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Employees and their supervisors can conspire to engage in results-focused performance management without requiring a policy change at the agency level and without implementing the results-focused approach agency wide. However, if you're really intent on moving your agency out of the bureaucratic mire and creating a strong performance culture, you'll need to take a systematic approach.

Building a comprehensive, results-focused performance management process involves the following coordinated initiatives:

• Strategic planning — Establishing (or refining) the agency's mission, strategic goals and values.
• Barriers and obstacles — Identifying impediments to the agency's transformation and initiating action plans to eradicate or minimize them.
• Metrics — Full-scale setting of metrics, involving both external and internal measures.
• Rewards — Figuring out how to differentially reward the agency's top performers.
• Process improvement — Instigating improvement projects to enable the agency to deliver its services faster, better and cheaper.
• Cascade — Implementing a performance management process based on metrics and rolling out results expectations in an aligned manner from the top-level metrics out to every manager, supervisor and employee.

Unlike the dangerous stunt you're advised not to try at home, you are encouraged to seek outside consulting assistance to implement a full-scale results-focused performance management process along with all the complimentary processes. Consultants from the Office of State Personnel are available to help you.

Why undertake a major agency-wide initiative instead of settling for little pockets of results-focused activity here and there? You'll enjoy considerably greater leverage when the entire agency is moving in the same direction. Instead of a handful of struggling pilot projects, you could have a complete makeover.

In the results-focused approach, emphasis is placed on defining the results employees are expected to produce or the outcomes they are responsible for influencing. This approach requires a high level of involvement on the part of agency management. You will need to define (or refine) the mission and identify ways to measure how well the mission is being achieved. Then every employee sets goals that support the mission, either directly or indirectly, and is held accountable for meeting those goals.

To implement this approach, agencies must make a major commitment. Some employees will feel threatened by and uncomfortable with this approach, because it holds them accountable for producing defined results, which may not have been the case in the traditional process. However, this approach gives you a clear path from bureaucracy to performance culture.

Introduction to the Results-Focused Approach

A results-focused approach builds on the notion that everyone in an agency plays a role in producing results that support the agency's mission. In this approach, all employees have goals that are measurable and they are held accountable for meeting those goals. Some key points:

• Alignment — Because employees' goals are defined in ways that align them either to the agency's mission, their boss's goals, or customer requirements, employees can see how their work contributes to a larger purpose.
• Results primary — Competencies play a secondary, supportive role in this approach. Competencies are what employees bring with them every day to the job and apply to their work in order to achieve their goals. But it is results (goal achievement) that matter. Competencies are a means to an end. Development plans and corrective actions plans are designed to better enable employees to achieve goals.
• Values — Guidelines regarding behavioral expectations are provided by way of a values statement that describes the kind of culture an agency deems necessary and desirable for fulfilling its mission. It expresses "the way we do things around here." Supervisors confront employees who act in ways inconsistent with the agency's expressed values.
• Performance culture — The results-focused approach is designed specifically to support a performance culture in which results count, effort is not especially relevant, and people are held accountable.
• Heart of the matter — A results-based approach simplifies the performance management process. Supervisors do not write lengthy work plans and essay-style appraisals. These questionable exercises are eliminated in favor of work plans with concisely stated goals and appraisals that consist of data indicating the degree to which results have been achieved.
• Metrics — Because employees' goals are measurable, they are usually easier to track and communicate to others.
• Resistance — Not everyone likes this approach because of its emphasis on holding people accountable for delivering results.

How to Get It Started

Plan Performance

Here are some specific design elements to consider relative to the first stage of performance management.

1. Components of the work plan — What elements need to be included in the work plan so that employees will have clear performance expectations and an opportunity to develop themselves? Three components, in one form or another, would address these needs:
   • Results expectations — These could be expressed as goals or metrics. Whatever terminology is used, this part of the work plan should describe how the expected results will be measured (the measure), what range of actual measures will "meet expectations" (the target), and the relative importance of each expectation relative to the others (the weight). Results expectations, in a results-focused system, are typically laid into a "dashboard" format, making them easy to post and to read.
   • Behavioral expectations — These expectations could be expressed as competencies or as values. Competencies would ideally require tailoring to the skill requirements of each position, which may be cumbersome and impractical. Values have the advantages of applying across the board to all employees in an agency and of providing a decision aid to employees (i.e., this is the way we expect people to act around here).
   • Development opportunities — A variety of competency models could be included for this component of the work plan. Each model would represent a particular cluster of jobs or different levels of management. Development plans, in the planning stage, or at any time during the performance cycle, could be drafted to facilitate the employee's development.
2. Number of measures — Employees should have from three to ten measures. Focus on results that will add the most value. Set priorities and weed out goals (and related tasks) that do not add value, require resources that can be put to better use achieving more important goals, and distract from the real work at hand.
3. Alignment — Recall that performance management is about getting the right things done well. It is through alignment that you ensure that the right things are getting done. And by setting measures and targets you ensure that they will be done well. Refer to Figure Out Your Results Expectations for guidance in using different perspectives on the alignment idea to determine results expectations.
4. Results, results, results! — Whenever possible, measures should be based on outputs and results, rather than inputs and processes. Do not confuse activities or tasks with results. In a performance culture, the emphasis is on results. Goals should clarify the results or outcomes or effects expected, not the details of how a job is to be done. Such details, if necessary to define, should be put into "standard operating procedures" manuals; they should not dilute the results-orientation of the performance management process.
5. Sources of data — What is the most appropriate way to measure the results achieved or progress toward goal achievement? Consider surveys, external sources, internal systems that track transactions (accounting, operations, HRIS), self-reports, and (only as a last resort) someone's judgment. Note: Do not let the ready availability of a measure dictate your goals. It should be the other way around. Determine your goals, then figure out how to measure them.
6. Timing — Recognize that some measures are taken infrequently while others involve continuous collection of data. For example, a survey may only be conducted once a year. If this is used as a measure, recognize that whoever owns this result expectation will only be able to find out how they are doing once a year. More frequent measures, such as the number and quality of applications processed, can be "refreshed" weekly or even daily. The advantage of such measures is that the employee remains very much aware of how they are performing throughout the year.
7. Goals for "routine" jobs — Every goal is owned by somebody and everyone has goals. Receptionists, employees in entry-level jobs, administrative assistants — all have goals. They are all responsible for producing outcomes that contribute in some way, whether directly or indirectly, to their unit's success. If they did not produce outcomes of value to their units, there would be no need for them to be employed.
8. Leaders' goals — High-level goals are owned by agency heads, deputies, or senior leaders. Whenever possible, at least some of these goals should be external metrics directly related to the agency's purpose or mandated mission. External metrics are measures of the effects of the agency's work on the population or entity it serves.
9. Development plans are not goals — Their purpose is to build competencies, acquire knowledge and skills, etc., that will enable employees to better achieve their goals. But they are not themselves goals. Recall that goals and progress toward achieving them are made public in this approach. Therefore, development plans and corrective action plans, although integral parts of performance management, should be maintained separate from the work plan and kept confidential.
10. Supervisors' "people" goal — Supervisors will have, in addition to their business goals, metrics concerning human resources management. These metrics should define measures that relate to how effectively supervisors staff, develop, motivate and retain talent in their work units. Supervisors play a critical role in fostering a high performance and highly engaged workforce.
11. Support roles — Employees who serve in support roles usually do not contribute directly to the agency's mission, but rather support those who do. Their contributions to agency success are vital, but indirect. A good question for helping support functions clarify their goals is: "If you did ___ really well, how would the agency head know?" (Fill in the blank with name of the support function.)
12. Project teams — Project leaders should own their project's goals. If a project team has been assembled to address an issue or deliver a product or service, the overall project goal may be shared with team members or divided into sub-goals that individual project team members take accountability for.
13. Check-step — Supervisors and next-level managers should review supervisors' and employees' goals and measures to ensure appropriateness, measurability and consistency. When a results-focused approach is first instituted, there will be a lot of revisions relating to reducing the number of goals and eliminating measures that are impractical or overly subjective.

Manage Performance On-going

1. Regular updating — Keeping work plans or dashboards up to date is important for at least three reasons. First, it lets employees see where they stand relative to expectations. Second, it provides supervisors with information necessary to determine the kind of support their employees need in order to be successful. And third, it enables employees to understand what everyone is working on and how work within the agency is progressing.
2. Public posting — The secret to effectively executing your agency's strategy is to keep everyone focused on doing well what is important, to communicate and to coordinate. To communicate and coordinate, managers, supervisors, and employees must share their dashboards among themselves. This information must be "public." Performance cannot be managed if everyone's expectations and progress are kept secret.
3. Dashboards as control devices — The metrics and updated actuals on employees' dashboards give the dashboards a central role in providing guidance and communicating status. The contents of a dashboard should:
   • Help employees make decisions — By reminding you of the results you are accountable for, you can better decide whether to spend your time doing A or doing B.
   • Be actionable — At any time during the performance cycle, when you compare the actual results achieved to the expected results, the comparison should point to an action you can take to ensure you either meet or exceed the target.
   • Be of value to others' in their interdependent work — If your work depends on the work of others and other people's work depends on you delivering results to them, then others should be vitally interested in what is on your dashboard and you should be interested in knowing what is on theirs.
   • Be at least partially under the employee's control or influence — In general, you should not be held accountable for results that other people produce. But this should not be carried too far. If you have at least a little control or influence over outcomes, and others are not being held accountable for producing contrary outcomes, then it is perfectly OK to hold you accountable.
4. Documentation — Furthermore, your dashboard will serve at the end of the year as the basis for your performance appraisal. It therefore must provide the documentation necessary to support an accurate appraisal. Updating your dashboard throughout the year and preserving the updated information through to year's end are critical to the integrity of your performance management process.
5. Accountability for updating — Throughout your agency, you are likely to have a wide variety of types of measures. Some measures will require some sort of infrastructure to support. For example, responsibility will probably be placed on one or more people to be the central coordinator for external measures and survey data. Many other measures will be unique to individual employees and they will need to take responsibility for collecting the data as frequently as required and posting their actuals.

Appraise Performance

1. Close out dashboards — At the end of the performance cycle, employees update each of their measures with actuals. They indicate whether each measure has been met, missed or exceeded. Tthe information entered on their dashboards represents their performance for the full cycle. This includes data from internal systems as well as self-reported data, survey scores, and data from external sources.
2. Review dashboards — Supervisors perform quality checks on their employees' dashboards. This may involve spot-checking selected data points. It is not required that all data points be checked; in fact, such a practice is strongly discouraged for the sake of building trust and using time wisely.
3. Employee discussions — Supervisors review the dashboards with their employees. The purpose of these one-on-one meetings is to confirm the results reported on the dashboard and make any corrections necessary, discuss the results achieved, highlight any successes or problem areas that stand out, pinpoint any development opportunities that an employee might want to pursue or corrective action measures the employee needs to pursue during the upcoming cycle, and to ensure both supervisor and employee share a common understanding of the results achieved.
4. Tie to compensation — Wherever possible!

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