Four Key Steps to Effective Development Plans
Uncategorised September 23, 2010 0

Four Key Steps to Effective Development Plans

Are employee reviews really enough?

According to HR expert Susan M. Heathfeld, they’re not. And I agree! Although automating employee appraisals can make HR’s life a lot easier, the truth is there is a lot more to it than that. What your organization really needs is a complete performance and talent management process to work alongside the traditional employee appraisal. In other words, a holistic solution or as Healthfeld puts it, a system.

Long gone are the days (or at least, one can only hope) where the words ‘performance management’ are associated solely with an annual review.  Today’s employees want more. They want to feel valued. They want to learn and grow with an organization. This is where the development plan comes into play.

Once your company has executed a performance review process and you have some data under your belt, the next steps would be to examine and deliver the results (both positive and negative) to your employees on an individual basis. Before doing so, however, you’ll want to nail down a way to put forth effective development plans so that your employees live long and prosper (within the organization, that is).

The development plan is essentially the “follow-up” or “follow-through” to the review process. It’s a crucial part of the system, and should not be taken lightly.

At a high-level, a successful employee development plan can be packaged up into four key steps:

  1. Identify areas of improvement
  2. Define, set and manage goals
  3. Establish a plan of action
  4. Follow-up and re-assess

If you’re already utilizing some sort of automated appraisal solution, then identifying areas of improvement should be a piece of cake. An automated application will allow you to effortlessly analyze your performance review data with reporting and analysis features (refer to my blog on the benefits of effective reporting), hence making it simple to spot areas of strength and weakness.

An automated solution will also make it easy for you to define, set-up and manage employee goals. In the case of a development plan, it’s imperative that managers sit down and work out personal goals with each employee. These goals should be relevant to any issues they may be having or weak points they need to improve on. In addition, these goals should be documented in one central location so that the employees can refer back to them throughout the year to keep them fresh and top of mind.

Establishing a plan of action can include anything that will help employees strive to obtain their goals. Take, for example, training. According to a recent article, employee performance training not only increases business productivity, but it boosts employee confidence and morale. Putting together a targeted training or education plan is another way to achieve goals and facilitate the overall development plan.

The follow-up is quite possibly the most fundamental step in the triumph of any development plan. If a manager does not take the time to follow up with their employees on how they are doing, then your development plan can quickly fall to pieces and become completely redundant. It’s important to “check-in” every once in a while, and closely monitor progress and how your employees are getting on.

What are some of the key elements you think make or break a development plan?

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Other Blogs... September 9, 2010 0

Get Smart about Succession Planning: The Value of Developing and Retaining Top Talent

Business working together

In a world where global competition is fierce and high-quality employees are hard to come by, the idea of grooming and retaining talent should always be kept top of mind.

As we’ve all seen firsthand with the recent economic recession, the environment we live in is volatile. And unless you have a crystal ball or psychic powers, you can never really predict what’s going to happen when it comes to your business or your employees. Like the environment we live in, people are also unpredictable. They can get scooped up by the competition, fall ill or jump ship at any time.

 

So ask yourself this: What would you do if a key employee resigned tomorrow? Are you prepared?

Several recent studies show that the aftershock of the recession has left employees feeling uneasy about their jobs and futures with current employers. To counter this, organizations should be doing everything they can to retain and develop their existing talent. After all, having to re-hire, train and develop a new employee is easier said than done. It requires time, money and energy, making good talent something you just can’t afford to lose.

There are succession planning tools that you can integrate into your performance management process to help keep you on your toes when it comes to any unexpected, internal turbulence, as well as prepare you for the long-haul.

 

When implementing a succession planning tool, consider the following:

Performance Reviews. You should be able to easily tie-in your annual appraisals to your succession plan so that HR and managers can draw from performance history of employees through past reviews.

Best practices. Consider a tool that incorporates the Nine-Box Talent Matrix. This is an industry best practice that will give you visibility into your internal talent and allow you to identify top individuals in your organization that have the potential to meet new challenges.

Development Plans. According to Linkage, one of the most common mistakes when it comes to succession planning is that companies fail or neglect to execute individual development plans for their employees. Make sure you are using a tool that allows you to link in development and training so you can cultivate your talent.

Gen X and Y. In a recent article, author Cheryl Cran of “101 Ways to Make Generations X, Y & Zoomers Happy at Work” discusses the idea of “generational succession planning.” When thinking about succession planning it’s important to take into account the wants and needs of the ‘up-and-comers’, also known as the future of today’s organizations. As Cran puts it, “To foster effective transitions, companies need to create an environment attractive to Gen X, Y and Zoomer generations.”

 

In short, companies need to “get smart” about retaining and developing their talent. In today’s day and age, you can’t afford to not incorporate some sort of succession planning tool into your business plan.

Warning: Failing to do so can be harmful to both the short and long-term health of your organization!

 

 

Other Blogs... September 1, 2010 0

The Benefits of Effective Reporting and Analysis

The Benefits of Effective Reporting and AnalysisIn last week’s blog, we took a look at five key things to look for in an automated solution, including the ability to execute flexible reports and analysis.

This week I’d like to elaborate on said capabilities because let’s face it; it’s next to impossible to do any sort of organized and consistent reporting with a manual process, and if you can, it’s likely to be time-consuming and ineffective!

Not to sound like a broken record but if you can’t easily report on results then why bother? Ask yourself this: when it comes down to crunch time and management wants to see results from this year’s appraisal process, and fast, what do you do?

Is that data readily available at your fingertips? Or do you have to go looking for it through a mound of paperwork? Do you dedicate multiple resources to pull it together and create the reports manually? That could days or even weeks!

An automated solution not only takes the stress and hassle out of this crucial step in the appraisal process, it also gives you the ability to effectively report and analyze your employee data both during and post-review time. Consider the following.

 

When it comes down to reporting and analysis, an automated system should:

• Come loaded with a selection of pre-defined, web-based reports as well as the ability to create flexible, ad hoc reports. Depending on the needs of your organization, you should have the option to select from a list or set-up your own reports in a way that is valuable to your business.
• Give you access to real-time reports that allow you to pull up-to-the-minute results and keep management informed on where people are in the process at all times (see example below).
• Allow you to save and export your reports in a variety of different formats (.pdf, excel, etc).
• Allow end users to automatically receive reports on a scheduled basis via email

 

Reporting and analysis can help you determine:

• Which managers have a tendency to rate either too high or too low
• Who your top performers and high potentials are
• How many people are contributing to the overall goals of the organization
• What they’re doing as individuals to support those goals
• Who is above and below average in terms of performance
• Results between divisions, departments and positions
• Year over year employee performance trends and rating changes

Overall, the power to report on performance review data will give you greater insight into your talent pool and the information you need to better your business, and help run a smoother, tighter ship!

For more information on analytical reporting click here.

 

The Benefits of Automating Employee Reviews
Performance Reviews August 11, 2010 0

The Benefits of Automating Employee Reviews

The Benefits of Automating Employee ReviewsIf you’re an HR professional still going through a manual process come appraisal time, the idea of employee performance reviews may leave a sour taste in your mouth. Why? Simply put: a paper-based solution is no longer the logical solution.

There’s a reason why paper-based systems can have a bad rep and why even the mention of the word “review” may be followed by a whole lot of huffing and puffing from employees. If you’ve ever been a part of a tedious and inefficient manual appraisal process, then you probably know what I’m talking about.

… and I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way!

If you’re already using an automated solution, then kudos! But if you’re stuck under a mound of paper-work come performance review season, then maybe it’s time to take that process and throw it in the trash (literally). After all, in a world where everything is automatic, why should performance reviews be an exception?

An automated solution can transform the “dreaded” appraisal process into a manageable and even pleasantly positive experience. Here are a few things you may want to consider:

 

Paper-free equals hassle-free

Paper methods are usually time-consuming and vulnerable to human error. With an automated solution, long over are the days of lost appraisals, chasing down employees and manually tracking a paper process.

 

Time is money

Implementing an automated solution considerably reduces time spent executing an appraisal process from start to finish. The result? An increase in ROI and the ability to focus on other important HR deliverables. By automating a potentially labour intensive activity you’ll save yourself multiple headaches, increase productivity and become more efficient as a department.

 

Keep it central

Automating employee reviews helps make the process easier on everyone, HR management and employees included. A web-based system keeps everything in one central place, making it easy to track the review process as it moves along and ensure it remains on schedule.

 

Align and track goals

Use automated software to align employee goals to those of the organization and give them a clearer understanding of how their own goals fit into the company as a whole. Easily track the progress, and help grow, develop and retain existing talent through goal-setting.

 

If you are part of an evolving organization, a manual process may not cut it. An automated solution can open up the doors to a whole new world of possibilities; succession planning, 360 reviews, pay for performance… the list goes on (but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, we’ll save those topics for later)!

With all of the possibilities an automated solution brings to you as an HR professional, we can’t find any reason not to automate.