Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PM 3
PM 3
Measuring Results
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What are the different areas in which this individual is expected to focus efforts
(key accountabilities)?
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Within each area, what are the expected objectives?
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How do we know how well the results have been achieved (performance
standards)?
Accountabilities
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Broad areas of a job for which an employee is responsible for producing results.
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Determining Accountabilities
– Collect information about the job ( Job Description )
– Determine importance of task or cluster of tasks
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Percentage of employee’s time spent performing tasks
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Impact on the unit’s mission if performed inadequately
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Consequences of error (Could inadequate performance of the
accountability contribute to the injury or death of the employee or others,
serious property damage, or loss of time and money)
Objectives
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Statements of important and measurable outcomes.
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Determining Objectives
– Purpose : to identify outcomes
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Limited number
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Highly important
– When achieved
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Dramatic impact on overall organization success
Characteristics of Good Objectives
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Specific and clear
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Challenging (but not impossible to achieve)
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Agreed upon (Participation in the process increases objective aspirations and
acceptance)
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Significant
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Prioritized
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Bound by time
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Achievable
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Full communicated
Performance Standards
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Yardstick used to evaluate how well employees have achieved objectives
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Determining Performance Standards
– Standards refer to aspects of performance objectives, such as;
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Quality – How well the objective is achieved [usefulness, responsiveness,
effect obtained (e.g., problem resolution), acceptance rate, error rate, and
feedback from users or customers (e.g., customer complaints, returns).]
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Quantity – How much, how many, how often and at what cost ?
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Time – Due dates, schedule, cycle time and how quickly?
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Standards must include
– An action
– The desired result
– A due date
– Some type of indicator
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Quality / Quantity
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Reduce overtime from 150 hours/month to 50 hours/month by December 1, 2012,
at a cost not to exceed $12,000.
– The action is reduce
– The due date is December 1, 2012,
– The indicators are the reduction in hours from 150 to 50 and at a cost not to
exceed $12,000.
Characteristics
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Related to the position (based on the job’s key elements and tasks, not on individual
traits or person-to-person comparisons)
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Concrete, Specific and Measurable (observable and verifiable - below expectations,
fully satisfactory, or above expectations)
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Practical to measure (created by taking into account the cost, accuracy, and
availability of the needed data)
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Meaningful (purpose of the job, organization’s mission and objectives)
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Realistic and Achievable (within the specified time frame)
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Reviewed regularly
Measuring Behaviors
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Identify Competencies
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Identify Indicators
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Choose measurement system
Identify Competencies
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Measurable clusters of KSAs
– Knowledge
– Skills
– Abilities
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That are critical in determining how results will be achieved
Types of Competencies
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Differentiating
– Distinguish between superior and average performance
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Threshold
– Needed to perform to minimum standard. Includes basic knowledge, skills,
traits, motives, self-image and social role and are essential for performing a job
E.g. Language skills, computer skills ...
Identify Indicators
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To understand the extent to which an employee possesses a competency, we
measure indicators. Each indicator is an observable behavior that gives us
information regarding the competency in question.
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In other words, we don’t measure the competency directly, but we measure
indicators that tell us whether the competency is present or not.
Components for Describing Competencies
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Definition of competency
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Description of specific behavioral indicators that can be observed when someone
demonstrates a competency effectively
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Description of specific behaviors that are likely to occur when someone doesn’t
demonstrate a competency effectively (what a competency is not)
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List of suggestions for developing the competency
Choose Measurement System
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In contrast to the measurement of results, the measurement of competencies is
intrinsically judgmental. Competencies are measured using data provided by
individuals who make a judgment regarding the presence of the competency.
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In other words, the behaviors displayed by the employees are observed and judged
by raters (typically, the direct supervisor, but raters might also include peers,
customers, subordinates, and the employee himself).
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Comparative System
– Compares employees with one another
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Rank Order
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Paired Comparisons
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Forced Distribution
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Absolute System
– Compares employees with pre-specified performance standard
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Essays
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Behaviour Checklist
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Critical Incidents
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Graphic Rating Scales
Ranking Method
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Under this method, the ranking of an employee in a work group is done against that
of another employee based on their job performance.
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Though it is relatively easier to rank the best and worst employees, it is very
difficult to rank the average employees.
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Generally, evaluators pick the top and bottom employees first and then select the
next highest and nest lowest and move towards the average (middle ) employees.
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Limitations:
– The ‘whole man’ is compared with another ‘whole man’ . It is very difficult to
compare individual possessing varied behavioural traits.
– It does not tell about how better or how much worse.
– When a large number of employees are working, ranking of individuals
becomes a vexing issue
Paired Comparison method
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In order to overcome the limitations of ranking method this technique was
proposed.
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For every trait (quantity of work, quality of work, and so on), you pair and compare
every subordinate with every other subordinate.
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Eg., when there five employees to be compared, then A’s performance is compared
with that of B’s and decision is arrived at as to whose is better or worse. Next, B is
also compared with all others. Since A is already compared with B, this time B is to
be compared with only C,D and E. ie., when there are 5 employees 10 decisions are
made (comparisons).
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The number of decisions can be calculated by the formula N(N-1)/2, where N
represents the total number of employees being evaluated.
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In the diagram employee C has the most “+” and hence will receive more
incentives.
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Disadvantages:
– Very time consuming
– May encounter problem of comparing “apples and oranges”
Forced Distribution Method
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Under this system, the rater is asked to appraise the employee according to a
predetermined distribution scale.
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The two criteria used here for rating are the job performance and promotability
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One common error in evaluating employees is ranking most of them near a certain
level. The forced distribution method tries to overcome this problem by assuming
that employee performance would follow statistical norms and be distributed more
evenly.
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The expectations of a bell curve would be something like: excellent is 10 percent,
good 20 is percent, average is 40 percent, below average is 20 percent and
unsatisfactory is 10 percent. Use the forced distribution method to prevent leniency
among evaluators.
Advantages of Comparative Systems
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Easy to explain
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Straightforward (which employees are where in the distributions)
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Identifies top as well as under-performers
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Better control for biases and errors found in absolute systems
– Leniency (giving high scores to most employees)
– Severity (giving low scores to most employees)
– Central tendency
Disadvantages of Comparative Systems
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Rankings may not be specific enough for:
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Useful feedback
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Protection from legal challenge
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No information on relative distance between employees
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Specific issues with forced distribution method
Essay Evaluation
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Here the rater is asked to express the strong as well as weak points of the
employee’s behaviour.
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While preparing the essay on the employee, the rater considers the following
factors.
– Job knowledge and potential of the employee
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Bad critical incident : July 20 – the sales assistant stayed 45 minutes over on his
break during the busiest part of the day. He failed to answer the store manager’s
call thrice. He is lazy, negligent, stubborn and uninterested in work.
Checklists and weighted checklists
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A checklist represents, in its simplest form, a set of objectives or descriptive
statements about the employee and his behavior.
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If the rater believes strongly that the employee possesses a particular listed trait, he
checks the item; otherwise, he leaves the item blank.
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A more recent variation of the checklist method is the weighted list. Under this, the
value of each question may be weighted equally or certain questions may be
weighted more heavily than others.
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The following are some of the sample questions in the checklist.
– Is the employee really interested in the task assigned? Yes/No
Dependability: Conscientious,
thorough, reliable, accurate, with
respect to attendance, reliefs,
lunch breaks, etc.