Performance Management System …. The Got Ya moment !!It’s that time of the year, which every corporate employee looks forward to. Na… it’s not the end of season sale time... It’s the PMS time. While it stands for ‘Performance Management System’… for many it is a ‘Post Mortem Session’.. for some it is also a ‘Please Meri Suno’ time. The time where either one jumps with joy for getting outstanding rating or jumps off the cliff because of the sudden surprise of getting a lower than expected rating. The time when some are busy gathering ammo as for them it is ‘Now I got ya’ time & some are adorning the garb of revolutionaries as all through the year they got the feeling of being unheard.  With digitization, this opportunity also goes away as a mail hits the inbox with a link to ‘manage’ your performance. Like most great tools & ideas, PMS too gets misused. What ideally needs to be an ongoing discussion, becomes an annual tick in the box phenomena. Performance ‘management’ cannot happen at the end of the year. In my previous organization, annual appraisals hardly took time. This was because there were frequent, regular & highly productive conversations & discussions around the following:How did we do? Where did we go wrong? How can we do it better? Everyone knew where he/she stood & hence there were no shattered expectations.Can PMS make everyone happy? No.. & it shouldn’t too. But certainly, needs to be seen as a unbiased, objective approach towards better performance. To quote Franklin Covey, ‘Begin with the end in mind’ Start with where the organization sees it self heading in the next one year. Have clear, measurable organization goals. This can then cascade to different departments as their KRAs from which the KPIs can be derived. Clarity in communicating these KPIs is essential. Clear & mutual understanding between all the stakeholders really helps. An appraiser needs to make the subordinate comfortable. Appreciate the efforts reward results. A major trap is the ‘recent halo role’. Couple of months before the annual appraisal suddenly one would see some people coming early, going late, going out of the way .. in short, the perfect specimen of an ideal employee. To avoid this, it is good to break up the year into months & discuss the results month on month. The kind of feedback one gets & gives is the most critical element in PMS. Let the feedback be constructive, behaviour based & non-judgmental. Another important aspect is the questions that fly around. Keep them simple, focussed & open ended. Have data ready. Nothing works better than hard facts.So then, Happy Learning & may the deserved be rewarded !!