Book Review: Beyond performance management by Jeremy Hope and Steve Player
‘Beyond Performance Management’ is a book that has been needed for a number of years. Jeremy Hope and Steve Player point out that many ‘must-have’ management tools have in the past proved unsatisfactory and that only about 30% of change programmes built using them have succeeded: they also back up their views with independent research. […]
Blog: Crappy performance management rule 3 – Set objectives that staff can never hit
In my previous two blogs I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management: Don’t tell anyone about the vision and rule 2: Never attempt to motivate staff as it will merely be seen as patronising. In this final instalment of the trilogy the hero of crappy performance management wins the day and their "precious" drops away into the […]
Blog: Are annual performance reviews strictly necessary?
Recognise This! – Yes, getting rid of the annual review can be done successfully. Do we really need annual performance reviews? I’ve written before that there is a balance between ongoing feedback from multiple sources and annual feedback from one source. I’ve also written about what it would look like if you scrap the […]
Do UK workers get too many bank holidays?
The two Easter bank holidays just gone cost the UK economy £4.7 billion, with the figure rising to a huge £19 billion if all eight annual breaks are taken into consideration. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, if the country’s regular bank holidays were axed, annual GDP would rise by 1.3% as […]
Blog: Do you recognise your “plumbers” as well as your “poets”?
Recognise This! – Your star performers can’t shine without the daily efforts of your middle tier. Who gets recognised in your organisation? Just the superstars – the top 10% high performers? Or do you acknowledge those who grind out the work day after day – the middle 80% who make it possible for your […]
Blog: Crappy performance management rule 2 – Never attempt to motivate staff
In my previous blog I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management: Don’t tell anyone about the vision. In this article we step up a gear and think about the 2nd most important of rules when designing a ‘wet lettuce’ performance management mindset. Crappy Performance Management Rule 2: Never attempt to motivate staff – […]
Performance psychology: Developing the power of the mind
Performance psychology focuses on those factors that enable individuals, teams and groups to flourish and become the best that they can be. It is a long away from other branches of psychology that are often steeped in malady and dysfunction. Instead performance psychology combines business, sports and positive psychology, with the ultimate aim of […]
Blog: What will increasing the unfair dismissal qualifying period mean in reality?
On 6 April 2012 the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims rises from one to two years. The change will only affect new employees whose employment starts on or after April 6 2012. Those employees already in employment will retain the current qualifying period of one year. The change will not affect automatic unfair […]
Blog: Crappy performance management rule 1 – Don’t tell anyone about the vision
Over my next three blogs I am going to discuss three rules that you need to implement if you are looking for a ‘chocolate teapot’ of a performance management system. Here is the first: Crappy Performance Management Rule 1: Don’t tell anyone about the vision. It’s a rule well rehearsed in many organisations, […]
Blog: The diversity issue – Is being people-friendly the next eco-friendly?
What does diversity mean to you and your business? Or inclusivity and cohesion? A few zzzz lines in the company report, a policy destined for tumbleweed, an unreachable recruitment target, something largely negative under the umbrella of ‘compliance’ that must be reluctantly ticked? What would true diversity and total inclusivity look, feel, and sound […]
Blog: Four steps to take on finishing your staff engagement survey
Recognise This! — Strategic recognition is a powerful tool to align employees with your goals and take appropriate action after your engagement survey is done. Like 80% of the people on our “My Engagement Survey Is Done, Now What?” webinar yesterday (recasts available here), do you conduct an employee engagement survey? Though we didn’t […]
TV Review: The Apprentice Week 2 – The art of listening
After the initial excitement of getting to know the candidates in week 1, I was looking forward to seeing how they all shaped up and settled in this week. Would the boys continue to be the perfect dream team working in peace and harmony? Would the girls continue to scare unsuspecting children and shop […]
Blog: Are you an inspirational leader?
Inspiration is the best way to engage people! Or does it make you squirm? You may be an HR Professional, leader or manager relying on HR to help move your business forward. When discussing strategy with people of different roles at many levels, I have often been met with a perplexed look when I have […]
European eSkills Week: Europe to be 700,000 ICT professionals short by 2015
Convinced ICT is a strong part of our national economy and a great destination for young people? Brussels agrees – hence its European e-Skills Week campaign, which is trying to accentuate the positive in terms of the sector. Kicking off in Brussels yesterday, the closing event will take place on 30 March in Copenhagen. […]
Salesforce.com to make HR “a weapon for transformation”
Salesforce.com has proclaimed that it wants to make HR “a weapon for transformation” by enabling practitioners to interact with workers in a more social way. The Software-as-a-Service vendor made the statement as it launched the first fruit of its Rypple acquisition in the shape of a performance management application. The offering dubbed ‘Salesforce Rypple’ […]
Case Study: Herts Council’s ‘Transformation’ programme slashes sickness absence
Hertfordshire County Council provides local services to more than a million people in the area and employs around 34,000 staff, of whom about 24,000 work in schools. Last year, it introduced a ‘Transformation’ programme – a new and radically different wellbeing strategy, aimed at reducing sickness absence and improving organisational performance. And, while it […]
National Science and Engineering Week: UK to be 2m engineers short by 2015
Guess how many engineers and scientists we’ll need to remain competitive in the next five years? Some 2.2 million. How many kids are going into engineering at the moment as a career? More like 125,000. That sobering statistic is one of the prompts behind ‘The Big Bang Fair,’ a jobs fair that hopes to […]
Blog: Appraisals – The menace of ‘soft marker’ managers
There are plenty of aims of appraisal or performance review programmes, but the key one is usually for managers to assess the performance of their staff, often giving them performance assessment ratings. Sounds like a straightforward enough concept – yet like so many HR initiatives, it is so often a good idea badly executed! […]
Blog: Does HR have the right skills to be in the boardroom?
In a pan European study undertaken by Mercer among over 300 HR Professionals across 25 countries it is revealed that 70 percent of organisations have or are planning to transform their HR functions. A big shift in the way businesses perceives HR seems to be the catalyst for this activity. HR is now seen as […]
Talking Point: How to eat an elephant – Moving to a strengths-based culture
The case for using a strengths-based methodology was most recently supported by David MacLeod’s excellent review entitled ‘Engaging for Success’. But moving from a deeply-ingrained competency culture to a strengths-based approach to recruitment and performance management brings to mind the question, ‘how do you eat an elephant?’ In 2003, I joined a new organisational […]
