Strategic HR Technology Investment: A Comprehensive Checklist for Global HR Teams
If you are in the field of HR, you are aware of how our domain is constantly evolving. The nature of flexibility in our work allows us to try a lot of things, but in the process, we tend to lose focus or lax out on our basic responsibilities, like seamlessly tackling performance management.
I differentiate between Performance Management 1.0 (PM 1.0) and Performance Management 2.0 (PM 2.0). PM 1.0 is shorthand for last generation (traditional) performance management… involves (annual)goal-setting, evaluating performance, and distributing rewards at the end of the year… Contrast that with PM 2.0, which focuses on providing continuous direction, alignment, meaning, and purpose to employees. It’s focused on making progress towards goals and connecting work to a larger purpose.
Be it in the world of telecommunication or otherwise, performance management is not just about reviewing employees on the basis of work output or measuring the compensation, or how much of the last quarter’s goals were achieved. It can really help your organisation thrive and for that, you need to have an easy and effective performance management software in place.
As an HR, you need to initiate the performance management process by urging all managers to set SMART goals for their employees based on past goals and objectives. List out the main outcomes required and let them know. Then ask them to align their SMART goals accordingly. It might require certain amount of hand-holding in the initial stages.
The acronym SMART stands for:
In the telecommunication industry, you might want to focus on the following pointers:
When you have answers to all of these above points, your SMART goals will be in place. An example of such a goal is,
Send the client a weekly update through email about all completed and upcoming tasks. (Ron Ause, workamajig.com)
Big giants like IBM, Adobe, Google, HarperCollins, and others, have all inculcated frequent one-on-one performance check-ins, in place of annual performance reviews and annual feedbacks. Adobe has reduced 30% of their voluntary turnover in the process.
When managers conduct appraisals once a year and share feedback with employees, they fall short of engaging the employees in the right way. Employees feel that their managers don’t value their presence enough. Frequent one-on-ones, on the other hand, makes an employee feel engaged and valued. They know on a regular basis whether they are working towards achieving the right objective.
Valuable and accurate feedback can enhance great performance by a whopping 39%. But it needs another factor. Promptness! When you share annual feedback with your employees, they fall short of motivating employees and keeping them engaged for a whole year. Instead, when managers share feedback on a frequent basis, through a performance management software, employees receive immediate guidance from their leaders, and can course-correct in time. On top of that, the feedback and the communication remains stored for future reference and tracking.
80% of the employees work better when they feel better appreciated. Pay check is not the only factor that draws them. They seek acknowledgement for their great work, and when your company fails to do so, they go where they can get it. In order for your employees to feel recognised and valued, you need to put an efficient feedback process in place. Most good performance management software have real-time rewards and recognition modules as well.
Encourage managers to praise performing employees on the employee forum, give them a day off or few days of flexi-timings. These are just some examples but, it’s best to customise rewards as per individual employees. The module can be gamified where each praise can fetch a few points, and by reaching certain levels, employees can win rewards.
If you are presently in the annual performance management cycle, you need to first figure out how much work is needed in order to make the transition. First and foremost, you need to change your payment strategy for all roles, turning them into market-based, so that you can unlink performance management from salary. Then you train the leaders and employees to practice frequent check-ins, quarterly goal setting and regular feedback.
The performance management tool can help you bring all of these things under one umbrella and track them. Life becomes a lot easier when all of these things are in place, don’t you think?
If you are wondering how Engagedly can help you with performance management, request for a free demo.
Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organisation, until Sept 30th, 2020.
The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at Engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organisations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.
Want to know how Engagedly can improve your performance review process? Request for a live demo.
