Organisations with workforces that are committed and having an emotional connection to their work can be assured of higher productivity, reduced customer churn and a stronger brand recall among internal and external stakeholders.

Mary Kay Ash, the leading American entrepreneur, has rightly stated, “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” Unlike assets like equipment, plants and machinery which are tangible and physical, employees are intangible and dynamic assets. Organisations having workforces that are committed and feel an emotional connection to their work can be assured of higher productivity, reduced customer churn and a stronger brand recall among internal and external stakeholders.

For any organisation to achieve sustained growth and success, it is imperative to align the individual goals of employees with greater corporate and strategic objectives of the enterprise. This can be done by deploying a robust Performance Management process. A well-defined and efficiently executed Corporate Performance Management (CPM) process lays down the foundation for fostering a culture of conversation within an organisation. To put it succinctly, it encourages a healthy dialogue between employees and the management, ensuring them to be on the same wavelength. When implemented in the right spirit, Performance Management helps eliminate stress and toxicity from workplaces where the fear of reprisals does not stop employees from asking tough questions to their superiors.

Employees and employers will be in an improved situation to sit together to identify crises in the early stages and jointly nip them in the bud by deploying course correction measures. Performance Management has to play a pivotal role in Human Resource Management (HRM) by providing the requisite tools and resources to constantly evaluate and monitor employee behaviour. Through sustained feedback and constant reviews, managements effectively communicate to workforces that which is required of them to complete their work efficiently. It helps workforces to gain actionable insights into areas of inefficiencies, plug those gaps and deliver constructive outcomes. CPM aids in creating agile workplace environments and empowering employees to maximise their work productivity.

Modern-day management is realising that yearly review feedbacks in the form of performance appraisals are fast becoming outdated. The increasing participation of young employees, especially comprising the millennial generation and Gen-Z, is forcing organisations to reevaluate the viability of conventional performance-based management approaches. This new generation of the workforce consists mostly of aspirational employees who abhor status quo situations, seek meaningful relations with their superiors and subordinates and have a constant passion for innovation and learning.

Rather than having yearly annual or semi-annual assessments of their work which could seem retrospective, rigid and out-of-context, new-gen employees seek feedback on their work performances on a real-time and continuous basis. As compared to performance appraisal, Performance Management is a prospective process that implements a holistic approach to evaluating employee performance. While setting workplace targets and objectives, the process of Performance Management creates a participative environment for employees and managers. They are encouraged to jointly assess the performance of employees, examine whether they are progressing or regressing, and accordingly, devise training and learning programmes to help them reskill and seek new improvement avenues in their areas of work.

In a nutshell, the main aim of Performance Management is to help improve organizational performance by helping individual employees and teams better their productivity. It is pivotal to helping employees unlock their untapped potential and enhancing their value as assets and valuable resources for the organisation. By helping to nurture a collaborative culture in the organisation, CPM will help leverage the collective efficiencies and expertise of employees, promote sharing of best work practices among remote workforces and impart a global outlook and distinct competitive edge to Indian companies.