Performance Management is a systematic approach to improving productivity in the workplace based on observable and measurable results. For example, in a manufacturing facility, results would be based upon the amount of production of a particular product with a certain level of quality in a specified period of time.
In the career education setting, positive student outcomes are ultimately the results we are looking for. Retention, completion and placement rates are performance indicators that all career colleges must continuously measure and improve.
To achieve our desired business results, we must maintain and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our people and processes. We need to implement best practices to maximize employee and organizational performance. Simply put, we have to apply the Performance Management approach at the individual employee level to enable us to achieve our ultimate goals and objectives.
For the individual employee, Performance Management provides a framework for establishing clear expectations, fixing targets and assessing results, creating a basis for recognition of achievements, and identifying ways to help the employee sustain and improve organizational capability. A Performance Management system is not complete without an individual Development Plan.
For a career college instructor, a Development Plan should include developmental goals and objectives, suggested professional affiliations and activities, recommended training, and classroom observation to evaluate transfer of training. The plan should encompass the instructor's own ideas for ongoing development of effective teaching, and be supported by the responsible manager/mentor through coaching, supplying the necessary resources, and mutual discussion of results.
Performance Management and Development Plans are ongoing and correlated processes. An effective Development Plan goes beyond the listing of training courses completed and affiliations maintained. A Development Plan should link the results of training and other professional activities to improved performance. For example, classroom observation should show how the instructor has applied and implemented the training received and the resulting improvement in identified developmental areas such as successful instructional planning, interactive teaching techniques and effective classroom management.
To make the Development Plan more meaningful, the observed improvements in faculty performance should be assessed against the desired student outcomes. Those outcomes could be measured from student course evaluations and class student retention data after instructors have had the opportunity to apply their new knowledge and skills on a routine and consistent basis.
Successful marriage of Performance Management and Development Plans requires an active partnership and continuous communication between the instructors, coaches/mentors and the management. Instructors are the primary stakeholders in this partnership. To ensure their buy-in and future success, let them take ownership in planning, creating and implementing their own individual development plans. Your role is to provide them with a consistent format and assist them with the process. Remember that instructors have to see how the various components of their development plan will help them improve their teaching performance. If they don't, they will be reluctant to invest in the plan and will not put forth the effort to accomplish the plan's goals and objectives.
In short, ongoing Performance Management and Development Plans parallel hand-in-hand. An individual faculty development plan is the foundation to enhanced, results-oriented performance yielding positive student outcomes.
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