EPFM:A two way feedback mechanism

 

Almost all organizations conduct performance reviews for employees in one way or the other. Performance reviews are conducted on a set half yearly or yearly basis. Regardless of when they are performed, performance reviews are important to both the employee and the supervisor. Employee performance reviews serve to gauge employee performance and allow a formal setting to speak about expectations. There are several ways for an organization to maximize this procedure and ensure employee review effectiveness.

About a year ago we had an opportunity to work on some HR initiatives, one of which was to establish a work environment where performance mattered- to create a performance culture. And that is what we did. Over a period of 12 months we incorporated the Employee Performance Feedback Mechanism (EPFM) at People Equity (EPFM is a tool developed by our consultants and it enables the organization to manage and enhance performance of its staff through systematic developmental feedback).

We began with implementing the performance feedback mechanism for our staff. EPFM follows a systematic method of linking organizational vision, mission and goals to individual outcomes and creating a structure of ownership and accountability, adequately supported by developmental initiatives. The EPFM’s uniqueness is the fact that it is driven in a feedback mode, rather than the rating scale approach of most Performance Management Systems. This system completely eliminates the use of rating scales. Additionally EPFM provides for two-way feedback to be recorded and acted upon, ensuring supervisors carry accountability for the performance of their teams.

The appraisal exercise outputs were utilized to prepare a progression plan for the staff as well as for each division/ department. Employees who are currently doing justice to their role, achieving majority of the goals, displaying  positive performance traits expected of them, were put on developmental plan that enables them to continue growing by enhancing their skills, adding new responsibilities and setting higher goals. These staff may be considered for training, sponsorships to courses, considered for promotion etc. The employees with larger number of unaccomplished goals or higher degree of need for performance improvement were put under the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Staff under EAP are provided a special assistance in terms of re-skilling, re-orienting, mentoring/ counseling etc. as needed for a specified duration to enable them to improve their performance, failing which the organization may be forced to take a decision on separation.

Through 4 cycles of reviews over a period of one year we clearly benefited from the implementation of the EPFM- 

 

•   Creating an engaged workforce

• Making employees accountable for their decisions and actions

• An increased employee productivity and quality of work.

•   Employees experienced greater job satisfaction.

“A mechanism that eliminates fear and builds trust between staff”

Along the way we observed factors for the success of EPFM:

•  A performance management system should be such that it clearly links individual and team performance to the goals of the organization.

• All employees must understand the performance management system, the process-how it works, measures and should be able to clearly communicate.

• All employees must be committed to the system. As soon as the commitment waivers, the system will fall into disuse.

• All supervisors must be accountable for using the system diligently, faithfully and with integrity.

•  All supervisors must be trained to use the system. All supervisors should clearly be able to use the system, how to apply it to both good performance as well as poor performance.

Of course there are number difficulties in the success of a performance management system. But it is believed that a well designed performance management system and a strong managerial commitment can be hugely beneficial to the organization.

Why this Kolaveri? How to deal with "Interview No-Shows"

Oh God! Not again. I am fed up of scheduling interview for the candidates who don’t show up at the first instance. Why this kolavari by the candidates? I am sure every recruiter’s reaction will be the same when a candidate does not turn up for the interview. Have you ever felt like calling the candidate and blasting at them when they don’t turn up for the interview? Yes, of course recruiters feel it but they don’t do it as it is unprofessional.

Candidates don’t realize what might be the plight of the recruiter who has scheduled their interview with the hiring manager. They don’t even feel it their duty to intimate the recruiter earlier that they would not be able to take up the interview.

How do we avoid such kind of a situation? It cannot be completely avoided but minimized if we make changes in our process of prospecting the candidates. Do not take any kind of profile to just fill your numbers or complete your target. Treat candidates as humans and respect their values.

Before we go ahead with the probable solution to decrease no-shows let us ask ourselves what might me the causes of No-Show. Firstly, the candidate might not be interested with the position. You may not have explained him the job description correctly. He/She might not have heard about the organization their profile is being processed for or someone would have given a negative feedback about the company.

Complete information about the candidate would give us an idea whether he would appear for the interview or not. The information cannot be obtained by speaking to him only once. You need to have a thorough conversation with the candidates. Ask him when he will be free to have a chat with you. Do not make it formal. Try to be informal, only then will you be able to get complete information. Get to know what the candidate knows about the Organization he/she is applying for, as this would give an understanding of his knowledge about the Organization. If he has any negative assumption about the organization then you would be able to clarify it. Build their interest by telling them the projects they are going to work on and the success stories of the Organization. Do not pressurize the candidate when he says he is unavailable for interview. Try to take a date and time slots when they will be available for the interview and convey the same to the Hiring Manager, as this would give a candidate to choose a time when he would be free to attend the interview.

Next step in the process would be to know about the candidate’s area of interest and the motivational factors. This would help you to know whether the candidate would be interested in the job you are calling him/her for.

After you take all the necessary information send the candidate the job description, company information and any other information that can enhance their interest in the Job. Inform the candidate about the interview process and whom they are going to meet for the interview. Send email and SMS reminders to the candidate a day before and also an hour or two before the interview. If possible give a brief note of the questions they are going to face. This would get rid of the apprehension they have regarding the interview and they would come ready to face the interviewer.

As mentioned earlier these are the probable steps which can be taken to minimize the No-shows but it cannot be completely avoided as there may be genuine reasons for not attending the interview. At the end of the day it also depends on the level of relationship maintained between the recruiter and the candidate.

These steps would also help us to reduce the displacement issues.

Hope this helps……….

Happy Recruiting.

Study reveals poor understanding of Human Relations leading to increased job stress in hospitals

In less than a decade the Indian Healthcare Industry has seen unprecedented growth, touted to touch Rs 3,00,000/- crores by 2012¹ and it is expected to continue growing at a faster pace in the next decade. However, given the manpower availability of just 1 doctor for every 10,000 patients², the healthcare reach is far below par when compared to other developing countries. The manpower adequacy in rural India is far worse with a majority of doctors practicing in urban areas. For an industry with unlimited growth potential the biggest hurdle seems to be availability of skilled manpower.

A recent study by PeopleEquity HR consulting, covering several leading hospitals operating in the country, seems to suggest that a renewed focus on human resources development and utilization is critical to sustaining growth of hospitals and the industry as a whole. Aimed at gaining a deeper understanding an industry unique in its demands on staff, the study involved interviewing a cross section of senior  doctors from some of the leading hospitals across the country.

Over 50 doctors from mid to large sized hospitals (bed capacity between 100 – 500) were surveyed through questionnaire based telephonic interviews. Of the sample about 88% of doctors  were seasoned administrators, having played a supervisory role or above for at least 10 years, managing team sizes ranging between 10 to 40 individuals.

The survey focused on  

1. challenges faced by doctors, particularly those involved in administrative roles in hospitals,
2. the most important soft skills needed by them to perform effectively in their administrative capacities; and
3. the role played by focused developmental initiatives in building soft skills in doctors.

The findings seemed to suggest that in most hospitals in India, senior doctors are expected to  take on administrative and supervisory roles as an additional responsibility as they progress in their careers. However most often they are exposed to very little, if any, formal training on administrative or people management skills, forcing them to go through a process of trial and error while shaping themselves into administrators and this often takes its toll on the employee morale and well being of the hospital as a whole.

Interestingly, about 98% of the doctors surveyed have rated communication and teaming skills as being the most important skills in a hospital environment, given the amount of coordination required between diverse sets of professionals to deliver seamless service to patients. Also 58% of them have also stated lack of positive interpersonal relationships as being one of the biggest challenges they face each day in their environments. The respondents noted that issues like inter departmental frictions, cross functional miscommunications routinely resulted in delays and errors affecting the quality of patient care, in some cases with serious consequences. Sadly however interdepartmental communication and teaming are mostly taken for granted and very few hospitals take a concerted effort to address this issue.

Similarly while 86% of the sample believed that some form of managerial training is a must for doctors in administrative roles, only 28% have actually received any such training. This has resulted in a huge amount of stress for doctors who are suddenly required to direct people and outcomes in addition to practicing medicine.  Respondents have also noted that traditional classroom training may not quite be very helpful, but rather a personalized and practical developmental approach is what is needed to help doctors prepare themselves better to handle their new responsibilities. 

Another key issue looming over healthcare institutions is that of rising attrition levels in this industry. According to a news report in The Economic Times⁴, while the IT and ITES sectors saw the highest attrition rate of 23% in the first quarter of 2010-11, healthcare seems to be fast catching up at the number 4 spot. Though the attrition percentage in healthcare is just about half as that of the IT/ ITES industries, given the growth potential and imminent shortage of skilled manpower, the next 5 – 10 years could be very challenging. The industry is already witnessing trends in steep salary hikes with organizations packaging attractive pay and benefits to compete for talent and this is likely to get more aggressive in the coming years.

For management professionals working in the healthcare industry, it is important to acknowledge its uniqueness, the diversity of workforce as well as the criticality of the service offered, frequently handling situations of life and death. What works in other industries might not have much relevance in the typical healthcare set-up, hence Human Resource Development programs have to be well researched and customized to make a real impact.

Training programs on improving communication skills, team bonding, enhancing interpersonal relationships, and time management have come across as the top priority programs for healthcare sector as a whole. A lot of emphasis is certainly needed “Physician Development Program”, akin to Leadership and Mentoring programs practiced in other industries.

External References

1. India Today, April 2010; Cover Story: Healthcare Boom
2. New Delhi, 1^st March 2009; Speech by Her Excellency The President of India, Shrimati PRATIBHA DEVISINGH PATIL, at the concluding function of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Medical Council of India.
3. The Economic Times, July 19, 2011; IT, ITES sectors witnessing highest attrition rate in India.

Are Employee Performance Management systems actually helping organizations improve performance?

Come April-May it is the season for companies to embark on that dreaded annual rite, the often hated, time-consuming performance review. The process can be bitter for many, as a vast majority or organizations in India evaluate employees based on systems that pit them against their colleagues in the name of healthy competition.

Adopted mostly as a means to motivate employee to their highest levels of performance, rewarding the best and acting tough with the low performers logically seems to be the right way to go. But the practice increasingly is coming under fire as it and hinders positive collaboration and teaming and risk-taking. 

Daniel H. Pink in his paradigm shattering book Drive (The New York Times Top 10 Bestseller) explains that “the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today’s world is the deep human need to direct our own lives to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and the world”. He suggests that it is about time that organizations evolve their people management tools to cater to the new motivational needs of professionals.

In this context the research team at Medallion decided to study the issue of employee performance management through a firsthand interaction with HR practitioners, the implementers of these systems, and line managers and employees, the users of the systems. The aim was to gain a greater understanding of modern trends in performance management, the techniques that work and practices that are questionable and need a serious relook.

The research included a random poll on Linkedin, one of the most trusted professional networking sites, which received over 300 responses as well as in depth discussions with over 20 industry leaders from across multiple industries. Both the surveys elicited responses from HR professionals, non-HR professionals, who have used or have experienced performance management systems in their work environments.  

The Linkedin poll through a single question “What do you hate most about performance management system?” brought out some interesting results. A third of the respondents believed that performance management systems they have encountered actually fail to meet their primary objective of helping and motivating employees improve their performance. The second most commonly cited issue is the inability of the immediate supervisor and/or the HR to take accountability or provide adequate explanation for the ratings given, as one of the participants put it “If you are fortunate, you will have a manager who provides (you) more specific information on how each category relates to your work”

(For the poll results click here)

The comments on poll and the detailed discussions with industry professionals helped us analyze and understand the poll outcomes. Most organizations introduce performance management as a tool to track and thereby encourage higher performance among staff, however more often than not, the emphasis remains on “measuring past performance” than “motivating higher future performance”. One of our survey participants comments that Performance management “is seldom used to improve overall efficiency and motivation levels of employees.  Often mistakes and errors are highlighted without suggesting how to avoid/reduce such mistakes. It has hence become a chore or a routine activity and has lost its purpose.”

A lot of time is spent of grading and rating staff, often pitting team members one against the other, creating a negative impact on teaming and as a result jeopardizing the overall team performance. Often concepts like the forced ranking, bell curve or “bottom 10” push line managers or HR to manipulate rating, which they are then unable to explain or justify to staff.

These issues and many more weaken the credibility of performance management systems among employees and end up encouraging employees to compete with each other when they should be collaborating, putting organizational performance at great risk. Dissatisfaction with ratings invariably results in loss of talent to competitors and some managers compound the problem by pretending that employees are easily replaceable by new hires. So while these techniques may seem to work in short run, the benefits are likely to dissipate over the long term.

Having identified the drawbacks of grading system, is not an easy task to replace the existing system and yet find ways to foster merit-driven cultures that motivate standouts while staying tough on low performers. What then should organizations do to do away with some of the drawbacks, while still retaining the core purpose of performance management?

1. Shift focus from the past to the future – It does not help employees to be only told that they performed poorly, unless it is followed up with specific feedback on what and how they need to improve things.  
2. Make feedback a continuous process – How does it help the employee to be told that he had performed below par on a project 10 months back, when an immediate feedback with action items for improvement would have actually helped him in his subsequent works. Periodic informal feedbacks upon completion of tasks and assignments are a must to ensure effectiveness of the formal cycles..
3. Avoid Surprises – Inefficient managers, in order to avoid the discomfort of giving critical feedback time and again, bottle it all up till the formal appraisals and shock the employee with the ratings. This can be very frustrating for employees, especially to receive a poor rating, while otherwise have been expecting a good rating.
4. Work through positive reinforcements – It is a well accepted theory that positive reinforcements have a far more powerful and lasting impact that negative reinforcements, hence the systems should enable encouragement of even the low performers through positive stokes.
5. Make it less number based – People and their performance are more than what can be signified by a grade or rank. While it is easier to deal with grading scales and rankings, especially while dealing with a larger workforce, it may not be the best approach, as it tends to leave a huge gap on developmental front. A survey participant comments “The challenge for managers is to make the performance management outcomes more actionable rather than just numbers/charts on a page. The critical part of successful performance management is in the coaching & development of employees and that is where the most organizations (fail).”

People Equity helps organizations remodel and upgrade their performance management systems, to cater to the changing needs of current day professionals, through introduction of techniques of goal setting, positive reinforcements, continuous constructive feedback and many more etc.

To, know more or talk to our experts please feel free to email us at reach@people-equity.com