Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness

This continues a series of posts dealing with measuring the performance in your business

The Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) provides another resource you can use to research how to improve the business. The center includes experts from around the world who specialize on managing more effectively.”

Scoring Employee Performance

Dr. Richard Williams wrote an article for the Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness titled Scoring Employee Performance is Better Than the Annual Performance Appraisal. He wrote:

“When performance is measured, performance improves; when performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” –Thomas S. Monson

While working in the publishing industry Thomas S. Monson discovered that when workers were kept in the dark about their job performance they frequently became average performers, and for some workers less than average. But when workers were provided timely, relevant, and easy to understand information about their performance, many became superior performers.”

He asks you if you want an employee who “merely ‘meets expectations’ or one who smashes beyond ‘meets’ and consistently hits home runs.” He points out that “we measure something to see if it is wrong. We keep a scorecard to track what is correct."

Creating a Scorecard System

Dr. Williams outlines 10 characteristics essential to a “report back” system:

• "The employee must have psychological ownerships of his or her scorecard”
• “Scorecards must be based on specific measurable results”
• “Scorecards must be posted near the employee’s work area”
• “Scorecards must be updated by the employee every day, or at least every month”
• “Scorecards must include an agreed upon performance line”
• “Scorecards must include an agreed upon goal line”
• “Scorecards must include a way for the employee to compare his or her performance against past performance”
• “When a scorecard shows performance below a performance line, an action plan must be connected to the scorecard”
• “The employee’s coach must pay attention to scorecards and give daily, or at least weekly feedback and coaching”
• “The employee must feel a sense of celebration when his or her scorecard performance exceeds the goal”

Saturday we’ll discuss Dick Grote’s article criticizing performance measurement