Effective Performance Management

EFFECTIVE

PERFORMANCE

MANAGEMENT

February 7, 2013

Performance management requires a willingness and commitment to focus on improving performance at the level of the individual or team every day. (Cascio, 2013)

Performance management is an active role a manager can take in his/her relationship with employees. Traditional methods of providing feedback to employees, most usually through an annual appraisal or review, which actually serves to increase tension in both the manager and employee, are rarely constructive. Instead, performance management should be an on-going process. The most effective performance management styles, according to Pharmacy Management, Leadership, Marketing and Finance (Chisolm-Burns 2011), can be described with the acronym SCORE: Strategic, Communication, Opportunity, Recognition, Engagement. Following is a detailed summary of each tactic.

STRATEGIC:

Firstly, an effective performance management plan should be strategic in making performance standards and goals helpful to the business’ goals. For example, if the business goal is providing the best customer service and pharmaceutical care in town, employees should be encouraged to develop customer service skills, and be given incentive to receive positive feedback from customers. However, if the business goal was simply to fill the most prescriptions possible, employees should be encouraged to develop

procedures to make the pharmacy more efficient, and to minimize waste.

Dan Ariely argues that employees will adjust their performance based on the metrics by which you will measure them. (Ariely, 2009). So if their sales will be measured, they will almost exclusively focus on increasing sales, but if their customer satisfaction ratings will be measured, they will almost exclusively focus on providing outstanding care. Therefore, a strong and productive performance evaluation should include measurements of metrics only for behaviors that you care to develop. Further, it is...