What is corporate performance management?

Performance Management is all about taking action to achieve desired outcomes and objectives based on monitoring the actual performance results that are happening.

Too often people view Performance Management as purely performance measurement, and limit their approach to merely tracking KPIs. This ignores the vital step of developing KPIs that are appropriate for specific strategic objectives. Critically it ignores the need for 'management' to improve performance by taking appropriate corrective action.

Confusingly, people also regard Performance Management as related purely to employee performance and staff appraisals. Whilst this may be a component, what we are talking about here is managing the performance of all aspects of the corporate’s operations.

Essentially there are three components in effective corporate performance management:

Tracking…

the three performance elements that impact on the ability to achieve strategic and operational objectives - Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Business Risks and Action Plans.

Reporting…

outcomes in visually engaging formats to the decision makers and interested parties.

Taking action…

to address underperforming and at-risk areas, with progress tracking any improvement or mitigation plans.

In practice, developing an effective Performance Management framework involves

Defining what needs to be done (the priorities) and what this will achieve (the objectives or goals)
Formulating a strategy plan for delivering the objectives
Deciding which KPIs will be used to assess whether the plan is being achieved
Creating suitable reports so that information reaches the right people at the right time
Recording decisions made and progress tracking any improvement actions taken