Making performance management a success

Recently I was sharing with an HR leader some of my experiences with people and organisations and she asked “Where have you implemented a successful performance management system?” My answer was that I haven’t - she was surprised, but I explained that the success (or failure) is really dependent on the capability of your people leaders

Let’s put that in context

Generally performance management systems have been implemented in organisations to drive a level of business outcomes beyond standard expectations. The conversations had by people manages with their teams and the goals which they set are to drive a higher level of performance than was considered to be possible with the resources that are available. - that's the reason for incentives, to reward an outstanding and above norm performance!

Firstly people leaders struggle with setting stretch goals. We tell them to make them SMART but when it comes down to working this through with their team - creating an objective level playing field across the team is tough. An organisation I have recently worked with has seen an opportunity to support their people managers and created centrally Team Based Objectives (TBOs) that are then applied down in to the organisation

This overcomes the problem experienced by so many organisations when they cut their targets down to a menu of small sub-tasks. This reduces the focus, there's so many people running around after small bits of achievement not focusing or understanding the big things that need to be done to deliver a step change

Secondly, having a performance conversations a challenge for a lot of managers because we have not invested the time in helping them engage and coach their team. Adopting a growth mindset, one that focuses on what is possible, on what is yet to come!

How do we do this?

• We have regular, ongoing conversations

• We build capability within our people leaders and coach them

• We tell the story and create the vision of where we want to get to as an organisation

• We focus on “how” people achieve outcomes and not just what they have delivered

Next as HR professionals we need to simplify our processes. Remember we’re doing this to create superior performance across the organisation - often we create a highly administrative and compliance orientated environment, with that our complexity leads to a loss of productivity rather than adds value

We need to have a systems and process that are light touch, drives high performance while improving behaviours and is clearly understood by everyone – delivering a great employee and people leader experience. We need to promote a framework that can be easily actioned by people leaders, is not time consuming and doesn’t distract from the essential drivers of business growth and customer satisfaction

Success in performance management can be seen in employees growing in confidence and capability as they have purposeful conversations about their contribution to the business goals, and as they understand how their efforts can help exceed company targets. It can also be seen with the growing capability of people managers to provide regular, informal feedback to their teams on how they are progressing

Engage your people and the right people!

The workforce journey

 Many of these new breed of HR systems are designed to engage the employee and enable them to do things on an “anytime, anywhere” basis which is a great idea. Bottom line though this means they’re largely self-service, and this often a big change. A potential downfall for any HR team is not engaging the business fully to get leadership and employee buy-in to the new system.

 Why is that a problem? Because if your leaders and employees don’t understand what you are trying to achieve with your new HR system, they’re likely to view the self-service requirements as an extra burden rather than a tool to help them do their role more effectively and be able to drive their career. Their view can easily turn into “Why am I doing HRs work now?” managing the change journey is critical for setting the right expectations across the business.

 However, clear communication with your business that sets out your vision, how the business will benefit, what will be simpler for managers and employees, and will engage your people and bring them on the journey with you. They need to be brought with you from the start of your project and not just told at the end what is going to happen.

The business partnerships

 A well implemented HR system is a powerful technology and as HR people are not often technical experts, there’s no doubt that a big mistake is not properly engaging your IT team for support.

 Your IT department is responsible for integrating it into your finance system, identity management, organisational data management and potentially even your business intelligence reporting, good data flows from your system can significantly benefit many parts of the organisation. Bringing your IT colleagues in on the journey is a critical part of getting the most out of your system, not just for HR but for the whole of the business.

 Also ensuring that you have worked through with your finance colleagues to ensure that not only are you able to deliver consistent reporting, but that you are all using the same definitions and have the same understanding of what each means eg what is headcount – The number of people on the payroll? The combined FTE of the organisation?

 That said, HR should own the HR system and shouldn’t delegate that responsibility. HR is responsible for lifting the people capability across the organisation and the system is enabling HR processes (which HR own) so it is really important that HR continues to won the system and ensure that the configuration and updates meet their strategic goals And deliver the right people outcomes.

Who else do we need for success?

 A new HR system is a big undertaking and there are several considerations you need to make.

 ·        Do I need to work with an external partner? Who is the right partner for our organisation?

·        How do I find the right Project Manager? Could this be internal, or should I enlist an external Project Manager?

·        What kind of support team do I need?

All of these are important issues and will depend on the capabilities within your team, your business and the approach your organisation takes on partnering with external support. It is always valuable to make sure you have key inputs from someone who has undertaken a similar project before to ensure that you are leveraging learnings and best practice implementation.

 Many companies will also create a steering committee of senior executives who use their knowledge and experience to guide the project. It’s also worth seeking advice from others in your organisation or peer group who have overseen large projects of their own. The more inputs you have, the better chance you have of making the right decisions and creating a successful outcome.

 Embarking on new HR technology is no small undertaking. But, done working with the right people inside and from outside your organisation will be transformative for your HR team – and for the business.

People not technology!

A common problem I see among some HR teams is getting too excited about the features of new HR technology when really the business needs and the employees should be the focus. There is a danger of being excited by the tool and thinking they need a new HR system without looking what value it will give the business and how it will support the business drivers. You need to focus on the right system, helping you build future capability to drive business growth and provide the insights that enable to manage your talent.

Equally, your people strategy isn’t just a “one pager” that tells the organisation what you are doing it should be a key component of the business and commercial plan. Having a good grasp of what this looks like will lead you to what new requirements you need from any new HR system or technology.

All the new technology in the world won’t improve your organisation if you continue running your business the way it has always run. Instead, you should be looking at a technology implementation as an opportunity to streamline and simplify your processes and putting the people experience at the very centre of everything you are seeking to deliver – a true HR/people transformation that will add value to your business!!

This brings us to one of the more common mistakes – thinking of it as a system for HR rather than for their people. While HR systems used to be a back-office system for personnel departments they’re now designed with the workforce in mind, to enable people to better do their jobs, grow their skills, understand organisational opportunities. They should make HR processes simple, not intrusive or distracting from core business activities. If we look too inwardly at what it’s like for us, chances are we’ll end up with a system that’s not fit for purpose.

This is a particularly big challenge for HR. Too often, HR wants to be in control – which means we often add ourselves back into processes to check and double-check – but in doing so, making things much more complicated than they need to be.

This means putting your people at the centre. It’s critical that you step into your employees’ shoes and look at processes with a view of their experience, rather than risk mitigation to maintain your oversight. How does it actually feel as an employee/manager with customer management or revenue generation responsibilities to go through a performance or remuneration review? How complicated and HR centric are our processes?

It’s critical that we step back, trust in our business, our people managers and put the employee experience first, and allow the technology we invest in to enable our businesses to experience a real transformation

Keith Wilkinson is the Principal Consultant at T2C Consulting - providing people centred solutions on HR Transformation, HR Technology, Rewards & Workforce solutions

Knowledge is power!!!

As someone who has built a career as a Human Resources professional, I have experienced many people who have used their ‘knowledge as power’!  The world is changing rapidly with HR tools and technology becoming more mobile and integrated; and as a result, HR professionals are more data driven. We can make the right knowledge and insights available to our businesses, in the hands of people managers to be able to understand what the critical people issues are that they need to address

In today’s world, there are only two things that really differentiate organisations – how they use their data and the creativity and contribution of their people.

It means the two greatest tasks we have in Human Resources is leveraging the data to make good people-related decisions and how to develop and attract high-quality talent into your organisation and grow their capability. The right human resources system can help you do both!

Often HR professionals fail to get maximum value out of their HR system – despite the large investment required. These systems are incredibly powerful but if they’re not implemented well, they can make little or no difference to your business. And if the needs of your people aren’t at the centre of how you build and implement any technology solution then you will not get the right outcomes

To start with the basics, you’ll know when it’s time to upgrade your HR system

• Manually filling in forms

• No integration of people data across systems leading to double data entry

• Inability to manage people tasks from a mobile device

• Employees and managers complaining completing HR process takes too much time

• Unable to generate insights from your people data

Then it’s time you should act. After all, you’re not going to keep your best people if the organisation runs like it’s still the 1980s.

We need the employee experience to be engaging, personalised – to minimise the amount of effort required to complete HR process so that employees and managers can grow our businesses.

Knowledge is power! However, it’s not to sit within the HR function it should be readily available to all people managers and business leaders to enable good decision making, driven by data with deep people insights

How to do this well is something I will discuss soon