Performance Support and Recognition

Description

• Development of a performance management and reward framework to support individuals and teams in achieving desired business outcomes.  The Performance Support and Recognition strategy typically comprises two levels:
• A corporate performance support strategy, encompassing key principles and policies.
• Specific performance management, reward systems and processes tailored to the needs of key areas of the business.

Business Value

• This deliverable puts in place structured mechanisms to encourage the achievement of shared business goals.  Reinforcement of desired behaviours occurs in an ongoing, developmental manner, as well as through formal, annual feedback/recognition sessions.  This deliverable aligns performance management with reward management (which are often contradictory in many organizations).
• Performance Support and Recognition is the key mechanism to ensure that the organisations behavior supports the “To-Be” environment developed.  Without these programs in place, the company is at risk of implementing change that will not be absorbed by the organization because of misalignment of incentives and behaviors that linger from the “As-Is” environment.

Approach

Performance Support and Recognition systems are significant contributors to the achievement of lasting change. They ensure that individuals and teams have access to effective performance review and coaching, to achieve performance expectations.  In addition, it links compensation and reward systems so that individuals and teams are duly and appropriately recognised for their achievements.

This deliverable will encompass many of the learnings gathered through the previous work including the Portrait of Desired Behaviors, Competency Needs Assessment, etc.  The performance support and recognition programs will translate organisational issues into actionable incentives that will lead to the organizations change.

1. Convene a task force to develop an integrated approach to Performance Support and Recognition.
2. Review the (Confirmed) Business Vision, Shared Values and Guiding Principles, Critical Success Factors, “To-Be” Management Dashboard and “To-Be” Human Resource Model.
3. Investigate Best Practice Comparisons in the area of performance management and reward management.
4. Explore past history with respect to how the organisation supports and recognizes productive, business-oriented behaviour.
5. Develop a draft strategy, focusing on key principles and policies.  Specifically address the degree of autonomy business units will have in translating the principles and policies into specific, operationalised, Performance Support Job Recognition systems.
6. Gain support for the strategy, including the issue of whether there will be business-unit specific systems and, if there will be a process for ensuring their congruence and consistency with the corporate strategy.
7. Build the corporate and, if necessary, business-unit Performance Support and Recognition systems.
8. Manage and coordinate the development of the Performance Support and Recognition systems.

Guidelines

Problems/Solution

• Performance Support and Recognition systems frequently fail due to a lack of senior management support.  Involve senior management in the development of this deliverable so that there will be “buy-in” at the senior level.
• The debate between individual and team responsibility, and how each contribute to achieving effective outcomes, is inevitable.  Use a standard framework, such as the one outlined below, to help structure the debate and to help participants reach a viable solution.

A menu of rewards

Organisational Rewards	Team Rewards	Individual Rewards
Profit sharing Gain sharing	Small group incentives Productivity targets	Base salary Competency based pay Commission Individual targets

Tactics/Helpful Hints

• Money is not the only or the most effective means of employee recognition.  Emphasise factors such as effective leadership styles, ongoing feedback and support, access to learning and public commendations as necessary components in an integrated approach to Performance Support and Recognition.
• Stress the importance of feedback/coaching skills, and ensure that the implementation focuses on these issues in particular.
• It is often useful to pilot more-innovative approaches, particularly if the organisation has little experience with non-traditional performance support and recognition systems.

  Performance needs to be defined in terms of agreed outcomes and critical success factors
  Traditional Criteria	Performance based Criteria
  Task completion Skill acquisition Technical expertise	Achieved outcomes Competency Requirements Desired Behaviours

  Resource/Timing

  • Seek advice from Human Resource specialists, and insist on gaining exposure to real-life examples of their work.  (This area of HR management is often characterized more by rhetoric than by proven experience.)
  • Financial skills are essential to ensure alternative models and their implications are fully costed.
  • Ensure that the overriding principles of the system support a results-oriented, performance-based culture.