Analyzing Performance of the Staff P- 12. Management of Libraries and Information Centres & Knowledge Centres * By :PK gupta

इस ब्लॉग्स को सृजन करने में आप सभी से सादर सुझाव आमंत्रित हैं , कृपया अपने सुझाव और प्रविष्टियाँ प्रेषित करे , इसका संपूर्ण कार्य क्षेत्र विश्व ज्ञान समुदाय हैं , जो सभी प्रतियोगियों के कॅरिअर निर्माण महत्त्वपूर्ण योगदान देगा ,आप अपने सुझाव इस मेल पत्ते पर भेज सकते हैं - chandrashekhar.malav@yahoo.com

Analyzing Performance of the Staff P- 12. Management of Libraries and Information Centres & Knowledge Centres * By :PK gupta

0.1. What is Performance Management of staff

“PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF STAFF”  is an efficient systematic evaluation and assessment of employees by supervisors.

It is a comprehensive  guideline which helps in developing the job potential, prooving technical expertise of an employee and  making the assessment of  holistic performanceof an employee, in the organization for a certain period of time”.

It initiates to pluck out all  the negative aspects within him/her and curve out his own positive dimensions, positive energy and potential, to shine in his/her career span. That is a good employee is one who not only performs well in his work domain but  tries to shine out amongst all employees with reference to his work parameters and dimensions.

Having trustworthy and reliable employees is the key to any successful establishment or Organization.

Performance Management System(PMS) not only “paves” the path for more “self-improvement”, but also gives the employee the opportunity to make his own self assessment, shape his technical expertise, give a productive qualitative assessment on himself annually.

0.2. What is Performance Appraisal?

Performance Appraisal is a systematic evaluation,judgments of the characteristics, traits and performance of employees by supervisors.. On the basis of these judgments employee assessment is recorded and then salary and all other benefits is appraised( evaluated).

Performance “Rating” :-

Mostly the “Appraisal”evaluation in all departments is done on ratings within1-5 scale  ( where, 5=outstanding, 4=excellent, 3=good, 2 =average and 1=needs improvement) .  

(“Low” rating is an indicator of “poor performance”, leading to “low motivation”, or “low capability”). It is therefore very necessary to ascertain the reason of “Poor”performance.

Appraisals happen annually, are essential for promotional decisions,employee transfer,trust and retention,and overall holistic Company and employee development.

1. Objectives

Performance analysis of staff should result in not only better performance at the end of the period,  it should portray an immense sense of  satisfaction on both the part of appraiser and appraise.

Performance appraisal has a number of specific objectives. These are given below:

a)     To review past performance;

b)    To assess training needs;

c)     To help develop individuals;

d)    To audit the skills within an organizations;

e)     To set targets for future performance;

f)     To identify potential for promotion.

g)    To identify “ Capability gaps”or “ on his Objectives.

2. Different dimensions of performance management

1.    Motivation & Interest

 An employee's motivation and interest in her everyday responsibilities is important when evaluating her performance.

Motivated employees often have sound attendance records, are rarely late and only infrequently ask for time off. Employees who repeatedly complain about routine tasks or appear unbiased in their work could be detrimental to your entire Company or organization

 2.    Adaptability

Having a staff of multi-talented employees is advantageous in filling in for absent employees, cross-training and dealing with high volumes of work. Your evaluation of an employee's performance should consider that individual's willingness to learn new skills, take on problems outside his realm of jurisdiction and adapt on the fly to requests. Employees who stay grounded within their own sphere of production can often be detrimental to group production.

3.Weaknesses/Considerations  

When evaluating employees' performances, we should  take note of any specific weakness either in their specific role or in cooperating with other staff members

4. Job Rotation

To effectively maximize and develop employee performance “ Job Rotation”  is an effective way of  developing employee potential and improve technical expertise.

Library professionals can use this mechanism for identifying employee capabilities. After working with various line managers, in different on the job rotations, the staff  is better equipped with the entire department and overall his annual performance will be better portrayed and analyzed.

3. Avenues of Performance Management

Fig 1. Various Avenues of Performance Management

Fig 1.   Shows us the avenues of Performance Management. Performance management should serve as a vital module, a competency model one that is of interest to both the organization and the employee. The procedure at any Organisation starts with setting of Performance goals along with Organisational Plans, delegating responsibilities to team followed by Coaching,motivating, recognizing efficiency, effectiveness and  evaluating performance and career development planning. It is all a strategic performance circle  and all the avenues are interlinked.

In a Holistic Performance Management sytem :-

a) Employees should be actively involved in the evaluation and development process.

b) Supervisors need to develop a strategic PMS.

c) Realistic, strategic  goals and KRAs  must be mutually set and clarified.

d) Supervisors must be aware, and have knowledge of the employee’s job categories.

e) Employees should feel the motivating and recognition prevalent factor present in all departments.

f) A good PMS demarcates a sound career development planning.

4. Planning Performance for Role clarity, leadership development and setting goals

Fig2. Planning,Competency models,GoodLeadership and Performance Appraisal =sound PMS

Fig 2. depicts how an efficient PMS structure is progressed through Performance Planning and goal setting, an efficient competency model along with a sound good leadership structure and a sound Performance Appraisal or reward system – all these together makes a very superior Performance management system.

4.1. Why Performance needs to be planned for a proper Performance Management system?

Planning for performance and setting your Organisational goal is the first step in ensuring that the employee gives quality inputs that will ensure the output expected from him.

Planning gives a sense of direction and ensures job satisfaction as an ultimate goal in the Library department. The Library department staff gets motivated to outcast his technical expertise more when he judges that a proper performance planning is being done for him.

A competency model organizes the competencies needed to perform successfully in a particular work setting, such as in the Library setup.. Competency models can be used as a resource for evaluating employee performance.

Performance planning also signifies a systematic outlining of the activities that the Library employees are expected to undertake during a specified period (for eg. Six-monthly, Annually) so that he is able to make his best contribution to developmental  and organizational outcomes. The activities thus outlined are indicative of the nature of contributions the staff is expected to make to the departmental goals .

A good Performance Management system indicates the quality, magnitude and technical contributions the staff is expected to make at certain stipulated time dimensions and the relative emphasis to be placed on different activities annually.

4.2. KRAs and Performance Appraisal and Competency Modules:-

Annual Performance Appraisal exercises or Competency Modules provide good opportunities for overall quality team work. The models reflect on the following :-

• Task analysis:
• Key performance areas (KPAs):
• Key Result Areas (KRAs):
• Performance Target Identification:
• Team plans:
• Goal setting exercise:
• Time-management exercises
• Meeting deadlines
• Out of the box activities
• Team leadership

4.3. Need for clarity of roles in Library department

Any organization interested in its growth has to be dynamic, creating challenges for themselves and making an impact for their environment. Thus if an organization or a department in the organization say the library is dynamic it is in a process of constant change  either in response to its own needs and growth plans or in response to the environmental changes.

A clear understanding of the roles, objectives and responsibilities of the staff with subject to various KRAs is highly suggested.

4.4. KPA’s as Mechanisms of Role clarity and Development

Key Performance Areas(KPA) may be defined as the important or critical categories of functions to be performed by any role incumbent, over a given period of time. These categories of functions should be so defined that the performance of any employee can be assessed meaningfully for any given period of time. In addition, these functions should specify what the employee would be doing rather than what results are expected from him.

Some examples of KPAs are :-

4.5. KPA’s for a Library professional :-

• Identify knowledge resources to be procured on priority for library collection modifications
• Identifying service to offer for users
• Developing new service for users
• Measuring effectiveness of library services

6. Types of Performance Management

Page Contents

  

Performance Management  include few methods  as follows:

1.     Critical incident method

This format of performance appraisal is a method which is involved identifying and describing specific incidents where employees did something really well or that needs improving during their performance period.

2.    Weighted checklist method

In this style, performance appraisal is made under a method where the jobs being evaluated based on descriptive statements about effective and ineffective behavior on jobs. 

3.     Paired comparison analysis

This form of performance appraisal is a good way to make full use of the methods of options. There will be a list of relevant options. Each option is in comparison with the others in the list. The results will be calculated and then such option with highest score will be mostly chosen.

4. Graphic rating scales

This format is considered the oldest and most popular method to assess the employee’s performance.In this style of performance appraisal, the management just simply does checks on the performance levels of their staff.

5.     Performance ranking method

The performance appraisal of ranking is used to assess the working performance of employees from the highest to lowest levels. Managers will make comparisons of an employee with the others, instead of making comparison of each employee with some certain standards.

6.     Management By Objectives (MBO) method

MBO is a method of performance appraisal in which managers or employers set a list of objectives and make assessments on their performance on a regular basis, and finally make rewards based on the results achieved. This method mostly cares about the results achieved (goals) but not to the way how employees can fulfill them.

 

7.     Forced ranking (forced distribution)

In this style of performance appraisal, employees are ranked in terms of forced allocations.

For instance, it is vital that the proportions be shared in the way that 10 or 20 % will be the highest levels of performances, while 70 or 80% will be in the middle level and the rest will be in the lowest one.

8. Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales

These scales combine major elements from the critical incident and graphic rating scale approaches.

The employer-appraiser rates the employees-appraisee  based on parameters on the scales, but the points are examples of actual behavior on the given job rather than general descriptions or traits. Behaviorally anchored rating scales specify definite, observable, and measurable job behavior.

Examples of job-related behavior and performance dimensions are generated by asking participants to give specific illustrations on effective and ineffective behavior regarding each performance dimension. These behavioral examples are then retranslated into appropriate performance dimensions.

Those that are sorted into the dimension for which they were generated are retained.

The final group of behavior incidents are then numerically scaled to a level of performance that each is perceived to represent. The incidents that are retranslated and have high rater agreement on performance effectiveness are retained for use as anchors on the performance dimension. The results of the above processes are behavioral descriptions, such as anticipates, plans, executes, solves immediate

problems, carries out orders, and handles emergency situations.

This method has following advantages:

a) It does tend to reduce rating errors.

b) It assesses behavior over traits.

c) It clarifies to both the employee and rater which behaviors connote good performance and which connote bad.

 

9.     360 degree Feedback system in HR Management:-

The 360 degree performance appraisal method  involves performance assessment feedback and report from the both the Supervisor and the Supervisee and his fellow peers and colleagues.This is the most prevalent PMS feedback  method applicable in today’s world for a good structured functioning of an Organisation.

Other names for 360 degree feedback are multi-rater feedback, multisource feedback, full-circle appraisal, and group performance review appraisal.

The feedback provides insight about the skills and behaviours desired in the organization to accomplish the mission,vision, goals and values of the organization.  

The purpose and benefits of 360 degree method :

1. Team Development: Helps team members learn to work more effectively together. It generates higher levels of trust and better team cohesiveness and communication.
2. The judgemental errors of the supervisors are eliminated as the feedback comes from various sources.
3. Holistic Clarity to understand each employees strengths and weaknesses.
4. Holistic feedback from peers, reporting staff, co-workers, and management supervisor
5. Participation:More people participate in the process, hence its time saving process..
6. People get more judgemental feedback , try to improve on work quality and work flow.   
7. 360 degree feedback makes team members more accountable to each other as they share the knowledge that they will provide.
8. Training Needs Assessment: Multirater feedback provides comprehensive information about organization training needs
9. Professional growth & career evaluation and development: Individuals can better manage their own performance and.
10. Responsibility for Career Development : Multirater feedback can provide excellent information to individuals about what they need to do to enhance their career.

Example: In a library environment, 360 degree feedback are taken now-a-days the most comprehensive module for Performance Assessment. Organization’s management wish to take feedback from both the departmental head as well as staff members. This approach provides a tool to the management to assess individual’s ability and directional measure towards future growth. In this approach, the HR department develops two separate forms with different questions for library staff  and librarians. While librarian assesses the  quality of each of the library staff  highlighting their strengths and weaknesses eg. user handling, reference services, e-resource collection, circulation desk management, document processing, etc; the library staff  also assess librarian in terms of leadership quality, decision making power, conflicts resolution ability etc. In this method each of the staff members including librarian gets adequate and proper feedback about their ability and lacune which helps them to grow faster professionally.

7. THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL PROCESS

8 Methods of Performance Management:- Corporate Library Management

The following actions are included in corporate performance management systems:

A.    Development of precise job descriptions and creating detailed employee performance plans inclusive of their performance indicators and key result areas (KRA).

B.    Setting up a strong selection process in lines with the company policies so that the right candidates are selected for the job.

C.    Discussing and setting performance standards to measure productivity and output set against benchmarks that have been predefined.

D.    Giving the employee feedback and coaching on a continuous basis right through his performance delivery period.

E.    Catering to development and training needs by measuring productivity and performance quality.

F.    Having discussions on the employees’ quarterly performance and evaluating them based on the performance plan.

G.    Developing and implementing a set rewarding and compensation system for employees who excel in performance benchmarks.

H.    Facilitating guidance sessions, career development support and promotional discussions for employees on a regular basis.

I.   Holding comprehensive “Exit interviews” to find out the reasons for an employee’s discontentment with the company and the reason for his or her departure.

9. Planning for Success:- Academic Library Management

Fig  3.  Planning for success   

Source: Compiled in blog by Stage 1 – Planning for Success ( Part 6 of 10 of HRSG’s Guide to Performance Management through Competencies )… Monday, 10 September 2012

Whether you're a Library Manager or any Evaluator, Planning performance evaluations, or measuring 1 to 1 annual performance reviews, there are several key factors your “Employee evaluation” should focus on. Fig 3. Above  shows us the basic 3 steps of PLANNING related to PROGRESS REVIEW and related to FINAL EVALUATION of employee and the small queries we need to follow and be aware of ..

9.1. Self Evaluation Questionnaire:-

Write down the Questions in Fig 3. and answer them with respect to your department.

1. Planning
2. Progress Review
3. Evaluation

The following milestones to be followed :-

1. Non-performance will not be tolerated and will be measured every 3 months.
2. Every action/movement is subjected to a measurable deliverable.
3. Salary and increment are performance linked; higher the responsibility and performance, greater shall be the reward.
4. It should be the Endeavour of every such Supervisor to present the truest possible picture of the appraised staff regarding his/her performance, conduct and potential.
5. Every staff on pay-roll shall undertake this exercise of completing PMS with a strong sense of responsibility.
6. For better positive energy flow and internal team bondage  development,  after a staff joins the Company, the Performance Assessment programme will be followed as below:-

• Monthly Self-Appraisal (Monthly reporting to Supervisors only)
• 6 months (half-yearly PMS ) for all staff
• 12 months (annually Performance Appraisal) for all staff along with final HR  rating and percentage increment.

11. Difference between Performance Management and Performance appraisal

Performance Appraisal System

Performance Management System

1.     Emphasis  is on relative evaluation of individuals 2.     Emphasis is on ratings and evaluation. 3.     Performance rewarding and recognition is a critical component. 4.     Designed and monitored by HR deptt. 5.     Ownership is mostly with HR deptt. 6.     Focus on identifying development needs at the end of the appraisal year. 7.     Linked to promotions, salary increments, transfer, training and development interventions.

1.     Emphasis  is on holistic performance improvements of individuals,teams,department  and the organization. 2.     Emphasis is on performance planning, analysis, appraisal and development. 3.     Performance rewarding and recognition may or may not be an integral part. Defining and setting performance standards is an integral part. 4.     Designed by HR Dept. but could be monitored by the line departments. 5.     Ownership is with line and HR deptts.. 6.     Focus on identifying development needs at the beginning of the appraisal year. 7.     Linked to performance improvement and through them to other HR decisions as and when necessary.

12.Key benefits of Performance Management Systems

In short, successful implementation of Performance management systems can result in overall benefit of the organization, the manager and the employee.

1. It improves overall performance of the organization and increases employee loyalty and retention.
2. It directly contributes to enhanced performance and better productivity levels.
3. Career paths are defined and it promotes job satisfaction and a positive mindset.
4. It improves productivity of the company, also delivers cost advantages,clear accountabilities and overcomes communication barriers in the organization.
5. It saves on a lot of precious time and reduces conflicts within the team or department
6. It increases efficiency levels of team members and motivates better, consistent high performance.

It clarifies all the expectations of an employee including his exact role and KRA,and provides an opportunity for self review, assessment and introspection.

13. PROBLEMS IN PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

It very happens in many Organisations , with many senior managers they impartially standardize the PMS criteria upon which their subordinates will be appraised. In spite of our recognition that a completely error-free performance appraisal should be there, still a number of errors significantly follow :-

1) Leniency Error :-

Every Supervising Evaluator has his/her own rating standard against which appraisals are made.

When evaluators are positively lenient in their appraisal, an individual’s performance is rated higher than it actually should be.  Similarly, a negative leniency error evaluates low performance, giving the individuals a lower appraisal.

2) Low Appraiser Motivation:-

Cetain Supervising evaluators are reluctant to enhance an employee promotion and future succesion planning opportunities and hence he might be reluctant to give a realistic

appraisal. There is structural corporate evidence that it is more difficult to obtain accurate appraisals when important rewards and Overseas promotions depend on the Performance results.

3) Halo Effect :-

The halo effect or error is a tendency to rate high or low on all factors due to the

impression of a high or low rating on some specific factor. For example, if an

employee tends to be conscientious and dependable, the supervisor might become

biased toward that individual to the extent that he will rate him/her high on many

desirable attributes.

4 ) Similarity Error:-

When Supervising evaluators rate his team members in the same ways to keep the team members happy. Again based on the perceptions that evaluators have of themselves, they project those perceptions onto others. For example, some Supervising evaluators  who perceives him self or herself as aggressive may evaluate others by looking for aggressiveness. Those who demonstrate this characteristic tend to benefit, while others are penalized.

5) Central Tendency:-

Central tendency is the reluctance to make extreme ratings (in either directions); the inability to distinguish between and among ratees; a form of range restriction.Appraisee evaluation are downrated.

14.PERFORMANCE COUNSELLING

“Counselling” provides an indispensible and obligatory opportunity to the supervisor to give feedback to the subordinate on the performance and performance related behavior. The main objective of “ Performance Counselling” is to help the employee to conquer his weaknesses and to strategise and innovate his strengths.

In this sense it is a developmental process where the Employer or supervisor and the Employee or subordinate discuss the past performance with a view of improvement  and become more effective in future.

Performance Appraisal reports serve as a “Guideline” for discussion. One of the specific effects of

this dynamic interaction is the identification of “Training needs and Assessment”.

The process of Counselling :-

1. The counselor should be diplomatic and helpful rather than be critical and accuser.
2. The subordinate should feel comfortable to participate without any hesitation. Both negative and positive feedbacks should be clarified and communicated in closed-door conversation..
3. It is should focus on intricacies of official reports  and be time bound.  Delayed feedback is neither helpful nor effective.
4. A climate of openness and trust is extremely necessary.
5. The focus should be on the work-related problems and KRAs,  rather than personality or individuals likes, dislikes.  
6. It should be devoid of all discussions on salary, reward and punishment. Any discussion on compensation changes the focus from performance improvement to the relationship between performance and reward.
7. “Counselling  Technique” and “Corrective Strategy”- Many supervisors are hesitant to initiate performance counseling sessions because the subordinates may raise uneasy questions for which they may not have answers. Or they may question their judgments and decisions which may lead to argument, debate and misunderstanding. That is why there is a need to train supervisors in the “Techniques of Counseling sessions” .  A “Councelling  Technique” could be to start the interaction by asking “Tell me how you think you are doing in your job and share your overall experiences”.  This provides an environment for the subordinate to share about his part of performance he wishes to share  first.  The indispensable  and obligatory feature is to provide an employee an opportunity to open up and share his experiences, his hits,his misses in the job,  which the supervisor should be able to listen and then process and provide elementary feedback (Corrective Strategies) to him and slowly step down his KRAs where he might have rated a bad score in his Performance Appraisal.
8. "Outcomes” :- One major outcome of performance counseling is identification of the potential of the employee’s skills and abilities not known and utilized by the organization. The distinct advantage of a thoroughly carried out performance counseling is that The organization is  able to identify individuals who can take higher responsibilities and initiate duties.