Effective Performance Management: Getting Employees on the Right Track
Spring 2008 - course #4
Instructor: Tricia Nolfi
CLOSED
Course Overview:
Managing employee performance through expectations, goal setting, and feedback is difficult and oftentimes time consuming. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the correlation between effective performance management systems and employee success, higher education performance management strategies are below average and don't link employee expectations well to the institutions goals. Additionally, they fail to be used as a tool for employee rewards and recognition (Hutchenson, K (2007) The State of Performance Measurement. HR Horizons, Volume 2, Issue 4. October).
Supervisors can help their employees achieve greater results through an effective performance management system. By utilizing clear standards, effective measures, and frequent performance feedback; both the employee and the organization will succeed.
This course will focus on the supervision of full-time employees and will not spend a significant amount of time on the supervision of student employees or graduate staff.
Course Outline:
In week one, participants will begin exploring the concept of performance standards and how they benefit individuals and organizations. Writing and communicating standards for staff employees will be the focus of assignments and discussions. Participants will begin using a Performance Standards Workbook which will aid them in course assignments.
During the second week, participants will learn how to measure and document employee performance. A significant amount of time will be spent on measuring behavioral standards; which are often the most critical of standards for supervisors. Discussion will center on the difficulty of measuring and documenting performance.
In the final week, giving effective formal and informal feedback will be the focus of the course. Participants will gain strategies on how to give difficult feedback and ways to encourage employee improvement and growth. A final case study project will be assigned which will encompass strategies learned during the course.
Course Topics by Week:
Week One:
- Writing and Communicating Performance Standards
- Assignment: Performance standards workbook
- Discussion: Documenting behavioral expectations
Week Two:
- Measuring and Documenting Performance
- Assignment: Performance Standards Workbook
- Discussion: Challenges to measuring and documenting performanc
Week Three:
- § Providing Performance Feedback
- Final Project Case Study: Develop standards and measures for positions
- Discussion: Implementing a performance management system
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, active participants will gain:
- Have the ability to identify the benefits of an effective performance management system
- Have the ability to write clear performance standards
- Have learned strategies for developing and identifying SMART performance standards
- Have learned how to document employee performance
- Have learned strategies for managing performance feedback sessions
Participant Expectations:
Participants should expect to devote about 5 hours during each week of this three weeks course in order to read the online materials, research resources available on campus, fully participate in the online discussions, complete the Workbook, and submit the online assignments. The final project case study for the course will take all of the information learned during the course and will require participants to apply it to their own work situation.
This will be administered as an asynchronous class which means participants can log on whenever they wish and whatever location they have Internet access. The Discussion Board is the focus of online learning in this course. There will be no "real time" meetings for this course. Participation in the online discussion is critical to your success in the class and is expected of each participant.
Instructor Bio:
Tricia Nolfi has spent the past 17 years working in higher education at both public and private institutions. Her professional travels have allowed her to work in the areas of student centers and student activities, judicial affairs, leadership education, and human resources. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Human Resources at Rutgers University providing leadership for employee professional development programs, divisional marketing and outreach, and new employee programs. As an independent consultant she has provided guidance in the areas of talent management, organizational assessment, and employee development. She has authored numerous articles on the topic of student leadership and is editor of Advising Student Governments: Models for Practice and Strategies for Success.
She received both her Bachelor of Science in Communication and Masters of Education from The Ohio University and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Education at Rutgers University.
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