Performance Management Toolkit

PM Toolkit Home / Approaches to Performance Management

Welcome to the Public Health Performance Management Toolkit

A comprehensive Performance Management System (PM System) is vital to understanding how an organization is operating and functioning on a timely basis. The PM System should measure and monitor performance with scorecards and dashboards to track your organization’s key metrics.

Performance Management Self-Assessments

Getting started can be the most daunting part of performance management. It is often helpful to begin by assessing current practices within your organization or program. When getting started, many organizations are surprised at how much they are already doing to foster performance management. Designed to be completed by a team of colleagues, the assessments generate group discussions around the components of a PM System. Whether your agency has a robust system or is just starting to consider performance management, these performance management self-assessments can help your team determine if it has the structure in place to support achieving objectives and continually improving performance.

Performance Management System PDCA Self-Assessment Tools – State and Local

There are two self-assessment tools, one designed for state health departments and the other designed for local health departments. Both are based on a model for performance management (PM) that follows a quality improvement (QI) cycle in which organization performance information and population outcome data are fed back into the system to improve future decisions. In this model, the main components of the PM System are Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). The assessment questions are based on key types of alignment and select practices needed for a robust PM System.

This self-assessment tool will help identify the extent to which an agency has the necessary components in place to achieve results and continually improve performance.  This self-assessment tool is a guide that was designed to be completed as a group and can be adapted to fit an organization or system’s specific needs.

Provides a framework for noticing and assessing agency characteristics and then taking action to enable the transition to the next stage of performance management. This guide addresses selecting standards, measuring and determining the status of standards, reporting measurement data, prioritizing areas needing improvement, and developing a system that helps improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.

The Stages of Process Performance is a guide to help an organization assess how its business processes function and how effectively they provide needed products or services to the organization’s customers on a regular basis.

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Performance Management Infrastructure
Checklist for Developing and Implementing a Plan for Performance Management and Quality Improvement

Developing and implementing a performance management (PM) and quality improvement (QI) plan in any public health agency can be an overwhelming task. Any employee or staff member within the agency should be able to read a PM and QI Plan and understand the goals of these efforts, the support structure in place, training options that are available, and how to participate in PM and QI efforts. This tool provides a checklist of items to consider when developing the PM and QI plan.

There needs to be an infrastructure to support the performance management plan’s development by putting Performance Management/Quality Improvement (PM/QI) Council  in place. This paper presents some general guidelines when implementing a PM/QI Council. This includes a template of activities to support the sustainability of a PM System.

The Implementation Plan tool can be used to assist and guide an organization through the stages of PM System implementation.

A comprehensive and successful rollout of performance management and continuous improvement efforts includes ongoing engagement and communication. A communication plan can support these efforts and keep the organization and the PM/QI Council on task through the development, deployment, and sustaining stages of a PM System.

Performance Management Skills
Designing Goals and Objectives

This worksheet will help you develop goals, objectives, and measures for a PM System.

To achieve measurable improvements, we must have a systematic and continuous process of measuring and assessing the performance and outcomes of our products and services. To make improvements, it is essential for a health department to have a robust PM System that collects progress and performance data and presents it as information. This paper details the various QI tools to present data as information. 

For organizations struggling with aligning strategic plan goals and objectives with organization activities, this paper and worksheet will assist with operational alignment around the strategic objectives and measures. 

Implementing a PM System or an organization-wide quality improvement program requires careful planning and execution. Unfortunately, many times, we try to do this too quickly and skip key implementation steps. We may start off on the wrong foot, communicate mixed messages about what it is, or get derailed when we encounter unplanned opposition. Additionally, a key supporter might leave, or the idea might be abandoned if it falls out of favor. When any of these things happen, the change gets derailed and the people in the organization view it as a failure or another unsuccessful attempt at change. This paper outlines the stages of change management and explains how to prepare for each subsequent stage

This paper discusses how performance management models can be integrated with quality improvement efforts to achieve public health goals. 

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), in partnership with PHF, hosted a webinar series designed to help health departments a​dvance performance management in their agencies.

Use the TRAIN Learning Network to search for online performance management training. 

Contact Us

To share your feedback, suggestions, and resources, or to ask a question, contact PHF_Resources@phf.org.

The Public Health Foundation (PHF) collaborated with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) to develop the Performance Management Toolkit, specifically designed to address the performance management needs of Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) awardees.