In this week’s blog on Performance Management Cycle, step 1 will be discussed- Planning. Health care management personnel and teams must set clear expectations and goals for performance and this occurs during the Planning stage of PMCs. Without clearly outlined goals and anticipated performance achievements, staff may not be as driven or focused on performing well. Aligning employee performance with pre-determined objectives and corporate values allows for staff to conceptualize their purpose within their department and organization. The Planning stage sets the foundation for the rest of the Performance Management Cycle and management teams must use careful and thorough consideration when designing their projected targets and performance goals.

A useful resource for developing performance “plans” was created by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) titled “A Handbook for Measuring Employee Performance: aligning employee performance plans with organizational goals”. This handbook provides detailed direction and suggestions on how executives can achieve their performance goals by coinciding corporate objectives with individual employee performance. Ideally, all efforts and activities performed by an individual employee should in some way be contributing to the greater goals of an organization as a whole. In order for corporate values and objectives to be dove-tailed with staff performance, a strong and well-developed corporate vision and purpose must be established prior to initiating the Planning stage. All levels of employees must be educated and proficient on what their organization represents professionally and ethically. Publishing these values and the corporate vision in various media (i.e. employee handbooks, intranets, newsletters, etc.) will provide a foundation of consistent performance expectation for staff. Employees must be familiar with these defined expectations in order to see the value in their performance plans being tied to their own corporate values.

Health care management personnel should structure their performance plans to, simultaneously motivate and define performance projections for their staff. In pursuit of this structure, managers should review the OPM’s website which provides examples and discussion on how goal setting can be used as a “powerful energizer” for employees. In addition to outlining their performance objectives in conjunction with achieving corporate goals, managers must determine how those objectives will be monitored and measured. Establishing a plan serves as only one fold of the Planning stage. Decisions will need to be made by management that extends beyond planning and considers how the defined performance goals will be quantified to ensure staff are performing as anticipated. Once the goals and performance measuring tactics have been properly outlined and communicated, managers will be ready to transition to stage 2- Monitoring.

written by:
Allison Bahr, Associate Consultant
Medical Management Services