Hello all and Happy Monday!

Practicum background:

I currently work in Organizational Development and our team is in the process of implementing a performance management (PM) system with identified groups throughout the organization. Our proposed PM system is based on research conducted by Deloitte which found that the majority of managers end up rating their own intentions and not the employees’ skills or performance. As a result, Deloitte came up with four items that drive organizational performance, while also helping organizations identify (and keep) high performers. Those items measure: overall performance and unique value to the organization, ability to work well with others, problems that might harm the customer or team, and potential.

My tasks:

Our anticipated PM system is designed to be short (not more than ten minutes) and intuitive (minimal training). So, I have been working on the PM tool that managers will be using to rate employee performance. I have also been working on creating training manuals and structuring the in-person training that managers will go through. As of now, the training is going to be broken up into two sessions with each lasting approximately two hours. The first training is going to provide managers an understanding of performance and its complexity, why measuring performance is important, and our proposed PM system. As a part of the first training session, I have helped create activities and frame-of-reference case studies to help managers capture true performance and limit biases that surround rating tendencies. The second training session will include a tool for succession planning and one-on-one meetings that result from the PM process. For the second PM training portion, I have been working on activities which allow managers to effectively visualize where employees with varying levels of performance and potential stand; linking our PM system to succession planning, talent development, and employee success in the organization.

Going forward, I will be meeting with different organizational leaders to discuss the benefits of using our PM system and the return it will bring to them and their workforce as a result. From the data side of our PM tool, I will also collect managers’ responses to assess and analyze their results for ways to identify at-risk employees, high performers, and the criteria used for promotional/developmental opportunities.

I’m pretty excited about this opportunity, so please do not hesitate to reach out if anybody has any experience, suggestions, or ideas that come with implementing a performance management system in an organization!

For those interested in reading more about Deloitte’s research and what sparked our PM initiative, the article can be found here<https://hbr.org/2015/04/reinventing-performance-management>.


Best,

Jay Souder
Master's Student
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
University of Baltimore