U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Using Performance Management to Develop the Capacity to Perform

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One of the five key processes of performance management is developing performance (the others are planning, monitoring, rating, and rewarding performance). As with all processes of performance management, developing or increasing the capacity to perform should be solidly integrated and strategically aligned with organizational goals.

This article highlights approaches to developing performance—developing employee performance (using formal and informal means), as well as purposefully developing the processes, systems, and structures within which employees perform.

• Why should organizations develop performance?
• How can organizations develop employee performance?
• How can organizations develop work processes?
• How does the Administration support performance development?
• Where can I get more information about developing performance?

Why should organizations develop performance?

When approached in concert with the other processes of performance man-agement, developing increases the capacity of employees to perform—through improved skills and competencies as well as more efficient work processes. It also addresses poor performance and seeks to improve good performance.

How can organizations develop employee performance?

Developing employees is more than just training employees. Training has come to refer to instructors teaching individuals in a classroom setting. Recently, with the introduction of computers and distance learning technologies to the workplace, the term has taken on a broader meaning to include on-the-job training and technology-based training. In contrast, developing employees has a much larger scope and covers all an agency's efforts to foster learning, which happens on the job every day. When agencies focus on developing their employees' capacity to perform rather than just training them, employees will be able to adapt to a variety of situations, which is vital for the survival, well-being, and goal achievement of individuals as well as organizations.

Employee development can be done formally and informally. Formal development includes:

• traditional training in structured courses, classrooms, and formal development programs; and
• self-study courses, including those using computer technology, such as distance learning over the Internet, CD-ROM courses, and Intranet courses provided to employees addressing agency-specific skills and competencies.

While managers have a large influence over formal training, they have even greater impact on creating a climate for informal employee development, which can take a wide variety of forms:

• Feedback is a natural part of the monitoring process of performance management, but specific and timely feedback to employees about their performance against established expec-tations also provides the foundation for discussing developmental needs.
• Job rotations and special assignments can stretch and challenge employees and broaden their understanding of the organization.
• Coaching and counseling provides individualized advice and instruction.
• Mentoring helps employees clarify career goals, understand the organization, analyze strengths and developmental needs, build support networks, and deal with road blocks.
• Using the manager as an informal teacher acknowledges that managers consciously teach employees through their own model, habits, and system of values.
• Learning teams can form to meet regularly to focus on improving performance.
• Self-development includes a broad collection of techniques and approaches, such as self-analysis of competencies and interests, reading lists, and attending demonstrations at other organizations.

Although these informal developmental strategies cost very little, they have potentially big payoffs in terms of improved individual and organizational performance.

How can organizations develop work processes?

To maximize employee performance, work processes also should be developed and improved. Techniques for improving work processes include:

• Formal suggestion programs that ask employees to provide suggestions for improving the way work is done;
• Work teams centered around work processes to use high levels of employee involvement in performing and improving those processes; and
• Business process reengineering efforts that completely redesign how work is done, often automating and simplifying the work.

How does the Administration support performance development?

The process of developing employee performance and improving work systems and processes has been of particular interest and importance to the Administration and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM):

• The President's memorandum on Enhancing Learning and Education Through Technology (January 30, 1998) emphasizes using "new instructional technologies that can make education, at work and at home, easier and more convenient for all American workers."
• The Vice President's Lifelong Learning Summit in January 1999 heralds a vision and call to action for lifelong learning for all Americans.
• OPM continues to provide leadership and policy direction to the Federal community in the human resource development arena through activities such as the learning symposium held in December 1998 and its partnerships with the Human Resources Development (HRD) Council and other HRD organizations.
• The Vice President's National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) has long emphasized the value of reengineering the Government's systems and processes to be more results oriented and maximize employee performance.

Where can I get more information about developing performance?

The Human Resources Development Council has issued the handbook, Getting Results Through Learning. Vice President Al Gore starts it off with a message to Federal managers that encourages them to use its techniques to help introduce a climate for learning in every Government organization. This handbook can be read and retrieved from OPM's web site at www.opm.gov/hrd/lead/index.htm. Other resources about employee development are available on OPM's web site at www.opm.gov/hrd. The National Partnership for Reinventing Government has a variety of work process improvement tools available at its web site at http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/.

Originally published on December 1998.