Performance Management

Managing people’s performance, helps with personal development, communication and sets clear expectations of what needs to be done, so is therefore relevant to employers and staff. Performance management is useful for managers, as it improves an employee’s productivity, but also their general training. Performance management is also useful to an employee, as it recognises an employee’s achievements and sets them further goals in order to further improve their performance and to better their careers.

Appraisals record an assessment of an employee’s performance, and show what they need to do to develop. It is an opportunity to look back on what has been achieved during the time the employee has been working there (either since they started, or since their last appraisal), and to agree aims for the next period until the next appraisal. During my time at Waitrose, I had one appraisal. They let me know about it a week beforehand and told me to prepare. I was told to prepare for questions such as “How do you think you have performed during your time at Waitrose” and how I would answer them. I did not actually bother with spending much time on these appraisal questions as I figured I would just “wing” them. In hindsight I wish I had, but the appraisal went well, I learned how I was doing as an employee, and whether I was fulfilling my job roles. This was where I found out about my 100% record in customer service tests, and I was set goals for the future.

I found that after this appraisal, I was more motivated to become better and to perform my tasks more efficiently. I see the appraisal as being very effective and I wish I had had more. I think it would be better for Waitrose to have them more than just once a year. In the appraisal I also found out how highly my section manager considered me to be. I was even more motivated when I was surprised by how highly he regarded me in the section. The aims I had been set at the start of the year were shown to me, and I had to answer truthfully whether or not I felt I had achieved these aims, and if I had not, what I could do to improve them. The appraisal helped me to become more motivated at a time when I was becoming bored with work and doing the same stuff week in week out. My manager challenged me to see how much better I could perform and this motivated me even further. Overall, I feel that the appraisal was extremely motivational and also highly influential as it taught me a few things I did not know before.

Mentors serve as a teacher or councellor. They are trusted guides and advisors. Mentors usually help with improving people’s ability to solve problems, and ensuring that they interact better with other people to cope with any challenges they may have. Mentoring can ultimately help with ALL aspects of life. To be an effective mentor, I believe that you need to be patient, influential and experienced. You need to be trustworthy, mature and wise in order to give good advice, and keep things confidential about other people. General characteristics rather than specific sector experience are the most important thing to look for in a mentor. To be a mentor you must also be extremely good at listening to other people. This is where patience comes in. If you are impatient with people, you will not really be giving them the best advice and more importantly they will not want to come back to you for advice again. Gaining insights about yourself through mentoring can be more important than concentrating on improving your business performance. In order for mentoring to work, the person being mentored must have the right approach and attitude. They must be willing to listen to and learn from their mentor’s advice. A good mentor will be able to help somebody improve themselves firstly before the person they are mentoring can go on to improve anything else. To be a mentor does not require much intelligence or brainwork. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to be a mentor and give advice. A mentor just needs to know what they are talking about (experience) but also be trustworthy and patient with their clients.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3778514.ece

A person that has been a mentor to me in my life, was my A level psychology teacher back in high school. I always used to say that he was not very good at teaching psychology but he was great at teaching life! I was able to go to him whenever I wanted to, if I had any troubles, or if I just wanted to sit quietly and be alone he would lend me his room. This of course was never the case; because I have already mentioned that I am a very sociable person but wait I am getting sidetracked! My psychology teacher would always give not only me but everybody in my class a lot of help and guidance. He helped me a lot when I was writing my personal statement, and he helped me produce a good gym routine as I use the gym frequently. If I had any troubles, I would go to him and he would try to help me solve them. He was an excellent mentor, as he was patient and always willing to offer the best counsel he could. Even though he was only meant to be my psychology teacher he was so much more, simply due to the fact of him being a mentor type figure to me. As well as helping me with my personal statement and gym routine, he even offered me such advice as not to work too hard because I should also be having fun as well. He would say “go to university and get your degree because I know you can but don’t forget to party hard!” He was continuously giving me encouragement and whenever he thought I was feeling down, he would always pat me on the back and try to make me smile. My psychology teacher affected my life greatly. Without him I can guarantee that I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I had him as a teacher for 3 years and that was enough for him to influence my life majorly. I have always wanted to be an accountant, ever since a young age when I considered my uncle a role model. I had already planned to go to uni and do a degree in accounting and finance for as long as I remember. However after just those 3 years, I started to seriously consider doing psychology as a degree instead. In the end I only chose accounting and finance, because that was what I have wanted to do my whole life. Due to his advice on not concentrating so hard on work, was what helped to make me such a sociable person. In a physical sense, it was his gym routine (which I still follow) that helped me get into the physical condition that I am in now which again is much better than it was 3 years ago. Overall, I can say that even if he didn’t intend or mean to, he as certainly been one of the biggest influences in my life so far.