The Mandate for Performance

The goal of every business owner is profitability. An organization's success majorly depends on the employees' performance. Poor performance is adverse to the company's success. Creating a Mandate for Performance to manage and coach the work force requires the expertise of a human resources manager and the support of the company's administration. This plays a crucial role in achieving the company’s goals and standards.

Today’s Performance Mandate is based on the following factors:

1. The need for performance documentation due to regulatory requirements, to support employee reviews and/or compensation decisions, and for talent staffing and management.
2. The need to engage employees to improve productivity, performance, and alignment with corporate objectives.
3. Consumerism. Employees want access to information. Employees want the same tools and functionality at work that they have access to at home. This means technology must be easy to try, buy, use technology.

The Business Case for Engaging the Workforce:

A comprehensive review by the Department of Labor of more than 100 studies that examined the link between progressive people practices and improved bottom line results concluded that there is a positive relationship between training, motivating, and engaged employees and improvements in productivity, employee satisfaction and financial performance.

•             Highly engaged employee companies enjoy 26% higher employee productivity, lower turnover, higher talent attraction, and greater shareholder return.

•             Talent management practices power engaged companies to achieve higher profit per employee by nearly 40%. This brings up a great contribution to the company’s success.

Common Characteristics of High Performance Workforces:

Clearly the most noticeable difference between the higher-performing workforce and a normal workforce is in the level of energy and emotional commitment that employee’s exhibit on the work floor. 

•             They have clear approach towards the company’s goals and plans (connection between daily people performance and financial objectives).

•             They engage in a valuable communication with all the company members (healthy dialogues).

•             They develop and maintain positive relationships among all the members (sense of community).

•             They are ready to solve all the problems anytime and make worthy decisions on a timely basis (culture of accountability and customer-orientation).

•             They successfully manage conflicts and resolve them between themselves.

•             Facilitate productive meetings among the employees (Time, resources and results sensitive).

•             Clarify roles assigned for team members.

•             All the employee’s operates in a productive manner.

•             The team leaders exhibit effective team leadership to all the members.

•             The team leaders provide best development opportunities for team members.

•             All the employee’s have an aligned (unified) commitment of vision, mission, and values towards all the Business Strategies.

Each successful business organization reaches peak workforce performance within an integrated organization approach or path that generates wide spread effect on the employee’s performance. The measures implemented are well planned and followed about how the positive energy is channeled to yield higher performance from the employee’s. The energy sources and channels of performance mandate are supported by systems that simultaneously impact performance and fulfillment of aligned goals in an organization.

About BullseyeEvaluation: BullseyeEvaluation is a performance management solutions company that optimizes organizational performance of companies, nonprofits, and academic Higher Education institutions. We are dedicated to formulating the right solutions for our customers and the ongoing care required for optimizing their performance management through our solutions. For further details visit http://www.bullseyeevaluation.com/

Employee recognition increase motivation, engagement and productivity

According to a recent survey employees are not satisfied with the quantity or quality of feedback.

• Only 1 in 10 American employees are “very satisfied” with their job.
• 59 percent of employees are not satisfied according to a recent 2012 SHRM survey, contrasting with 42% of HR professionals

Employee recognition increases motivation, engagement and productivity. It allows managers and peers to reinforce positive behaviors 360-degree feedback and recognition is provided on a frequent basis. Employee recognition is the timely, informal or formal acknowledgement of a person’s or team’s behavior, effort or business result that supports the organization’s goals and values, and which has clearly been beyond normal expectations.

Annual or semiannual reviews are not frequent. Employees who receive recognition throughout the year are more satisfied in their roles compared to those who only receive it once or twice a year.

Of those who receive ongoing feedback and praise throughout the year:

• 75 percent are satisfied with the level of recognition they receive for doing a good job at work, compared to 42 percent who only receive annual feedback.
• 91 percent think their manager or supervisor acknowledges and appreciates them at work, versus 60 percent who only get annual reviews. Read the full article here from Derek Irvine.
• Nearly a third of the workforce is significantly disengaged.

Aspect of Employee recognition:

There are two aspects to employee recognition. The first aspect is to actually see, identify or realize an opportunity to praise someone. If you are not in a receptive frame of mind you can easily pass over many such opportunities. This happens all too frequently. The other aspect of employee recognition is, of course, the physical act of doing something to acknowledge and praise people for their good work. These recognitions will have a great impact on the employee’s performance and yields much better and faster outcomes.

 Benefits of the timely Employee recognition on the employee’s performance:

·         Increases individual productivity of the employee’s.

·         Provides greater employee satisfaction and enjoyment of work – employee’s more time spent focusing on the job and less time complaining.

·         Direct performance feedback for individuals and teams is provided making them more enthusiastic towards their contribution to the organization.

·         Higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers.

·         Teamwork between employees is enhanced.

·         Retention of quality employees increases – lower employee turnover.

·         Better safety records and fewer accidents on the job.

·         Lower negative effects such as absenteeism and stress.

Traditionally, employee recognition has not been an important appraisal activity, but now implementing timely appraisals and employee recognition can be a motivation in an organization. If you are a human resource manager, you can initiate it in your area. You could start doing it deliberately, not even telling others about the change, but doing it and observing the results yourself. We can conclude that Employee recognition is a key success factor even at higher levels of management.

About BullseyeEvaluation: BullseyeEvaluation is a performance management solutions company that optimizes organizational performance of companies, nonprofits, and academic Higher Education institutions. We are dedicated to formulating the right solutions for our customers and the ongoing care required for optimizing their performance management through our solutions. For further details visit http://www.bullseyeevaluation.com/

How is Your Company Performance Trending? It’s All in the Employee Factor

The Kenexa High Performance Institute (KHPI) released their WorkTrends Report for 2011 – 2012. Engagement Levels in Global Decline: Organizations Losing Competitive Advantage. While the focus of this report demonstrates survey trends from 31,000 workers in 28 countries, it shares practical steps for leaders to address the unmet needs of employees today.

Three practical steps to improve employee engagement levels are:

1. Work/Life Balance
2. A Mirror Test for Leadership
3. Training Opportunities for Employees

Each organization must take the time to decide what works best in your environment. All brainstorming begins with spending time with your employees and going beyond a survey to ongoing, meaningful communication. Helping employees to connect the dots between their goals and the company goals are critical. Relevant feedback for employees regarding their overall performance, skills and career objectives goes a long way to improve the connections to employee satisfaction.

Are you utilizing your current employee performance management system to capture multiple interactions with your employees? Do your employees view the Employee Performance Management process as valuable to increase their ability to be successful in your organization?

Several research studies show a direct correlation between employee engagement and bottom line company profitability. Utilizing employee performance evaluation software can increase your effectiveness to manage real time, frequent feedback that is captured in a solution to connect results to goal attainment. Your employees deserve the best communication culture to increase their engagement levels.

Your competitive advantage will make you a survivor. Fostering a highly engaged workforce will improve your financial and company performance. Are you ready to make the commitment to make it happen?

About BullseyeEvaluation: Bullseye Evaluation offers a web based solution to help shift the culture of expectations for your company process. At Bullseye performance management systems, we believe HR Professionals are operational and strategic partners when managing an organization. Visit our website at http://www.bepms.com and let us show you how to focus on the employee and not just the form.

Top Performers Get Superbowl Tickets – The Performance Management System at its Best!

What?  Can you imagine your company rewarding your hard work, great results, and ability to positively contribute by giving you two tickets to the Superbowl?  That is employee engagement if I have ever seen it.  Does it really take all of that to develop employees?  Of course not.  Can we afford to be creative and unpredictable when it comes to rewarding our Top Performers?  Absolutely.

Lane Jarvis, Chief Human Resources Officer at Go Daddy.com shares some critical points for establishing employee development plans for all employees (see the video through the link below).  This is an important part of the employee performance appraisal discussion. 

70/20/10 Rule

Lane Jarvis shares Go Daddy’s career development philosophy:

·         70% - Employees learn from on the job work experiences

·         20% - Employees learn from feedback (Mentors, Coaches, Managers)

·         10% - Employees learn from classroom experiences to support their career development

According to the video, Go Daddy created an in-house Performance Management System.  At BullseyeEvaluation, we can save you development time and resources.  Our best of breed, proven Performance Management Software provides excellent user friendly functionality with a seamless implementation. 

Need to know who your top performers are at any given moment?  Employees become engaged when the Performance Appraisal System has value, relevance and, most of all, documented conversations, coaching, and career development activities to improve their contribution.

Don’t get stuck on creating your own tool.  Partner with us and you can focus on developing your Superbowl Performers!

Listen to the great story of Go Daddy and their 2012 HR Initiatives!

Looking for a system to make Performance Management a strategic advantage?  BullseyeEvaluation offers a web based solution to help shift the culture of expectations for your company. 
At Bullseye Performance Management Systems, we believe HR Professionals are operational and strategic partners when managing an organization. 
Visit our website at www.bullseyeevaluation.com and let us show you how to focus on the employee relationship and not just the form.

Top Four New Year’s Resolutions to Breathe Life into Performance Appraisal Systems

Take a deep breath because it’s our favorite time of the year…. annual employee performance appraisals!  I think HR professionals would agree that unless you have implemented some innovative ways to connect with employees, this is not the time when HR is the most popular.  Unfortunately, this practice has negative connotations like, “it doesn’t mean anything”, “it’s a waste of time” and “HR made me do it”!  If these are common phrases that your leadership teams share, it is time to get your performance appraisal system off life support!

As HR leaders, we must believe in the performance evaluation value in order to connect this process to company success. If you haven’t made changes to your employee performance evaluation process in over three years, you are long overdue.  So how can HR get a new perspective to this critical, talent management process?

1.      Ask For Employee Feedback

Don’t be afraid to hear things that need to be fixed.  Much like product development, we must keep in touch with our consumers in order to continue the relationship.  Ask your leadership team and employees what they like and want for improvements.  Conduct a couple of focus groups and facilitate an open discussion of the perceptions and challenges.  Don’t defend the process, listen for areas of improvement.

 2.      Lead the Commitment to Talent Management vs. Appraisal Process

Performance Management initiatives must be incorporated into the overall “Talent Management” values of the organization.  HR can lead discussions with top management to replace the “old” perceptions with new language. Begin to describe your process with similar phrases like:

 “Evaluating our internal talent pool; Recognizing our “go to” players who get things done; Identifying employees who exhibit behaviors that support our company value; Know our employees who create company success through the daily execution of their accountabilities.” 

Imagine the anticipation managers would have to formally identifying their game changing employees.

 3.      Define Talent Management as a Competitive Advantage

Companies have prioritized their hiring and on-boarding processes.  They are very proud of the candidate and new hire experience.  It is time to continue those best practices to include the entire career cycle of an employee.  After the orientation process is complete, companies are at the mercy of the employee experience to determine if the resources dedicated to new hires are invested well or are the employees disengaged and preparing to walk out the door to a competitor?  What gives talent management strategies a competitive edge?  Personal development plans, Career development plans, succession planning and rotation programs.  These valuable approaches to talent management give talented employees exposure to multiple areas of the company.

 4.      Evaluate the Take-Aways from the Past Two Years of Performance Evaluations

How has your company used the performance appraisal system feedback to develop your employees?  Do you know who your top performers are and do they have a plan with their managers to take on more challenging projects?  Do you know which supervisors develop the most productive and successful employees? Last of all, do you sit down with your leadership team to evaluate how the organizational talent is performing and contributing to the success of the organization?  Are you rewarding the employees who demonstrate the behavior that drives the success of your company?

Performance appraisals host a wealth of information about the status of company employees.  Overall employee performance, strengths and development areas help the organization to know if employees are ready to take the company to the next level.  HR must be free up from primarily being a “Transactional” department to a “Strategic” leader.  Once HR processes are completed, it’s not over until you have identified training, resources and development plans to keep your internal talent.

Make the commitment for 2012 to be different.  Strike a couple of traditional HR program descriptions and use some innovative approaches to identify, develop and keep your best talent.

Performance management includes the ability to quickly identify key individuals in an organization to understand your bench strength.  Business initiatives change daily and you must know who can execute, reliably, based upon their past performance.

Looking for a system to make Performance Management a strategic advantage?  BullseyeEvaluation offers a web based solution to help shift the culture of expectations for your company. 

At Bullseye Performance Management Systems, we believe HR Professionals are operational and strategic partners when managing an organization. 

What Are Your Employees Doing, or Not?

Our last post tied together how Employee Engagement is impacted by an effective performance management process. I ended with the question, “How do you engage your employees”? As I continue to do research on best practices for creating ideal performance management cultures, I couldn’t help but share this wonderful InfoGraphic from the National Business Research Institute, Inc. (NBRI) located in Dallas, Texas.

The power of visuals can underscore the importance of Employee Engagement and this InfoGraphic displays just that. NBRI highlights a couple of key areas that all company leadership needs to understand about their employees:

1.      Only 1 in 3 employees are engaged at work. Does your organization have a structured way to measure the contribution of employees and provide valuable performance feedback?

2.      The #1 reason employees leave a company is the lack of career advancement. How does your organization document career plans and identify employee resources for skill development?

3.      How do un-engaged employees spend their time? As your leadership team walks through the company building and participates in conference calls with employees, do they notice how many employees are giving 100%?

Employee engagement is an indication of “how “an employee approaches their work every day. Their individual mission can be ignited by the consistent communication with the supervisors, both formal and informal, to discuss how they are performing towards the goals and how to address any shortcomings.

Responsibilities for engagement are at all levels: Top Management, Supervisors and Employees. Everyone must have a sense of ownership to make certain the process to address questions and concerns is utilized. More importantly, a clear communication of the company goals, tasks and accomplishments provide the energy needed for the employee engine at work well each day.

Think about your interactions with your employees.  Do they want to keep pushing towards company goals or get away as soon as they can?  The leadership team makes the difference in shaping the culture.  Are you reinforcing, during your coaching sessions throughout the year, that your employees matter?  Do you look for ways to delegate responsibility to employees who expressed, during their performance evaluation, the desire to grow and move up in the company?  Most importantly, are YOU having that experience with your manager?  Many times we duplicate what we experience.

Need a great idea for your next supervisor meeting? Bring this InfoGraphic on Employee Engagement and begin the important dialogue on spending quality coaching time with employees. Imagine how meaningful the employee performance management process would be if each manager began their discussions with a review of this InfoGraphic http://ow.ly/85pep. It’s all a matter of perspective for us to understand why providing feedback makes such a difference to the engagement level of employees.

Can Employee Engagement really make a difference in the quality of your performance discussions? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Does it make a difference to you?

About Bullseye Evaluation: Looking for a system to make Performance Management a strategic advantage?  BullseyeEvaulation offers a web based solution to help shift the culture of expectations for your company. At Bullseye Performance Management Systems, we believe HR Professionals are operational and strategic partners when managing an organization.