Posted by Efficiency and performance go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. It is this direct link that prepares the base for organizations that go on to formulate relevant strategies from time to time. That being said, how does a fast, simple, and customer-focused company communicate its vision, mission, and goals to new hires? How do large companies create awareness in an engaged way that will give the new hire an easy way to tune into the performance culture of the organization? Let us consider the implementation of a performance development learning solution by Origin Learning Solutions that enables a 360 degree view of the approach.
This particular Fortune 100 Company had taken the decision to change its process that had been in operation for 40 years! Apart from assessing the business needs, the company also studied the demographic shift happening in the resource framework before deploying the learning solution.
Don’t forget that this is already a global technology leader and supplier to the railroad, mining, marine, stationary power, drilling, and services industries. Therefore, the goal was to increase familiarity of the new hires with the parent organization while exposing them to learn more about the Performance Development (PD) approach used across the length and breadth of the organization with particular emphasis on the main vertical (for which the course has been designed and delivered using tools and technology) of the diverse entity. Remember, the size and scale of the business is vast and the aim was to make every contribution count from a people perspective.
An overview in the form of a short capsule, lasting 20 minutes, put the hire at ease with the organization’s performance-development philosophy, approach, and process. It also gives information on tools and resources available to use in a personalized manner. According to the brief, performance development for this conglomerate “is a dynamic, real-time approach integrated with how work (is done) today, focused on performance, learning and development to support a fast, simple, customer-focused company.”
Such being the business scenario and the expectation, conversations between stakeholders had attained a level of importance that meant capturing it in a structured and formal manner. This approach was intended to help ensure that the employee is working on the things that matter the most, have ongoing dialogues with his/her manager, and get insights from colleagues to continue to grow in effectiveness, and ultimately, maximize the employee impact on the overall business of the organization.
Therefore, the solution came with an inbuilt feature of ‘Touchpoints,’ primarily meant to enable interaction between the entrant (employee) and the manager. Touchpoints assisted in capturing ongoing discussions with the manager facilitating formal or informal, in-person or virtual, longer or shorter conversations.
Here is what the Touchpoint Tool can do!
- Serve as an aide to memory
- Help the manager and employee to ensure alignment
- Recognize employee contributions
- Employees’ could take the lead on capturing notes while managers could add additional comments
- These Touchpoint notes are available only to the individual using the tool and his/her manager
Now that the template had been fixed, intermittent additions and adjustments or tweaks throughout the year was possible. What that did was, depending on the way the work shaped, touchpoint provided a holistic view of the priorities that connected to the organization goals in the long run.
Ready to learn how the ‘Insights’ feature is useful in Performance Development (PD)?
Seeking out Insights from colleagues is an important aspect of PD. It helps employees to identify what to continue doing and what to consider doing differently to grow impact. With this feature, an employee could ask for, give, or receive insights with anyone using the particular solution. The onus on sharing the insights remains with the user, who can decide to share beyond his/her manager. It does not stop there. The comfort factor is further augmented by allowing the user to communicate in multiple modes! For, the insights can be communicated in-person, via telephone, or email. The organization believes: “Our primary focus is the action of giving and receiving insights, whether inside or outside of the Performance Development tool.”
Using this, an individual can solicit or provide insights directly in the tool or a dialogue could even occur outside of the tool wherein, comments/notes can be captured within the tool for later reference.
Documenting conversations was never so easy!
Data science has been used to create a summary document template that serves as a comprehensive document for measuring contributions aligning with business priorities and relevant insights shared between the employee and his/her manager.
A highly collaborative activity, it builds a linkage between the manager and the new hire in such a manner that agreement and approval is consensual rather than forceful! That is, discussion-based business plan finalized in a way that enhances engagement and boosts performance.
Are you keen on testing out a PD solution that can work for your organization? Connect with us!