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Human Resources

Raising the Bar: Accountability During Integration

Employee evaluation is a topic that regularly appears in management literature. Evaluation or appraisal is often viewed as a necessary, but not enjoyable or productive, process. Post-merger integration provides an opportunity not only to make performance management more productive, but to implement in such a way that it serves as a boost and impetus for cultural and managerial integration.

The primary reason performance management is often so burdensome and ineffective is that few people and organizations do it well. A first step toward making this process more productive is to shift the way you think about it: instead of performance appraisal, consider it performance management . Contrast the two definitions:

• Performance Appraisal: A process by which an individual's performance is judged and evaluated.

• Performance Management: A process that integrates appraisal of employees' performance with two-way feedback, education, development and goal setting.

Rather than the employee being "evaluated and judged," the employee and the manager enter into a dialogue that reviews the role and its evolution, along with past performance, and then sets goals for the coming period of time, and develops a manager's support plan.

One of the cultural imperatives that management must try to inculcate in the new organization is the concept of accountability. "What every person does in this organization matters. It makes a difference, and we are going to hold you accountable for your successes and failures." This should be a theme and a thread that runs through the organizational milieu.

The following list presents some "tips" as to how to do this.

What makes performance management productive?

• The best use of time and energy is looking towards the future, not evaluating the past. The past can tell you what will most likely happen in the future, but it should not be the focus of the performance management process. Instead, you need to set goals, remove obstacles, and create dialogue. Discuss both the individual's performance and your management of the individual in the context of how best to proceed in the future.
• It must be a mutual process. It is not only about the performance of the individual as evaluated by you, the manager, but also about the individual's perceptions of their own performance, and your management of them.
• The focus must be on growth and learning. If growth and learning are not an integral part of the process it will be less than useless. It will harden perceptions, increase resistance and can actually lower performance.
• The most difficult aspect of performance management is challenging an individual's self-perceptions. We all hold our perceptions of ourselves very strongly, and when we hear information that is at odds with our self-perceptions we tend to be resistant to that information, and to the individual giving that information. A good manager knows how to deal with the mechanisms of defense. When giving feedback, we should be able to deal with employee resistance by reinforcing the message that we are in alignment with the employee, and share a desire to help them improve their own effectiveness.
• We are like nature: we neither reward nor punish, and we provide consequences. We also provide the boundaries, feedback and clarification that everyone needs to be a member of a team and a productive and effective staff person.

Performance management is a simple concept that can pay great dividends. Make staff accountable for what they do and what they produce. Be accountable for what you do as a leader, and tell the truth. This is the basis for creating a strong and vibrant culture of integrity and effectiveness.