David's Employee Performance and Talent Management Blog

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January 2008

Recent Articles

January 28, 2008 5:45 AM

Creating an Effective Pay-for-Performance Culture

Harbor Group International's Best Practices

At last month's HR.com virtual tradeshow one of our customers gave a presentation about how to foster a performance oriented culture - one in which employees focus on the organization's goals. Ron Bates, Human Resources for Harbor Group International had some great points to make about how HR can help develop individuals to adopt high performance attitudes, emotions and behaviors; ultimately fostering collaboration and teamwork.

Bates said that to effectively encourage potential, employers need to know exactly what they need from their people. This means identifying long-term potential through growth factors - not just job-specific abilities or past performance, and not mistaking potential or current job performance as readiness for promotion. They also need to align all organizational systems to support talent management.

One of the ways to do this is through an employee performance management system. But to be effective, the system must eliminate the focus on the review and have managers concentrate on performance improvement and employee development. To do this, the system must support multi-rater/peer reviews, provide real time status on every step in the process, and allow managers to drill down into their organizations.

It should also include a compensation management system that will help the organization bridge individual performance and rewards, all linked to the employee’s contribution potential. Ideally the system will provide employees with a more accurate and fair compensation adjustments, based on appraisal scores and a documented performance matrix.

In this type of culture, Bates argued, an improved communication process leads to higher trust in the company and a better understanding of individual goals. Employees are more focused on clear expectations, measures of performance, and accountability. Increased engagement in corporate goals follows naturally.

According to Bates, tying compensation to performance creates a reward system that is structured to better recognize top performers. Employees perceive that the system provides fair compensation adjustments and rewards. As a result, employee retention improves, and the compensation budget is adhered to.

What are your thoughts - does your organization support a pay-for-performance culture, and if so, what are the outcomes for your bottom line?

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January 25, 2008 5:30 AM

Information is Power

So what are you doing with your appraisal information?

Check out this post on KnowHR on a study from Institute for Corporate Productivity on how companies handle their high performers. The survey found that 70% of companies identify their high performance workers... which is great, because it means organizations are taking steps towards retaining their top talent.

However, the survey also shows that while organizations take the time to identify these workers, many organizations don’t do much with that information. In a climate where attracting and keeping talent is increasingly difficult, organizations, regardless of their size, cannot afford to leave this information languishing. Information is powerful, particularly when it comes to your top performers.

Take a look at how you are using your appraisal information in your organization. Are you using that information to drive organizational goals, and keep top performers happy? We’d be interested in hearing about how organizations are taking this information and turning it into a powerful retention strategy.

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January 23, 2008 6:45 AM

Lessons from the MidMarket

Getting Your Keys to the Boardroom

Recently, the Human Capital Institute had a webinar with three Halogen customers -- Clark Nuber, Lee Enterprises and the Zoological Society of San Diego who shared some great insights into how midmarket enterprises are making the most of talent management and turning it into a strategic asset for their organizations.

Here’s some of the key learnings shared from these organizations:

From Julie Stickney, Director, HR at Lee Enterprises, America’s fourth largest publisher:

• Stay Focused: Top priorities within the organization are reenergized with action steps every year.
• As You Grow, Translate Your Culture: Keep the best of your organization and what maybe unique local markets.
• The Process is Only as Good The Conversations: Set clear expectations for both leaders and employees.

From Tracey L. White, SPHR, CAE, CMP, Director of HR, Clark Nuber, a leading CPA and accounting firm in Washington State:

• Focus on Strategic Choices: People play a key role in achieving these strategies.
• Accelerate Performance Through Career Development: Focus on key priorities to develop key skills, provide the right training and implement individual career paths.
• Technology is a Strategic Asset: Move to paperless environment and add new tools to fuel growth.

From Tim R. Mulligan, J.D., Director of HR at Zoological Society of San Diego:

• Linking Appraisal Results to Compensation: Driving pay for performance programs with improved appraisal process.
• Automate the Appraisal Process: Moving to web-based system enabled to Zoo to recruit/retain employees, introduce a consistent and formal appraisal process, as well as introduce reporting and year round performance journals.

To hear more from these three HR practionners, you can check out the slides from the webinar here (registration required). Stay tuned for another mid-market focused webinar in February.

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January 15, 2008 1:30 PM

Keys to the Boardroom: Driving HR Strategy in the MidMarket Enterprise

Upcoming webinar

Here at Halogen, we work with hundreds of midmarket companies, and one thing we often hear from our customers is how they want to take HR to the next level. That is, less focus on the tactical tasks of executing a review or modernizing a process to eliminate paper, and more focus on strategic initiatives that impact the business as a whole.

This is by no means a new problem for HR, but the good news is that many of our customers have been able to use their employee performance and talent management systems as a driver for change. The HR teams at organizations like Lee Enterprises, The Zoological Society of San Diego and Clark Nuber have been able to take on an active role in driving strategy and shaping organizational culture.

Learn more about how these three organizations have made an impact on their entire organization and now have the keys to the boardroom in a webinar from the Human Capital Institute tomorrow from 2-3 p.m. Register here.

Check back in the next couple days for some of the key lessons learned from these organizations, and a sneak peek at our next midmarket focused webinar.

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July 11, 2008 5:00 AM

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July 9, 2008 5:45 AM

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June 30, 2008 8:15 AM

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