Loads of examples of it working Marc. There are three main things that
have to be addressed to make such development discussions work.
Attitude - There has to be a hearts and minds approach to getting people
to believe that the intention of introducing the process is positive and
that it will work. However the real attitude change comes when people see
things coming out of the first round of discussions. Management need to be
really committed to demonstrating the effectiveness of the system in the
early days until people start to believe.
Skills - As one client HR manager said, "There's nothing wrong with the
performance management system, it's just that people don't know how to use
it properly." Too often we assume that because someone is a manager they
must have the kind of counselling skills required to make performance
planning work.
Process - The process needs to actively encourage participation. It needs
to be clearly linked to department and company objectives, minimally
bureaucratic, feed into real and resourced training and development plans,
....and managers need to be held accountable for carrying them out - and
their quality - until the benefits start to come through.
Managers may claim they are a waste of time. What they usually mean is
*they* can't make it work - and who's fault is that??
Cheers,
Paul
>I don't think I've ever worked at a company that doesn't have some
>document of this sort. What's important is not the document but the
>reality behind whether management really cares about it. In general,
>development discussions on paper and in a meeting aren't worth the time it
>takes to think about them, except for the employee's self-knowledge.
>Critical aspects are an excuse for limiting raises, while the good points
>only get acknowledged in the form of compliments. As for development
>plans, good luck. I won't say they don't exist, only that they're
>implemented poorly if at all.
>
>What I'd like to see is reality testing of development plans: has the
>employee taken courses X, Y, Z? Has her manager made sure the course work
>can be put to use? Does the manager's manager care enough to make
>subordinates' goals part of the manager's objectives?
>
>This may be happening somewhere, for all I know. I wait patiently for the
>day when management is so enlightened that nobody sees the point of
>Dilbert cartoons. As long as senior management, and the shareholder
>culture that supports it, remains focused on short-term monetary results,
>I don't see much hope for this type of change in most corporations, at
>least for now. It's about as likely, say, as the fall of Communism in the
>Soviet Union was in Brezhnev's days.
>
>Marc Sacks, Ed.D
Paul Foley
Director
Kynesis
** orchestrating organisational change**
7 Burnside Road
Glasgow
G73 4RF
United Kingdom
Telephone (141) 634 5423
Fax (141) 634 5220
Email paul@kynesis.co.uk
Web www.kynesis.co.uk/inform
--paul@kynesis.co.uk (Paul Foley)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>