Performance Management Systems: Best
Practices

Active participation, support and commitment from senior management in the PM process are
essential for its success. Leadership should be involved from the beginning, contributing to the
design and the implementation of the process.

PM processes need to be institutionalized,
standardized and integrated across the organization.
All employees need to understand their roles and
responsibilities in the system and be accountable for
their participation in it.


The individual goal setting process should be linked
to the organization’s strategic plan and mission.
When individual employee goals are in alignment
with organizational goals, workers are motivated to
work toward achieving both.
PM must be integrated with other key human
resource (HR) policies (i.e. compensation,
promotion, continuing professional development)
since employees are increasingly motivated to
perform well when they see consistent links between
their contributions and rewards.
An employee is more likely to
perform well if he or she—

Knows what is expected of
him/her

Knows how well he or she is
performing

Has the necessary information/
knowledge and skills to do the
job

Has the necessary tools and
equipment to do the job

Has organizational support from
supervisor and others

Has the motivation and
incentive to perform well

Has a good working relationship
with his/her supervisor.

Supervisors must be held accountable for being people
managers and evaluated not only on how well they perform their own technical duties, but also
how well they manage their staff and elicit high performance from them.

Excellent customer services should be the end goal, whether the customers are workers further
along in the supply chain system or are the end users/health consumers.

An objective and transparent rating scale that differentiates between different levels of
performance should be put into place so that high performance can be rewarded and poor
performance can be addressed.

Metrics and assessment tools should be developed and used to track the process and guide
subsequent changes.

The performance of supply chain staff should be managed every day—not only at performance
appraisal time.

For performance management to be effective, supervisors must be trained in communicating,
coaching and giving feedback.
This job aid accompanies Performance Management for Health Logistics Workers: An Online Tool for Managers, created
by the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, Task Order 4, for the U.S. Agency for International Development