IT MAY seem like a tired HR cliché, but an organisation really is only as good as its people. It is not rocket science: poor performance equals an underperforming organisation. Research from the Future Foundation, a think-tank, shows that in an average week managers spend 12 per cent of their time managing poor performers, costing organisations about £1,000 per person a year. This is approximately £13.03 billion a year.

Despite these depressing facts, the problem is manageable. Many private companies have developed effective performance management programmes, creating productive and energised workforces. Although the public sector is making changes, it still faces distinct problems.

Poor performance is more likely to go unnoticed in the public sector in comparison with bottom-line-driven private business. Research at one public sector organisation revealed that 49 per cent of those surveyed believed that poor performers easily survived. It seems less likely that this statistic would be produced in the private sector, where poor performance is easily identifiable. When results are assessed by the bottom line it is much easier to spot if someone isn’t carrying his or her weight.

The problem is that poor performance breeds: it sucks the life out of an organisation, creates an atmosphere of lethargy and diminishes the desire of good performers to continue working hard. A quarter of workers in the same survey said that good performance was not recognised within their organisation. So why work hard if it is never going to be rewarded? Performance management is treated as an annual occurrence. At the annual appraisal employees are told whether or not they have performed. They are given their form, which they duly put in their desk where it becomes buried by papers and forgotten. To be successful, performance-management programmes have to be relevant, feeding into the team and organisational objectives. They need to be linked to talent management, succession planning and development plans. Re-evaluation means that the performance-management programme lives and breathes with the company and, most importantly, it actually means something to the employee.

Those trying to drive change within the public sector find the slow pace frustrating. The private sector does, by its very nature, empower new ideas, allowing them to evolve and develop. In comparison, the public sector is still bogged down by bureaucracy. The boldest and brightest ideas are often scuppered by an endless stream of committees and boards. This stifles the culture change and further ingrains the culture of poor performance described above. This is not a budget problem; it is one of leadership. There are some great leaders within the public sector. but their eyes are often clouded by these endless paper trails. The public sector is in need of some fresh eyes, which can come from within, or from the consultants that are constantly lambasted.

If I could give the public sector, as a whole, two pieces of advice, they would be to place performance management at the heart of its people management and to address both the will and the capability of managers actually to manage performance.

However, this will not be achieved if the public sector fails to look inwardly and simplify its processes.

Lorna Chudleigh is team manager of assessment services for SHL northern region

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