7 Performance Management Strategies to Fuel Business Growth

As an HR professional, performance management strategies are your stock in trade. Every day, you’re working to ensure that company employees are engaged in their work…fulfilling their responsibilities…and doing their part to drive the business forward.

But sometimes, that last point gets lost in the daily grind, although it’s really at the core of strategic HR planning. And that’s why aligning performance management with business goals should be one of every HR team’s key objectives this year.

What is a Performance Management Strategy?

A performance management strategy is an employer’s plan for monitoring, assessing, and improving the way employees do their jobs, individually and collectively.

The intention is generally two-fold: to help employees elevate their performance and to ensure that their output contributes to the organization’s planned success.

The Importance of Aligning Performance Management with Business Growth

Unfortunately, according to research, only 28% of employees feel connected to their employer’s purpose. Which begs the question: if your employees don’t understand where you’re headed, how can they possibly help you get there—or even know if they’re moving you in the right direction?

For this reason, savvy employers continuously share their business goals, values, and progress with employees, while aligning performance management with business growth. This way, company strategy, and performance management dovetail perfectly, ensuring that everyone arrives at the finish line together.

Key Performance Management Strategies to Drive Growth

There are several performance management strategies you can leverage to drive company success. Chances are, you’re already using many of them, like these:

1. Engage in Clear Employee Goal setting

Every employee should know what’s expected of them—i.e., what their exact responsibilities are; and what a good job looks like. When managers engage in measurable goal setting with employees, they set their people up for success, while creating objective performance metrics that serve as helpful (self) evaluation tools.

2. Understand the Importance of Strategic Alignment

Employee-level goal setting is valuable when it comes to measuring and improving individual performance. But it’s critical that such goal setting is in strategic alignment with team and/or department-level goal-setting, too—and that, in turn, they’re all carefully choreographed to help the business transform its goals into realities.

3. Make Employee Motivation a Priority

Research reveals that when employees are engaged and motivated, they perform at a higher level. They’re more productive, creative, and self-directed (and also more likely to remain with the employer).

So, make sure your organization is doing everything possible to motivate employees, from recognizing individual and group achievements to building a culture of continuous feedback.

4. Foster Strong Manager/Employee Relationships

Undisputedly, the top influencer of job satisfaction is the employee/manager relationship—what McKinsey calls “the boss factor.” Ideally, your frontline managers are communicating closely and frequently with their direct reports, checking in, offering impromptu job coaching, and keeping staff in the loop. Of course, managers should be in strategic alignment with your business objectives, too.

5. Combine Continuous Feedback with Performance Reviews

Regular performance reviews are key to any sound performance management strategy. But often, it’s a l-o-n-g time between formal reviews—which is why managers should also create a continuous feedback loop with employees. Employees should always know how they’re doing relative to their goals, and how the company is doing, too.

6. Amp up Your Employee Recognition Program

A strong recognition program doesn’t simply reward employees for a job well done, it motivates them—and their peers—to keep up the good work.

Beyond that, when you link your recognition program to your company’s objectives—demonstrating how a given employee or team moved the needle, goal-wise—you help employees see how they contribute to the plan.

7. Prioritize Employee Development

Employees love companies that offer ample because it shows that they’re invested in their people. Better yet, when employers emphasize skill-building that’s in sync with their business strategy, they’re preparing their workers to help drive them into the future—a win/win for everyone.

Fueling Growth: Take Action with Strategic Performance Management

Chances are that your employer is committed to business growth. One of the best ways organizations can position themself for success is through strategic HR initiatives like aligned performance management planning. Learn more about strategic HR planning—and how Namely’s talent management solution can help. From engaging employees to building a culture of continuous feedback, we’re here to help you master strategic performance management.

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