|
|
The guiding principle of employee surveys is that if you are not prepared to take action on the results, then you should not conduct the survey. Research has shown that after completing a survey, employees are more interested in seeing positive change than they are in hearing about the results. Employee surveys have little or no value if they are not used to improve the workplace. This is why an effective action planning process is possibly the most important component of a successful employee survey.
Survey results are merely a starting point. Because survey results do not fully depict the underlying root causes of key issues, action planning is needed in the form of discussions between managers and employees so opportunities for improvement can be identified and potential solutions developed. Taking action on these opportunities enhances the work environment, and increases the overall level of employee engagement.
Although action planning is the most important part of the survey process, it is also the one activity that many organizations fail to deliver against. One of the primary reasons for this failure is the lack of a clear and consistent action planning process across the organization. The ideal situation is for each manager (from top management to first-line supervisors) who receives a survey report to work with his/her team to identify and prioritize areas requiring improvement, then develop and implement an improvement plan that is regularly reviewed.
There are five key steps involved in the action planning process:
- Review survey results
- Conduct survey feedback sessions
- Complete survey action planning
- Communicate and implement improvement actions
- Measure results and celebrate success
A thorough action planning process will greatly enhance the value of your survey and demonstrate to employees that your company is committed to building a positive workplace. It’s not only the right thing to do for your people, but it also makes good business sense.
My wife works for one of the largest financial institutions in the world. This weekend while she toiled away on writing mid-year performance appraisals for her direct reports I couldn’t help but think about how many managers view this activity as pure drudgery and just another task to check off their HR action item list. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
It’s true that performance appraisals, regardless of how frequently they are conducted, are a necessary part of the overall performance management process. However, the appraisal event itself does little (if anything) to impact the critical outcomes associated with an effective performance management process such as aligning individual and team/company goals, establishing clear accountability for performance, providing employees with formal coaching and feedback focused on improving future performance, and linking employee development plans to performance.
Unfortunately, most companies don’t seem to get it. According to a 2008 study conducted by Bersin & Associates, 80% of companies conduct annual performance appraisals, but only 57% of the nearly 1000 organizations surveyed have a standardized process for establishing goals for individual employees. In addition, less than half of the organizations studied align individual goals to corporate goals, link training to employee development goals or have formal coaching programs. What a missed opportunity!
Performance management should not be viewed as a once or twice a year “task” but instead as an ongoing, daily driver of business value. When the process is designed and implemented correctly it isn’t drudgery. When done properly it’s a key enabler for assisting managers and employees in achieving their business goals and a driver of organizational effectiveness.
Of all the core human resource processes in your organization, I would argue that performance management is the most important to overall productivity and business performance. Where does your organization stand? Do you have a clearly defined performance management process? If yes, how effective is it? How would your managers and employees answer that question? If you’re not getting the most from your process, I encourage you to take action to improve it. It can have a profound impact on the success of your organization.
The study of the brain is evolving and is now beginning to provide insights that can be applied to how we develop leaders. The field of NeuroLeadership is still in its infancy, but two important themes are emerging with implications for leadership development. First, much of what motivates us and drives our behavior is governed by the principle of minimizing threat and maximizing reward. Second, several domains of social experience utilize the same brain networks as are used for primary survival needs. In other words, the brain basically treats social needs in the same way it does the need for food and water.
The SCARF model summarizes these two themes in a framework that captures the common factors that can activate either a reward or threat response in social situations. The model involves five domains of human social experience: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. In a nutshell, Status refers to our feelings of importance relative to others, Certainty concerns being able to predict the future, Autonomy is about our sense of control over events, Relatedness refers to our sense of safety with others, and Fairness is our perception of fair exchanges between people.
These five domains activate either the reward or threat networks within our brain. When we experience a social stimulus that is “good”, the brain tags it as such and our response is to approach the stimulus. However, when our brain tags something as “bad”, our response is to disengage or avoid the situation.
So, why is this important? Because when we feel threatened in any of these five domains the increased brain activation actually inhibits our problem-solving and decision-making skills, as well as our motivation, collaboration and ability to manage stress. The bottom line is that such threats have a signicant negative impact on our performance. On the other hand, an approach (reward) response is linked to positive emotions and better overall performance.
The implication for leadership development is that this model provides a robust framework for enhancing both the self-awareness of leaders, as well as a leader’s understanding of the effect of their behavior on others. Leaders may sometimes negatively impact the SCARF domains without even realizing it. For example, they often create a Status threat by providing too much direction and not enough positive feedback to employees. They may create a Certainty threat by not providing clear expectations for performance. They may negatively impact Autonomy by micro-managing, or create a Relatedness threat by maintaining too much professional distance from their people. And they may negatively impact Fairness by not being transparent enough.
Employees tend to work harder for leaders who make them feel good about themselves, provide clear expecations, empower decision making, demonstrate trust, and treat all employees fairly because the relationship itself is intrinsically rewarding. These kinds of leaders activate an “approach” response and facilitate higher levels of enagement and performance from their people. The SCARF model, and the science of NeuroLeadership in general, hold great promise for helping organizations design new strategies for developing more effective leaders, managers and coaches.
As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is especially true for companies who view their new hire orientation process as a necessary evil rather than what it can be – an opportunity to create a lasting, positive image of your company with incoming employees.
When orientation is not a priority, companies miss a perfect opportunity to instill their values, corporate culture, and beliefs toward 3rd-party representation with new employees from Day 1. These are all important elements of a strong foundation for building and maintaining a positive workplace. What’s worse, they stifle the employee’s excitement and enthusiasm for their new opportunity.
Taking the time to thoughtfully plan and execute your orientation program is a worthwhile investment of time and resources to get the new employee up to speed as a productive, fully engaged member of the team as soon as possible. Although no two orientation programs are exactly alike, here are some potential ideas to consider when designing your program.
- Before the new employee reports on the first day, send him or her a package that provides an overall picture of the organization and conveys your excitement about them coming on board. Keep it light but try to help them “connect the dots.”
- Obtain some personal information about the new employee’s hobbies, interests, and background and distribute it around the office. This will make it easier for your staff or team to extend a warm welcome.
- Begin the first day of the orientation program with a personal welcome from your CEO. This is a powerful way to send a message that “we value our employees”, and it will give the new hires a positive feeling about the corporate culture and about their new jobs. If this is not logistically feasible then enlist the support of another senior executive.
- Include a welcome reception at the beginning of the first day to celebrate the decision of the new hires to join your company. This is a simple step that will help build camaraderie among the new people.
- Take time, but not too much time, to cover the rules and values of your company. Review key company policies, but don’t bore the new hires with too much detailed information. Distribute an employee handbook so they can read the details at their leisure. Also use this time to complete any mandatory forms. Most importantly, describe the corporate culture and provide clear expectations for employee behavior. War stories or an internally produced video can enhance new hire understanding of your key messages. Involve as many people as possible in the program to give the new hires a chance to meet several people in the organization.
- Give the new employees a tour of the facility to get a “lay of the land.” Don’t forget to show them their new workspace as this is what they will be most interested in seeing. Ensure it is clean and everything they will need to do their job (e.g., desk, chair, phone, computer) is set up beforehand.
- Establish a planned agenda for the new hire’s first 1-2 weeks on the job, including brief meetings with key people he or she will be working with. Consider limiting the meetings to the morning, followed by lunch with a key manager or executive. Try to leave the afternoons open to allow the employee time to begin to get acclimated to his/her new role and work environment.
- Establish a buddy system and pair each new employee with an existing staff member to answer any questions that come up and to check on how things are going from time to time.
Most of us are probably familiar with Bruce Tuckman’s model of team development which includes four stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. First published in 1965, it is still widely used today to explain the behavior of teams as they progress from inception to high performance. But what are the characteristics of a high-performance team? What sets a “great” team apart from one that is merely “good”, or one where the team members are still learning how to work effectively with one another?
Howard Guttman identifies the following eight attributes of high-performance teams in his book, Great Business Teams: Cracking the Code for Standout Performance, John Wiley & Sons (2008). These attributes build upon Tuckman’s original work. As you read them, ask yourself “how does my team stack-up?”
- Clear team goals – team members understand the performance goals of the team and how they support the strategic direction of the business overall
- Right team members / players are in place – the team is made up of team members who possess the skills needed to achieve the team’s goals; skill sets are complementary
- Clear roles & responsibilities - each team member understands his/her role on the team as well as the roles and responsbilities of all other team members
- Commitment to winning for the business over self-interest – in our previous blog we discussed how great team players put the success of the team and organization above that of themselves
- Agreed-upon protocols for decision making and conflict resolution – high-performance teams establish clear protocols or ground rules for how they will make decisions and resolve conflict
- Sense of ownership / accountability for business results – team members think like owners or as if they are members of the Board of Directors; they not only hold themselves accountable for results, but also their fellow team members, peers and even the team leader
- Comfort dealing with conflict – team members are comfortable dealing with uncomfortable situations and address conflict in a timely, productive manner without the need for team leader facilitation or guidance
- Periodic self-assessment – high-performance teams take time to assess how they are doing on a regular basis and make adjustments as needed
So, how did you assess your own team against these attributes? Are you functioning as a high-performing team today, or do you have lots of room for improvement? How would your other team members, team leader, customers, or suppliers evaluate you on these attributes?
The goal or desired state for any team should be to function in the manner described by these eight attributes. Taking the time to honestly evaluate (from multiple perspectives) your team performance / behavior in each of these areas is a great way to assess your current strengths and identify key areas to focus on for further team development.
All great teams share two important things in common: 1) an effective team leader; and 2) high performing team members. While team member skills and behavior are critical to team success, it all begins with the team member’s mindset. How do team members perceive themselves and the team? What characteristics and behaviors do they believe are required for membership on a great team? For many teams, the transformation from good to great often begins with a change in mindset. Although the team leader plays a key role in facilitating this transformation, it is ultimately up to the individual team members to change their way of thinking in four key ways.
1. Think Like An Owner – great team players think (and act) like they are owners of the business or members of the Board of Directors. They stay focused on the strategic goals of the company and what they can do to help stay ahead of the competition. They try to maximize the ROI of their decisions and are more interested in the health of the company overall than in the performance of their division or function.
2. Put Team Above Self - great team players are team members first and individuals second. They are unselfish and willingly sacrifice personal acclaim or recognition for the good of the team. Ask Michael Jordan which is more important to him, the many personal accomplishments and records he garnered or the team championships. Which do you think he would choose?
3. Embrace Accountability - great team players not only hold themselves accountable for their own performance, but they also hold their direct reports, peers and team leaders accountable for holding up their end of the bargain. On the highest performing teams, team members even take accountability for the success of the organization as a whole. Granted, it’s not always easy to hold others accountable, especially when you are not in a position of direct authority over the individual(s) involved. But that’s exactly what great team players do. On many teams this may require the team leader’s facilitation and guidance, but on truly high-performing teams the team members address behavioral or performance problems head-on and develop their own solutions to these issues.
4. Go Beyond Personal Comfort Zone - it’s true, “stuff happens.” At various points in time along a team’s path to high performance, team members will break commitments, fail to achieve expected levels of performance, behave in ways that are inconsistent with the values of the team or organization, conflict with one another over important issues, or find themselves in any number of other situations that are difficult to deal with. To be successful, team members must learn to move beyond their personal comfort zone and become comfortable in dealing with uncomfortable situations.
When each team member demonstrates a willingness to change their thinking in these four key ways the team as a whole will be well on its way to achieving great things.
Recently I was reading the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) Q1 2010 research quarterly entitled, Successfully Transitioning to a Virtual Organization: Challenges, Impact and Technology. A key point from the article was that “effective leadership is the number one factor that influences success in a virtual organization.” The article goes on to state, “Leadership skills are even more essential for virtual work. They include a strong focus on relationships, emotional intelligence, a track record of results and innovation, a focus on process and outcome, and the ability to give positive and constructive feedback. Also important is the ability to teach and coach others and provide recognition both formally and informally in ways that show appreciation and motivate continued success.”
As Homer Simpson would say, “doh!” Am I missing something? These sure sound like the very same skills that leaders require to be successful in any organization, including those where the majority of work is conducted in a traditional office-based setting. I’d argue that effective leadership is the most important driver of success for any organization.
Granted, managing virtual teams requires some different behaviors than managing co-located groups. For example, how you communicate, the use of technology, and how you manage team meetings may all vary in a virtual work environment. However, the fundamental principles of leadership are the same. Whether virtual or co-located, successful leaders must develop and drive a compelling vision, make effective decisions, reduce complexity, empower others and continuously strive to develop themselves.
Show me someone who can do all these things well, and I’ll show you someone who can be a successful leader in any work environment.
Thanksgiving Day is a time when we pause to give thanks for the things we have to be thankful for. Memorial Day is a day when we pause to give thanks to the men and women who have fought for the things we have.
Take time today to say, “thank you”.
The National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations in the rail and airline industries, has adopted a rule that makes it easier for unions to win representation elections. Under the old rules, a union had to receive votes from over half the eligible voters to become the bargaining representative. With the change, a union just has to receive votes from over half the people who vote.
For example, under the old rules, a union that wants to represent 1,000 airline workers would have to get 501 votes in favor of the union. If it got 500 ‘yea’ votes and one ‘nay’ vote, it would lose the representation election. Under the new rules, the union would only have to get a majority of the 501 employees voting, or 251.
Under the old rules employees who didn’t want the union could cast a ‘no’ vote simply by not voting in the election. But uncertain or apathetic employees who never got around to voting were also counted as ‘no’ votes.
The NMB published in the Federal Register on Monday:
“As part of its ongoing efforts to further the statutory goals of the Railway Labor Act, the National Mediation Board (NMB or Board) is amending its Railway Labor Act rules to provide that, in representation disputes, a majority of valid ballots cast will determine the craft or class representative. This change to its election procedures will provide a more reliable measure/indicator of employee sentiment in representation disputes and provide employees with clear choices in representation matters.”
Industry experts are speculating that one of the first targets for new organizing efforts will be Delta Air Lines. The only big labor group organized there is the pilots. One would expect an effort soon targeted at organizing flight attendants and mechanics. JetBlue Airways, the largest U.S. airline to have no union representation, might also be in the crosshairs.
As you’d expect, unions praised the NMB’s decision:
“Thousands of Machinists union members and hundreds of members of Congress told the NMB that it was time to end its 75-year practice of imposing a viewpoint on people who, either by choice or by chance, do not participate in representation elections,” said IAM General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. “IAM attorneys will evaluate this new rule to determine its impact on several upcoming elections in the air and rail industry.”
“Workers should be able to vote for a union in a system that isn’t rigged to arbitrarily assign meaning to votes that weren’t cast,” Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO. “With the change announced today, union elections in the airline and rail industries stand a real chance of reflecting the true will of the employees that vote.”
“We applaud the NMB for taking this historic and courageous step to bring democracy to union elections,” said Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) International President Patricia Friend. “… Allowing workers to have a voice in these elections, whether it be yes or no, will only bring benefits to all parties. We look to airline management and their third party supporters to respect their employees’ voices and the concept that guides our country every day, and not to bog down this significant achievement in legal appeals.”
I hope the brass at Delta and JetBlue have been reading our blog. We’ve forewarned about such pending changes in labor policy and stressed the importance of a proactive approach to building and maintaining a positive workplace. Unfortunately, it’s probably too late now for proactive strategies to do much good. It looks like it’s time to batten down the hatches and prepare for battle!
Watching game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night got me thinking about what’s a more important source of influence on performance, personal motivation or ability? What the Flyers accomplished was nothing short of amazing. After losing the first three games they rallied to win the series by taking the final four games, winning two of those games on the road. If that wasn’t enough, they did it in exciting fashion by rallying from a three goal deficit in game 7 to win 4-3!
Given that the rosters of both teams are filled with professional hockey players, it’s hard to imagine that either team had much of an edge in terms of overall ability. But the determination and internal motivation displayed by the Flyers was superior. They simply wanted it more than the Bruins did. Surely other factors were important as well, such as coaching, injuries, the bounce of the puck, etc. Nevertheless, it’s a shining example of what human beings can accomplish when they are strongly motivated to perform.
While motivation is sometimes powerful enough to overcome many challenges, it isn’t always enough. For example, I might be highly motivated to win a golf tournament but if the field is studded with PGA Tour players I don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell. I simply don’t possess the ability needed to compete successfully against golfers of that caliber. The point is, both motivation and ability play a huge role in determining performance and the importance of each will vary by individual and by situation. But they aren’t the only factors that influence performance. This fact is evident not only in sports, but in business as well.
Managers in all companies are often faced with how to address poor employee performance. It’s a chronic, persistent problem with no simple solution. Too often the initial response is a knee-jerk reaction to send the poor performer to a training class to address their presumed skill deficiency. In instances like this, the implied belief is that it’s an ‘ability’ issue. But unless the manager and employee have diagnosed the underlying causes of poor performance they have no way of knowing whether a training course will address the issues and improve performance. It becomes simply another quick-fix that typically results in a waste of time and money.
A better approach is to first examine the reasons for the performance issues, then determine the appropriate solution strategies. Complex problems like chronic poor performance may have multiple causes and are not easily solved. Rarely will a single intervention, such as a training course, effectively address the many causes and resolve the problem. In addition to insufficient ability, other potential causes for performance shortfalls might include low employee motivation to perform the job, the manager not establishing clear expectations for performance upfront with the employee, a lack of personal accountability for results on the part of the employee, social factors such as peer pressure or an organizational culture that tolerates and reinforces poor performance, or environmental factors such as the lack of necessary tools or resources required for adequate performance.
The next time you are faced with employee performance issues, take time to clearly diagnose the causes of the problem before jumping to a quick-fix, potentially inappropriate solution. In order to change employee behavior and improve performance you will want to consider using several strategies designed to address the various causes identified. By doing so you will greatly increase your chances of success and benefit both the employee and the organization as well.
|
