Performance Management

Aligning Performance with Purpose for Lasting Success

Performance management is a vital process for evaluating and enhancing the effectiveness of individuals and teams within an organization. By setting clear goals, monitoring progress, and providing actionable feedback, performance management ensures alignment with organizational objectives. It fosters continuous improvement, accountability, and professional growth, enabling teams to achieve their full potential.

Feedback is Not a Waste of Time

Performance appraisal processes are often perceived as routine "check-the-box" activities, usually completed annually. They are typically due during periods when the urgent demands of public safety operations make allotting quality time to the process a challenge. This annual ritual of “added work” is often viewed by agencies as inconsequential. However, research on generational values and preferences highlights the need for and expectation of routine feedback. A common question when assessing agency retention involves examining performance management systems. Agencies and cultures with more robust and valued feedback mechanisms tend to retain more personnel.

A Critical Supervisors Tool

A properly developed, implemented, and managed performance management system is also critical for addressing disruptive employees. All too often, poorly behaving or underperforming employees receive performance ratings of satisfactory or higher. Why? Our experience shows that line supervisors are often poorly trained and ill-equipped to handle problem employees. Additionally, they frequently lack positive models of supervisory behavior to resolve issues effectively. These shortcomings lead to festering problems and ultimately to Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), which are dreaded even more than performance reviews.

Poor Performance Systems

Inefficient systems, limited alignment with job roles, and unclear objectives contribute to these challenges, preventing agencies from leveraging performance management as a meaningful tool for feedback, growth, and development. However, when properly designed, performance management systems can transform into powerful tools that benefit both agencies and their personnel, especially for generations that value regular feedback and professional development.

Policing has a Great Foundation

Effective performance management goes beyond annual appraisals—it establishes a comprehensive system that fosters structure, rapport between leaders and followers, goal setting, and coaching opportunities. Dr. Marshall Jones refers to the underutilization of these systems as a "great irony in policing," where robust Field Training and Evaluation Programs (FTEPs) prepare recruits for their roles but are rarely extended into everyday performance management practices. Extending the principles of FTEP into daily operations can create a consistent, purposeful approach to employee development.

Behavior Anchors and Evaluator Training

We design custom performance management systems that align with the actual work being done within your agency. Using detailed job analyses and descriptions, we collaborate with agency subject matter experts to identify critical and frequent tasks. These insights are used to develop behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS), which provide clear and measurable definitions of performance. This system enhances evaluator training, ensures inter-rater reliability, and integrates seamlessly into your organization’s workflow.

Fuel Your Culture

Implementing these changes takes effort, but the results can turn performance appraisals from a dreaded administrative task into a central component of your agency’s culture. A well-executed performance management system drives accountability, fosters leadership development, and fuels your Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline, building a resilient and successful agency prepared to meet future challenges.