If you've been employed or elevated to the position of performance manager in your company, then it can be a little daunting at first to find out what is expected of you. Many companies have set performance management guidelines on how you can measure performance, but not on the scope of responsibility that a performance manager has. Here are some of the things that you may typically need to cover in such a role...

A provider of information and coaching

You cannot dictate the goals that you want your team to set, but you can help them create their own goals that fit into the development needs of the company. Also, as a performance manager you can coach people along with how goal management works, such as setting objectives and helping with realistic timescales to achieve them.

If there are deadlines or milestones that affect the whole team, then it's up to you to cascade them to all relevant team members, and ensure they can all integrate what needs to be done into their own performance management plans.

Organising training and identifying performance needs

Obviously, performance doesn't always come easy when someone is new to a role or if they've been given extra responsibilities in their job. The same applies if someone wants to improve their performance or increase their skill set in order to apply for a promotion, for example.

There are two ways you may approach the need for training - someone may come to you to request it (in which case, you should look at the relevance to their role and how cost effective it is for the company to send them on a course), or you can send them on mandatory training in order to help their development. It is up to you, the performance manager to identify training needs. Rather than just point out if someone is not performing well, it will be your job to try to understand the reasons why, and to come up with a plan in order to correct it, while still following company policy.

Disciplinary issues and counselling

A performance manager's role is easy when it comes to the positive side: praising those who do well, offering promotions, and rewarding employees. The difficult part, which involves a lot of tact, negotiation and an ability to use emotional intelligence, comes when someone is underperforming or even in need of disciplinary action (for example, you have discovered a fake sickness claim, or they have breached company policy).

In these situations, most companies have a policy for you to use a guideline, but you should take this part of the role seriously, as you may need to deal with legal issues such as tribunals, and even court.

Conclusively, the role of a performance manager is integral to the success of the company and its employees. Without someone monitoring how well everyone is performing, most companies couldn't operate in any kind of optimum way. If you become a performance manager, you can look forward to being in a position of high responsibility, high regard - and high performance yourself!