Small and medium sized companies can be so focused on core business issues that they overlook one of their most potentially serious and costly issues — human resource compliance.
They often lack the time and resources to build infrastructure and processes that are beyond core business objectives. This is a must-read paper that discusses the top small business compliance concerns.
You entered into business to sell a product or provide a service, and generate revenue doing what you do best.
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The recruiting ecosystem is changing, led by professional social networks like LinkedIn and Viadeo and social media apps like Jobvite and BranchOut.
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Download this report to learn about success stories and recommendations on how to take full advantage of innovative technology to help your efforts to attract and retain top talent.
| Roadmaps is a new form of content to help you navigate key areas of people management. Each Roadmap includes an Orientation Guide that gives a high-level overview of the subject as well as articles and other resources that provide more detailed directions on how to find your way to success. Our first Roadmap focuses on the changing terrain of employee performance management. The Orientation Guide below will get you started.
Employee performance management is a problem that business leaders have been grappling with for decades, if not centuries. How do you prompt top performance by your workforce? Can you command creativity? Demand drive and ambition? While there is no single answer or simple solution, one thing is clear: Employers are continually looking for ways to manage and engage their workforce. At its core, performance management is about creating a work environment that helps your company meet its business goals. Itâs more than just a collection of tools and processes, although there are many that can help you meet your goals. Itâs a philosophy that informs everything you do. âWe cannot command innovation and adaptation,â according to Beyond Performance Management, a new book by Jeremy Hope and Steve Player. âWe can enable and encourage and inspire and even lead. But we canât command someone to be creative or adaptive. People must have other intangible performance drivers that get them out of bed each morning and fire them with ambition and creativity.â Designing a performance management system that makes sense for your company depends on many factors, including the nature of your business, your company culture and your mission. In some cases, a more traditional method might make sense. This Roadmap is not designed to promote one approach over another but to generate new ways of thinking and to provide you with resources as you develop your performance management plan. WHY IS GOOD PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT?Failing to assess and coach your employees well can cost you money. Good performance management can engage employees and invigorate your companyâs financial performance. It can:
But before you start laying the groundwork for a performance management program, take time to think about your companyâs culture and values because they lie at the core of what you do. |
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WHO ARE YOU?At online retailer Zappos, company culture is everythingâor at least half of it. Hiring decisions are based 50 percent on skills and talents and 50 percent on cultural fit. Performance management revolves around the companyâs 10 core values such as delivering âWowâ service or showing humility. The focus is on self-improvement, and employees are rated on how well they embody the company values. Assessments happen throughout the year, and feedback is ongoing. If someone scores low in one area, like âbe passionate and determined,â they can take a free on-site class to improve. This approach makes sense for a highly collaborative culture with a âwork hard, play hardâ philosophy, but it might not fly in a more structured, hierarchical environment. Few companies link their companyâs cultural values and performance so closely. In fact, only a quarter of firms align their performance management system to their culture, according to one recent survey. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of business leadersâ93 percentâbelieve that culture has an important influence on the effectiveness of performance management, according to the Hay Group.
Who you are influences what you do and how you do it. Once youâve assessed your companyâs culture and philosophy, youâre ready to plot your place on our âPerformance Management Matrix.â |
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WHERE ARE YOU?While the Zappos style might work in a highly collaborative organization, a company with a more competitive culture might be drawn to a forced ranking approach, which typically rates employees on a 1 to 5 scale or sorts them into buckets of top, average and low performers. This system was pioneered by Jack Welch in the â80s and â90s when he was chairman and CEO at General Electric Co. While GE phased out the practice in 2000, a number of large employers such as Ford Motor Co., Microsoft Corp. and American International Group Inc., or AIG, use this approach. AIG implemented its performance management plan in 2010 in response to criticism that it was overpaying employees. Proponents of forced rankings say it creates a high-performing, innovative culture while critics say it undermines teamwork by pitting employees against each other as they compete for a top-tier spot. Does your company place greater value on teamwork or individual performance? Is your workplace bureaucratic or unstructured? The answers will help you find where you are on the matrix.
Organizations that are more âbuttoned-downâ will gravitate toward a process with a great deal of documentation and regimented review periods. Companies that thrive in a more free-flowing environment may emphasize day-to-day coaching rather than formal reviews. Regardless of where you end up in what is likely to be an evolving performance management system, determining where your company falls on the performance management matrix will guide the development of your approach.
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GREAT EXPECTATIONSNow that youâve established the philosophical foundations of your performance management program, youâre ready to build the framework. Here are some key elements of effective programs:
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A PLETHORA OF PRACTICES AND TOOLSOnce youâve pondered the larger questions about your companyâs culture and goals and accounted for critical components to successful performance management, youâre ready to get down to brass tacksâto build your program. To do so, thoroughly examine the tools and practices available and think about which ones make sense for your organization. The tools and methods that can make up a performance management system range from the hands-on, like one-on-one conversations, to the high-tech like using cloud-based software that collects and measures data. Picking the right ones and tailoring them for your workforce is critical.
WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?When does performance management begin and end? Some say itâs when an employee starts the job and when the worker leaves your organization, but others argue that it starts when a need is identified and a job description is created. The latter theory recognizes that the process begins by understanding your companyâs needs and goals and how each person can help to achieve them.
Traditionally, performance management has been viewed in a top-down fashion. But that approach may no longer be as effective. Engaging and empowering employees may be more successful in a business climate that requires greater innovation and agility. These days, what may be needed is a holistic approach that views organizational and individual growth as interconnectedâone depending on the other. Performance management is a contradiction, according to consultant Frank Buytendijk, who explores that notion in his book Performance Leadership. âPerformance is all about motivation, dedication, teamwork and matters of the heart,â he says. âManagement is more associated with plans, control, accountability and matters of the mind. All we focus on in performance management are the matters of the mind. Performance management is a contradiction in terms.â The best performance management systems take both head and heart into account, and the best employers know which one resonates more for their employees. Figuring out the approach that makes sense for your organization is a journey that you donât have to take alone. There are plenty of resources to guide you, such as this Orientation Guide. Use it to get on your way. Performance Management Roadmap ReviewWeâve organized our online Roadmap into three phases to help you implement the planning and execution of your performance management program. Below is a summary of the âPlan,â âDoâ and âReviewâ of performance management. Recognize an opportunity and prepare to act on it.
Execute your plan.
Reflect on the results and refocus if needed.
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Dear Frazzled in HR:
Mandated overtime rarely is a win-win situation. It creates animosity that reflects itself in lower productivity and higher rates of absenteeism (thus necessitating still more overtime). Except in extreme cases, keep overtime voluntary.
Most organizations’ answer is to throw more staff at the problem. However, step back and ask yourself why overtime hours are needed in the first place. Take absenteeism, for example. Find out if the absences are scheduled or unscheduled (i.e., vacation time or sick days). If there are excessive unscheduled absences, then that may be the real problem to solve, not overtime. If on the other hand you have open shifts because of scheduled absences, perhaps you simply need more employees at your facility.
Also take a look at capacity issues. Rather than adding staff, could you instead boost productivity through better technology, ergonomic workspaces or motivating employees (pay for performance, for instance)?
If you solve these other matters, but still can’t persuade overtime-wary employees to take additional shifts, then you could resort to the strategy of call-ins. At least this concept allows people to prepare for the possibility they’ll be roped into overtime, while also knowing they definitely will get set days off. At this stage, managers also should consider bonus pay as an incentive for working overtime.
It is a good idea to regularly step back and assess whether your schedules
really meet operational requirements. Yes, changing schedules is a huge hurdle. But letting employees contribute to any changes greatly improves productivity and slashes absenteeism rates—two factors that drive down overtime.
SOURCE: Circadian Technologies Inc., Stoneham, Massachusetts
LEARN MORE: Increased workloads due to the recession are pushing workers past endurable limits, a recent survey shows.
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.
Dear Rate or Not to Rate:
If you are addressing pay, then an overall rating probably makes sense. However, the best way to allocate base salary is to determine current pay relative to overall performance. Typically, pay lower in range is reflective of “learning curve” performance, whereas higher pay reflects sustained levels of high performance. Many organizations use a matrix that bases pay increases on performance rating and pay position relative to a standard (e.g., market rate or salary range control point). If this approach is used, some determination of performance is required. Most organizations use between three and five performance categories, with the middle rating defined as meeting full job expectations.
The issue with performance relates to whether it is relative to others or based on absolute standards of performance. For development and performance improvement, it is best based on performance compared with pre-determined standards of performance. If a rating is to be used for pay purposes, it should be relative to others in similar jobs or job categories. This helps avoid the “Lake Wobegone syndrome” in which all employees are deemed above average.
The best practice is using performance appraisals both to boost employee performance and development and to determine pay. However, the one objective often works counter to the other. A person paid low in the range who is developing nicely but who still has things to learn should probably have a bigger increase than a higher-paid person who is meeting full job standards. Therefore, best practice is to assess performance by category relative to an absolute standard for development purposes. And for pay purposes, it should be based on performance relative to where on the development curve a person is and how other employees within this range are paid.
SOURCE: Jim Bowers, Hay Group, Philadelphia
LEARN MORE: Register to download a free white paper, Best Practices in Performance Management, from Workforce Management. Also, please read How Do We Correlate Performance Management and New Training?
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.
I’ve been thinking about “culture change” recently because rapid social and technological changes, game-changing regulations, and globalization are putting a lot of pressure on the workplace.
Most management books will tell you that culture change is extremely difficult and takes a long time. While that is often true, I know firsthand that culture can change almost overnight–and understanding how it happened might teach us how to speed up the process in our organizations.
As I recently wrote, I graduated fromHamilton College in 1972 having started in the fall of 1968. Since roughly 1812, the college had been an all-male institution developing standards and traditions reflecting its cloistered, single sex, small-college and “establishment” environment.
When I arrived, we mostly wore button-down shirts, blue jeans or straight-legged khakis. We put on jackets for dinner.
Before the fall of 1968 when I arrived, females were a rare and special presence on “the Hill,” as we called our isolated community. Women visiting freshmen had to be out of the dorms early; slightly later if visiting upper classmen. From what I could tell, most women who did visit dressed very conservatively, matching theHamilton men’s style.
Within two weeks of my arrival at Hamilton, those standards started disappearing. An all-female school (Kirkland College), with an independent, adventurous student body, opened up across the road from Hamilton.
Suddenly, about 150 women lived close by. We shared meals and classes with them. The Kirkland women dressed casually, generated their own social conventions, and had, as a group, little patience for traditions that they saw as impractical and archaic. They questioned assumptions and made us question ourselves.
Many of us bonded with them and started throwing off old traditions quickly. We stopped wearing jackets to meals. For many, straight-leg pants gave way to bell bottoms, and neckties to love beads.
By the end of my first semester, Hamilton loosened limitations on when women could visit our dorms. By the end of the first year, those rules disappeared entirely. Our view of the world and our actions changed quickly, too.
I’m sure that all of us can think of instances of rapid culture change, perhaps driven by dramatic and painful events—just think of how quickly spending habits in America changed in recent years. But changes that arise from negative circumstances, even if necessary, are often met with fear, anxiety, resentment and even anger.
What I’ve learned by comparing my Hamilton/Kirkland experience to changes caused by crises is that change for positive reasons is a lot easier and lot less painful. Our role as business leaders is to make sure that the changes we want to see are attractive to those who have to adapt their behavior. We need to emphasize the positive reasons for a change so employees won’t fear or resist it but will voluntarily adapt on their own.
Looking for positive incentives in line with business objectives that benefit individuals and teams is the surest way I know to generate long-standing adaptations.
Dear Morale Booster:
Explain the rationale for the consolidation to your employees. Tell them what it means for the organization and, in particular, the workforce. Will the move lead to an increase in strength or opportunity for the company? Acknowledge the employees’ uncertainties and give them answers, as best you can while sharing the purpose behind the combined organization.
Articulate what the change process consists of, what the workforce should expect on an organizational and operations level, and listen to their comments. It is critical to understand them and address any and all concerns in a timely and efficient manner.
Consider providing a process that allows employees to understand and express their emotions and move forward. This might include a change-management workshop or a discussion forum.
Provide support to managers so that they are equipped to work with employees to address their concerns. Consider holding a meeting to discuss this process and ensure that all managers are communicating consistent messages.
Communicate internally before communicating externally. Nothing is worse than hearing news about your organization from an outside source before hearing it from management.
SOURCE: Ron Elsdon, Elsdon Inc., author of “Affiliation in the Workplace,” editor of “Building Workforce Strength,” Danville, California
LEARN MORE: Also remember to gauge your workplace soon after the merger is complete, and live up to any actions your organization promises.
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.
I came upon the Midget City News by accident.
When my great uncle died in 1997, my grandmother, mom and I went to his apartment to collect his things. My uncle had been a loner in his later years after his wife died. He was also somewhat of a hoarder with an apartment full of knickknacks and novelties.
Without any heirs—other than a half-dozen cats—or any other living immediate family members in the area besides his sister (my grandmother), there was no one else to go through his stuff before the landlord gutted the place.
As an asthmatic, I learned quickly that this was not the place for me. The stench was horrific. While I was gasping for air and realizing I had to get out of there quickly, I noticed an old newspaper in a plastic cover: Midget City News. Whether my uncle bought it or acquired it firsthand, I’ll never know. Intrigued, I took it home and it has sat in my home office ever since. I hadn’t even taken it out of the bag until I began composing this blog for fear that the brittle pages would decompose. The newspaper was produced in 1934 as part of the Century of Progress World’s Fair that took place in Burnham Park on the Near South Side of Chicago.
Indeed, part of the World’s Fair had what was known as a “Midget Village” modeled after the “ancient Bavarian city of Dinkelspuhl” (perhaps a misspelling of Dinkelsbühl) populated by “Lilliputians” who were led by Mayor Major Doyle. The newspaper has stories about “the world’s tiniest filling station” and a $1,000 reward to “any normally proportioned midget of the adult age of 21 years for men and 18 years for women, who is found to be as tiny in stature as, respectively for sex, Capt. Werner Ritter or Miss Margaret Ann Robinson.”
While today this offensive exhibit would never take place, or at least we hope it wouldn’t, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for the 1930s. People with dwarfism have historically had a hard time finding work, so it has been common for them to entertain to make ends meet, whether it’s on the carnival circuit, the big screen as “Munchkins” or “Oompa Loompas,” or TV shows such as Half Pint Brawlers. So has progress really been made?
I emailed Gary Arnold, president of the Little People of America, or LPA, to get his take. “I think the most significant difference between this generation and previous generations is awareness,” Arnold told me.
Of course, I didn’t know this at the time, but the LPA, a not-for-profit that was formed in 1957 to support people of small stature, had been embroiled in somewhat of a controversy when the entertainment website TMZ ran a story that quoted the LPA under the headline ” ‘Snow White’ Screwed Us Out of Dwarf Roles!!!” The story was about how the movie Snow White & the Huntsman used, with the help of movie magic, average-sized actors instead of people with dwarfism as the dwarfs in the film. You can read Arnold’s response to that story here.
Today, thanks in part to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the estimated 30,000 people with dwarfism in the United States are protected against workplace discrimination. But, as we all know, discrimination hasn’t been eradicated. Arnold pointed to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case from last year where a barista with dwarfism was fired from Starbucks, reportedly because she asked for a stool to do her job. Starbucks later settled with the woman for $75,000.
Arnold also explained how the late Paul Steven Miller, the former commissioner of the EEOC who had dwarfism, had experienced discrimination. In Miller’s 1994 Senate testimony at his EEOC confirmation hearing, he stated that in the 1980s, when he was starting his career, he was highly recruited out of law school until people saw or learned how tall he was. Miller even said that one law firm told him that it wouldn’t hire him because it didn’t want clients to think it was running “a circus freak show.”
The LPA is taking an employment survey of its members, and Arnold shared some early returns: Of the 151 respondents 48 percent said they had experienced pre-employment discrimination; 31 percent said that physical access had been a barrier in their careers; 18 percent said workplace accommodations were denied or inadequate; almost 8 percent said they are unemployed and looking for work; and only 27 percent reported that they had no employment barriers. Overall, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that the unemployment rate for people with a disability was a staggering 15 percent, almost double the overall unemployment rate.
In 2012, we’ve come a long way from “Midget Villages” and “circus freak shows,” but barriers will still exist until hiring managers understand that being small in stature does not preclude someone from being big in ability.
James Tehrani is Workforce Management’s copy desk chief. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
I spent last week on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. If you’ve never been there, do yourself a favor a take a trip. It’s about as perfect of a vacation spot you can find in the continental 48 (see sunset below).
On the last day of our vacation, my family took a dolphin cruise through the Calibogue Sound. It was a hands-on trip for the kids. They got to cast a fishing net, pull up a crab pot, and fish for shark. The ship’s captain told us that they usually catch a lot of shark.
For example, the day earlier they had reeled in 19, including two baby hammerheads. So, it was with much excitement that my daughter cast her line into the sound. After about five minutes (an eternity for a 6-year-old) she started asking when she would catch her shark. My wife explained that fishing is more about patience and relaxation than actually catching fish.
As you would imagine, that did not go over so well with my newly minted first-grader, although she did stick with it and enjoyed the experience. We, however, were not the only ones having issues.
The captain moved the boat to what he hoped would be more fertile water. It wasn’t. She moved again, hoping the third time would be the charm. It wasn’t, and she had to call it a day. Indeed, on our cruise, only one shark was reeled in (by the boy next to us, much to my daughter’s chagrin).
As I am wont to do when I am not blogging, I began to think about what this tale could teach you, my readers. Much like fishing, in dealing with marginally performing workers, employers must know when to fish and when to call it a day. And, much like our ship’s captain, you usually don’t quit at the first sign of failure.
Employees are investments—of time, training, salary and benefits. Unless an employee commits an egregious violation of the rules that cannot be tolerated, most deserve multiple chances to prove themselves worthy.
Performance problems are not terminable offenses; they are teaching opportunities. Use them to hone your employees, and only terminate when an employee proves himself or herself un-teachable. You will be surprised how many employees you can rehabilitate (and investments you can save) merely by resisting the urge to cut bait too early on your marginal performers.
I’ll miss experiencing the sunsets at Harbour Town, but I’m happy to be home, and, believe it or not, happy to be back at work.
To visit the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, click here or email jth@kjk.com or call (216) 736-7226.
