motivated staff not only work harder and longer, but are also much more likely to innovate and bring new ideas than others. Innovative companies are much more competitive and can handle bigger challenges swiftly and come out stronger than their competitors.

To create a productive atmosphere, an organisation simply needs to respond to the needs of its staff. Understating what motivates employees and aligning it with organisation’s objectives is the essence of an effective performance management system. This system requires HR support, periodic appraisals and constructive coaching sessions.

In this course, delegates learn how to perform the role of an appraiser or a coach who needs to interact with employees, co-workers, team member or others to provide feedback to them. This role can be assigned to anyone including team leaders, managers, supervisors, colleagues or ever staff from other departments. Whatever the role of an appraiser, this course prepares them to provide continuous and periodic feedback to appraisees. Continuous feedback is provided through regular coaching and mentoring sessions while periodic feedback is provided through appraisal meetings. Delegates learn how to ask the right questions, help appraisees to set goals and targets, how to motivate them, how to deliver difficult messages and in short how to help them to increase their productivity.

The course is divided to various distinct sessions where delegates learn the specific skills and get to practice each skill in carefully designed exercises.

In this highly practical course delegates will learn:

Performance Management

• What is performance management?
• What is the difference between modern and traditional methods and why this matters?
• What is involved in a performance management system?
• What should an appraiser do?
• What is 360 degrees feedback program and how can it help?

Appraisal Meetings

• How to hold an appraisal meeting
• How to prepare for the meeting as an appraiser or appraisee
• How to structure the meeting
• What to talk about at the meeting?
• What is the preferred order of topics to go through in an appraisal meeting?
• How to encourage openness
• What types of questions work best in an appraisal meeting?

Goal Setting

• How to set useful goals
• How to motivate an employee to follow and reach his goals
• How to avoid setting bad objectives
• How to make sure performance targets are consistent with business objectives
• What is KPI and how does it relate to performance management?
• How to reduce apathy and encourage individuals to reach peak performance
• How to influence individuals by modifying their thought patterns using the latest research in behavioural psychology

Rewards

• What reward systems help to boost staff’s performance?
• How to rank employees against their colleagues and co-workers
• How can ranking systems fail and what should you be aware of in the context of performance management?

Coaching

• What is the best way to coach?
• What are the principles of learning?
• What is the best way to coach individuals?
• How should you formulate your sentences to have maximum effect in a coaching session?

Communication Skills

• How to provide constructive feedback
• How to deliver praise
• How to provide feedback on difficult situations
• How to systematically help individuals to become aware of what others think of them and how they can reflect on this to improve their performance

Audience: Anyone

Prerequisites: None

Course Duration: 1 Day

Course Level: Beginners & Intermediate

By the end of this course the delegates will be able to:

• Setup an appropriate performance management system based on modern principles and methodologies
• Set efficient objectives that lead to productivity and follow guidelines on how to continuously manage performance
• Hold a constructive appraisal meeting that helps to motivate the appraisee and maximise information transfer
• Use appropriate reward and ranking systems that increase appraisees’ motivation and guide them towards the right direction
• Use the GROW model to coach, question and guide a coachee
• Motivate individuals, reduce apathy and increase their confidence in themselves to achieve more than ever before
• Deliver your potentially negative message and get a good response
• Use an effective technique to reinforce the behaviour of others in the direction of your choice
• Apply a powerful method that lets people to discover other people’s true opinion about themselves

Some organisations treat performance management and appraisals as a formal exercise in paper pushing. An appraiser and an appraisee sit around a table, discuss a number of points mentioned in the form provided to them by their HR department while always thinking that this entire exercise is a waste of time and they rather be working on their projects instead. Naturally, these employees may eventually believe that appraisals are just there to keep HR busy or are carried out at the end of the year to see who gets a bigger share of the bonus pie.

A good appraisal system is not just about figuring out how much bonus should be paid to a particular employee, it is about motivating staff and increasing their productivity which in turn will increases their job satisfaction.

This course is carefully designed to address various skills required when appraising others. A typical team leader who is assigned to appraise a team member might be good at leading team but not know how to run an appraisal meeting. Coaching, mentoring and goal setting is an important skill for appraisees and delegates get many chances in this course to practice such skills.

Similar to other courses provided by Skills Converged, the emphasis is to get delegates to practice the skills rather than just to lecture them on these topics and expect them to know what to do. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to brief them on theoretical aspects of appraisal systems used today such as reward and ranking so they know how the whole system works and what their role is in the system.

This course is not specific to any particular role such as managers or leader who might regularly perform appraisal. It is suitable for anyone who has been assigned the role and needs to mentor or coach another employee and appraise them.