Performance Appraisal Consultants Key Terms

Improve your employee management strategy by learning performance appraisal consultants key terms

By Michele Vrouvas

When done properly, performance appraisals tell managers and support staff whether they are meeting production goals. The top-down performance appraisal of the past has been substituted for assessments that take a more employee-centered approach. The preferred assessment today encourages more communication between managers and employees, engages support staff in setting goals and includes them in self-assessment reviews where both sides analyze their achievements and shortcomings. Get to know some key terms that performance appraisal consultants rely on so you can improve goal management strategies.

Performance improvement

Consultants focus on performance improvement to identify reasons why employees perform at lower levels than expected. Once a company's performance improvement potential has been studied, consultants suggest strategies that will encourage productivity and close the performance gap. Today's consultants urge companies to avoid the "progressive discipline" of the past which saw punishment rather than positive reinforcement as the way to improve workplace performance.
Try: Grote Consulting takes the performance improvement approach seriously by advising supervisors about corrective measures that encourage employees to perform well without triggering hostility toward management.

Performance management

The term performance management refers to the trend among business consultants today to see performance as a process that supervisors can control. Today's managers no longer assume that employees will perform at high levels so the company can meet its enterprise goals. The trend is now for managers to proactively get involved in all phases of performance management, such as setting goals that employees are informed of and then providing the mentoring that's necessary so employees achieve those goals.
Try: Find out how performance appraisal consultants like Align Mark design custom performance management programs that include assessment tools and goal setting strategies.

Performance incentive

Consultants depend on performance incentive to engage employees, believing that employees are capable of performing at higher levels when they receive the right kind of motivation. The most common forms of performance incentives are awards and bonuses.
Try: Fox Lawson explains how its performance incentive program starts out by identifying goals employees are able to attain and then communicating rewards given to employees who meet and surpass these expectations.

Competency based performance appraisal process design

One type of performance review analysis is known as the competency based performance appraisal process design. Consultants who perform these designs believe that the particular culture of an organization has an impact on employee productivity. That's why the skills and goals identified in these designs are different for every company.
Try: Quest Management has been a leader in performing competency based performance appraisal process designs. Find out how Quest uses positive feedback to improve productivity.

Goal management

Some consultants believe the key to improving productivity is proper goal management. This approach emphasizes the need to show each employee what he has accomplished as an individual and how his accomplishments have contributed to the company as a whole.
Try: Halogen has contracted with performance appraisal consultants who rely on goal management to measure individual and team performance as a way to drive accountability.

Alternative performance reviews

In keeping with the modern trend toward customization, some performance appraisal consultants are relying on alternative performance reviews to assess productivity. The goal is to find appraisals that improve communication between management and support staff, thereby finding solutions to current challenges. Some alternative performance review models include self-assessments, peer reviews, upward appraisals and the 360 degree feedback review.
Try: Learn more about the purpose of this approach and the benefits of each type of alternate appraisal at Tool Pack Consulting.