October 29, 2010 Developing a Performance Management System That Works

Managers cite performance appraisals and annual reviews as one of their most disliked tasks. Employees aren't usually fond of them either. I'm sure that many of you have experienced being called in to your supervisor's office for your annual review, only to hear nebulous comments about your performance that don't really tell you anything about how you're doing. A lot of managers are really bad at performance evaluation. But these managers are set up to fail because of deficiencies in the performance management system. A poor performance management system provides little guidance to employees on how they're performing and fails to move the organization forward. A poor performance management system can also be a source of legal difficulties and discrimination claims.

In this installment, we'll be discussing performance evaluation with Cathleen Hampton. Ms. Hampton has more than 25 years of experience in planning, developing and executing comprehensive HR strategies. Ms. Hampton is a nationally known presenter on human resources topics including HR and organizational compliance strategies, organizational and management development, performance management, HRD strategy and human capital.