Staff Key Performance Areas & Appraisal Methods
Goals of KPAs and Indicators in Managing Employees
Oct 10, 2009
Which employee would honestly say he or she likes performance appraisals? Most would say that they feel like they are being “put on the spot” by a system that is inaccurate and doesn't show their true worth as a member of staff.
Managers are found to dislike performance appraisal time too. After all, they may know the value of their staff without having to fill out forms and may also feel uncomfortable watching a staff member squirm uneasily on his or her seat on the other side of the boardroom table.
Is their a better way to handle performance appraisals? The short answer, don't bother with it. The manager should know staff well enough to give individual coaching or counsel as needed. But what if it is a management requirement?
Key Performance Indicators and Key Performance Areas
There is little difference between key performance indicators and key performance areas. Some companies, in an effort to appease staff and managers alike, might substitute the term key performance areas for the less dictatorial phrase key performance indicators, but essentially they are one and the same. A better approach is to change the experience, not the phrase.
Documented key performance areas or KPAs are essential as employees need to know what is expected of them, and at what standard. Having said that, it could be prudent to allow a staff member to “rewrite” his own KPA, within boundaries, as he matures in his position. This will allow the staff member to use his initiative, seeking ways to improve on what he does and how he does it.
Key performance areas will quickly become obsolete if there are too many items listed. This is especially true for staff members who are continually looking for better and more efficient ways to get the job done. A suggestion is to instead list a few broad points in the KPA. Staff members who write their own KPAs are shown to perform better as they are more inclined to excel at what they believe in.
If a company has a group of employees doing the same job, for example, agents in a call center, allow the group the ability to define the KPAs. This a bit like a peer review, but from a different angle. Slackers in the group will get weeded out by the group but the group as a whole will be happy with the key performance areas. Those who are incompetent, but willing, can be give coaching to bring them up to group level.
As far as key performance indicators or KPIs go, treat them as such, indicators. Help employees to realize that these are indicators and do not necessarily account for what the staff member does above and beyond the call or duty.
Employees should be given the chance to, and in fact encouraged to, add their own indicators or challenge observations made by the manager with regard to these indicators.
Key Performance Indicators and Key Performance Areas in Reverse
Most companies look at what is beneath or what is next to them when it comes to performance appraisals. In other words, a manager will evaluate his or her staff or at the very least the company might decide on the “peer review” method of performance appraisal.
Few companies give the staff the chance to evaluate management. Would staff performance improve if they had an influence on how they were managed? Do staff see things that mangers can't? Do they feel that the outcome of their performance appraisals are poor because of an inefficient manager? Managers need to be careful how they answer these questions, but they do need answers.
If the employee feels that performance appraisals time is not a one-sided affair, they will be more likely to believe management when they say that these evaluations are for their own good and for the good of the company.
Staff management can be a challenge for any manager. How does one go about getting the best out of one's staff? Call center management is an area that can be a real challenge since the call center staff create the first impression of the company and managing calls can be tricky.
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