Much of last year’s OMB M-17-22 memo is guidance directing agencies to develop plans to maximize employee performance in conjunction with both short term and long-term reviews of the workforce. By conducting more effective and efficient performance reviews, employees will better understand these new expectations, address areas of weakness and improve their performance.
Current Challenges in Performance Management
What makes performance management such an important area of focus when addressing M-17-22? There are several known inefficiencies in how most agencies approach performance review and management that can be addressed directly for improvement. These include:
- Lack of Transparency for Employees – More than 100 agencies still use paper and pencil for performance reviews and general management tasks. This is not only inefficient, but it means employees often have little visibility into the performance review cycle in advance. Greater transparency through cloud-based automation offers employees greater insight into how the process works and what is expected of them
- Workload Concerns for HR Offices – HR specialists and line managers spend a lot of time performing the basic functions of performance management each year. By shifting time away from tedious paperwork and into monitoring and evaluating KPIs, coaching employees to improve performance, and more actively engaging with the workforce means more engaged employees.
- Lack of Clear Communication – Many hours are spent on communicating goals, performance benchmarks, results, and evaluations. This time can be better spent working with employees to address performance issues in a hands-on way.
Performance management challenges in the federal workforce can be directly addressed to increase efficiency and improve the quality of work at all levels.
How Technology Addresses Performance Management Challenges
With many of the short-term directives in M-17-22 focused on employee performance, significant improvements can be made through technology. By harnessing tools that streamline many of the inefficient processes in performance management, agencies will benefit in several ways. For example, digitizing performance reviews and streamlining communication between all parties can save several hours for each review.
Instead of sign-and-send paperwork that is passed between departments, supervisors can focus on communicating development plans and performance reviews with employees. Employees will better understand what is expected of them with more frequent touch points and more substantial input from management. Supervisors can monitor and track performance through a single interface, while more effectively setting and communicating goals to employees. In addition, automation enables setup and tracking of key performance indicators over time.
These changes result in a more engaged workforce, aware of the goals and objectives set at the organizational level. As employees strive to improve performance, the agency will be better able to evaluate weak points and areas for improvement as they strive to comply with the OMB’s memo.
Learn more about how performance management best practices in Federal HR can streamline operations in your agency, improve employee performance, and help to meet the guidelines of M-17-22. Download our complete guide to performance management best practices in the federal workforce:
