A Best Practices Guide

A Best Practices Guide

Introduction: The Technology-Driven Performance Workplace Chapter 1: Revolutionize the Review Chapter 2: Reconsider the use of Competencies Chapter 3: Transform Training Chapter 4: Allow for Change Chapter 5: Consider Digital Feedback Chapter 6: Integration Matters Chapter 7: Harness the Power of a Social Mindset Chapter 8: Empower Employees Chapter 9: Mobile Technology Enables Technology-Driven Performance Chapter 10: The ROI of Technology Based Performance Chapter 11: The Bottom Line

The Technology-Driven Performance Workplace The workforce is changing, ushering in a generation with an increasing appetite for technology, demanding instantaneous results, and requiring more interaction than ever before. Technology allows workers to communicate quicker and more effectively while also providing instant access to infinite amounts of information. Technology is also revolutionizing how companies educate develop their most important asset, their people, by accelerating and streamlining performance management and workforce development. For more than a decade, technology has been used to simply track goals, administer and track training and other employee information. Performance tools have now evolved to allow companies to effortlessly conduct more sophisticated activities such as creating corporate goals which cascade throughout the organization so that every employee can see how their individual goals align to company objectives. Additionally, companies are automating the performance evaluation process to create digital records of performance, and facilitating more regular evaluation of employees.

Revolutionize the Review The key to success in utilizing these tools, however, is to avoid using technology to simply automate outdated, paper-based processes. Many companies acknowledge that their current performance review processes yield little benefit. At best, they simply serve to ensure that managers have some type of performance discussion with employees, even if it s only annually. At worst, the discussions take excessive amounts of time, are not accurately representative of the previous year, do not address critical performance gaps, and do not motivate the employee. In some cases, where managers have failed to provide necessary feedback throughout the year, the reviews can even be used against the organization. The goal should be to leverage these tools to make managers and employees more effective while saving time. Annual reviews originated to create a structure to ensure all employees were receiving consistent and fair evaluations, particularly in support of annual merit consideration. However, modern tools can now do far more by making it effortless for managers to do things in real time, such as create and rate goals, evaluate a specific skill for a specific position, and automatically recommend corrective actions such as taking a course, identifying a mentor, or reminding a manager to follow up. Additionally, technology can now be used to increase managerial courage in an age where new employees are being promoted to supervisory positions with limited experience. By utilizing dynamic performance tools, managers can be equipped with tools to effortlessly provide relevant feedback to employees, identify their strengths and weaknesses by referencing a digital checklist of skills for a job, and to provide instant access to all the training necessary for a particular position.

Reconsider the use of Competencies Companies spend a considerable amount of time identifying what they believe to be their core competencies. Yet when forced to rate every individual on those competencies, managers can find themselves struggling to apply relevance to those ratings. For example, rating an employee on customer focus when they have little to no customer interaction can be a challenging exercise. Yet when technology is leveraged, companies can create more intuitive and relevant lists of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for a job, and allow managers to rate those competencies in real time, yielding far more accurate performance indicators. When competencies are more relevant, it becomes far easier to justify increases in compensation, as well as accumulate reasons for termination. In addition, when employee performance falls below certain levels, 2nd-level managers can quickly identify if the immediate supervisor has provided real-time, meaningful and applicable feedback. This process can expose whether a problem is truly an employee issue, or potentially a managerial issue.

Transform training Another opportunity to leverage technology to transform a culture is to change how performance opportunities are addressed. Rather than send individuals to lengthy training -- or worse, do nothing -- organizations should consider utilizing the vast amounts of high quality training (often at low-to-no cost) available on the Internet, and prescribe training at the time an individual is in need of performance improvement. For companies with small budgets, training can now be recorded utilizing mobile devices and delivered online to individuals to remedy very specific development gaps such as sales situations, utilization of equipment, managerial functions, or basic company onboarding. When training is able to be prescribed in real time and addresses specific needs, the time required for performance improvement is greatly reduced.

Allow for change One of the more critical elements in evaluating performance management tools is the ability to change. If dynamic tools allow managers and employees to quickly add or modify goals, change responsibilities, and receive the necessary training they need for unanticipated events, they will become an integral part of the workforce as much as email and other technologies are today.

Consider digital feedback Good job!, Great job!, Excellent job! For many managers and employees, these comments pass as feedback, but when a manager takes the time to put comments in writing a few words for context and clarity, it carries much more weight. For example, Good job on closing that deal today. Your closing ratio is going through the roof! Or, Fantastic presentation, I can t get that story you shared out of my mind! It would also be more powerful and productive if performance tools allowed comments to be recalled in the formal review process. When feedback is captured digitally at the time it occurs, managers no longer have to rely on faulty or incomplete memory to recall that information during the formal review time. It also allows for more of a dialogue between the employee and manager because the employee is able to reply.

Integration matters Historically companies were insistent on finding stand-alone best of breed tools for software in the talent management space (e.g., applicant tracking, performance management, learning management, succession planning, etc.). Most companies now realize the true benefit for all stakeholders (employees, managers, executives, and administrators) in having a single-user experience that seamlessly integrates goals, skills, training, feedback, accomplishments, career plans, and compensation recommendations into a unified, integrated platform. This ensures that companies can easily administer training when needed, and find the correlation between performance and compensation and other critical relationships. What s more, end-user adoption increases dramatically when employees only have to manage one system.

Harness the Power of a Social Mindset In the age of Facebook, LinkedIn, and other tools promoting more interaction with peers, the notion of social tools to facilitate the rating of peers, offering kudos to others, and engaging in collaborative training has never been more prevalent and expected. Technology can now bring those types of functions to your fingertips. So when evaluating the technologies out there, be sure to investigate areas where employees can easily work together to leverage each other s strengths, help develop one another, and foster new levels of communication and culture within the organization.

EMPOWER EMPLOYEES It is often said that employees quit their managers, not their jobs. While many companies have incorporated self-evaluation as part of their review process, technology now has the ability to allow employees to enter their own accomplishments and ratings in real time, as well as feedback from peers and others. Employees can also seek out their own training for future accomplishments or simply to increase skills in their current position. Managers are then automatically notified, and can easily respond with comments. That information is then included in annual reviews, giving a more complete view of an employee s performance throughout the year, and avoiding the possibility that the accomplishments of an employee can be overlooked due to the lack of guidance or recordkeeping by an inexperienced or ineffective manager.

Mobile Technology Enables Technology-Driven Performance Perhaps the most game-changing technology advancement is the increased use of tablets, smartphones, and the latest newcomer, the phablet. Mobile phones can now be used for both managers and employees alike to note accomplishments throughout the year, review and update goals, prescribe training, and offer feedback instantaneously. This not only speeds the creation of annual reviews, but also ensures that action is taken to improve performance immediately.

THE ROI OF TECHNOLOGY BASED PERFORMANCE As with any major purchase or initiative, there must be a thorough understanding of the value and benefit that the investment will deliver. If a powerful, technology-based performance system is properly implemented and utilized, a company will enjoy: o o o o Reduced time spent on annual reviews Reduced cost of training by using shorter, Web-based training programs that address specific skills needed immediately Reduced turnover costs of abandoning weak managers Productivity gains by having more real-time development of skills that align to organizational objectives These cost benefits outweigh the cost of the tools which are now becoming more affordable for companies of all sizes.

The bottom line When considering how to best improve employee and managerial performance, do not simply use technology to automate what has been done for many years and often ineffectively. Rather, consider fundamentally changing how to lead and engage teams in a truly real-time, impactful way. Technology is no longer for computer geeks and IT professionals, but is now an expectation by the generation entering the workforce that demands more dynamic interaction, feedback, and training. Learn more. Click here to watch our 2-minute demo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, COPYRIGHT AND PERMISSION TO USE Paul Meyer has been leading teams in the technology, supply chain management, and HR industries for over 20 years as well as leading marketing efforts for major national building products brands. He currently leads the talent management solutions team at Ascentis and has been promoting the innovative use of technology to streamline the performance and development of employees for over 5 years. Copyright 2014 by Ascentis Corporation, all rights reserved. All Ascentis content, whether print or electronic publication, is the property of Ascentis and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Therefore, Ascentis materials cannot be published without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission-use requests, write marketing@ascentis.com with the subject line Attention: Permissions Coordinator re: (name of publication).

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