One of the key tools at your disposal as a team manager is your own department’s performance management system.
While several systems exist in the public sector – and clearly you will need to work with your organisation’s own system – many of the principles are common to all.
Most performance management systems aim to make clear what is expected of an employee and how that will be assessed, by establishing agreed objectives and behaviour up front and later reviewing how well they have been achieved.
Many systems incorporate a 'balanced score card'. This means that the evaluation at the end of the review period balances what the person has achieved with how they have achieved it, enabling behaviour such as teamworking and customer focus to be recognised and rewarded.
If poorly operated, performance management systems can be irrelevant and bureaucratic. The real challenge as a team manager therefore, is to make them personal. After all, that is what makes people feel their performance within their team really matters. So managers must make their departmental targets clear, and translate them into meaningful, personalised objectives for each team member. That way, if each person succeeds, the team as a whole will succeed.
You must avoid setting objectives that are either not within the control of the employee or encourage the wrong sort of behaviour. For example, it is still very common to find customer contact centres – in both the public and private sectors – where service agents are evaluated on how many calls they handle, despite the fact that it is the customer and not the service agent who determines how long a call lasts and a hurried call may not deliver the service the customer needs. The result is disillusioned employees and frustrated customers.
In establishing objectives for team members it is therefore vital that you consider the purpose of their roles and how they contribute to the overall performance of the team. You need to set objectives that reflect why the work is done and not just how efficiently it is done.
In a contact centre, for example, service agents are not there just to answer calls. Their real purpose is to perform the service for which the customer has called – answering calls is a means to that end. And what the customer wants is to have the service performed correctly first time and not need to call again. So instead of measuring how many calls agents handle, it would be much better to measure how many services are performed correctly first time and whether the way the call was handled met other quality standards.
A good way to test objectives is to see whether they are SMART. This means objectives that meet the following criteria:
• Specific – to the jobholder, and clear on what should be achieved
• Measurable – with clear criteria on which to judge achievement
• Attainable – by the jobholder through influence or control of the outcome
• Realistic – can be achieved with the resources available to the jobholder
• Time-bound – that there is a time set when progress will be judged.
Probably the hardest part of setting SMART objectives is ensuring that you choose targets within the influence and control of the jobholder.
Jobholders will always point out that they are subject to the unpredictable influence of customers, colleagues, systems, emergencies and so on. But this is where you have to show leadership and draw on your experience. It is rare to find a job where the jobholder has complete control over their achievements – we generally rely on other people. What marks out the best performers is that they anticipate problems, find ways around obstacles and are able to draw in the support of others.
Finally, and equally important, it is not just about setting objectives and waiting until the year-end. As a team leader you should continuously coach and support team members to achieve their objectives.
That is the difference between a manager and a taskmaster.
