Posts in category: HR Side Up – Case Studies

If you had to do just one thing in #humanresources , do #performancemanagement well. PMS sets the culture of the organization.

An extremely senior HR leader who is also an investor & Board member had told me this. As I work with young organizations on their people agenda as an #HRConsultant , I see how true his assessment is.

Your PMS process sets the tone for:

– Fairness

– Objectivity

– Productivity

– Motivation

– Alignment and

– Growth

And more often than not, specially in young organizations, this process is handled by inexperienced professionals who get bulldozed to take short-cuts, ignore red flags and act as post-masters or police-men of the process.

If you wish to truly invest in your people, give them a robust team who runs the #PMS process the way it should.

A CEO would want to know the overall employee engagement score and key drivers impacting the scores.

An HR Head would track cohort wise scores, and impact of each engagement driver.

A lead of Employee Engagement Survey would plan, monitor & drive impact planning after the scores.

A #Humanresources partner would own the Engagement action plans for the function & link HR plans with the people agenda.

What should get tracked should get more specific & detailed as we move down the levels. Problem comes when incumbents across hierarchy levels just track what the CEO is tracking.

#hrtips

#hrsideup

#reviews

Implementing a new #performanceevaluation process in your organization? Include these 5 steps to make it fair & motivating for your employees:

1) Explain how the targets for the year have been decided.
2) Define what the employees will get on achievement of the targets.
3) During reviews, ensure #performance feedback is collected not only from the immediate manager but also from cross-functional stakeholders.
4) At any time during the year, if the immediate manager is about to leave the organization, ensure he documents & provides inputs on performance of all his team members before leaving.
5) Train Managers on how to measure performance, give feedback and write #performancereviews. Also train employees on how to write their self review.

Employees of your #workplace should not have the need to come to you for their appointment letters, salary slips, reimbursement process etc. Achieving that seamless process would be your biggest win as #hroperations professional.

Employees of your workplace should not have any reluctance to speak to you regarding their #careerpath or #development. Achieving that expertise would be your biggest win as #talentmanagement professional.

Employees of your workplace should not face any difficulty in understanding their role, organizational growth story compensation structures & joining process. Achieving that experience would be your biggest win as #talentacquisition professional.

Employees of your function should not have any apprehension in approaching you for their everyday workplace challenges. Achieving that trust would be your biggest win as #hrpartner .

Are you running the dreaded & boring annual #goalsetting exercise in your organization right now? Elevate your role from just being a dashboard maker.

As #humanresources , what most of us end up doing during the crucial #performancemanagement step is:

– Launch the goal-setting process with the only intent to ensure everyone completes their step by the given deadline.
– Run 1-2 workshops to educate employees on what’s to be done and where.
– Monitor the progress, escalate to senior leaders when teams are delayed.
– Share the Dashboard with CXOs.

All these steps are needed, however, what is also important is:

– Helping employees make SMART goal sheets.
Helping employees make goal sheets that inspire them to come to work everyday.
– Equipping employees with information to make their SMART goal sheets.
– Aligning the goal sheets to take care of inter & intra departmental synergies.
– Ensuring across all goal sheets of a team, there are no missing links or gaps that could make the ball drop.

Hence as #talentmanagement SME or #hrbusinesspartner it is important for you to know how to do all this. And you would only know once you swim deep.

One of the most neglected departments in #goalsetting exercise is the #humanresources . The custodians of the process take their goal sheets for granted and usually tend to make them on the last date.

As a result of which, their goal sheets look similar across the years and there’s hardly any motivation for them to go beyond their regular tasks.

Give your goal sheets an exciting twist this year. Some examples:

– #talentacquisiton teams could take up the target to increase the contribution of IJP to their sourcing mix.
– #talentmanagement teams could take up the target of reducing the contribution of Better Career Opportunities as a Reason of Leaving.
–#hroperations could take up the target of creating Buddy & internal employee support groups by grouping together employees from same colleges/base locations etc.

Your goal sheet is your responsibility as much as it is of your manager. Leaving it to only them is like hoping a Michelin Star chef to cook up a world class dish only to realise later that he has cooked up a savoury while you wanted a dessert.

Number 1:
Under each area of work that you do, write down all action words that you’re responsible for. Some action words (verbs) that are commonly used in SMART goal sheets are Design, Define, Implement, Execute, Manage, Plan etc. Then strike out the ones that are not in your direct scope. The remaining words should be the starting point of your #kra .

Number 2:
Write down exactly what you would do to ensure this KRA will be met. Will you create a project plan or just execute one? Will you open new accounts or just manage the existing ones? Will you audit the distributors or just monitor their performance? Exactly what? Write that.

Number 3:
Combine tasks/objectives which are aimed at the same outcome under one specific goal. If 2-3 different activities are aimed at increasing revenues then combine them to say Increase revenue by 10%.

The more specific your goal sheets, the clearer the action plan would be for you.

As the custodian of Performance Management process of her organization, a COE always kept extra vigilant during the annual #goalsetting exercise. Whenever, she would watch out for signals or conversations where the employee:

– Expresses displeasure with targets or KRAs.
– Shows lack of confidence to deliver the given goals.
– Accepts the goals without any conversation on how he/she intends to achieve them.

She would immediately set up a time with the employee directly or with the employee’s manager to have #coachingconversations to understand the underlying beliefs or fears that may be showing up for these employees.

How can #coaching help organizations in these situations?

When a trusting space is created for the employee to share his thoughts, goals and feelings openly, the commitment level to deliver on the given goals increases multi-fold.

When an employee gets the sense that he is talking to someone who is not judging him/her, but is committed to help him/her achieve his goals, then they work with a solution mind-set & not a problem mind-set.

1) Write down your acquired skills & experiences: Across all the roles you’ve done till now, what skills & experiences have you gained?
2) Write down the roles that are aspirational: What roles in your current organization would you genuinely like to do? Pro Tip- think of roles and not the current incumbents.
3) Write down roles outside of your organization that are inspirational: Have you seen someone do something that you wish you could do in future?
4) List down the skills & experiences required to get hired for these roles that came out by doing points 2 & 3. Pro Tip: Talk to current incumbents, people who have been in these roles, consultants/seniors who hire for these roles etc. to finalize your list.
5) Match your skills from point 1 to the needed skills from point 4. Are you ready to take on any of these roles? If not, how & by when will you be ready?
6) Start having conversations and showing your intent to take on those roles.
7) Make your candidature strong, visible & compelling for your chosen roles.
Just Go for it, with a single-focused agenda.