The Magnetic Advantage
Page 9
— CHARLES SCHWAB (WINDUST, 2015)
Performance reviews should first emphasize what the employee did right. I think this is where performance reviews get a bad rap. People are afraid of the negative things that their managers are going to say. If a manager tells them what they did right first, it makes the negative feedback easier to take. Coach Bud Grant said, “If you have something critical to say to a player, preface it by saying something positive. That way when you get to the criticism, at least you know he’ll be listening.” (Roskvist, 2017)
When giving correction, managers should describe what good performance and behavior looks like. Make sure they understand the expectations. Then, discuss specific ways they can improve. Performance reviews should be about continual development, and employees should not be surprised by what they hear at year end. If an employee is not performing or behaving as expected, they should be coached on a regular basis (daily or weekly) – not just at year end.
Finally, end on a positive note. Point out the employees’ strengths and what they are capable of accomplishing. Encourage employees to take ownership of their development, and let them know that they are valued.
This positive–negative–positive approach sandwiches the negative comments so that they are more palatable.
Fair and Accurate
Over a year, business priorities and individual responsibilities can change. If a performance review is only done once a year, it is likely that the goals set at the beginning of the year need to be adjusted. For example, an employee takes on an urgent new project during the year, which results in another goal not being achieved due to the extra time required by the new project. Should the employee be penalized for not accomplishing a goal because he has taken on more work? No! I can tell you that this has happened to me, and it was demoralizing. There is no incentive to take on more work if employees are only going to be penalized for it.
When employees are involved in their goal setting, they are 4x more likely to be engaged than other employees.
— GALLUP
This is why managers should meet with employees to readjust performance expectations any time there is a change in responsibilities. Both parties need to be clear about how new responsibilities affect the year-end performance assessment. At minimum, managers need to meet with employees every six months to review performance expectations and provide any coarse corrections.
Another way to make performance reviews more fair and accurate is to involve the employee in setting his or her goals. Gallup reports that when employees are involved in their goal setting, they are four times more likely to be engaged than other employees.
Developmental
Development is one of the top wants of employees. The performance review process is an excellent way to provide that development. By incorporating an employee development section into your performance management program, you can help ensure that development conversations are taking place between managers and employees.
Performance management doesn’t have to be a dreaded task. Performance management should emphasize achievement, resolve employee problems, and develop employees to be their personal best. If done right, performance management can improve employees’ performance while boosting engagement and retention.
CHAPTER 22
Talent Development
IN A GALLUP BLOG POST entitled “37 Workplaces That Stand Out From the Rest,” the authors state that the best companies “have an intense and intentional focus on engaging their employees” (Harter, 2017). In this article, they give six ways these companies achieve engagement. You will notice that several involve employee development, and manager training or skills that should be taught in manager training (e.g., engaging employees, communication, accountability).
Employee engagement is a business priority; it is part of their strategy to achieve competitive advantage.
Leaders communicate openly and effectively.
They provide excellent leadership and management training.
Managers are held accountable for the engagement of their team as well as their team’s overall performance.
Individual employee training is a priority.
They give their employees what they need to be successful at their jobs: clear work expectations, tools to do the job, training, and facilitation of positive coworker relationships.
Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” (Franklin, 2011) I think this is why talent development is one of the most sought-after tools in the Total Rewards toolkit. It includes programs that provide the opportunities to improve employees’ skills and behaviors.
Employee development starts with the onboarding process for new employees and should take place continuously thereafter. To ensure that talent development takes place, the company should provide a set of processes, programs, and resources for employees, including:
Onboarding process
Performance management program
Manager training
On-site training
Budget specifically for training and development
I also recommend creating a Training Resource Guide that provides managers and employees with a list of training opportunities and ideas for development. Many of the basic training needs are the same across the company (e.g., communications, technical skills). Of course, there will be specific needs for each person, but there are some common training needs by several employees. If someone does the research and makes it available to everyone, it saves time and frustration for the other employees. Also, company discounts can be negotiated with training providers that give the company more savings. The resource guide should provide information on how to get those discounts. Keep in mind that a Training Resource Guide can be a simple document or online resource that grows as more training resources are found.
While the company should provide the structure and a budget for talent development, it is ultimately the employee’s responsibility to take ownership of his or her own development.
STRENGTHS-BASED DEVELOPMENT
Managing employees by focusing and developing their strengths is called Strengths-Based Development. The basis of this approach is that people are simply better at some things than others, and that people are more fulfilled and productive when they spend more time doing the things that they are good at. Strengths-Based Development is about helping employees reach their potential by focusing on what is innately “right” with them instead of just focusing on what is “wrong.”
Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.
— ALBERT EINSTEIN (PINOLA, 2011)
Gallup conducted an extensive study of strength-based management practices involving 1.2 million employees across 22 organizations. The study found that 90% of the companies that implemented strength-based management practices had performance increases at or above the following ranges:
10% to 19% increased sales
14% to 29% increased profit
3% to 7% higher customer engagement
6% to 16% lower turnover (low-turnover organizations)
26% to 72% lower turnover (high-turnover organizations)
9% to 15% increase in engaged employees
22% to 59% fewer safety incidents
Further, Gallup reports that “67% of employees who strongly agree that their manager focuses on their strengths are engaged in their jobs. When employees strongly disagree with this statement, the percentage of engaged workers plummets to 2%.” (Cooper S. , 2016)
How do you develop this magic ingredient for engagement? First, you need to find out what strengths your employees possess. Gallup recommends using the CliftonStrengths assessment which provides in-depth information on an employee’s talents. However, you could do something as simpl
e as observing and getting to know your employees. If you look closely enough, you can generally see the innate talent.
You could also survey employees on where they think their strengths lie and what they enjoy doing. This could be part of the performance management program. You could have employees complete a self-assessment prior to the annual review and return it to you several days before the meeting. This gives you time to prepare development options in advance of the meeting, which makes it more efficient and effective.
Another option is to place some questions in the performance review form for the manager to discuss with the employee during the performance review. Provided below are examples of the questions you could ask in the self-assessment form or performance review form:
What did you enjoy working on this past year? Why?
What do you feel are your natural talents and abilities? How can we help you develop those to reach your full potential?
What type of work gives you energy?
What motivates and inspires you?
Do you feel that your talents are being fully utilized in your job? If no, how could that be improved?
By tying the strengths assessment to the performance management program, it helps ensure that the discussion and development actually happen. It becomes part of the annual process, not something that managers need to try to fit somewhere in their schedules. Development probably won’t happen if it is not part of the company’s processes.
After you find the employee’s natural talents, look for opportunities for him or her to use and develop those talents.
MANAGER TRAINING
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.
— RONALD REAGAN (WINDUST, 2015)
In Gallup’s State of the American Workplace study, they found that companies whose workforce is made up of at least 75% of engaged employees are doing two things right:
Providing ongoing training and tools for managers to increase engagement of their people
Carefully selecting managers
50% of employees leave because of their bosses.
— GALLUP
It is frequently stated that people leave bad bosses, not companies. According to a Gallup study, 50% of employees leave because of their bosses. So, doesn’t it make sense to make manager training a priority? Even if you have to pay to have managers trained, it would cost you less than losing employees and/ or having employees who are not engaged.
To be a great manager, the person must be a great coach. Bill McCartney said, “All coaching is, is taking a player where he can’t take himself.” One of the most significant ways to improve engagement is to develop managers into great coaches. This is because coaching is an ongoing intentional process. Can you imagine if a coach didn’t work with his players between games, and then wondered why they lost? That is preposterous, and so is not coaching employees on an ongoing basis and wondering why they did not have good performance!
Now, I’m from the great state of Alabama, so I know something about winning coaches. In fact, I worked at the Paul W. Bryant Museum in college. (Yes, the University of Alabama has a football museum.) Winning coaches can teach us a lot about managing people and teams. Here are just some of the characteristics of winning coaches from which managers can learn:
• Recruit Top Talent. Coach Nick Saban is known for his stellar college football recruiting process, which has gained him six national championships. One of the reasons top players from around the country play for Coach Saban is because of the large number of players who have gone on to play in the NFL. Coach Saban is known for developing his players to reach the next level, and that is where they get paid the big bucks! It is reported that he keeps a list of his former players who are in the NFL and their salaries. He shows this list to players he is trying to recruit.
Managers who can tell candidates about their development process and even show the results of the program (e.g., Bob got a promotion last year, Sally got her MBA which was paid for by the company) have a better chance of winning top talent. Do you have a development program worth promoting? If not, build one!
• Teambuilding. Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “A common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on ‘x’s and o’s’ as compared to time spent learning about people.” A great coach knows each player’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows how to use the talents of each player, and then work to the strengths of each player to build a great team.
Coach Bear Bryant said, “You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat. Then you’ve got yourself a team.” (Cooper, 2012) How effective would your team be if they were working with one heartbeat?
Managers need to understand each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Deploy and build on each individual’s strengths; they will be happier, and the team will be stronger. Generally, where one person is weak, another is strong, so working to each individual’s strengths helps overcome the weaknesses.
Coach Saban has his players take a personality test each year so he and his coaches know how to bring the best out of each player. Personality tests are a great way for managers to learn how each employee thinks and to improve his/her effectiveness.
• Develop the Whole Person. Great coaches constantly develop the skills of their players and help ensure that they are in good shape physically and mentally. Coaches care about the health of their players because they know that they can’t perform well if they are not healthy. The same is true for employees.
Some managers focus only on the goal and do not think about how they are tearing down their greatest asset – their people.
Some managers focus only on the goal and do not think about how they are tearing down their greatest asset – their people. If employees are working so many hours that they do not have time to exercise, eat healthy (instead of grabbing fast food), and get enough sleep, they will not be as effective and will probably leave.
Also, vacation time is important for an employee to get refreshed and spend time with friends and family. Employees should not be treated with resentment when they take earned time off. Nor should they be on call or do work during vacation. Running employees into the ground eventually leads to a loss of productivity and probably the employees themselves, and they are not easily replaced.
While there are a lot of winning coaches, there are also a lot of coaches who consistently have losing records. Frequently, these coaches are dismissed. They may have been great players, but they are not cut out for coaching.
In the same way, not everyone is designed to be a manager. If someone is trained and coached, but just does not have the ability or willingness to manage people, they should not be in that position. It will cause employees to leave. I suggest moving the supervisor to a non-supervisory role. If that is not possible, you may need to let him/her go and replace him/her with someone who does have good management skills.
CHAPTER 23
Total Rewards Communication
COMMUNICATIONS IS WHAT BRINGS THE Total Rewards strategy to life. It won’t do you any good to have the best Total Rewards package if you don’t communicate it to your employees. If an employee does not know and value all that you are providing him (financial and non-financial), how can he or she appreciate it? If the employees don’t appreciate it, you are losing money and probably employees.
People who understand and value their entire employment package are more likely to stay with that company. If another company tries to lure them away with a shiny object (e.g., higher salary, promotion), they are better educated to ask about the entire employment package. Employees with a Total Rewards mindset can see past the shiny object and require more from another company before taking the leap.
HOW TO CREATE A TOTAL
REWARDS MINDSET
Implementing a Total Rewards program is moving from being tactical (short-term focus on individual programs) to strategic (long-term focus on the entire employment deal). Therefore, Total Rewards communications should also be a strategic long-term plan. This communication plan should build understanding and commitment, and influence behavioral change over time. Taking a strategic, long-term communication and education approach and moving employees from a passive mindset to an engaged, committed perspective is an integral part of the Total Rewards communication process.
After you have created your Total Rewards strategy, there are some key communication programs that you need to establish right away.
1. Launch to Existing Employees
The Total Rewards launch should create excitement about the company’s new strategic focus on enhancing employee programs and the work environment. It should say to the employees that what is important to them is important to the company. The launch should include learning more about what employees want and need − developing an ongoing dialogue.
In the Total Rewards launch, you should give an overview of all of the employee programs offered to them (refer to the Total Rewards inventory list). Bring everything together to help them see the programs as a whole, which is more valuable than individual programs. If you are adding a new program(s), this should be included as well.
The Total Rewards launch should communicate that the company is focused on ensuring employees receive the most from their employment programs. To emphasize this, have a few education programs lined up that you can announce (e.g., a healthcare provider teaching about how to use their wellness program).
Tell them about any new plans for understanding their needs better (e.g., focus group, survey). The launch meeting is also a great time to ask employees for feedback on areas that they would like to receive more education and training.