Managing performance is a critical focus of HR activity. Well designed strategies to recognise and improve performance and focus individual effort can have a dramatic effect on bottom-line results. However, performance management delivered badly is a waste of time that will win you no friends. The problem is to determine what processes, tools and delivery mechanisms will improve performance in your organisation, and which are best avoided.

Michael Armstrong and Angela Baron have tracked performance management processes over the past several years and can demonstrate which ones deliver and which ones are duds. Their comprehensive survey reveals what leading organisations are doing to manage their employees’ performance and how they are delivering results.