Whilst people may be drawn to visit a museum by the exhibitions and collections, we know that the single biggest factor in delivering an exceptional experience and driving repeat visitation is the performance and behaviour of frontline teams. To quote the much-used maxim of Bernard Donoghue, CEO of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, it's about ‘staff, not stuff’ (Donoghue, 2019).

It follows, therefore, that the most important part of managing the visitor experience is managing people and performance.

Performance management is sometimes understood as an HR process that often deals with the negative aspects of managing people; disciplinary procedures and managing people ‘out’. However, like most topics I’m exploring in this book, performance management is much broader than this. It covers the managing of positive performance as well as negative, and takes in motivating teams (especially important during the quiet months of a museum operation) as well as ensuring that we as managers are developing the skills we need to support others.

Performance management should not be seen in isolation, but in the wider context of museum life. There is a clear connection between organisational culture and how staff are performance-managed. An organisation that has to deal with lots of negative performance challenges will very often find the root of the issue in the wider culture and, likewise, an organisation that generally treats its employees well will find itself with fewer disciplinary issues to contend with.

It's also important to see performance management as one part of the whole employee journey. In this book, we cover recruitment and induction in Part 1, performance management here in Part 2 and continuing professional development in Part 3. But it's really important to remember that these activities all fit together into the life cycle of one employee, and that one section can and does impact on another (Figure 7.1).