Who Owns Performance Management?

It's amazing to me that conventional wisdom says HR is the owner of the performance management process.  This comes from the misunderstood notion that performance appraisal is the same as performance management.  After all, isn't performance management about evaluating people, and isn't HR responsible for everything to do with people?  The purpose of performance management is to ensure we're in compliance and have documentation for compensation decisions, right?

No, not really.

True performance management is about operationalizing the strategic plan and/or the annual operating plan of the organization.  It's about managing individual and group efforts toward the accomplishment of organizational initiatives.  It's about clarity of direction, alignment of all goals down to an individual level and engagement of the employees in the goal setting process.  It's about ensuring the clarity of individual roles and responsibilities.

So who should own the performance management process?  Senior management.  Actually, the process is owned by senior management, but it is a core responsibility of every manager down to the first line supervisor.

Radical? Maybe.  Out of step? Possibly.  But if you think it through, I believe you'll see that it is the only way to ensure its success in your organization.

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