HR, Employment, Councillor Development>>Learning and Development>>Performance Management

Performance Management

Last edited on 25 March 2010

An opportunity to trial an e-tool that will help managers have “behavioural” performance management discussions

Modern performance management processes need criteria to help manage and develop behaviours. These criteria are usually in the form of a set of behavioural competencies. Competencies are a key tool for all aspects of people management, from selection to talent management.

However, competencies are only useful if they are used and this presents a few challenges for organisations: that with care and planning can be overcome.

The three main challenges are:

not invented here
managers’ knowledge
managers’ skills

Not invented here

Behaviours within a competency framework need to fit with the organisation’s vision, values and operating conditions. Organisations do not all need the same behaviours. In addition, people within an organisation need to see behaviours that are relevant and realistic. Involving staff in the development of the competencies is a crucial step in gaining ownership for the competency framework.

Managers’ knowledge

Most managers do not become managers because of their knowledge of how to manage and develop people. Providing managers with a competency framework will not make up for this lack of knowledge. To manage behaviour effectively, managers need to recognise the importance of behaviours that need to be managed and know what to do about behaviours that are not being used effectively.

Managers’ skills

Managers need to understand the impact they have on the performance of others and have the skill to minimise any negative impact while making the most of their positive impact. Relatively few individuals enter management with these skills.

The e-tool

The e-tool has been developed to overcome the first two of the above challenges and can help with the third point. Currently, several local authorities are inviting managers to test the tool. Each authority has involved staff in developing its competency framework and entered the details into the tool. Managers will be able to access the competency framework for their authority, see how behaviours link to values and find development activities that can help develop necessary behaviours. During this test phase managers will provide feedback on how helpful the e-tool has been and make suggestions for practical changes to the tool.

How does this help you?

When the test phase is complete, the organisations involved in the pilot will continue using the e-tool at no cost – apart from a nominal fee for hosting and managing the website where the tool is located.

Organisations not involved in the test phase will have to pay to use the tool after it has been refined following the test feedback.

East Midlands Councils was instrumental in getting development of the tool started and offered the opportunity for ten authorities to be involved in the design and testing of the tool. Five authorities are currently involved in the trial in East Midlands.

To increase feedback it would help to have more managers involved in testing in the East Midlands.

If you wanted but were unable to be involved and intend to develop your competency framework next year, here is how you could get the benefits that current test users have and will have.

East Midlands Councils have produced a ‘test’ competency framework that managers can access and use to help with discussions about behaviour and development. The framework is based on behaviours that are common across the range of local authorities already testing the tool. This framework will not be complete and will not fully match your authority’s values or operating conditions. It will however provide an example of what managers could expect to use when your framework has been developed. It will also be both realistic and useful, as the behaviours are likely to be a subset of those in the framework you will develop after the trial. To make it possible for you to use and test the e-tool, the test period will run until the end of March 2010 and only require up to ten of your managers to get involved.

The key benefits of using the tool now will be:

you can get an evaluation of the tool by your managers
your managers can have a say in refining the tool
you can develop manager understanding of competencies and the tool
joining the test will cost you nothing
you can continue to use the tool after the trial (using your framework in place of the test framework)

Other benefits

Organisations involved in the trial so far have benefited from very high quality support from a leading expert in the development and application of competencies. Support has been provided at a special rate and included: training teams in how to develop top quality competencies; helping with the planning and gathering of data; providing quality assurance; mapping behaviours to values and development activities within the tool. Organisations joining the test at this stage will be offered the same special rate to help develop your competencies during 2010, if support is needed. Where possible, you will be able to minimise costs, for example by grouping together to share training or planning support.