The HR department can contribute to the successful overcome of the recession more it can feel its contribution in the beginning. The HR has to move from the social help department to the department managing the productivity of the human capital in the organization.

The productivity increase is an important component in the fight with the recession. The organization has to keep the cost decreasing as it cannot be sure about the growth of the sales revenues and it has to keep the prices of the products and services competitive enough. The costs are the key to the success in the beginning of the recession and in the beginning of the new growth era.

The HR has to become the part of the task force to keep the productivity growing in the organization as the organization can successfully compete with the competitors and it can increase its market share on the shrinking market and it can keep its revenues and margins.

The productivity has to be increased carefully and the task force has to select the initiatives, which will bring innovative services and products and the processes, which can be avoided as the company keeps the productivity growing.

The increase of the productivity is not about the decrease of FTEs, it is about smart usage of the potential of the employees, accelerating the innovative effort and explaining the most important aspects to stay successful and become even better.

The HR has many tools to become the part of the task force focusing on the measurement of the productivity of the organization. It has data about employees, their salaries and the benefits provided to them. The HR can play in many models about the costs development and simulating the impact of many decisions on the business of the organization. Go for it, HR.

The managers have to work carefully with the motivation. They usually lack this skill and competency and they have to be mentored by Human Resources.  It is the role of Human Resources to advice the managers how to carefully motivate their employees and how to keep them motivated in the long term view.

The managers have to understand the member of the teams and they have to know the individual motivators for the employees. Each employee is unique and there is no motivation tool, which can work for all of him or her. The manager has to find a good proportion of different motivational tools to keep the whole team happy. The team can be easily de-motivated by the over usage of a particular motivational tool.

The role of HR in the motivation is about the discussion with the manager about the wide range of the motivational tools to be used in the team and their right timing. The motivation has to be used carefully and the motivation has to bring a constant performance of the employees and it needs a clever usage by the manager.

The HR Professional has to lead the manager during the selection of the right motivational tools to be selected for the team. The HR Professionals should be skilled and trained in the motivation theories as they can discuss the theoretical background and they can advice the manager in the selection.

The managers are sometimes nervous as they believe, they do not motivate enough the employees. But the employees do not need much, they just need to know, they are fully recognized by the manager, which motivates the employees most.

The performance appraisal is not about the forms used to formally record the appraisal discussion, but the HR Professionals always discuss about the forms used in their companies. The appraisal procedure is not about the form, but it is focused on the correct filling of the forms in many organizations.

The performance management system is about consistent links between HR Processes as the employees feel the impact of increasing their performance on their career, promotions, learning opportunities and salary slips. In reality, the performance management is not connected and the employees see just the performance appraisal forms, which are archived and nobody works with them consistently.

The Human Resources is responsible for the design and setting of the performance management system in the organization. Generally, the HR employees are focused on the correct filling of all forms and HR does not monitor and evaluates the content of the appraisal forms. The number of the returned appraisal forms measures the performance management process; it is not monitored by the satisfaction of employees with the appraisal procedure.

The performance appraisal should bring a clear feedback to the employee on the most important moments of the last year. The employee should know about his or her value for the manager, team and organization. The employee should receive information about the necessary next steps and the outlook to the future. The content of the appraisal procedure should not be the surprise for the employee or the manager and the performance appraisal should act as the mutual contract for the next period as both the manager and employee are satisfied with the results. The performance appraisal forms should just record the discussion, they should not be leading the discussion and they are not the main goal of the evaluation procedure.

The managers know the secret of the short-term motivation of the team to get the results, but this motivation cannot be used to receive sustainable results as it can destroy the team completely. The consistent performance results need different approach, which is fully focused on the team, its organization and the individual members.

The sustainable performance needs a different managerial approach. The manager has to cultivate the performance and the growth of the performance is slow and consistent. It is about building the team spirit and helping the members of the team to discover their strengths and weaknesses.

The sustainable team performance is about the common vision of the team and their shared values. The manager is not a person to teach the team, but the manager has to lead and manage the employees to treat other members of the organization fairly and the managers help the employees to grow their skills and competencies.

The consistent high performance is not born itself, the manager has to develop it and the HR tools have to be helpful in this effort. The boss can make the promises, but the promises have to be realized and the employees have to be developing as they see their value for the organization growing. Without the trust, the consistent performance will disappear.

The performance management is one of the hardest HR areas as the HR employees will be asked to deliver more by the managers and the HR employees will have to explain the split of the responsibility in the area of the performance management. Without a fair treatment of the employees, the sustainable high performance is not possible to be reached.

What do you think about the sustainable performance and the managers? What about the HR Role in the performance management area?