by Diana Southall | Jan 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
Much of the time will be spent preparing for and meeting individually with your team members — an investment in their development that will start paying dividends almost immediately.
Your next steps
- Watch the video
- 9 Steps to Building a Fabulous Team for an introduction to this systematic team building process (and/or read ebook).
- If you have managers or team leaders, schedule a meeting to watch the video or assign the eBook.
- Discuss current People issues (pains and opportunities) and make a list of what you hope to accomplish with your People Plan.
- Map your team on the People + Performance Profiler
- Schedule a meeting with your key people to discuss current People issues (pains and opportunities) and make a list of what you hope to accomplish with your People Plan.
- Complete the project action plan and timeline
- Schedule your complimentary People strategy session with Diana Southall
- Schedule weekly project appointments
- Pick a day each week for the next 12 months to make a 2 hour commitment (less than 5% of your week) to building your team.
- Months 6-7 you will be leading individual performance discussions with each person, so expect to spend 90 minutes per person.
- Many of the elements are designed with your team leaders/managers, so have these people block off their calendars as well.
- Wednesday or Thursday mornings are a good time (start of the day).
- Put these on your calendar and treat as a client appointment—don’t cancel on yourself and your team.
- For each module, you will watch the training video, complete the template, and plan how you will integrate the powerful tool into your People coaching.
by Diana Southall | Sep 15, 2013 | performance
Top performers— We wish that every employee could be one! Some employees just start out great, do what is expected and more, and are easy to manage. You might find 10-20% of employees in this category at most employers.
Average employees— Other employees come in every day and “do their job”. I refer to these as “solid citizens” and they can be depended on to meet expectations most of the time. This type of employee is typically 70-80% of the workforce at most organizations.
Low performers— Lastly are the employees that truly give us “People Pains”—they have attitude or performance issues that cost us time, attention, grief and aggravation. If this employee has been with you a while you have probably learned to “put up” with these Pains. “They do most of their job, most of the time.” (I will devote next month’s newsletter to how to address these low performers… watch your inbox!)
To solve an issue, you first need to identify the source of the problem. I know, humans are complex creatures, but luckily there are only 4 sources of employee performance problems!
How to improve employee performance
Step 1: Compare employee’s performance to Job Competency Profile duties and metrics (results).
Step 2: Identify specific performance areas that are below expectation (or could be improved)
Step 3: Categorize into one of 4 sources: Ability, Motivation, Values, or External
Step 4: Discuss performance plan with employee to address cause (job re-engineering, training, attitude)
Key areas that influence performance
Ability
These are the “hard” (technical) and “soft” (competencies) skills of an employee plus personality traits.
Knowledge- skills- abilities (KSA) and competencies range from m “innate” abilities that are very hard to change (such as the personality trait of extroversion) to “trainable” abilities such as product knowledge or computer skills.
These abilities should be clearly defined and screened as part of an effective selection process. If a position required problem solving ability (not easily trainable) then you need to hire candidates that have this competency.
Training and development is a key to improved employee performance. Everyone could learn more about their industry, product/ service, customers, technical tools, and can develop competencies such as communication. Top organizations continually develop employees to learn and grow.
An important aspect of performance is matching an employee’s ability to job requirements. If you have B or C employee that is loyal and motivated, re-engineer the job duties to complement his strengths, and move the other job duties to a co-worker with contrasting abilities. For example, give reports to the detail oriented employee and greeting customers to the outgoing and talkative co-worker.
Ability is if the employee “Can Do” the job.
Motivation
These are the (external) factors that influence an employee’s (intrinsic) motivation through feedback and rewards systems. When an employee is engaged, she has an emotional attachment to co-workers and the company. This leads to loyalty, motivation, and then high performance.
Organizations often do things that de-motivate employees, such as having minimal or negative feedback about performance, making changes or decisions without considering the impact on employees, stifling creativity or independence with rules or micromanaging, and not “appreciating” good work.
Conversely, organizations can empower and engage employees by providing clear expectations about work performance, and then recognizing and rewarding those employees that exceed expectations.
If an employee has the abilities, motivation influences whether an employee “Will Do” the job.
Values
People have core values or belief systems that they carry with them, such as a desire to help others, a distrust in authority, or a good “work ethic”. Employers are not going to change these beliefs, so it is important that you select employees that support an organization’s core values – this is called Culture Fit. Culture is the most effective motivational tool an organization has to impact performance. Essentially, “this is how we do things at ABC Org.”
Even employees with a generally good attitude and values that align with the organization can have specific beliefs that impact their compliance and performance. In a recent local presentation, Craig Hickman recounted and example of ER nurses at Mass General Hospital. They were expected to collect “next of kin” data at admission, but this was recorded only 42% of the time. The organization spent months training 1500 nurses to do this, but the results changed only slightly to 47%. The solution was to change the belief that this information was not relevant or a “waste of time” by sharing stories of specific patients when contacting a relative saved a life. The results jumped to 92%– it was the change in belief that changed behavior!
External Factors
Even if employees have the ability, motivation and values that support good performance, there may be outside factors that prevent results. These can be a lack of resources (unreliable equipment or not enough capacity), structure / process constraints (adding a new customer takes 32 steps and 7 days), or possibility personal issues (what is going on outside of work?). A frank conversation with employees can uncover some of these. If many people in the same job are having issues then look beyond individuals to systems.
To read more about how to motivate your average employee, read our blog post “Employees do their job okay, but do not seem really committed to be excellent.”
by Diana Southall | Aug 29, 2013 | culture, job fit
Job Descriptions versus Job Responsibility Profiles:
Do you want minimum acceptable or exceptional performance?
Recently I asked a small business owner to provide the current job descriptions for a key office person.
This is the list provided by the employee: “ answer phones, open mail, dictation, schedule appointments, take out trash, add postage to meter, take deposit to bank, enter payroll, filing.”
How often do your employees have to “fill in the blanks” to determine the what, when, why and how to do their jobs? Why do we make them guess if they are doing their job “right”?Unfortunately, this example is not a rare occurrence—many businesses do not have written job descriptions that include even the basic job requirements. When I interviewed the employee her position required a much higher level of skill and experience than that list of duties imply. She also was able to explain more about the “why and how” about her position’s purpose and process to accomplish it. She knew what her job entailed and how it should be performed, and despite specific expectations from her manager, she even had weekly goals that she achieved. (For example, she expected to respond to inquiries within one day and type up all dictated documents by the end of the week.)
If you want employees to do their absolute best, they need clear expectations including performance standards. One critical document can provide this information, for your use in managing performance and to select effective new hires. We call this document the Job Responsibility Profile. This is far more than just a job description (a brief statement of 8 general duties).
A job description might be the same for a customer service representative at 100 companies: respond to customer inquiries, provide information on product, and take orders.
A Job Responsibility defines the specific knowledge, skills, abilities and personality traits of an ideal employee and then provides performance metrics to define performance requirements More hints.
Job Responsibility should include information for a manager to:
- Clearly explain performance requirements
- Compare employee’s performance to expectations
- Evaluate position’s compensation compared to market
- Verify legal compliance (American’s with Disability Act (ADA), overtime eligibility, etc)
- Suggest job restructuring or job enrichment for an individual employee
- Identify characteristics of ideal candidate to assist in recruiting and selecting new employees
Once you have documented the Job Responsibility Profile (JRP), do not just “file” this away. To be effective, this document becomes the basic work plan for an employee and used as part of your performance management process. An employee’s work should be continually compared to the outline and metrics contained in the JRP. Any deviation from the “standard” becomes an opportunity for feedback (positive or negative).
If the metrics for an associate attorney is to bring in one new major client per quarter and have 90 billable hours per month, every associate attorney should know this and also receive data on their performance compared to these metrics. When an employee exceeds expectations, this should be at least recognized, and ideally, continued exceptional performance rewarded in a Total Rewards package. Even top performers may lose motivation to continue their great work if it does not “seem” appreciated.
When recruiting for a new employee, the JRP provides the description of the position and ideal candidate. Then applicants are screened against the JRP. For example, does this receptionist applicant have knowledge and skill that would prepare her for this job (answer 100 calls a day, type up 20 letters and mail 25 marketing packets)? Does the applicant have the personality to be friendly and maintain her composure with 3 phones ringing at once? Once a candidate is selected, the JCP becomes the outline of duties to train a new employee. (For best results, also develop more detailed standard operating procedures and training checklists and manuals to augment the JCP outline).For employees who are not meeting expectations, supervisors should counsel employees to determine the cause and together develop solutions. Remember that performance gaps can be a function of motivation, ability or external obstacles. Some employees need either praise or corrective action to meet expectations—if they receive neither then performance often slips. Many times employees do not perform because they do not currently have the ability; they might need training, guidance, or a simple process to follow. Some might not have the core competency or personality to truly excel at one or more job functions (such as asking a high structure person to react and juggle 3 phone calls). Lastly, there are often obstacles to performance such as limited resources, urgent items, or dependency on others work that can prevent achievement of goals. An employee’s performance improvement plan needs to address the root cause to be most effective.
In summary, the Job Responsibility Profile (JRP) is a roadmap for each employee to understand expectations, benchmark their performance, and a tool for managers to improve poor performance and recognize and motivate exceptional work.
by Diana Southall | Aug 19, 2013 | coaching, rewards
Are you recognizing like YMCA? Let me tell you the “Story of the Black Bead.”
And I challenge you to create your own simple and effective recognition program at your work!
Caring, honestly, respect, responsibility—these are the 4 core values of the YMCA and this organization does a terrific job focusing their program and participants on cultivating this values.
My kids and niece attend a YMCA day camp this summer. Every day, there is a “bead ceremony” where the counselors stand up in front of all the campers and publicly recognize a few who exemplified one of the values, and the camper receives a colored bead (each value has its own color—see below for the list).
Now imagine how a 6-year-old feels when they receive a green bead for showing responsibility today. They feel proud, tell their mom, and do more of the recognized behaviors (pick up toys, stay with their buddy on the field trip) the next day. And then the other campers learn, “hey, if I pick up my toys, maybe I will get a bead, too!” And the culture is built one kid and one day at a time.
What about the black bead?
Last week I picked up my son and he runs over to proudly give me this handmade card (see photo below.)
It reads “to earn the black bead, a camper must display an extreme amount of courage and bravery. Plus they must have a spectacular day. Today, Lindy expresses these qualities while going to battle that he would later to be found as the victor. He battled a bee that was terrorizing the camper lunch. Not giving any thought to his own well-being, he shooed the bee away and saved the lunch. He is forever a hero” AND there was a small dinosaur toy taped to the card.
The story continues that the one and only black bead for the summer has been sitting in the bead jar waiting for just such a brave and courageous camper.
All I can say is “WOW!”
Yes, I am proud that my son was recognized for his heroism but I am also blown away by the creativity of counselor Dominic who took the effort to make up such an award.
Can you imagine the impact if your office had a “bead” ceremony once a month? And what if someone came up with a new (creative, silly) “award” once in a while? Would everyone be tripping over themselves to get those bead by doing the 4 things your organization needs? Just because we are adults, we LIKE recognition too!
Ready to get started, for some ideas, read my blog article “Quick recognition template”
4 Core Values of YMCA:
- Caring (Red): to demonstrate a sincere concern for others, for their needs and well-being. Related values: compassion, forgiveness, generosity, and kindness.
- Honesty (Blue): to tell the truth, to demonstrate reliability and trustworthiness through actions that are in keeping with my stated positions and beliefs. Related values: integrity and fairness.
- Respect (Yellow): to treat others as I would want them to treat me, to value the worth of every person, including myself. Related values: acceptance, empathy, self-respect and tolerance.
- Responsibility (Green): to do what is right–what I ought to do, to be accountable for my choices of behavior and actions and my promises. Related values: commitment, courage, good health, service and citizenship.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by Diana Southall | Apr 23, 2013 | coaching, rewards
Our recent blog post showed that employees desire more appreciation and recognition, so here is a quick template for you to develop your own semi-formal recognition program.
(If you involve your team members in the development process, we will give you bonus points).
•List 3 ABC’s (ABC- attitudes, behaviors and contributions) that would improve your internal team work
•List 3 ABC’s that would improve your customer care
•List 3 ABC’s that support your organization’s core values
•Communicate list of 9 ABC’s to your employees (team meeting? poster on the wall?) and what you plan to do with it
•Make a list of when you can recognize at least one employee publicly for demonstrating one of these ABC’s
•Invite team members to recognize each other when they witness an ABC
•Take one minute to recognize an employee privately if you witness a great ABC
•Schedule and recognize based on your plan
Image courtesy of Maggie Smith at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
