Question

Please address five of the below in detail.  I expect you to demonstrate understanding of the material in addition to applying it to public and nonprofit sector organizations.

1) Contrast the results-based nature of performance outcome measurement with the process-driven or based nature of many, other core functions and strategies of public and nonprofit administration. How can managers and leaders effectively undertake both roles?

2) What are the steps of the Performance Management System and which are most integral to any public or nonprofit agency, including yours?

3) How can application of the Logic Model assist in the implementation of a performance outcome measurement system in the public and nonprofit sectors? Is it applicable in your agency?

4) What are the difficulties in implementing a results-focused, outcome measurement system in the public and nonprofit sectors? How can one plan for and mitigate political variables and considerations in achieving results?

5) Which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are most relevant to your public/nonprofit agency or one with which you are familiar? Is universal application of KPIs realistic across the entire public/nonprofit sector landscape? Why or why not?

6) How do public/nonprofit managers and leaders effectively and efficiently communicate, report, and share performance data? What strategy do you employ or is employed in your agency? Is it effective? Why or why not?

7) Is your public/nonprofit agency or one with which you have familiarity an “information rich” agency? Are decisions data-based? Is that data and information shared effectively and clearly? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Steps for Performance Management System

Step 1: Lay The Foundation

As you start your program, make it a point to communicate exact expectations to employees. These expectations, termed an “employee competencies list” can be written out for every employee to ensure employees are fully aware of their responsibilities and the expected behaviour required for their position

Some positive employee competencies dealing with interpersonal skills include providing motivational support, empowering and developing others, attention to communication, interpersonal awareness, and customer orientation. Common competencies dealing with business include issues of forward thinking, technical expertise, initiative, thoroughness, and orientation toward results. Finally, self-management competencies (which are often overlooked, but are just as integral) include self confidence, stress management, personal credibility, and flexibility.

Step 2: Create A Process For Performance Evaluation

Your next step is deciding on benchmarking for performance management. In a nutshell, how often do you wish to evaluate your employees, their performance, and their attention to your expectations? The amount of time businesses spend evaluating employees varies, with some only giving evaluations once per year to some literally holding performance evaluations every week. This is not a situation where less is more. Spend time with your staff.

One-on-ones are a good model for employee evaluations. In these, a manager meets with an employee one-on-one on a regularly scheduled basis (usually bi-weekly) to discuss the employee's performance, current concerns and ideas for maintaining or improving performance. The one-on-one meetings allow specific employees the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns in a comfortable setting. One on ones can become time-consuming for management, so take care to balance the needs of the business against employee concerns.

The important part about starting employee performance evaluation is to start! It can always be altered down the road, so don't be afraid of implementing one that you might have to change. What's important is starting a process of delivering evaluations and holding managers accountable for completing them

Step 3: Begin Your Employee Performance Appraisal Process

Having decided the type of model that works best for the business, now start assessing each employee and their competencies using an agreed-upon metrics which score employee competencies based on your own training system and the information employees have received. Managers should be honest and forthcoming with their appraisals, and be able to provide reasons for specific employee feedback. With these evaluations, employees will know how managers gauge their performance, and where improvement is needed.

Step 4: Gather And Analyze The Data

After the meetings, managers can then begin to analyze the results, potentially correlating business decisions with fluctuating employee performance to see what works and what doesn't. In addition, the data collected can be used to making changes to the hiring process, and serve to indicate a need for new training programs within the business.

Step 5: Evaluate The Process Itself, And Revise If Necessary

So how did the process work for your company? Is your rating scale properly assessing what it's designed to assess? Are you spending too much or too little time evaluating employees? Is data being properly collected on time, and used effectively? Asking these questions will increase the internal and external validity of your methods, which will in turn increase your business' performance and productivity.

Most integral step of performance management in non profit organization:

Laying the foundation.

Identifying the outcomes that matter to your organization is the first step towards long-term success. The next step is integrating those metrics into a model of performance management. Using an outcomes and performance management process model doesn’t just show you what you’re doing well (or not so well). Ultimately, it ensures that you can continuously discover what your organization needs to grow, improve, and adapt to uncertainty and change.

Strong organizations use performance appraisal methods that are directly tied to outcomes metrics. The best nonprofits ensure that these processes are deeply embedded in the way they do business, from program strategies to business processes to talent development. And the most efficient organizations use robust management software to seamlessly integrate performance management throughout the organization.

As the Harvard Business Review points out, the biggest challenge to effectively managing positive change in an organization is that “there is little agreement on what factors most influence transformation initiatives. Ask five executives to name the one factor critical for the success of these programs, and you’ll probably get five different answers. That’s because each manager looks at an initiative from his or her viewpoint and, based on personal experience, focuses on different success factors.”

Anyone who’s worked in a nonprofit can tell you the same is often true when evaluating their organizations’ performance. Different stakeholders have different perspective on what is working and why. That makes it hard to make decisions about how to best improve performance.