Why do we need a performance management system?

This month I continue with my series of articles, aimed at grassroots organizations, on need for and basic structures of different HR processes.

-

Two common terms used in organizations are 'Performance based cultures' and 'Performance management system'.

What do these terms mean? How are they relevant for your organization? Does your organization need an 'off the shelf' or a 'customized' solution?

I will draw an analogy with a business planning exercise, where we decide firm’s objectives and lay out periodic milestones.

Similarly, a performance management system ensures such an objective and milestone setting exercise at team and individual level.

Outcomes of business planning exercise are cascaded down to performance management system. Objective setting is an important but not only key component of a performance management system. Periodic reviews and linkage to rewards are other two key components.

If you refer to motivation theories you will find that these 3 components cover 4 important individual motivation aspects:

1) We need 'goal clarity'

2) We need periodic feedback

3) We need to feel differentiated

4) We need money to sustain our hygiene needs.

What kind of a performance management system does your organization need? What are choices you want to make for each of 4 motivational aspects mentioned above?

-

Sourav

Onboarding

Is it an employee’s responsibility to onboard himself/herself on to the role or is the company’s responsibility to ensure that an employee onboards to a role?

 

I will contend both. But I do think that organization has a role to play in ensuring the employee is set up for success.

 

First, both external and internal hires have a need for onboarding.

 

Second, an onboarding plan needs to have defined objectives and a structure.

 

Objectives of onboarding primarily are a) establishing relationships with key stakeholders in/outside organization, b) understanding organization eco-system, c) learning the nuts and bolts to do the job independently, and d) starting to contribute in the role (with quick feedback loops) that in turn leads to increased confidence.

 

How do you want to go about building a structure around these 3 pronged objectives?

First, set a time limit for plan– a fortnight/1 month/2 months.

Second, create a week wise plan with defined objectives.

Third, have a review/check-in mechanism in place with employee’s manager.

 

Finally, a plan is only as good as its execution. So ensure that onboarding plan is executed well.

 

-

Sourav

Ability

So you have figured out job specifications. Next step is to figure what is trainable and what do you hire for.

 

So how exactly do you figure out what is trainable and what is not?

 

I had touched upon this aspect in a previous post titled ‘Ideal Job Specification’.

 

Most capabilities are trainable given adequate time, effort, and cost.   Capability of a person is defined in terms of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.

 

Knowledge is easiest to pick up and possibly easiest to forget.

 

Skill is more difficult to pick up and more difficult to forget (e.g. – do you forget how to cycle or swim even if you have not cycled or swam for a long time).

 

Ability is most difficult to pick up and most difficult to lose/forget.

 

If you are have a constrained recruitment budget, then you might want to hire a candidate with high ability – who can make up for gaps in knowledge and skills with a focussed onboarding program.

 

So when ‘cost-constrained’, think ability!

 

-

Sourav

 

Is it time you need an extra Headcount?

Before you start hiring, you need to a) know that you have a vacancy, and b) figure out how many vacancies you have.

So how do you get to know about these?

Look at following statements. Are any one of these true for you/your organization?

·        Geographical Scope: Your organization is venturing into new geographic areas

·        Customer Scope: Your customer base is increasing rapidly and you will need extra manpower to cater to increased customer base.

·        Scope of Skills: The changing nature of the industry/company requires that you hire for new skills.

These 3 will be usual levers that will feed into your company’s need for extra manpower.

 

Which of these are true for you?

 

-

Sourav

Ideal Job Specification

Once you have decided that you need to hire for a role, the next steps are to create a:

·        job description (what are outcomes and processes in role), and

·        job specification (what knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are you seeking in a job incumbent).

But a job specification doesn't end with only listing out what KSAs you are seeking in a job incumbent.

 

As HR Recruiter or Hiring Manager, take into consideration following factors:

·        Most things are teachable and learnable given adequate time, effort and cost. But different organizations have different capacities/appetite for time, effort, and cost. Hence what is trainable and what is non-trainable is an organization specific decision.

o   Ability is most difficult to teach and learn, followed by skill and then knowledge.

·        Ask yourself 'What is trainable/non-trainable for this role?".

o   List out Non-trainable K,S, and As. These should be criterion against which you will make a hire/no-hire decision for a candidate

What is advantage of following a procedure like this?

By following above mentioned procedure, you increase size of candidate pool you are looking at. Hence possibility of hiring a candidate at an 'affordable' compensation increases.

 

You may also want to keep the following in mind when formulating job specification:

·        If you are being particular about an educational qualification and that is causing you difficulties in hiring - ask yourself 'Is this qualification really required? Can someone who has relevant work experience but not this educational qualification perform this job effectively?

·        If you are being particular about a certain type of work experience and that is causing you difficulties in hiring - ask yourself 'Can someone with high learnability but having a different kind of work experience/no work-experience do this job with an accelerated induction program?;

These are some tips to ensure that you are hiring a candidate at an 'affordable' compensation.

 

Your next question might be - so how do we ensure high performance? Well! I will post about this soon.

 

-

Sourav

 

Build or Buy?

Well! I am back to blogging.

And this time I want to share some posts I have been writing pro-bono for small MFIs who are trying to strengthen their HR processes. Here’s the first of these posts. You will find me sharing more of these posts from now on.

-

You have realized that you have a personnel 'vacancy' that you need to fill.

 

Do you hire from external market (buy) or do you hire internally (a cross-functional move, role enrichment, promotion)?

 

Both of have their pros and cons and choice is probably context specific.

Buy

Pros -

·        A better fit for the role and so probably quicker time to performance,

·        An external candidate might bring in a fresh perspective.

Cons

·        Higher cost of hiring and possibly higher payroll costs

·        Cultural misfits might lead to periods of instability/conflict within team.

Build

Pros

·        Brings down cost of hiring and payroll costs.

·        Cultural fit will be ensured

Cons

·        Maybe will require more time to ramp up or more involvement from manager in ensuring ramp up.

·        No fresh thinking might flow into the team.

What will you prefer - build or buy- and for what kind of situations/positions?

Add one more to the options of Build or Buy.

You could also 'hire' services of a skill from market for a temporary period, e.g. - hiring services of a professional agency.

So choices you have are 'Build, Buy, or Hire'.

 

-

Sourav

 

Symbols in dreams

 

Talk of psychology and you recall 3 names for sure - Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Alfred Adler.

 

While Freud is known for association of dreams and Adler for fictional finalism, Jung is known for concept of collective unconscious.

 

I had meant to read Jung’s work ‘Man and His symbols’ for quite some time, and I finally managed to read it.

What are some of the things that stayed with me? Are there a few things that have relevance to field of HR?

Here are ideas/concepts that stayed with me:

1. Dreams are representations of unconscious and they have their own significance. Hence we must pay heed to them.
2. Symbols in dreams are sometimes collected from collective unconscious - that has been shaped across generations of human beings. Hence certain symbols have usually standard meanings/representations. Additionally certain kind of symbols tend to pop up across dreams.
3. Archetypes -are symbols/representations from collective unconscious, e.g-archetype of beauty and beast.
4. Unlike the conscious mind, unconscious mind is not logical but it does have significance. Hence a dream may seem illogical but it still might have meaning.
5. Every individual has a shadow. We must acknowledge shadow before ego starts developing and being in control. ‘Mandala’ usually represents centered self with a completely developed ‘ego’.
6. Concept of Synchronicity- meaningful co-incidences that are not linked by cause and effect but nonetheless these incidences seem to co-happen.
7. Animus-male archetype; and Anima- female archetype. These exist in every human being.
8. Concept of Projection- when we see a part of our shadow (which we are not comfortable acknowledging in ourselves) in someone else, we tend to get very agitated.

 

Some of these concepts seem to have applicability at workplace:

1. When you come across an employee who can't stand a colleague for no apparent reason- projection maybe at work. Hence projection may be a cause of inter-personal conflicts.
2. If you were to lead a group of employees through an associated/dissociated visualization process about company/team-- what kind of images/symbols might pop up? This might give some hints about collective unconscious/cultural essence of a company/team and that in turn might hint to what need to be worked consciously within the team.
3. Synchronicity. If it is March, employees may be less receptive to development feedback. Frankly, this sounds more like cause and effect. But I do have a feeling that synchronicity has a place in workplace too.

 

These are some initial applications I can think of. Can you think of some other applications?

 

-

Sourav