| Articles » Total Performance Management™ |
|
Maximizing Employee Performance
through a Total Performance Management™ System |
| by Michael Stanleigh |
|
| Employees today are facing a performance-reporting dilemma. They
have a dual reporting relationship to both a functional manager and
to a project manager or sponsor. Yet their overall job performance,
reviewed by their manager or supervisor, generally reflects only the
work they do according to their job description. It rarely includes
other work that is assigned, which is generally work on a project,
as a project manager or project team member. |
|
| What is the Reason for this Performance Dilemma? |
Functional managers are in constant contact with their staff.
Staff tasks are well-defined and recurring. In most organizations,
functional managers complete performance reviews on the basis of
the ability of the staff to perform work in accordance with their
job description or job profile. |
|
However, most people do not work according to just a job description.
Rather, they find that their work is comprised of work performed
on a job and work performed on one or more projects. The demands
and requirements of their own functional manager as well as that
of their project managers or sponsors constantly pull them. |
|
This is likely because traditional performance management systems
do not take into account new reporting structures such as Matrix
Management in which employees may, at times, have reporting relationships
to someone other than their departmental manager. Therefore, if
the employee is assigned to a project during the course of the year
this aspect of their job performance is usually overlooked or not
considered in their performance review. At the end of the year,
the employee’s departmental manager tells the employee how
well they did on the functional job, as per the job description,
but doesn’t discuss any of the person’s efforts devoted
to projects they were assigned. That time is not recognized. So
while employees may see time spent on a project as important, they
also see it as an intrusion because this effort goes unnoticed and
unrecognized. They want to spend their time on their day-to-day
job because that is how their performance is measured. |
|
A more effective system to manage performance is one that reflects
the employee’s “total” performance. This includes
the job description performance as well as the performance on their
assigned projects. |
|
| What is Total Performance Management™? |
| Total Performance Management™ is a performance system that
evaluates employee performance on the basis of all the time spent
at work. This includes the time spent on their functional job as well
as special project performance. |
|
Total Performance Management™ will ensure that the project
manager or sponsor communicates overall employee contribution on
the project to the employee’s functional manager. This feedback
will include: How well did the employee work with the project team?
How did he or she perform on the project? Did the employee complete
tasks on time? Did he or she enhance the overall value of the project
team dynamic? Or did they create conflict? |
|
At the end of the year, the functional manager will review the
employee’s performance as a total combination of time spent
on the job and time spent on projects. Employees will then understand
the true value of their contribution to the organization’s
strategic direction and feel committed to their job and on project
teams. |
|
| The Advantages of a Total Performance Management™
System |
A Total Performance Management™ System utilizes evaluation
tools and competencies for the project sponsor, project manager
and project team members to ensure that the best people with the
right knowledge, skills and experience are always being assigned
to a project. |
|
A competency is the knowledge, skills, ability, and
characteristics associated with high performance on a job. Competencies
can also help distinguish high performance from average and low
performance. The organization must develop competencies for the
various roles on a project. This includes the Project Sponsor, Project
Manager and various types of Project Team Members. |
|
Business Improvement Architects recently completed
an extensive global research project on project management offices that showed that most organizations have not developed competency
evaluation tools to assign the most qualified individual to a project
team. Only 15% of Project Management Offices are using competency
evaluation tools for project team selection. In other words, 85%
are not using competency evaluation tools for project team selection.
This is leading to less effective project teams because they may
not include the best people with the right knowledge, skills and
experience for the project. |
|
The use of competency evaluation tools can help organizations
to identify any existing gaps between current competencies of project
team members and required competencies for each project. It also
helps with identification of training needs so as to close the gap
between an individual’s current competencies compared to the
project and job competency requirements. |
|
| Project Manager and Team Member Competencies |
The lack of competency evaluation processes is a huge concern
because it can lead to project failure. Why? Because individuals
are being placed on project teams without any tool or process to
validate their skills, knowledge and experience for the job. Furthermore,
it is difficult for organizations to increase the competency level
of project managers and teams because they have no process for identifying
performance improvement opportunities. |
|
| The Future of Project Management |
According to our research findings, we foresee a trend for organizations
to take project management out of a fixed structure, such as a Project
Management Office, and put it into the hands of every employee as
a competency. As with the Quality movement, project management competency
will become a part of everyone’s job. For this approach to
be effective it is important to have assessment tools in place to
identify the competency requirements for projects as well as to
assess employees before putting them onto a project. Most importantly,
it will be important to capture and assess an employee’s “total”
performance. |
|
| Total Performance Management™ Cycle |
|
 |
|
| Performance Planning |
In Total Performance Management™ the strategic goals of
the organization are incorporated into the Performance Planning
Stage of the performance management cycle by a process which defines
and communicates components of the strategic plan to employees such
as special projects for the year. In this way the employee is better
able to understand how what they do will contribute to the realization
of company or departmental goals. As well, manager and employee
will reach an agreement on the overall department objectives and
how these link to the employee’s position and project descriptions. |
|
| Performance Development |
Now that the employee and manager agree on the overall goal for
the position it is time to provide the tools to help employees meet
their performance plan. This will include arranging training and
development opportunities and experiences for the employees. |
|
| Performance Coaching |
This stage is ongoing—it has no clear beginning or end.
In Total Performance Management™ managers will provide continuous
feedback to their employees about functional job performance as
well as performance on projects. This includes: what's going well,
what's not meeting expectations, what adjustments the employee needs
to make and what the manager should provide the employee to assist
in meeting expectations. It may be necessary to adjust action plans
as necessary. |
|
| Performance Review |
The formal review of performance can be done either annually
or semi-annually. This review will incorporate all of the ongoing
coaching between the manager and the employee that has taken place
to date. Once completed, the Total Performance Management™
Cycle begins again. |
|
| Summary |
| Total Performance Management™ requires an understanding
of managing within a Matrix Environment. As discussed in this article,
this involves some negotiating and influencing between the Project
Manager, who is held accountable for project success and Functional
Managers, who provide the resources to the Project Manager to help
ensure project success. A strong Matrix Management environment is
built when functional authorities carry out their tasks in support
of a project manager who is accountable for a project. Functional
managers incorporate both job specific tasks and project tasks when
managing the overall performance of their employees. |
|
| About the Author |
|
| As President and CEO of Business Improvement Architects, Michael works with executives and senior managers around the world to help them improve operational effectiveness through strategic planning, leadership development, project management and quality management. He has been instrumental in helping his clients reduce waste and increase efficiencies and profits with his clear processes and quality approach. |
|
| For more information about this article or the report, please contact
bia™ at info@bia.ca. |
|
| Michael Stanleigh is author of the global report: “From
Crisis to Control: A New Era in Strategic Project Management.” |
|
| © Business Improvement Architects |
