Making Evidence-Based Decisions about Performance of Your People
Professional Reflection – Making Evidence-Based Decisions about Performance of Your People
What’s measured improves.
—Peter F. Drucker
In this week’s Professional Reflection, you will review the week and document your learning. You will build upon that to examine how managers establish criteria, sometimes called key performance indicators, that will enable them to effectively gauge employee performance in a transparent and equitable manner.
To prepare for this week’s Professional Reflection
Review this week’s Learning Resources, especially
Ahmed, I., Sultana, I., Paul, S., & Azeem, A. (2013). Employee performance evaluation: A fuzzy approach. International Journal of Productivity & Performance Management, 62(7), 718-734.
Behn, R. D. (2003). Why measure performance? Different purposes require different measures. Public Administration Review, 63(5), 586-606.
BSC Designer. (2012). Best practice tips for creating key performance indicators [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91SKwBX419k
Das, R. (2016). Creation of measurable goals. Human Capital, 20(5), pp. 44-45.
Forward Focus. (2016). Constructive feedback for managers: Giving feedback effectively [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi5UfSIf0BM
Horstman, M. (2016). The effective manager. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Chapter 7, “Talk about Performance—Feedback” (103–126)
Chapter 8, “Common Questions and Resistance to Feedback” (127–140)
Chapter 9, “How to Start Delivering Feedback” (141-146)
Jacobs, M. (2016). The wrong key performance indicators can drive the wrong behavior. EHS Today, 9(7), pp. 12–15.
Pillai, H. K. (2016). The planning of performance. Human Capital, 19(10), 40–41.
Ridler, B. (2014). Managing with the ‘new’ KPIs. NZ Business, 28(9), 50–51.
Unilytics. (2014). A better way to establish and measure key performance indicators [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKe1qX4lkpY
Document: Professional Reflection Assignment Instructions
Review this week’s Discussions.
Reflect on your own experiences with performance reviews and performance indicators at your job.
Does your organization clearly define how employees are measured?
How does this impact your ability to perform your job?
How does it impact your working relationship with your manager? If you are a manager, how does having (or not having) a clear set of performance criteria impact your ability to supervise your staff and provide constructive feedback?
To complete the Professional Reflection Assignment, compose a cohesive document that addresses the following:
Summarize the three most important items that you learned from your Discussion and the resources this week. Explain why they stood out to you and how you will apply what you have learned into your work as a manager.
Be specific and provide examples.
Focusing on your current job (or a position you have held previously), summarize the main criteria by which you were evaluated, if you know. If this is (or was) not clear to you, what criteria would you suggest be used to
fairly and accurately measure the quality of your work? As part of your summary, include:
How did (or could have) your manager gathered evidence and data in support of the assessment of your performance?
Assess how this experience helped you improve your performance.
Based on all of this week’s resources, summarize what you learned that changed or broadened your thoughts about feedback performance.
Summarize the types of performance feedback that you anticipate you will need to provide in your role as a manager, including:
How you will prepare for and deliver feedback to ensure that it is constructive.
How you will prepare and deliver negative feedback so that it is effective and fair.
Imagine yourself as manager, and that you recently took over a new department in your organization. You are charged with delivering a new service that has been added to the portfolio. Some of the work your employees will do is similar to what they have been doing, but they will also have new responsibilities. To successfully manage your new team, you have been asked to define a set of key performance indicators (success criteria) for your employees. Develop a plan that outlines the specific steps that you will take to determine what kinds of criteria and measures will tell you what you need to know, including:
What you will specifically need to consider in defining the criteria.
People with whom you might need to talk.
The types of information that you will need to have. Assess the types of measures (metrics) that you could use.
How you will account for differences in your team members (the diversity in your team).
How you will ensure that what you are measuring matters and will help you determine if your team is contributing to the organization’s goals.
How you will communicate your expectations to your team.
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