You, being a supervisor, team lead or a manager that is responsible to oversee a group of people as employees, receive an invite from the HR (Human Resource) Department requesting you to attend a committee specifically created for a compliant logged against you. Complaint for the performance evaluation and rating you shared to an employee (unfairly that is).
What went wrong, how shall you avoid and what can you do in future to ensure you are protected and is on the safe side of the fence?
My article this week is on a simple yet effective performance management guide that every manager should follow in order to create a productive system to manage employee performance.
First and foremost, as a manager, why should you create a performance system for your respective reporting employees? Well without one, you have no framework (or structure) in place to evaluate the performance and assess the achievements of your employees.
Secondly, you create a gap or a room of uncertainty between yourself and the employee(s) i.e. what needs to be done and how will performance be measured.
Thirdly, you do not have a formal document (as a system) in place to protect yourself as a manager, or present the same before a committee to defend yourself against the complaint I mentioned at the beginning of my article. Such a document will help you and the organisation you represent adhere to legal and regulatory requirements that is related to the employment practices and the necessary evaluation required as a whole.
Now that you realise the importance of having one in place — how do you go about creating and adhering to one as a manager?
First, clearly, and in advance, define your team’s, section’s, department’s or organisational’ s goals and expectations clearly. Make sure that all your direct reporting employees and their subordinates understand what is expected of them. Spend quality time preparing and doing this activity as this will set the tone for everything else that follows. An agreed set of tasks needs to be documented as an outcome of this first step.
Secondly, ensure you set a fixed (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) meeting intervals where you meet to discuss and review what has been agreed from the first step. Open feedback along with allowing two-way communication (for agreement, disagreement and/or enhancements in an open dialogue as encouragement) needs to take place. The periodic meeting should serve as an on-going feedback through-out the year to keep employees in question informed about their performance, areas of improvement and developments if any. Keep documenting and maintaining every record of the meeting for the necessary follow-ups. This step helps ensure no surprises occur at the end of the year, so as helps the manager in question keep record of his/her responsibility towards an employee and the organization as a whole.
Lastly, as a manager, ensure you provide the necessary resources (be it training, work environment, and tools) that your respective employee(s) need to ensure they can accomplish the task and goals agreed. Be accessible, be approachable and be available to offer timely support to your teams. The last thing you want is to be seen as an unsupportive manager.
Many managers enter into unnecessary conflicts and resentment with their employee(s) due to not having clear guidelines set at the beginning of the year.
Reasons employee raise complaints on their managers include clear communication, unfair treatment, lack of recognition, favouritism, and inadequate feedback. Such issues can be easily, positively and indeed legally overcome by the manager being proactive in following the steps outlined in my article today. Not only will you be safeguarded by the organisation but you will also create an effective and healthy work environment for your employees to succeed. As I had noted in my previous articles, happy employees, create happy customers as well.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
