Performance management has become wildly common in organizations. And no wonder: it allows managers to track their employees’ performance in an effective and efficient manner while taking employee satisfaction into account. Adopting this management style has its pros, so let’s take a look at the benefits of effective performance management.

• Understanding performance management

Before going into the benefits, we must understand what performance management actually is. It is a management style which aligns employee goals to the organization’s goals and emphasizes reaching objectives and goals effectively. However, a common misconception about performance management is that it only consists of annual reviews and tracking numbers; it is, in fact, a continuous process which includes all aspects of employees’ work.

Implementing a performance management system requires time, patience and effort, especially from the managers’ part. The goal is to improve work quality and performance, but what are the concrete benefits of performance management?

• Increased performance

This one is a no-brainer. After all, it is called performance management. When you adopt performance management you focus on reaching objectives, increasing work efficiency and how you can increase these aspects. This helps you and your employees to perform better. What the performance increase is depends on the goals set to individual employees or teams.

• Increased organizational awareness

Through performance management, you get a more detailed image of your organization’s current state. You see with one glance which employees are not fulfilling their goals or which teams are ahead of their objectives. It might even give you a hint of hiring new people. Being aware of these is crucial because it allows you to support underperforming employees and reward those who are succeeding in their work. All of these are moving your company forward to a better performance.

• Increased clarity

Setting detailed goals helps employees understand what is expected of them. This supports them in focusing on the tasks that contribute to the company’s ultimate goal. The goals that also give managers a clear overview of what it is that they are expected to manage.

• Increased employee satisfaction

Through performance management, you can align an individual employee’s goals and performance to your company’s objectives. This is important in giving the employee the feeling of contributing to the organization’s performance with their own work. For example, knowing that doing a what feels like a mundane job has an influence on the whole company is a wild motivation booster, and a welcome one for each and every employee.

So, as we can see, performance management has a lot of benefits. Be it increased organizational awareness or motivated employees, the bottom-line is clear: it increases performance. Also, the earlier you adopt this managerial style, the better results you get. Ask yourself today how does your organization manage performance and is there something you can do to make it more effective?