Performance management

Performance managementthe way an organization sets its expectations, communicates them, assesses how its people perform and recognizes results. It covers the expectations put in writing at the start of the year, the feedback given along the way, the formal review meeting, the development plan that follows from it and, when the situation calls for it, the improvement plan.

Project

I build the review framework from your actual positions and your priorities, setting the expectations attached to each position, the assessment criteria, the rating scale, the form and the calendar of the review cycle.

A sound review cycle documents the expectations, the feedback given and the decisions that followed. It makes a promotion justifiable, an improvement plan defensible and a dismissal manageable.

  • Performance review framework, criteria and forms
  • Expectations and objectives by position
  • Training managers on feedback and on the review meeting
  • Improvement plans and situations of insufficient performance
  • Employee record keeping

Ongoing

I run the review cycle through the year: I launch the meetings on the planned schedule, I stand behind your managers before the difficult conversations, and I read the completed evaluations before they are handed out.

This is the format that fits when the framework already exists, but nobody in the company has the time or the standing to keep it going.

  • Running the review cycle, from launch to follow-up
  • Support for managers before difficult meetings
  • Review of completed evaluations
  • Follow-up on improvement plans
  • Annual summary of what the evaluations reveal as a whole
up to 50% of eligible expenses

Your project is probably eligible for funding

Most of the businesses I work with are eligible for the measure. The Concertation pour l'emploi measure, through its human resources management support component, subsidizes the fees of an outside specialist. Performance evaluation and skills development are on the list. Priority goes to businesses with 6 to 99 employees.

  • A first 30-minute call, no strings attached, to see whether your situation fits.
  • You contact your Services Québec business advisor to confirm the interest of your project and the budget available.
  • I give you in writing what you need to support your request: the scope of the mandate, the schedule and the fees.
Check my eligibility

The rate and the decision rest entirely with Services Québec, which judges on the nature of the project, your financial capacity and its own budget availability, and the measures change from one year to the next. Note as well that work arising from an obligation set out in an act or a regulation is not eligible under the measure.

Frequently asked questions

Do we really have to keep the annual review?

Nothing requires you to. What counts is how often the conversations happen. Several of my clients keep one formal meeting a year and add check-in points to the regular meetings between managers and employees. What matters is making sure the objectives are followed through the year.

Do we tie the review to raises?

It is even recommended, but the two conversations are better kept apart in time. You could, for instance, announce salary increases a few weeks after the review meetings.

What do we do with an employee whose performance is insufficient?

That is what the improvement plan is for. It spells out the expectations, the timeline and the follow-up meetings. The process gives the employee a real chance to close the gap.

Who should lead the review meetings?

The immediate supervisor, because they are the one who sees the work day to day. Human resources frames the process, supplies the tools and steps in on sensitive files, but does not stand in for the manager.

Who assesses the work?

It depends on how far you want the exercise to reach. The immediate supervisor stays the main source, but you can widen it to peers, to the employees a manager supervises, to internal or external clients and to self-assessment. The more sources a review draws on, the fuller the picture, but the more preparation it takes and the more care the answers demand once they come back.

A first 30-minute conversation, no strings attached

Let's talk

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