Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association

Most performance problems don’t start with a bad employee. They start with an unclear expectation.

Ask most municipal employees what a good year on the job looks like, and you’ll get a surprisingly wide range of answers. Ask their managers the same question, and the range often gets wider still.

That gap isn’t usually a sign that people don’t care about doing good work. More often, it means expectations were never made explicit, and the manager responsible for setting them was never really taught how.

This is a consistent theme we hear in conversations with municipal HR leaders. Performance management often struggles not because employees resist it, but because managers were promoted for their technical expertise and institutional knowledge, not necessarily for their ability to set expectations, give feedback and have difficult conversations.

The skills gap nobody plans for

Municipal organizations tend to promote from within, and for good reason. A public works supervisor knows the infrastructure. A finance manager understands the reporting requirements. But moving from excellent individual contributor to effective people leader requires an entirely different skill set.

One manager we worked with felt that constructive criticism was mean. As a result, he avoided addressing issues with his staff until small problems became significant ones.

Through coaching, he introduced weekly check-ins with his employees. These were not formal performance reviews. They were regular conversations about priorities, progress, challenges and expectations. The structure gave him a natural opportunity to offer direct guidance without the conversation feeling punitive.

Over time, the manager became more comfortable being clear, his employees understood what was expected, and the team became stronger and more accountable.

The lesson was not that the manager needed to become tougher. He needed to become clearer.

Expectations are a form of respect

Clear performance expectations aren’t a constraint on employees. They’re a form of respect.

Vague expectations put the risk on the employee, who has to guess what matters and hope they guessed correctly. Clear expectations put the responsibility where it belongs: on leadership to explain what success looks like.

We saw this in another situation where an employee worked hard but prioritized database work over customer service. The employee was not disengaged. They simply had never received clear guidance on which responsibility took priority when demands competed.

Once expectations were clarified, the employee had a better framework for making decisions. Service levels improved, and so did the employee’s confidence. They knew what they were supposed to achieve.

Sometimes what looks like a performance problem is really a clarity problem.

Stop waiting for the annual review

Performance should not be a conversation that happens once a year.

One manager we worked with introduced quarterly mini reviews as simple checkpoints against established goals. The conversations focused on progress, priorities and what needed to change before year-end.

That created something a traditional annual review often lacks: the opportunity to adjust while there is still time to act.

If something is off track in March, it has little value to discover it in December.

The goal is not more paperwork. It is a regular rhythm of accountability and communication.

Where HR can add the most value

HR teams often hold the institutional memory of how performance conversations have gone wrong: the manager who avoided a difficult conversation for two years, the employee who left because they never felt valued, or the grievance that began because expectations differed across departments.

HR is uniquely positioned to help, but the answer isn’t necessarily for HR to take over the conversation. It is to equip managers to have it themselves.

That means giving managers practical language, coaching them before difficult conversations, and giving them permission to say, “Here’s specifically what I need from you,” without feeling like they’re being harsh.

A worthwhile investment

Perhaps the most useful question for municipal leaders isn’t, “Do we have a performance management process?” Most municipalities do.

The better question is: “Do our managers feel confident having performance conversations?”

That confidence isn’t built in a policy manual. It’s built one clear conversation at a time.