HR Corner Line-of-sight goal alignment boosts staff performance by Isabella Lee Sophisticated employee management system a vital business tool Globalisation and the ongoing growth of international economic conditions are some of the factors now fuelling competition among all businesses. To outperform rivals and create sustainable success, companies of all sizes must capitalise on the most valuable asset — human resources. As a result, an effective employee management system is a key factor in keeping ahead. "With a well-managed workforce, a company can grow and develop without limit," says Manny Galvez, vice president - Asia Pacific of SuccessFactors Hong Kong Ltd. "Today, investment in employee development is an essential part of HR management. The growth of a company depends largely on the growth of its people." Mr Galvez believes one of the most important tasks for any organisations is to have a comprehensive goal management process that includes creating, cascading, monitoring and assessing the progress of that goal. By instituting such a process, everybody has a clear understanding of all responsibilities associated with that special goal. Then, with such a line-of-sight goal alignment, employees are better able to perform their duties. Furthermore, it is crucial to keep the goal visible up, down and across reporting levels in order to increase line manager accountability. It follows that all team members should be well informed of every phase of goal completion. By focusing employees on the most pertinent goals, overall productivity will rise and redundancies avoided. Based on a clear and common goal, both managers and employees should create dynamic, focused and effective development plans that can be monitored and adjusted continuously, Mr Galvez stresses. "The result will be better employee skills in their current jobs, plus the development of further skills necessary for future career path progression," he says. "A prudent company would give itself ample time to choose the right person" Succession plan vital Erik Berggren, SuccessFactors' director of customer results, has found that a succession plan is another significant area in HR management, adding, "Without a succession plan covering all contingencies, companies can suddenly find themselves in the middle of a management crisis." It would then be too late to diminish the negative impact when decision-making executives walked out. Despite the risks involved, some companies today still just wait and do nothing about introducing a succession plan. "We strongly urge that they analyse the possible results of the situation they have placed themselves in, the risks they are taking, and the potential losses they might suffer. A prudent company would give itself ample time to choose the right person, and even foster the training and exposure of the successors from within the company," he says. Mr Berggren further points out that meritocracy, a reward system that pays employees according to their work performance, is the most salient motivator for people. With such a system in place, employees will be encouraged to focus on achieving the goals, not simply going through the motions. To add employee drive and enthusiasm to the equation, clear, timely and accurate assessment of employee performance and potential is necessary. Consequently, managers can consistently monitor progress against goals and competency levels for their entire organisation. For their part, employees will be reassured that their efforts are not going unnoticed and their overall performance evaluated fairly. Management methodologies SuccessFactors provides client companies with web-based integrated performance and talent management solutions to help them realise their high-performance potential through the talents of their workforce. Letty Ma, the company's regional sales manager, says "We regard our customers as our partners, and interpret their businesses as ours," she states. "If the solutions we offer cannot meet their expectations or grow their revenue, we will suffer from the same failure." Since being founded in 2001, SuccessFactors has achieved growth of more than 100 per cent in each of the previous three years. "The results achieved by our own Performance and Talent Management Application Suite are the proof of all of these staff management methodologies," Mr Berggren emphasises. "We clearly see that our customers outperform competitors in terms of growth and bottom-line results. Part of this is explained by these companies' focuses on the real value in creating their assets — the people. For instance we worked with large pharmaceutical service provider that clearly could measure that usage of SuccessFactors enabled decreased staff turnover from 23 to 16 per cent with improved employee engagement levels. With increased retention rates, companies not only save direct cost but also prevent potential brain drain." Salient points Create a clear management goal Let all staff know their part in achieving the common goal Meritocracy reward system a motivator Avoid churn at the top with a succession plan Taken from Career Times 27 April 2007, p. D8 Your comments are welcome at [email protected]