HRA NCA Conference HR Skill Building Panel Discussion Effective Performance Management Strategies and Models for the 21st Century Moderator Kim Clark P

							                                 HRA-NCA Conference: HR Skill Building
           Panel Discussion: Effective Performance Management Strategies and Models for the 21st Century
Moderator: Kim Clark-Pakstys, Strategic Organization Solutions kclarkpakstys@strategicorganizationsolutions.com
Panelists:
        Ellen Duncan, STG International eduncan@stginternational.com
        Paula Porter, AMTRAK PPORTER@amtrak.com
        Kathy Ravenscroft, Pepco Holdings Inc kcravenscroft@pepco.com

Top Tips—Common Sense Approach (Ellen) – ―Low Tech‖
Who, What, Where, When, Why and How…
#1 Rule: You don‘t need a big budget to create and implement an effective communication tool:
    1. Start with the end in mind – Define the purpose: feedback, merit reviews, performance incentives? What
        are you trying to accomplish?
    2. Utilize evaluation factors that align with your organization‘s focus
    3. Review evaluation factors with senior and mid-level management to gain buy-in (focus on the needs of the
        ‗many‘ not the needs of the few)
    4. Baby steps – you have to walk, before you can run!
    5. Create a user-friendly format - Word, Adobe Professional work great
    6. Don‘t over-engineer it - 1-4, 1-5, 1-10
    7. Don‘t over analyze it – Fine tune it as you go along, if necessary
    8. Make it worth the effort – too basic, is too much trouble
    9. Roll out during a logical point in the organizations life cycle
    10. Communicate, communicate, communicate – explain the W,W,W,W,W and H!
    11. Train the managers – Create a ‗common‘ basis of understand within all levels of management
    12. Communicate, communicate, communicate – never underestimate the power of information dissemination
        – address the cultural change and resistance factors
    13. Hold management accountable – completeness of documentation; timely presentation of information
    14. Ensure that there‘s organizational follow up: the process; the individual performance feedback;

Top Tips—Technology Implementation – (Kathy)
#2 Rule: Build on everything above and….
    1. Design for and align with the business strategy. (Culture change? M&A integration? Behavior change?
        Values? All of the above?)
    2. Engage executives and other key stakeholders from design through vendor selection through
        implementation including Compensation, IT, HR Generalists, etc
    3. Engage your IT resources early to interface with your HRIS system and to select the appropriate vendor.
        You need someone on your team who understands the technology environment, restrictions and HRIS
        integration issues.
    4. Build an implementation team across the HR organization to provide their unique perspective and skills,
        (HRIS, Compensation, Staffing, HR Generalists, Employee Communications etc). Recruit a mix of big
        picture/strategic folks and the detail oriented to help you dot the I‘s and cross the T‘s.
    5. Select a technology partner that is scalable and flexible. Sales will tell you the software does everything
        you want and the implementation team will be the face of reality.
    6. Be realistic about your users tech savvy and don‘t overwhelm them with bells and whistles that don‘t add
        value for YOUR process. Don‘t try to use all the technology features in Year One. Rollout with the
        essentials that make sense for YOUR users and add as you go.
    7. If you have different businesses in your business, make sure your technology provider can meet the needs
        of different processes. One size may not fit all.
    8. Start with Planning #1: Kick off your team ASAP, as much as a year before launch. Everything takes
        longer than you would like to think.
    9. Start with Planning #2. Kick off the process with users with the Planning/Goal Setting phase, not with an
        annual review.
    10. Expect that continuous improvement and maintenance will require more resources than you expect.
    11. Seek feedback from stakeholders on a continuous basis and tweak as you go using survey tools, focus
        groups, etc.

    Tips and Resources Handout                                                  February 27, 2007
                                   HRA-NCA Conference: HR Skill Building
             Panel Discussion: Effective Performance Management Strategies and Models for the 21st Century
Recommended Resources

From Ellen
   1.    Your   employees
   2.    Your   supervisors/management
   3.    Your   customers/clients
   4.    Your   colleagues
   5.    Your   past employers
   6.    Your   professional associations

From Kathy
   7.    Closing the Performance Gap. Corporate Leadership Council Gold Book 2002
   8.    Guide to Performance Metrics Institute of Management and Administration, Inc. 2006,
   9.    Abolishing Performance Appraisals. Coens and Jenkins 2000
   10.   Stress Free Performance Appraisals. Armstrong and Appelbaum 2003
   11.   Effective Phrases for Performance Appraisals, 10th Edition. Neal 2003
   12.   Perfect Phrases for Performance Reviews. Max and Bacal 2003
   13.   Success Factors webpage—White papers etc.
   14.   ―Avoiding Litigation Landmines‖ Video including a Performance Management scenario, Coastal Video
         www.coastal.com

Key Challenges

   1. Aligning the performance management process with the business strategy. If you don‘t know what those
      ‗strategies/objectives‘ are, then ASK!

   2. Human resistance to Change - Never underestimate the nay-sayers. The fastest way to kill a new process
      is to ignore the resistance to change; it‘s very powerful!

   3. Geography – if your organization (or employees) is not centrally located, there‘s an additional burden of
      communication that can stall or derail full-scale implementation.

   4. Engaging Executives and other key stakeholders.
         a. Start your stakeholder enrollment with Execs and create an ―Advisory Panel‖ of employees,
             managers, execs
         b. Use Advisory team from the business to assist in design of process, test technology, preview
             training, provide feedback on communications etc.

   5. Having adequate time to plan your implementation and to keep improving the process.
         a. Start with planning the implementation as far ahead as possible—a year ahead if you can. The
              larger the organization, the more time is needed.
         b. Kickoff the process in the goal setting or planning phase at beginning of the business year.
         c. Use technology where you can even if you‘re not using a performance management software. Use
              your intranet site to support users with job aids, communications, posting Word forms etc. Use
              Excel to track progress. Use survey tools for user feedback (Zoomerang, Survey Monkey).
         d. Expect to spend as much (or more time) post implementation on improvement, communication
              and training to continuously improve process and effectiveness.

   6. Partner/Align closely with Compensation and others in HR that have responsibility for implementation or
      follow up. Users see Performance Management and merit/bonus as one process even if managed and
      owned by separate organizations.



   Tips and Resources Handout                                                   February 27, 2007