The Accountant March-April 2016

MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
and development interventions.
6) Creating a basis for several
administrative decisions strategic
planning, succession planning, promotions
and performance based payment.
7) Promoting personal growth and
advancement in the career of the
employees by helping them in acquiring
the desired knowledge and skills.
3. ROLE OF PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT IN
DEVELOPMENT
Your employees are an integral and
indispensable part of running your
business smoothly and efficiently. That’s
why, keeping in mind the crucial role of
your employees, a recent trend known as
Performance Management has come into
practice. Using performance management,
you can ensure that your employees not
only fulfill their responsibilities, but do so
to the best of their abilities and up to your
expectations.
Performance management allows
you to tap the full potential of your
staff. In short, it can be described as a
comprehensive process starting from
monitoring and developing the desired
traits to rating their progress and
rewarding them for their achievements.
Involve Employees in the
Planning Stage
The mere making of plans alone will not
help you to run your business successfully.
You must also focus on the appropriate
ways to get business tasks done. One
way of doing this efficiently is to involve
your employees in the planning process.
This will not only boost their morale
and confidence, but also help you avoid
any communication gaps in the process.
Additionally, it will also help in providing
them with a clear picture of what you
expect from them and what they need to
accomplish.
Monitoring the Progress of
Your Employees
Just as revision of business plans is
sometimes necessary for the success of
your business, measuring the performance
of every employee is also important. This
ensures that tasks are efficiently completed
on time and on or under budget. It also
points out to you any shortcomings
of either your staff or business plans,
and helps you to take the appropriate
corrective actions.
Ensuring All Around
Development of Employees
Performance management gives you the
tools to instill the desired qualities in
your employees in order to get the job
done. Development is not limited to only
individuals in your workplace, but also
addresses the performance of the team as a
whole. All around employee development
not only ensures the personal and
professional growth of your employees,
but also the expansion and improvement
of your business.
Evaluation of Individual
Performance
Evaluating and rating the performance of
your employees on an individual basis is
essential. This gives them a clear picture
of where they presently stand, areas that
they need to work on and what they are
good at. This way, they can focus more on
their weaknesses and work to strengthen
those areas.
You should make it company policy to
issue performance reviews while providing
your employees with the feedback that
they need to perform better at their
jobs. Remember - just as it is important
to point out your employees’ weaknesses
and shortcomings, it is also essential to
commend them on their strengths.
Rewarding Your Employees
Rewarding and appreciating your
employees’ efforts ensures that their level
of their performance and consequently
the performance of your business is
not compromised. It ensures optimum
productivity, performance and maximum
profitability. Rewarding your staff for
a job well done not only enhance their
performance but also serves as a tool
to keep them motivated. Therefore,
performance management is an effective
system that allows you to achieve the
financial goals of your small business.
4. IMPROVING EMPLOYEE
PERFORMANCE
Everything you ever needed to know
about enhancing the productivity of your
staff is actually contained in a few simple
techniques that are guaranteed to increase
the efficiency of your practice.
Certainly, some form of training or
coaching is needed, but so often this
is viewed as a large expense and not an
investment which invalidates the overall
need. So, below are several easy training
tactics that managers can use today,
without spending a lot of time or money.
1) Genuinely listen to your team,
individually - When was the last time
you had a one-on-one conversation with
each of your team members? If you do
not do this, start now. Find out what their
struggles are, areas of concern, and what
they enjoy contributing to the team. You
will find out more in five minutes from
these more intimate conversations than
you have in team meetings in the past six
months.
2) Plan strategically on expanded
roles - Because so many businesses and
teams are downsizing, now is the time
to think and plan strategically how all
of your team members will continue to
contribute and in which ways. And if you
were paying attention to your one-on-one
conversations with each team member, you
will discover how each individual member
is capable of contributing that perhaps
was overlooked before. For example,
say you are a Marketing Manager that
discovers one of your team members has
a public relations background. Because
this position was cut due to the recent
downsizing of the business, this discovery
naturally leads to a potential fill of the
void.
3) Get visual, and get hands on -
Whatever new role your team members
are fulfilling be sure to support them in
as many ways as possible. Our example in
the previous tactic was someone who has
experience with a task they are being asked
to perform, but what if there isn’t anyone
with experience? Well, someone will have
to do the work and need guidance from
you as the manager. So whatever the task,
you as the manager are their greatest
lifeline to learn and succeed. And because
80% of learning is done visually, be sure
to communicate in ways that people will
absorb information more quickly. Use
visuals, walk through the process step-bystep,
and discuss progress in your one-onone
conversations.
4) Motivation - Every staff member
is unique; therefore, the motivation to
perform better will be different for each
person. Identify the motivator for each
staff member and provide opportunities
that encourage their interest and
performance.
5) Setting Goals - Make sure you have
a vision for how you want your practice
to operate now and in the future.
Communicate your vision to staff so that
they are directing their energies toward a
common goal. They will feel like they are
a part of the practice and this will enhance
performance.
6) Praise - Take advantage of big and
small opportunities to praise your staff
for work well done. Your recognition of
their performance means a lot and it is
important that you acknowledge their
efforts.
7) Feedback - Be lavish with praise
but selfish with criticisms - but do offer
kind words of constructive feedback that
makes your staff feel respected and valued.
8) Management - Be available as a
resource to your staff. They should
feel comfortable to approach you with
questions and concerns and not feel as
if they are imposing on your time. They
should be able to depend upon you for
guidance and as a model of what excellent
performance is all about.
Performance management aims at building a high
performance culture for both the individuals and the teams
so that they jointly take the responsibility of improving the
business processes on a continuous basis and at the same
time raise the competence bar by upgrading their own
skills within a leadership framework.
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