Consultant's Corner

It's Performance Mgt Time - Are You Ready?

andy.gebavi — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:57:08 GMT

I've been talking to many stressed out HR professionals over the past month or two. They're all in the process of launching newly revamped Performance Management processes and/or systems for their organizations. The Performance Management process is one of the few high-profile Talent Management processes that touches virtually every person in your organization! Often, it is the Performance Management process that really defines the face of HR to the organization.

Whether your project involves the launch of brand new technology, or enhancing processes that were previously put in place, here are a few best practices to help ease your transition:

1. "Brand" the Initiative: Rather than referring to your rollout as "The Performance Mgt System," create an internal brand for the initiative. It's much more effective to communicate about a branded project - complete with logos, colors, and messaging. If you have an overall HR or Talent Management brand, the performance management component should be tied to the larger brand. Brand all training, reference, and communication materials accordingly.

2. Use the Personal Approach: If possible, assign champions of the process for each of your business areas. These individuals will be the megaphone that prepares each business area for the coming changes. They should be well-versed in the policy and process issues surrounding your project. Whether these champions are doing formal presentations in "roadshow" style, or having informal conversations in the hallway,cafeteria, parking lot, etc..., the value of the personal approach cannot be overstated.

3. Assign a Dedicated PM "Ninja": Assign at least one dedicated person (depending on the size of your organization) as the process "Ninja." This person should understand the process from top to bottom and have "super-user" capability to administer the system you're implementing. The Ninja will be your first line of defense in stamping out potential problems before they turn into major meltdowns.

4. Have a Clearly Defined Support Plan: Communicate clearly to your business areas the escalation chain for the support of your new process. Who is the first line of support for process questions? Policy questions? Will there be a call center with baseline knowledge to assist the user community? When should potential issues be escalated the the Ninja? All of the above should be clearly defined in a support matrix.

5. Be Vigilant: Folks, there will be flame-ups in your project - it's a given! Be vigilant. Be on the alert for potential flame-ups, investigate anything suspicious. Be prepared to react. Whether it is process confusion, system glitches, or any other problem. By stamping out a flame-up early, you can avoid a flame-up turning into a wild fire that could damage the perception of your process for the long term.

It's Time For Talent Management To Grow Up!

andy.gebavi — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:20:40 GMT

How "Mature" Are Your Organization's Talent Management Processes?

Many organizations we engage with view Talent Management like it's some kind of exotic new discipline. The reality is that the functions usually associated with Talent Management (Recruitment, Performance Management, Learning and Development, Career Planning, Workforce Planning, Succession Management, Compensation) have been around for a long time. New technologies are allowing organizations to tie all these processes together and get true visibility into the business impacts of these functions.

We can usually tell how "grown up" our client's are by asking some key questions around the following areas for each of their Talent Management processes:

What are the business drivers of the process? We're often met with a blank stare here.
How frequently do you perform the process? Once per year or is it a constant, ongoing process?
How standardized is the process across your organization?
What kind of visibility does the process provide into key measures and organizational trends?
Who owns the process? HR or the business - or both?
What technologies support the process? Technology is an enabler of increased standardization, visibility, and process integration
How integrated is the process with other talent management processes?
What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness and business impacts of your process? Often, another blank stare here.

Obviously, in depth analysis is required to determine how to improve your organization's processes. But by asking key questions you can learn quite a bit about where your organization is now, and where you want it to be in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years.

So what is your organization? Toddler? Kindergartener? Adolescent? Adult?

Peanut Butter

neil.jensen — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:35:44 GMT

During a recent client engagement focused on the project kick-off for the implementation of a compensation administration application, I found myself in a room with several HR Generalists having a good laugh about the 'Peanut Butter' approach to merit increases. As the conversation went on, those in the room even made funny hand motions simulating the 'spreading' of a 4% merit budget across a line of business. The concept of differentiation was a hot point that provoked sheer cackling laughter from the group.

This scene is likely not too uncommon for most companies as they approach the merit planning season. The 'Peanut Butter' approach seems to be the norm with few companies mastering differentiation and true pay-for-performance. This begs the question why planning managers find it so difficult to differentiate performance and reward based on that differentiation? Is HR failing in getting the concept across and building the necessary tools and means to make it a reality? Is this message falling on deaf ears?

As organizations work to build a pay-for-performance strategy and enable it with technology, they need to remember to take into account the critical component of manager development in their efforts. It's not enough to state a pay-for-performance philosophy and publish salary increase guidelines to support it. Managers need development opportunities on how to manage performance and how to have difficult conversations with under performing employees and how to take the necessary steps to correct that performance or work those individuals out of the organization. Merit can be and should be a means to incent and retain true contributors in the organization. True differentiation won't be possible until managers are enabled to do the critical work beyond filling out the spreadsheet.

Designing Performance Management From Ground Zero - What does it look like?

kim.heger — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:46:52 GMT

If you had the opportunity to design a cutting edge Performance Management process and system from ground zero with no preconceived ideas of what is included or how it should work, what would it look like? What components or considerations would you like to see included in the final solution? This is your opportunity to think outside of the box, move away from the traditional approach of forms, annual reviews, rating scales, etc.

Take it a step further and define the best practices for virtual performance management. As we continue to see more and more employees working in non-traditional workspaces (home, Starbucks, airports, the beach, across the world), how do we effectively manage performance in a virtual world?