Healthcare Performance Managment

Performance management is an area of confusion among most executives throughout the United States. Most organizations struggle to define how to measure their employees, often sticking to strict metrics as opposed to measuring performance based on a variety of behaviors and day to day tasks. According to Fried and Fottler, “Performance management is a set of tools and practices that comprises setting performance goals with employees, designing strategies with employees to make and sustain improvement…(2008). From this definition it is clear that performance management should be a coordinated effort that includes the input of the employee along with that of the manager and involves a plan to help the individual achieve success within the organization.

I worked for a large pharmaceutical company as a sales rep and one of the greatest complaints among the reps was how ridiculous the performance measurements were. The organization often focused on metrics like sales calls per day, the number of lunch appointments scheduled during a given week, or the number of doctors that attended dinner programs. These metrics were constantly emphasized, but none of these directly added any value to our customers or increased the bottom line. By focusing on tasks as opposed to customer satisfaction or sales, reps often became disillusioned with “busy work” without moving any real revenues.

Hospitals and other healthcare organizations call fall into the same trap by putting too much focus on things like the number of patients seen in an hour rather than focusing on the quality of care provided to those patients. Some metrics evaluations can be useful when they are not emphasized at the expense of other more important factors. Fried and Fottler provide guidelines that should be followed in determining the actual criteria to be used in performance management.

First, performance measurements should add value to the organization’s corporate goals. When I was working as a pharmaceutical rep, the company constantly stated that their goals were to add value to physicians and grow sales. However, their performance criteria usually highlighted metrics that did not necessarily enhance customer value or increase sales. For example, I remember one coworker in my area that was praised repeatedly for a high sales call average per day. This same sales rep was consistently ranked in the bottom in regard to actual revenue performance. This is a great example of focusing on performance measures that don’t necessarily add value to the company’s overarching goals.

This example also fits the second guideline from Fried and Fottler, which states that performance measurements should not focus solely on any given task or behavior. Criteria selection should take a multifaceted view of the employee’s total job description.

Finally, any measurements need to be within the realm of control of the employee. This means that external factors that staff members cannot influence should not negatively affect their performance evaluations. When I worked as a rep, there were always several offices that would not allow reps to come in due to physician time constraints. Regardless of how inaccessible these doctors were, we were still responsible for sales whether positive or negative, that came out of these physician offices.

Overall, every organization wants productive people. Executives want people that are committed to their work and add value to the bottom line. In order to set the team up for success, organizations have to get employee buy-in regarding how they are measured. Employees that feel they are unfairly evaluated may harbor anger and bitterness towards the company and their performance will decrease. If organizations want to get the most out of their people they need to involve them in the performance management process and work together towards a common goal.

References
Fried, B.J. & Fottler, M.D. (2008). Human Resources in Healthcare: Managing for Success. Chicago: Health Administration Press.