Active leadership support and champions needed for successful performance management

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Active leadership support and champions needed for successful performance management

Performance management techniques for both effective and less effective organisations are not very different. The greatest difference is the level of active leadership support and championing of the process. That’s the main conclusion to emerge from a new survey by WorldatWork and Sibson Consulting.

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Key findings include:

• Improvement in performance management is needed in many organisations and the process is stronger in higher performing companies.
• At least half of respondents use information from performance management to determine merit increases, promotions and annual incentive distributions.
• Only 30% of respondents report that their employees trust the performance management system.

Jim Kochanski, senior vice-president of Sibson Consulting, said: “The organisations getting the most impact from performance management are those that have strong leadership support and that execute well in differentiating performance and giving performance messages.”

Dr Lise Flores-Reed, research manager of WorldatWork, said: “These results suggest there is opportunity for organisations to enable their managers to become more effective at communicating performance messages and coaching their employees around performance issues. More communication and transparency can improve employee trust in the process.”

Want to know more?

Title: The State of Performance Management Study 2007, WorldatWork and Sibson.

Survey methodology: More than 550 individuals, primarily senior-level HR professionals, participated in the survey. The demographic profile of the respondents is similar to that of the WorldatWork membership. The organisations represented in the study range in size from fewer than 100 employees to more than 100,000 employees. The following industries are represented: finance and insurance, health care, higher education, manufacturing, professional services, public sector and utilities.

Availability: To order a copy of the full study report, contact WorldatWork, 14040 N. Northsight Blvd, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA AZ 85260, tel: 001 1-877-951-9191.

Sibson Consulting, a Division of Segal, provides “strategic HR solutions related to the planning, implementation and operation of total rewards, compensation, retirement and health benefit programmes. Sibson's services encompass talent management, benefits, organisation design, sales effectiveness and change management”. For more details visit www.sibson.com

WorldatWork is an international association of human resource professionals and business leaders focused on attracting, motivating and retaining employees. WorldatWork supports its 30,000 members and customers in 75 countries with thought leadership, education, publications, research and certification. To find out more visit www.worldatwork.org