What is a Performance Management System?

Performance management describes the process through which employees and managers work together to review, plan, and monitor workers' goals and overall contribution to the business. The process is similar to the annual performance review. However, the performance review is more specific than the annual performance review because it offers ongoing feedback, setting objectives, coaching, and assessment of progress to ensure that all employees meet their career goals and objectives ( Chowdhary et al., 2014) . As the HR manager, the organization experienced a recession and a drop in net earnings that led to the laying off of various retail sales associates. Nevertheless, the business has been experiencing a positive rebound but the company is concerned about the overall performance of the retail sales staff. The CEO has requested the HR manager to recommend strategies for improving customer and sales services. The paper will develop a performance management system that will assist in modifying employee behavior and boosting organization performance. 

A Job Description for a Retail Sales Associate 

Sales associate’s responsibilities involve working closely with clients to determine their demands, address their concerns, and provide recommendations ( Su, Baird, & Schoch, 2015) . Some of their responsibilities include: 

• Ensuring optimum levels of customer retention and satisfaction through exceptional sales services. 
• Seeking out customers in the store. 
• Assessing customer needs while offering information and assistance regarding product features.
• Achieving departmental annual, monthly, and quarterly sales objectives. 
• Welcoming clients to the store and addressing their needs. 
• Adhering to inventory control regulations. 
• Handling return of merchandise.
• Handling Point of Sale (POS) purchases.
• Creating and strengthening the relationship with clients. 

Organizational Behavior Modification (OBM) Plan 

Behavior modification is an essential process involving making particularly desired behaviors to occur more often while making the unwanted behaviors to occur less often by proper management of the consequences and cues. Reinforcing some behaviors are essential in the organization for proper functioning and achievement of organizational goals ( Van Dooren, Bouckaert, & Halligan, 2015) . The OBM plan will involve identification of the critical behavior, measuring the desired behavior, evaluate the outcomes of the behavior, developing and applying intervention strategies, and evaluate performance. The four key behaviors include: 

• Solid interpersonal and communication skills. 
• Basic understanding of customer service practices and sales principles. 
• Ability to address issues and perform under pressure in a timely manner. 
• Familiarity with essential inventory procedures. 

Due to the changes in the market, organizations have been forced to modify their standards of operations and corporate cultures. OBM will allow the company to change its processes and behaviors to address issues in the marketplace such as changes in regulations affecting trade relationships and corporate governance, globalization of competition and markets, the rapid growth of the service based economies, and evolution of digital information and technologies ( Chowdhary et al., 2014) . The changes cannot occur automatically and OBM has an essential role in assisting the company to make the transition. 

Measuring Job Performance 

One of the techniques of measuring performance is graphic rating scales where the supervisor uses sequential numbers such as 1 to 100, 1 to 50 or 1 to 10 to measure the relative performance of employees in certain areas. The scales are often used in rating particular behavioral elements such as participation in decision making or understanding job tasks. The company can modify the scales to address the business needs. The second strategy is self-evaluation. It involves asking the employee to evaluate their own performance. In some cases, employees may be more critical to their individual performance than the supervisors. The company may use forms with essay-type answers, multi-choice answers, or both. After the employees have filled the forms, the supervisors can compare the graphics rating scales and self-evaluation rating then provide feedback to the organization. 

Methods of Informing Employees 

Good communication with employees is essential to the success of any organization. In the basic level of an organization, employees who cannot explain the company’s objectives are less likely to perform to their individual potential. All employee issues such as productivity, attendance, performance, and morale are always tied back to communication. Companies that communicate effectively are more likely to report less turnover and more employee engagement than companies with poor communication strategies. One of the techniques of informing employees of the new performance standards is meeting in groups. The meeting should involve discussing the goals, challenges, and the new performance standards. Furthermore, the management should explain the roles of employees according to the new performance standards. The communication can also be done one on one because it has a personal touch. Moreover, the HR manager can explain the new performance standards while discussing the results of the job evaluation carried out through self-evaluation and graphic rating scales ( Van Dooren, Bouckaert, & Halligan, 2015) . 

Methods of Receiving Feedback 

Every organization has a responsibility to provide both negative and positive feedback to their employees as part of an effective performance management system. One of the ways of giving feedback is creating safety or making employees feel comfortable while receiving the feedback. The second step involves being positive. Although negative feedback means that there should be adjustments, a positive feedback makes the recipient more responsive to change. When the feedback is extra negative, the employees may become defensive. The third strategy involves being specific. The feedback should not be general and should be specific to the issues that the company requires. Moreover, the feedback should be immediate. The organization should not wait four months to tell an employee that their productivity is average. Productive feedback should be immediate and frequent ( Mone & London, 2018) . Also, when giving feedback, the supervisors should be tough but not mean. 

Ways of Reinforcing Good Behaviors 

One of the most effective techniques for producing phenomenal results and motivating a team in an organization is through positive reinforcement. When a company uses positive reinforcement, they focus less on the wrong deeds and focus more on what the right deeds. The positive reinforcement can occur in the form of rewards or compensation and benefits. The success of all businesses is dependent on the success of the employees. When employees are motivated through positive reinforcement, they are more likely to align their individual goals with the company’s strategic objectives. Ultimately, it will improve productivity. Also, the positive reinforcement can come in the form of words. A simple ‘thank you’ may be essential in improving an employee’s perspectives about the company ( Ahmed, et al., 2016) . Also, the words should be specific because they highlight the reasons the actions were important to the organization and it reinforces the positive behavior. 

Legal and Ethical Issues affecting the Performance Management System 

Although there is no legal requirement that an organization should have a performance management system, it is an essential tool for evaluating, managing and boosting company performance. There is no law that compels a business to review employee performance similar to the way that there is no law requiring a company to offer excellent customer service or produce annual budgets. However, annual budgets, customer service, and performance management systems determine the success of a company. However, a business should ensure that its performance management system adheres to the law in issues such as termination, initial recruitment, compensation, selection and hiring, and promotion ( Cardy & Leonard, 2014) . Furthermore, there are many ethical issues regarding performance management systems that may affect the organization indirectly or directly in the long and short run. 

The performance management systems should never discriminate employees according to sexual preference, race, pregnancy, religion, marital status, age, disability, or gender. Also, the records of the performance management system should be properly stored in the company especially on issues regarding poor performance. The records are significant in handling any legal issues regarding poor performance in the future. Moreover, when an employee believes that they were handled or dealt with unfairly, they have a right to instigate legal action against the business, in such a scenario, the company records are essential in handling the situation. Besides, the performance management system should not only be used only for demotion, promotion, increment, and transfer only, it should also be sued to maximize employee performance and career development ( Su, Baird, & Schoch, 2015) . The performance management system should not only be accurate and fair but also supported by evidence. Moreover, it should not contain emotive or inflammatory language. In addition, the outcome of the appraisal should be confidential, controlled, and secure. Other than the organization giving feedback, they should also consult employees regarding the efficiency of the system. 

Conclusion 

The paper develops a performance management system that will assist in modifying employee behavior and boosting organization performance. Sales associate’s responsibilities involve working closely with clients to determine their demands, address their concerns, and provide recommendations. The ultimate goal of performance management systems is to improve and promote employee productivity. The process must be continuous to solidify the gains of the system. Besides, the HR practices and policies should support the performance management system through well-designed job descriptions, positive work environment, effective employee training and orientation, and comprehensive supervision ( Ahmed, et al., 2016) . An effective system will be specific, easy to understand, align with company strategic objectives, and measures the outcome of the system. Also, it should identify weak areas in the business and develop plans for improvement. Moreover, it should recognize and reward good employee behavior and accomplishments. In conclusion, the business should properly implement the performance management system to boost productivity. 

References 

Ahmed, T. M., Bezemer, C. P., Chen, T. H., Hassan, A. E., & Shang, W. (2016, May). Studying the effectiveness of application performance management (APM) tools for detecting performance regressions for web applications: An experience report: In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (pp. 1-12). ACM. 

Cardy, R., & Leonard, B. (2014). Performance Management: Concepts, Skills, and Exercises: Concepts, Skills, and Exercises : Routledge. 

Chowdhary, P. R., Pinel, F. A., Palpanas, T., & Chen, S. K. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,843,883 . Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers : Routledge. 

Su, S., Baird, K., & Schoch, H. (2015). Management control system effectiveness: The association between types of controls with employee organizational commitment across organizational life cycle stages. Pacific Accounting Review , 27 (1), 28-50. 

Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G., & Halligan, J. (2015). Performance management in the public sector : Routledge.