How to Manage for Top Performance
Gregory P. Smith
Performance management is about creating an environment where people
know what is expected of them, have access to the tools they need for
their work, and are supported in their quest to do their best. It’s about
creating people who feel good about themselves and their accomplishments,
who in turn will reward the organization with loyalty and high retention.
Performance management has three key goals:
- Creating a workplace where top performers want to stay
- Transforming people who are not "stars" into top performers
- Aligning behavior and actions toward the goals of the business
enterprise.
Each of these goals is important and especially important if you are in
an industry that can’t afford to pay top dollar for the top-notch
workforce. Aligning behavior and actions with your business’s goals is the
bottom line for staying in business. You need to define and then create
the behaviors that will ensure that the company runs at maximum efficiency
and productively.
As a management consultant, I hear lots of complaints. People tell me
that the work ethic is declining. That people get hired and don’t show up,
or skip shifts when they please. That it’s getting harder to find
competent and motivated workers with good attitudes.
In effect, they are saying, "these people are flawed, and there’s
nothing I can do about it."
They’re wrong. As I’ve stressed throughout my books and articles, there
is plenty that leaders can do to turn an average or even a poor performer
into a highly productive one. In a high-retention environment, leaders
have something called "discretionary effort." Basically, discretionary
effort is what leaders do to create superior performance. It
is situational and varies depending on the individual and circumstance.
To effectively manage performance, you need to determine what
"performance" means and how to structure an environment to elicit it. When
this spadework is finished, it’s easy to design programs and actions that
reinforces performance at the back end.
But be careful. Performance management is not manipulation. People
never respond well to control or manipulation, and will flee an
environment in which these strategies are dressed up as "performance
management." Consider these performance management programs:
Lottery System. One company used a lottery system to reduce
absenteeism by 75 percent and costs by 62 percent. Only employees with no
absenteeism during the month can participate; prizes include a television,
a bicycle and so on.
Perfect Attendance Program. One large rental business encourages
attendance by giving employees with perfect attendance during the year
$300, a limo ride to a restaurant for a free dinner with their spouse, and
a gift certificate worth $100.
Attendance Awards. Employees of a county government receive perfect
attendance certificates for not missing a day of work during the month.
This successful program made a significant improvement in the absenteeism
level among employees. It was so successful, in fact, that some employees
weren’t keeping doctor appointments because it would make them ineligible
for the monthly award. The county recognized the unavoidable need to
occasionally have appointments during the business day and instituted a
second award for people who miss less than eight hours a month. This
allowed employees to go to the doctor and still gave an incentive for them
to take a few hours off rather than the entire day.
Service Over and Above Requirements (SOAR). At Nationwide
Insurance, customers, managers, and peers nominate employees for "service
over and above." Regional six-member boards (all volunteers) meet weekly
or monthly to review the nominations and select a winner. The winner
chooses a prize from a catalog that includes magnets, pins, mugs, writing
pens, and sweatshirts.
Greased Monkey Award: At First American managers present a "Greased
Monkey Award" to the computer technician who is best in resolving problems
with computer programs. They are awarded with a plastic toy monkey in a
jar of Vasoline along with a $50.00 dinner certificate.
