Redesigning key people processes that cause the most frustration and confusion for leaders and employees

As HR starts to transform its strategy and employee experience, it needs to prioritise the areas and processes causing the most frustration for leaders and employees. The amount of articles and discussion about performance management over the last few years, puts it at the top of most HR leaders’ lists. In fact, leaders use the word ‘dread’ when they think about performance appraisals.

John Sullivan lists a range of issues to be addressed, here are a few. Many people believe current methods don’t actually measure performance, it does not measure new ways of working i.e. collaboration and teamwork, without frequent feedback it loses its significance, it is not supported by good and balanced data and metrics, managers are not held accountable for doing it well, it is not well integrated with other people processes, it is kept secret, people still used the demotivating and statistically questionable forced ranking method, it is not an adaptable process that can change as business demands and projects change and managers do not have feedback and conversation skills.

Many organisations have now thrown out ratings, developed monthly check ins and developed performance apps to support a different process. Adobe and GE have developed the check in process for their employees after finding their current process to be so complex, bureaucratic, and paperwork-heavy that it ate up thousands of hours of managers’ time. It also created barriers to teamwork and innovation, since the experience of being rated and stack-ranked for compensation left many employees feeling undervalued and uninspired.

As far as recruitment and onboarding goes, many managers are still frustrated with the amount of time the process takes and the inability to source and recruit the best talent with the right future capabilities. In one study by SHRM, it was found that 60% of prospective applications quit an application process when it is too long and complex. Once employees join, they are very often not onboarded well, leaving them to feel disconnected from the start. They arrive at the workplace and there is no access card, they do not have the tools to start working and they cannot navigate their way around.

Organisations that have significantly improved recruitment and onboarding, have used better technology and have created relationships with talent pools both inside and outside the organisation. They have also used more scientific research to back the selection of candidates. They have made the application process fast and easy to use. They customise their process for different talent pools. They use big data effectively. They also use talent marketplaces to open up opportunities for internal candidates.

When people join from the outside, onboarding starts with pre-boarding and connection before the employee even joins and there is a great welcome with everything ready on day one. The experience is customised to different employee groups. They meet all the key stakeholders they will work with in the first 60 days and understand the value chain of the whole business.

In a world of ongoing reskilling, a lot of learning and development efforts are still too static and slow to respond. People are either not developed at all or have to attend classroom training that takes them away from their work. Outdated 70-20-10 models need to be replaced with continuous learning paradigms.

L&D teams have to come to grips with agile work, digitalisation, Ai and robotics. They need to develop a laser sharp focus on accelerating the strategic capabilities organisations need to perform. They need to provide ongoing real time access to engaging learning in multiple modes and locations and use augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI). The learning must be experiential, collaborative and applied.

It must be future skills oriented and will focus on human skills like growth mindset, emotional intelligence, complex communication, systems thinking, resilience, collaboration, agility and creativity in a machine age. This will require both funding and political will in organisations. It also requires learners to become more self-directed.

A final pain point in organisations is careers in the new world of work. Organisations and employees must shift from old mental models about careers. Employees will need to not only become more self-directed in their learning, but also in their careers. People will have multiple career paths. Employers need to show the organisation is full of opportunity and encourage the notion of career journeys rather than paths.

Sources:

Adobe.com
BCG: The Enabled Organisations
Bersin: Getting from 70-20-10 to continuous learning
Bersin: Career management today
Furstperson: 5 contemporary recruitment and selection challenges.
Futurethink: The future of learning and development
Futurist: No more career ladders
John Sullivan: The top 50 problems with performance appraisals.
McKinsey: Building capabilities for performance