If you run your very own business, then you are probably looking into various ways to help your company grow and develop.
One of the most successful ways to build your business and improve its performance is through a process called the performance management cycle. Whether as an employer or an employee, you have probably been involved in a performance management cycle before as they are so widely used in all kinds of businesses and industries.
They are a great way to improve your employee’s performance and get your business to produce better results – but what exactly is a performance management cycle and how do they work?
We will be looking into performance management cycles and examining in depth how they can help businesses and employees alike grow and improve in performance.
We will also be discussing how us here at PulseHRM can help you set up your very own performance management cycle and what we have on offer that will help make the whole process quick and easy so you can see clear results in no time at all.
What Is The Performance Management Cycle and What Does It Do?
The performance management cycle is a way to improve your business by helping your employees reach their full potential and grow in their role.
It is a model that allows both management and employees to set and achieve goals to improve their development and lead to a better performance within the company. It works in four simple steps that involve both the management team and the employees.
It helps motivate your employees and increases competitiveness to encourage them to improve within their role. Basically, it is a cycle of setting goals with your employees and then checking their performance to see if they have reached these set goals.
The performance management cycle can last on any length of timeline – you could cycle through the model once a year, or every month depending on how much support and guidance you believe your employees need to get the results you want.
The cycle can also be applied to teams or individual employees as the basic steps are the same no matter who you are setting the goals with. This makes the cycle a great way to improve your business’ results as it can be used to involve every employee no matter their role.
What Are The Steps?
There are four main steps to the performance management cycle. They are:
- Planning
- Monitoring
- Reviewing
- Rewarding
Each step is unique and important to get your employees to work towards a better performance in their role. Skipping over one step or failing to implement it will break the cycle and you may not see the results you hoped for.
Therefore, you should follow through these basic steps to ensure you see an improvement in your employees’ performance.
Step One: Planning
Planning is probably one of the most vital parts of the performance management cycle. Without it, you nor your employees will know what they are working towards!
The planning step of the performance management cycle is basically laying down the groundwork and deciding what goals your employees should be working towards.
First, the management team should decide together what goals to set on their employees by reviewing the business’s performance so far and decide what goals they want to meet by a certain time.
With the goals set for the business, it is easier to set goals for each employee as your management team now knows what standards the business needs to reach too.
After this, your management team should arrange a one on one meeting with each employee. In this meeting with the employee, the management should talk about the employee’s performance so far and ask if they have any goals they have already set for themselves.
This is a great way to see how far the employee wants to progress. Management should be collaborative and engage with the employee to show that they are invested in their progress too.
Then, both can begin to set specific goals as a team. These goals should align with the company’s own goals and contribute towards meeting them. Remember that the goals should be achievable and realistic – setting unrealistic goals can demotivate your employees and make them feel that you are setting impossible expectations on them. Some may even feel that they are being set up to fail so make sure that the goals are achievable.
You should set a deadline for when you expect this goal to be achieved and arrange a meeting on that day for the management and employee to review the employees’ performance together.
Step Two: Monitoring
The second step of the performance management cycle is monitoring your employees as they perform their roles and complete their tasks as part of their day-to-day job.
Your employees should be working towards their set goal and as you monitor their performance, you should see a steady increase towards it. This step can take as much time as needed and can be broken up with regular meetings to discuss the employee’s progress towards their goal before the deadline is up.
These meetings are a great way to offer any assistance and guidance that the employee may need. Goals can also be adjusted and discussed in further detail, so remember to communicate with your employee to monitor their success.
Other ways you can monitor your employees’ performance is to also ask their supervisor for an unbiased report, and check their statistics at the end of their working hours.
You can also check your company’s products and feedback from your customers to see if you are already beginning to reap the benefits of more motivated employees.
Here at PulseHRM, we offer performance management software that can help make this step easier. You can use the software to keep track of your employees’ progress and monitor their performance holistically throughout your company.
Step Three: Reviewing
Once the deadline has passed, the management and the employee should meet to review the employee’s performance and discuss if they met the set goal.
This is a chance for your employees to talk about their experience, what they found difficult or easy, and if they feel that they achieved their goal. Get as much feedback off them as possible as this can help you improve the performance management cycle next time. Ask questions and be engaging so you can get a good feel of how well the cycle has worked.
If the cycle was unsuccessful and your employee did not achieve their set goal, then you can start to question why and work out what went wrong – was the goal unrealistic? Had the employee just missed out on meeting it? Were they demotivated or lacked the skills? Were there unforeseen factors that influenced the employees performance – like illness?
The reviewing step in this process will define where your employees stand and allow you to have a clear idea which direction your business is going. Sometimes, even if an employee has not achieved their goal, they may have still improved and your business has reaped better results already.
Step Four: Reward
This is the final and the most important step of the performance management cycle – reward.
You cannot skip this part as it is crucial to the employee’s motivation.
If you do not reward your employee for meeting their goal, then they will see no benefit for them to work harder and improve their performance. Threatening demotion or a termination of their contract will only cause resentment and a poor working atmosphere, so you should reward those with good progress instead.
Not only will this make the employee feel recognized and appreciated, but it will also encourage other employees who did not meet their set goal to work harder to achieve the same reward.
Rewards can be anything from a one-time bonus to increased vacation time. Sometimes, it can be a spot in the company newsletter saying congratulations and thank you, or it could even be a promotion!
Either way, it is important to show to employees that it is worth their time and energy to improve their performance because they will reap a reward.
Why Is It Important?
Every business should implement some kind of performance management cycle if they want to grow and value their employees.
A good performance management cycle can lead to better employee motivation as they feel listened to and engaged by the management team. This can lead them to naturally want to develop more and help build up the company, leading to better employee retention in your business.
It also builds better relationships between the management and the employees as it allows them to meet and collaborate together towards a common goal.
As a result, businesses will see an improved performance and achieve better results. This can lead to happier customers who will naturally spread the word about your business and promote you elsewhere through word of mouth. Your business can grow and improve along with your employees.
Using a performance management cycle can also help you find the employees who have no motivation and consistently underperform in their role. It can praise those who work well and deserve gratitude for their hard work, and also help you spot the employees who need more support.
Overall, both employees and managers benefit from the use of a performance management cycle so it is worth your time to implement one. It improves the relationships between the two teams, helps improve employee morale and retention, and your customers will be happy with the quality of the product or service you provide.
With all these benefits in mind, it’s time that you started a performance management cycle in your business today.
How to Step Up A Performance Management Cycle With PulseHRM?
Setting up a performance management cycle is easy once you have the right software and resources.
Having the proper software means you have somewhere to keep all of the information discussed during these meetings and you can access them anywhere and at any time to review them.
Here at PulseHRM, we offer a performance management software that can help make setting up a performance management cycle easy and simple. You can set up and manage goals, make detailed plans for your employees to follow, and monitor their performance with minimal fuss or confusion.
Our performance management software also helps you track your employees’ progress over many cycles and clearly displays all the information you need during those one-to-one meetings.
This allows managers to gain a deeper insight into the employees’ performance history with your company, and allows your employees to have an assigned mentor to help guide them through their progress. The software allows you to offer training and support that your employees can use to achieve their goals.
They can also leave vital feedback to help your performance management cycle develop and improve to achieve better results each time.
Overall, PulseHRM performance management software is a great organizational tool to help you maintain your performance management cycle and keep your business on track for quality improvement and growth.
If you are looking into bringing a performance management cycle to your business, then it is worth looking into getting the right software that will make the whole process a breeze.
Conclusion
We hope this has helped you further understand what performance management cycles are and how they work.
Clearly, they are a great and easy way to improve your employees’ performance and develop your business further. It is plain to see why so many companies implement this kind of model in their business, as it reaps clear positive results and also improves job satisfaction with their employees.
This is why performance management cycles are so important when it comes to developing your business, and we hope that you will consider trying out this impressive model with your employees.
When you are ready to try out performance management cycles and reap the benefits, then our amazing software will be here waiting to help make the whole process a lot easier for you.
