The Veteran Affairs Department shows how important a TRUE performance management process is.

There are a couple of annual cycles that HR owns - and one of the most important one is the performance management cycle. While it varies from company to company - the normal cycle is:

1. Employee submits their annual score and justification

2. Manager reviews, and sites down with employee to provide the final score based on the manager’s and employees thoughts. 

3. Strengths, weaknesses and differences in scores are discussed

4. A plan for the next year should be laid out. 

Again, the above is the general cycle, but is interesting is that the score is often more important that the process. In most companies, the score is used for two different purposes:

1. It is used as a justification for who gets what pay raises each year

2. It often is used to determine if someone can get a promotion or step-raise if hourly. 

The Process versus the Score!

Too often the performance management process can get to where the process is well run, but the resulting numbers are not real! This can happen for a number of reasons, some malicious and some well intended - but either way - the number is not real. The implications are large - as it means the pay distribution and people movement is based on a foundation that is not flawed. 

The Veterans Affair Example:

The recent debacle at the Veteran Affairs gives the case in point for this. It became apparent that there has been widespread corruption within the VA in order to “cook the books” to look good instead of what reality said. In this, the HR process was complicit, as here is what the VA HR representative said - 

"Every one of the almost 500 senior executives at the Veterans Affairs Department has been “outstanding,” “exceeds fully successful,” or “fully successful” since fiscal 2010, said Gina Farrisee, assistant secretary for human resources and administration, on Friday before a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee."

Signs the numbers are wrong!

Here are some ways to know if the numbers are wrong and not reflecting reality. 

1. Everyone knows.. that may seem silly to say, but I have talked with HR professionals at conferences, etc.. and they already know it. 

2. No one uses the data! Think about it - this is a treasure trove of data showing how departments are doing, what the corporate competency scores are, etc. If no one is looking at the data - it is either a silo problem or people know the numbers are directionally false. 

3. Shadow or Secondary scoring systems don’t match. If your company has different scoring programs for different grades of employees (e.g. executive, salaried, hourly), or some companies run a different scoring cycle for stock cycles, etc.. But look around - what data is scoring the organization? Then compare that to the performance management scores. If they don’t mesh - then something is wrong. 

 

 

 

{Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/20/not-one-va-senior-exec-rated-unsuccessful-4-years/}