Clearing away the fog on employee performance

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Tuesday, June 04, 2013 - by ASTD Staff

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(From the Globe and Mail )-- While on my way to the Halifax airport one morning I was faced with the task of driving through fog. For many people, going to work each day can be a similar challenge, because their roles and responsibilities are unclear.

A gap between a manager’s role and employees’ roles and expectations can create a fog that undercuts productivity, engagement and efficiency. Employees who are not clear about their roles and what is expected of them can become frustrated and confused. To correct this, it’s necessary to define all the behaviours that are expected and their performance standards, such as reaching monthly sales quotas.

What process do you use to define behavioural expectations with your employees? Are your employees performing to the standards you are expecting?

One sign that employees may be in a fog is the level of frustration, stress and complaining they present to their leader or co-workers. This can lead to increased risk for employee-manager conflict, employee disengagement and performance issues.

To clear away this fog, frame behavioural expectations in a clear and precise manner, using a structured process. Expectations that are understood and agreed to can provide a guiding light to success for both employees and manager. Here are three easy steps a manager can take:

Define expectations: Before providing any direction, be clear about exactly what the behavioural expectations are for each employee’s role, how they will be communicated and taught, and how success will be monitored and measured. You need to ensure these expectations have been defined and are aligned with the business objectives and corporate values. Deliver expectations: Provide employees with all the information you have prepared about the expectations, and allow them to ask questions. Provide behavioural expectations in writing whenever possible, to serve as a training aid. Engage employees to be sure they fully understand the defined standard and expectations. Provide support and training where needed. Be clear about how success will be evaluated and measured (such as performance and operations management measures). Manage expectations: If an employee is not performing at the desired standard, it’s important not to assume he or she are not willing or not capable. Be sure the first two steps have been completed, factor in the learning curve, and provide coaching and feedback throughout.Read more Clearing away the fog on employee performance ASTD Staff 2013-06-04

Communities of Practice:   Human Capital , Workforce Development , Career Development

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Organizational Commitment and Employee Development

Research sometimes fails to show attention to intervening constructs that help us explain the relationship between the training expenditures or learning organization strategies with financial performance across many organizations, It is suggested that investment in human resource development may impact competitive advantage. This is not just about developing employees into a more competent work force.

It has far reaching affects on employee work behaviors such as such as absenteeism work morale and turnover rates and maybe through helping to recruit good employees for whom development experiences are generally attractive. it is about creating a force that treats organizational loss as their own loss.

Research could focus on measures of employee development and their link to measures that result in positive employee behaviors (Respect at work place, Absenteeism, Morale and Turn over intentions) and attraction of talented employees. One variable that has been extensively explored in relation to things like absences and turnover is organizational commitment. Employees who are committed to an organization are less likely to leave, be absent and may display other positive behaviors that are valuable to an organization. It is further suggested that first organization must work on increasing employee engagement through changing job role; making them more flexible, providing them autonomy and resources.

Affective commitment, or the employees’ affective identification with the organization, and their intention to continue to work for the business has been the focus of past employee development studies and has been shown to have the strongest relationships with a variety of organizationally relevant variables. From a social exchange perspective, employees are favorably disposed toward an organization to the extent that the organization provides something valuable to the employees. and in return employees value their organization by showing enhanced commitment and motivation at workplace.

When an organization provides something valuable such as support for employee development, this should create a mindset in employees that is positive toward the organization, resulting in positive work behaviors. resulting in positive employee attitudes, all of the aforementioned variables could result in effective  recruiting and retaining of employees, all this is possible through employee development interventions.

Research has suggested that the presence of employee development systems and support is positively associated with organizational commitment by employees. Although the systems and support will be viewed as subjective, with different employee have varied perceptions and attitudes towards them but their is a general consensus on the presence and beneficial results that could be attained for the business. Having a thorough understanding of the possible moderating effects by individual differences could be extremely valuable; as they could help resolve future conflicts and be helpful in developing a better support system

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Employee Engagement

Employee engagement has been defined as “an individual employee’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral state directed toward desired organizational outcomes” (Shuck and Wollard, 2010). Employees who are engaged exhibit attentiveness and mental absorption in their work and display a deep, emotional connection toward their workplace. The field of employee engagement is bourgeoning as companies pour resources into developing a more engaged workforce.

Many organizations believe that employee engagement is a dominant source of competitive advantage and thus, have been drawn to its reported ability to solve challenging organizational problems such as increasing workplace performance and productivity amid widespread economic decline.

Research has expanded this belief, suggesting that organizations with high levels of employee engagement report positive organizational outcomes; a small bright spot in an otherwise bleak financial forecast. For example, North Shore LIJ Health System Company invested $10 million into training and development and encouraged employees to further their education in hopes of raising engagement levels within their organization. As a result, the company reported a one-year retention rate of 96 per cent, increased patient-satisfaction scores, and record setting profits. At Johnson and Johnson, engagement has become a part of the work culture as teams are provided real time feedback about how their work enables their individual business units to meet their quarterly goals (States, 2008).

Such real-time communication programs help to create a positive, accountability-driven workplace resulting in increased productivity levels, profit margins and levels of engagement. Still further, after substantial efforts to increase levels of engagement on factory floors, Caterpillar, a large multi-national construction equipment supplier and manufacturer, estimates the company saved $8.8 million in turnover costs alone by increasing the proportion of engaged employees at one of their European-based plants.

Although engaged employees have consistently been shown to be more productive on most available organizational measures, it is conservatively estimated that,30 per cent of the global workforce is engaged. Moreover, ,20 per cent of employee’s report any level of confidence in their current manager’s ability to engage them (Czarnowsky, 2008). Not surprising, employee engagement is reported to be on a continued decline worldwide. “The discrepancy between the perceived importance of engagement and the level of engagement that exists in organizations today”  is cause for major concern. This discrepancy, however, presents a significant opportunity for human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners to develop research agendas and practical strategies toward the forefront of this emerging concept. As organizational leaders embrace employee engagement, they are increasingly turning toward  HRD professionals to develop and support strategies that facilitate engagement-encouraging cultures. Unfortunately, HRD professionals are unlikely to find the support they need as little academic research has investigated the experience of being engaged or how engagement affects an employee’s experience of their work, and ultimately their performance.

In conclusion, an engaged employee leads to a committed workforce, that identifies with the business, wants to work with the organization and believes in the business objectives and thus work willingly to attain them.

Bibliography

Czarnowsky, M. (2008), Learning’s Role in Employee Engagement: An ASTD Research Study, American Society for Training and Development, Alexandria, VA.

Shuck, B. and Wollard, K.K. (2010), “Employee engagement and HRD: a seminal review of the foundations”, Human Resource Development Review, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 89-110.

States, A. (2008), “The rage to engage”, available at: www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1731893,00.html (accessed 5 June 2008).

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Employee Development, Purpose and Types

Employee Development refers to the initiatives that are taken by the individuals and the organizations to enhances the capacity and competence of the individuals that directly builds organizational capability to efficiently and effectively perform their business functions. it has partly from training in business organizations. although the impact and boundaries of training programs are limited. Training is a one time event, although the opinion is that training is a pathway for future development but its a one time activity whereas development is an ongoing process. increasingly there is a shift from training to development, it not only reflects the awareness of learning and its role but also the strategic implications of learned human resource. Primarily Employee; Development serves two objectives.

Brining an improvement in Organizational Performance,Developing the skills, knowledge and attitudes of Employee.

In both cases, learning is central, initiative are taken whereby individuals learn through varied means and mediums.

Both organizational performance and individual growth are realized from the learning capability of the individuals and the organization. The major drivers for the increased emphasis on learning capability include the need for

Continuous ImprovementInnovationContinuous Adaptation.

Continuous improvement, A concept that grew in 1980's with the the implementation of total quality management (TQM). The emphasis in TQM is on measurement of increased performance through constant feedback and reflection. The process is referred to as Single Loop Learning. The intentions is on constant learning to performance better and make business processes more effective and efficient, the work processes are improved through incremental improvements over time.

Newness in service and product delivery is on reason why organizations are able to attain competitive advantage. but doing so is not easy, it requires business to take risk and innovate. Central to this process is being creative and learning constantly from mistakes, actions, micro and macro environment. Learning aids in understanding new ways of reconfiguring concepts and ideas.

Learning and reflection are not one time activities, in order to reap rewards constantly one has to engage in these activities continuously. Retaining competitive advantage requires businesses to constantly learn, adapt to changing market condition and respond to the external market conditions that includes customer needs, new competitors, and new technology.

The emphasis of Employee development is on formal education, job experiences, assessment centers, and mentoring and coaching programs. All of the aforementioned programs are focused on developing competencies directly related to future contribution to an organization as they are future oriented, The aim of the learning initiative shall be on the employee’s current position plus on the preparation of employees for future roles.

Formal Education. University Degree programs or "Corporate Universities" form the Formal education learning function. It involves lectures by business experts/senior executives in the organization or from outside the organization.

Job Experiences. Job Experiences are made up of working through problems, decision making, interpersonal relationships, and task management. Job Experiences aid in development through facing new tasks and challenges. this is done through stretch the current level of skills, through forcing oneself to learn and develop to grow and create its value.

Assessment. The process of Assessment involves collecting information and providing feedback about performance, skills, and behaviors on the job. This needs to be a constant process where by support is also provided on how to develop the skills required and how to rectify the current anomalies. Methods that are used for assessment include instruments/Questionnaires, other forms include personality assessments, psychological tests, and leaderless group discussions.

Mentoring and Coaching Programs. In order to develop employees an effective tool is Mentoring, either one-on-one or with a group, it has been a potent way to develop employees. In mentoring an experienced senior employee who works one-on-one with a less experienced employee (prote´ge´). It is important that for the mentoring process to be effective it has to be based on shared interests, values, or similar personalities. On the other hand Coaching involves a manager or peer who works with an employee to develop skills and provide feedback. Coaching works in a way where coach works one-on-one with employees, by provision of information and resources, that aids in employee learning on there own.

Businesses exists to grow and develop, the same is true for the employees, Organizations that are focused on employee development are better equipped to achieve organizational development. It is important that plans are tailored and modified to appeal to separate individuals and groups, as it would help in making them more efficient and effective.

Bibliography

Ann Gilley, A., Gilley, J., Quatro, S and Dixon, P. (2009). The Praeger Handbook of Human Resource Management. Praeger: USA

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