New Business Ideas 4 U

Posts Tagged ‘Company Performance’

Here are the last three key points made by Baker, Huselid and Beatty on the relationship between line managers and HR in the development of the workforce.

Workforce accountability begins with creating performance expectations of both line managers and HR

• So both line managers and HR need to agree and spell out what are their respective accountability as regards workforce development and performance. By doing this the possibility of the whole process falling between the cracks – a concern I expressed in the last posting – is alleviated a little, but not entirely. The agreement must be:
  • Clear – it says exactly what each party will be accountable for
  • Written down – a verbal agreement is insufficient. Writing it down and signing off the agreement is a much stronger commitment
  • Measurable – how will each party be quite sure that the other has met the accountability?
  • Assessed – it needs to become a part of the performance appraisal of each party, and not just assessed on an annual basis only. Once a year is nothing like enough. This accountability is of sufficient importance to the functioning of the company it needs to be assessed at least monthly

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Losing All “A” Performers in a Small Office

This is a true story, and is offered to indicate how not doing what is recommended by Profs Becker, Huselid and Beatty can be expensive and serious for a company.

The office was a small sales office – around 15 people. The “A” job in the office is the sales and marketing manager. Why? Because the office was selling big ticket items – hopefully once in a lifetime purchases – and this manager is responsible for the total top line of the organization. Unfortunately, the “A” job was filled by a “C” performer and fortunately for both the office and the person, she was ‘promoted upstairs’ moving to a job in Head Office.

The recently appointed GM then set a winning strategy, and took over the role of sales and marketing manager, since Head Office would not allow the appointment of a replacement for the sales and marketing manager.  All other jobs in the office were “B” or “C” jobs. Interestingly, both I and the GM saw the job of Customer Support as a “B” job tending towards an “A”, while Head Office saw the job as , the company saw this latter as a “B” job, tending towards the “C” level. Just a necessary evil

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One of the possibly contentious issues raised in this thought-provoking book relates to the role of line managers in HR matters. In fact the authors devote a whole chapter to the issue, Chapter 4 Establish Leadership Accountability for Workforce Success.

“The first step is to recognize that the workforce is not just HR’s problem, and that line managers and HR leaders must have joint accountability for developing talent throughout the organization”, they suggest (p87).

In the chapter they make five key points, which I will share with you, commenting briefly on each.

Line managers and leaders influence the mindset of the workforce and its capabilities more than the HR function leaders and managers do: Read the rest of this entry »

So what is a Differentiated Workforce?

A differentiated workforce is one where those jobs, and the staff members in them, who contribute most significantly to the successful achievement of company strategy get special treatment.

There’s a lot in that simple statement, so let’s explore it in a bit more depth.

Firstly, how about the idea that not all staff members contributes equally to the achievement of company strategy? The authors argue that there are “A” jobs, which they describe as ‘contributing disproportionately to one or more of the company’s strategic capabilities’. For example, in a pharmaceutical firm focused on new products, a strategic capability is likely to be R&D, with senior research scientist positions likely to be “A” jobs. In a sales oriented organization, key account sales positions are likely to be “A” jobs.

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