Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach

Join us for a our complimentary seminar: “Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach.” This program has been approved for 2 general credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Thursday, March 6 – Lafayette, California
Complimentary Continental Breakfast – 8:30 a.m
Seminar – 9 to 11 a.m.

Many employers have an annual review process during which managers and employees alike experience much angst, as well as much resistance.  Often, the angst occurs because the ratings used in the process have an impact on salaries and salary increases.  At the same time, many question whether the process actually has a positive impact on productivity and employee engagement.

Led by Shari Dunn, Managing Director, this seminar will explore ways to significantly improve the effectiveness of your company’s process by eliminating performance appraisals as we currently know them, and replacing them with more focused, objective, and less threatening tools that actually work.

To register, please contact Sarah Gersumky via the Events page of our web site.  Seating is very limited.  All human resources professionals are welcome.

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Shari Dunn to speak at the 2013 California HR Conference presented by PIHRA

 

 

 

On August 26, 2013, in Anaheim CA, Shari Dunn, Managing Director of CompAnalysis, part of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s Human Resources Consulting Practice, will speak on her popular topic “Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach.”

The California HR Conference® by Professionals In Human Resources Association (PIHRA) is committed to furthering the professional development of California HR professionals and to bringing new ideas and approaches to organizations.  With 55 years of experience, PIHRA presents thought-provoking learning sessions, engaging networking events, and a vast exposition hall.

PIHRA partnered with B2B Media Company to co-locate the California HR Conference® and the Enterprise Learning! Conference & Expo (ELCE). The combined conference will be the largest affiliate of SHRM conference with a total of more than 3,200 attendees.

For more information, visit http://cahrconference.org/

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

 

Performance Appraisals: Time for a New Strategy

Noma Bruton, EVP/Chief Human Resources Officer at Pacific Mercantile Bank and member of the California Bankers Association, writes on performance management at:

http://sagacityatlarge.com/

Thanks, Noma!  Great minds think alike!

 

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach

Join us for a new seminar in our complimentary series: “Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach.” This program has been approved for 2 general credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Thursday, July 11, 2013
Lafayette, CA

Complimentary Continental Breakfast – 7:30 a.m.
Seminar – 8 to 10 a.m.

This is the time of year many employers initiate the “annual review” process during which managers and employees alike experience much angst, as well as much resistance.  Often, the angst occurs because the ratings used in the process have an impact on salaries and salary increases.  At the same time, many question whether the process actually has a positive impact on productivity and employee engagement.

Led by Shari Dunn, Managing Director, this seminar will explore ways to significantly improve the effectiveness of your company’s process by eliminating performance appraisals as we currently know them, and replacing them with more focused, objective, and less threatening tools that actually work.

To register, please contact Sarah Gersumky via the Events page of our web site.  Seating is very limited.  All human resources professionals are welcome.

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach

Join us for a new seminar in our complimentary series: “Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach.” This program has been approved for 2 general credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Thursday, June 6 – San Francisco, California
Complimentary Continental Breakfast – 8:30 a.m
Seminar – 9 to 11 a.m.

This is the time of year many employers initiate the “annual review” process during which managers and employees alike experience much angst, as well as much resistance.  Often, the angst occurs because the ratings used in the process have an impact on salaries and salary increases.  At the same time, many question whether the process actually has a positive impact on productivity and employee engagement.

Led by Shari Dunn, Managing Director, this seminar will explore ways to significantly improve the effectiveness of your company’s process by eliminating performance appraisals as we currently know them, and replacing them with more focused, objective, and less threatening tools that actually work.

To register, please contact Sarah Gersumky via the Events page of our web site.  Seating is very limited.  All human resources professionals are welcome.

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach

Join us for a new seminar in our complimentary seminar series: “Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach.” This program has been approved for 2 general credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Thursday, April 4 – San Francisco, California
Complimentary Continental Breakfast – 8:30 a.m
Seminar – 9 to 11 a.m.

This is the time of year many employers initiate the “annual review” process during which managers and employees alike experience much angst, as well as much resistance.  Often, the angst occurs because the ratings used in the process have an impact on salaries and salary increases.  At the same time, many question whether the process actually has a positive impact on productivity and employee engagement.

Led by Shari Dunn, Managing Director, this seminar will explore ways to significantly improve the effectiveness of your company’s process by eliminating performance appraisals as we currently know them, and replacing them with more focused, objective, and less threatening tools that actually work.

To register, please contact Sarah Gersumky via the Events page of our web site.  Seating is very limited.  All human resources professionals are welcome.

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach

Join us for a new complimentary seminar in our series: “Performance Management: A Contrarian Approach.” This program has been approved for 2 general credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Thursday, February 7 – San Francisco, California
Complimentary Continental Breakfast – 8:00 a.m
Seminar – 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

or

Thursday, February 21 – Lafayette, CA
Complimentary Continental Breakfast – 7:30 a.m.
Seminar – 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

This is the time of year many employers initiate the “annual review” process during which managers and employees alike experience much angst, as well as much resistance.  Often, the angst occurs because the ratings used in the process have an impact on salaries and salary increases.  At the same time, many question whether the process actually has a positive impact on productivity and employee engagement.

Led by Shari Dunn, Managing Director, this seminar will explore ways to significantly improve the effectiveness of your company’s process by eliminating performance appraisals as we currently know them, and replacing them with more focused, objective, and less threatening tools that actually work.

To register, please contact Sarah Gersumky via the Events page of our web site.  Seating is very limited.  All human resources professionals are welcome.

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Motivating Improved Productivity

The academic community and other theorists regularly question whether financial rewards are actually motivational, or just excuses for organizations to manipulate their poor, overworked employees, who would much prefer to be motivated by the implicit value of the work itself.
(See Alfie Kohn: Punished by Rewards.)

Most organizations are very interested in creating ways to manage performance in such a way as to realize productivity and efficiency gains.  This generally becomes a process of establishing individual and/or team goals that support the organization’s overall business plan or mission.

Focusing on productivity also provides a unique opportunity for organizations to improve communications at all levels.  In the workplace, both employees and their supervisors have their own perceptions about their jobs that frequently don’t match.  This, of course, leads to inefficient work habits and less than optimal results.

Developing a system through which performance results are articulated and documented requires participation on the part of all employees.  This involvement in a communication process often leads to improved productivity in and of itself – even before the connection to financial rewards is made.

An organization that has functional, established teams whose members acknowledge them as such can benefit from a pay-for-performance plan that provides meaningful financial rewards for collaborative goal achievement.  In this context, the facilitation of team processes can be enhanced by making sure that all team members participate equally in the payoff, even if some team members are higher-paid, and/or have higher levels of responsibility than others.  In a sense, they all sink or swim together.  This creates more peer pressure to perform, which is one of the fundamental benefits of establishing teams in the first place.

If it can be shown that difficult-to-achieve goals were met and/or exceeded, and that they resulted in greater outcomes or better operating efficiencies, senior management will feel comfortable proposing higher pay levels, at both base pay and incentive levels.

Although there is much to be said for creating meaningful work for employees, financial rewards are, for most people, powerful motivators.

– Shari Dunn, Managing Director

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Performance Management – the Elephant in the Room

Our senior consulting staff had an interesting conversation about performance management the other day.  We all agreed that, to a large degree, the success or failure of performance management rests with how well (and even, if) a supervisor is able to work with employees to establish goals, monitor goal achievement, help employees develop professionally and evaluate goal achievement.  We also all acknowledged that supervisory training on how to do these things is critical to the successful implementation of a performance management approach.

However, after many years working for, and consulting with, organizations, I have concluded that there’s another point to be made here – for a variety of reasons, some people who happen to hold a supervisory or management title, simply are not good at performance management, despite training.  And I would submit, therefore, that they should NOT be supervising people.  Performance management is too important – it is probably at least 95% of the people management role.

We in HR can train and train some supervisors who, as a result of our efforts, may move from terrible at the job to barely competent. 

Why is this the case and what can we do about it?

The reasons are varied, including that the supervisor:

• was a great individual contributor and so was promoted to supervisor as a reward – but the person’s fundamental skill set does not include supervisory ability
• doesn’t value the supervisory role, even though it’s technically a key part of his or her accountabilities
• would rather be “one of the gang” than have to discuss performance with employees
• is either overly requiring (e.g., focused solely on goal achievement) and not sufficiently caring toward employees (e.g., concerned about professional development and about the person as a whole) or the other way around
• does not display the discipline and organization skills to do the job
• avoids conflict and can’t deal with tough performance issues
• is a poor communicator and epitomizes the “mushroom” theory of management 
• is so focused on his or her own career advancement that he/she doesn’t help people who need supervisory time and attention

You may have encountered these and other reasons for an individual’s failure to do a good job of performance management.   Unfortunately, these problems are not easily solved with training alone and may not be fixable at all.

In my view, organizations need to take several steps to overcome the mismatch between the person and the role requirements that too often occurs, including:

• Use a rigorous selection process in determining individuals who are suited to the supervisory role and who will take performance management seriously.  Often organizations that employ a rigorous process in recruiting and staffing an individual contributor role from outside the organization do not use a similar approach in selecting supervisors from within the organization
• Observe employees prior to moving them into supervision — do they appear to “have what it takes”?
• When a mismatch does occur, do not ignore it, but take steps to remedy the problem, including moving the individual out of the supervisory role

– Margaret Bentson, Principal Consultant

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/

Including Performance Management

Shari Dunn, Managing Director of CompAnalysis, is conducting a seminar for the Northern California Human Resources Association (NCHRA) titled “Including Performance Management in Your Total Rewards Strategy,” on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in San Francisco, CA.

Although the phrase “pay for performance” has become cliché, the concept is sound. It’s the execution that often fails. While some question whether financial incentives actually motivate employees to improve their performance, the causes of failure are more likely flawed program design, implementation and management.

Join us for an in-depth look at how to manage and measure performance more effectively and profitably in the context of your company’s total rewards strategy. Specifically, you’ll leave the seminar able to:

• Define elements of a total rewards strategy
• Distinguish between the means of performance (competencies and behaviors) and the ends (outcomes and results)
• Integrate base salaries and short-term variable cash into a total cash compensation plan
• Sell the new approach to senior management, communicate it to employees, and execute, manage and maintain the plan over time

This seminar qualifies for 5 general recertification credits.  For more information or to register, visit NCHRA.

https://companalysis.wordpress.com/