PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Performance Management
2. Overall Goal and Focuses of Performance Management
3. Ongoing Activities of Performance Management
4. Basic Steps
5. Benefits of Performance Management
6. Time Table
7. Tips for Filling out the Performance Planning and Appraisal Form (PPAF)
   1. Job Summary & Scope
   2. Employee's and Supervisor's Agreement
   3. Critical Functions & Accountabilities
      1. Expected Performance Standards/Outcomes
      2. Relative Weight
      3. Score
      4. Weighted Score
   4. Supervisory/Managerial Criteria
   5. Overall Evaluation
8. Figure 1: The Performance Management Process: An Ongoing Cycle

Performance Management

For years supervisors have conducted performance appraisals and employees have attended training sessions. Processes, such as planning, budgeting, sales and billings have been carried out continuously but all too often, these activities were only done for the sake of doing them without any consideration to the overall goal of the organization.

Performance management reminds us that being busy is not the same as producing results. It highlights the fact that training, strong commitment and lots of hard work alone are not results and focuses on achieving results, ie. useful products and services for customers inside and outside the organization. Performance management redirects our efforts away from "busy-ness" towards effectiveness.

Overall Goal and Focuses of Performance Management

The overall goal of performance management is to ensure that the University and all of its subsystems (processes, departments, teams, employees, etc.) are working together in an optimal fashion to achieve the desired results.

Ongoing Activities of Performance Management

Achieving the overall goal requires several ongoing activities including but not limited to: a) the identification and prioritization of desired results, b) the establishment of means to measure progress toward those results, c) the determination of standards for assessing how well results were achieved, and d) the provision of regular and timely feedback among those participants working to achieve results.

Basic Steps

1. Review organizational goals to translate preferred organizational results in terms of units of performance, that is, quantity, quality, cost or timeliness (note that the result itself is therefore a measure)
2. Specify desired results for the domain -- as guidance, focus on results needed by other domains (e.g., products or services needed by internal or external customers)
3. Ensure the domain's desired results contribute directly to the organization's results
4. Weight, or prioritize, the domain's desired results
5. Identify first-level measures to evaluate if and how well the domain's desired results were achieved
6. Identify more specific measures for each first-level measure if necessary
7. Identify standards for evaluating how well the desired results were achieved (e.g., "below expectations", "meets expectations" and "exceeds expectations" see below)
8. Document a performance plan -- including desired results, measures and standards
9. Conduct ongoing observations and measurements to track performance
10. Exchange ongoing feedback about performance
11. Conduct a performance appraisal (sometimes called performance review)
12. If performance meets the desired performance standard, then reward for performance (the nature of the reward depends on the domain)
13. If performance does not meet the desired performance standards, then develop or update a performance development plan to address the performance gap.
14. Repeat steps 9 to 13 until performance is acceptable, standards are changed, the domain is replaced, management decides to do nothing, etc.

Benefits of Performance Management

1. Helps you think about what results you really want. You're forced to be accountable, to "put a stake in the ground".
2. Depersonalizes issues. Supervisor's focus on behaviors and results, rather than personalities.
3. Validates expectations. In today's age of high expectations when organizations are striving to transform themselves and society, having measurable results can verify whether grand visions are realistic or not.
4. Helps ensure equitable treatment of employees because appraisals are based on results.
5. Optimizes operations in the organization because goals and results are more closely aligned.
6. Cultivates a change in perspective from activities to results.
7. Performance reviews are focused on contributions to the organizational goals, e.g., forms include the question "What organizational goal were contributed to and how?"
8. Supports ongoing communication, feedback and dialogue about organizational goals. Also supports communication between employee and supervisor.
9. Performance is seen as an ongoing process, rather than a one-time, snapshot event.
10. Focuses on the needs of customers, whether internal or external.
11. Cultivates a systems perspective, that is, focus on the relationships and exchanges between subsystems, e.g., departments, processes, teams and employees. Accordingly, personnel focus on patterns and themes in the organization, rather than specific events.
12. Produces specificity in commitments and resources.
13. Provides specificity for comparisons, direction and planning.
14. Redirects attention from bottom-up approaches (e.g., doing job descriptions, performance reviews, etc., first and then "rolling up" results to the top of the organization) to top-down approaches (e.g., ensuring all subsystem goals and results are aligned first with the organization's overall goals and results).

Time Table (check Figure 1)

The Performance Planning and Appraisal Form (PPAF)

1. Tips for Filling out the Performance Planning and Appraisal Form (PPAF)

The form used in the Performance Planning and Performance Appraisal processes is entitled the "Performance Planning and Appraisal Form" (PPAF). There is a form for supervisory/managerial positions and another one for non-supervisory positions. Both forms are available on AUB Human Resource website under Forms.

Job Summary & Scope:
A short paragraph describing the basic function, and summarizing the job-related functions. It provides an overall picture of the job and gives the primary reason for its existence.

Employee's and Supervisor's Agreement:
The current Performance Planning and Performance Appraisal processes are based on mutual understanding and agreement between the supervisor and the employee on the performance plan (i.e. critical functions and accountabilities that the employee is expected to fulfill during the review period, performance standards/outcomes, and relative weights). What is important is reaching first this joint/mutual understanding and agreement on the performance plan, and second the exact wording or format of the plan. After developing the performance plan, both the supervisor and the employee sign the form.

Critical Functions and Accountabilities:
In outlining the critical functions and accountabilities, the following should be considered:

1. Use outcome/results-oriented active sentences
2. Use action verbs to start sentences
3. Describe about 8-10 critical functions or accountabilities
4. List functions or accountabilities in a logical sequence, i.e. importance/priority, frequency, etc., designated by letters of the alphabet
5. Be brief, concise, and precise
6. Avoid vague generalizations and vague terms such as assists or handles
7. Use quantitative terms whenever possible
8. Give an accurate and complete picture of the job as one entity

Service Excellence is a built-in critical function and accountability that is common to all positions and expected of all employees of the University. As specified in the form, it consists of the following six components: Customer service, teamwork, communication, safety, housekeeping, and attendance.

Expected Performance Standards/Outcomes:
After listing the critical functions and accountabilities, the supervisor should establish performance standards and outcomes for each critical function or accountability.
These are clear statements of conditions defining anticipated results. They are units of measurement that enable the supervisor to accurately and objectively measure the employee's performance level for each function and significant tasks under it. They are the benchmarks against which employee performance is appraised.
Whenever possible, performance standards should be developed in collaboration with the respective employees in order to promote a higher level of understanding and agreement. In developing performance standards/outcomes, the following should be considered:

1. What determines acceptable and unacceptable performance?
2. What determines when the employee is meeting, exceeding or performing below the expectations of his/her position?
3. How well should each function, or even task, be performed in order to meet or exceed expectations?
4. Who are the recipients of the department/unit's services/products? What levels of quality and/or quantity of work are required to satisfy their needs? What are the defined time frames?

In writing/expressing performance standards, use units of measurement:

1. Quality: How well the job is done (accuracy, completeness, etc.)
2. Quantity: How much is done (productivity)
3. Timeliness: How fast/when it is done (time frames & deadlines)
4. Manner: The way it is done
5. Method: The Policy or procedure followed
6. Cost: The dollar, manpower, or staff time required

Written performance standards should be reviewed to ensure that they are:

1. objective, i.e. written for the position and not the job incumbent
2. consistent with the employee’s job requirements and overall departmental goals
3. realistic, i.e. attainable within the given resources and the specified review       period
4. measurable (or based on measurable or verifiable information)
5. clear
6. specific
7. understandable

Relative Weight:
After listing the critical functions and accountabilities and developing performance standards and outcomes for each, the supervisor should attribute a relative weight to each critical function and accountability to define its relative importance. Critical functions and accountabilities of higher importance/priority should evidently be given higher weights than the ones of lower importance/priority.
The relative weight for each critical function and accountability should normally range between 5% and 20%.
The relative weights for all critical functions and accountabilities, including service excellence, should total 100%.

Score:

The current Performance Appraisal process uses the following five-point rating scale:
5 = Outstanding
4 = Exceeds Expectations
3 = Meets Expectations
2 = Below Expectations
1 = Poor Performance

5 = Outstanding: Employee performed the critical job functions and accountabilities with outstanding skill and knowledge. Performance at this level clearly and consistently exceeds the goals and expectations in all aspects of the job.

4 = Exceeds Expectations: Employee’s performance consistently exceeded the performance expectations agreed upon in the performance plan, in most aspects of the job.

3 = Meets Expectations: Employee’s performance consistently met the performance expectations, as specified/set in the performance plan. The employee is operating at the fully acceptable level of performance for the position.

2 = Below Expectations: Employee’s performance was consistently below the performance expectations, as specified in the performance plan.

1 = Poor Performance: Employee’s performance was consistently poor. Remedial action is to be considered.

In the score column of the PPAF, a score between 1 and 5 (inclusive) should be inserted, next to each critical function and accountability; this score reflects most accurately the employee’s accomplishment in performing that critical function and accountability.

In appraising performance, use absolute judgment (i.e. make judgments about employee’s performance based solely on performance standards).

Weighted Score:
Once the relative weight and the rating/score are assigned for each critical function and accountability, the weighted score will be automatically calculated as per a built-in formula.

Supervisory/Managerial Criteria:
This section is found in the PPAF pertaining to supervisory/managerial personnel, and hence should be completed for employees in supervisory/managerial jobs only. As specified in the form, it consists of the following five components: Administrative Issues, Staff Management, Staff Development, Business Management, and Change Management.
The expected standards for each of these supervisory/managerial criteria are already defined in the form.
A relative weight should be assigned only to those supervisory/managerial criteria that the employee handles or is involved in. As in the Critical Functions and Accountabilities section, the total of relative weights is 100%, to be distributed among those supervisory/ managerial criteria that the employee handles or is involved in. For illustration purposes, if a supervisor handles administrative issues and staff management only, then the 100% should be distributed among these two criteria, as deemed most appropriate.
As for the score and the weighted score, the same concepts explained above for the Critical Functions and Accountabilities section apply.

2. Overall Evaluation:

For non-supervisory positions, the final score will be automatically calculated as per a built-in formula, and will be shown on the first page of the form in the "Overall Performance Appraisal Score" item.
For supervisory/managerial positions, a relative weight (%) should be assigned for each of the overall critical functions and accountabilities score, and the overall supervisory/managerial criteria score. Both weightings should add-up to 100%, as specified in the form.
Once the relative weights are assigned, and the two scores for overall critical functions and accountabilities and overall supervisory/managerial criteria are determined, the weighted scores and the final score will be automatically calculated as per built-in formulas. The final score will appear on the first page of the form in the "Overall Performance Appraisal Score" item.

Figure 1: The Performance Management Process: An Ongoing Cycle