Performance Management Skills Training

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What is the most important element of an organizations success today? I believe you got it right; its people. Motivated, trained and experienced employees drive creativity, strategy and profits. This hands-on performance management program empowers with current skills required to manage talent, develop potential and close under-performance gaps.

Course Highlights and Agenda;

Specifically designed for those with management accountability, participant will learn;

  • The seven point checklist of quickly identifying the right talent
  • Understanding the performance management cycle
  • How to disintegrate strategy from top to the individual level
  • How to come up with measurable KPI/CSF
  • Handling performance appraisal and performance improvement sessions
  • How to Develop with reliable performance benchmarks
  • How to Manage underperformance and exemplary performance
  • How to Identify the competences required for success
  • How to Explore states of motivation
  • Handle developmental discussions
  • Devise plans and performance objectives

 

Implementing eMasters Software for KPI Decision Support..

Not all performance management issues are negative. With this in mind the programme is split into too critical areas:

  1. Dealing with poor performance
    2. How to turn good performance into great performance

Many training programmes fail to acknowledge that while it is essential that managers deal with the effects of poor performance, they should also be devoting significant amounts of time and resources to helping the good performers in their teams to raise their game to new heights.

Managers invariably find themselves spending the bulk of their time dealing with the performance of their weakest team members. This is usually at the expensive of investing more time with the strongest team members, who are often responsible for the bulk of performance success. This course will help you address this all too common in-balance!

Program Content;

Understanding the Rationale for Performance Management

  • Why performance management is one of the biggest challenges facing 21st century managers
    Assessing the performance cultures:
    – Organisational
    – Department
    – Team
    – Individual
    Understanding the role of performance management in gaining the competitive edge
    Applying different performance standards and measures
    Performance management vs. disciplinary processes

EXERCISE: Practical group discussion: what works well for you and what needs to improve?

The Importance of Pre-Empting Performance Issues

  • The early warning signs that performance issues need to be addressed
    Do you have a performance management problem or a HR problem?
    What pre-emptive actions do you have at your disposal as a manager?
    How to assess the likely impact of the issue
    Linking performance management challenges to the appraisal process
    Why most managers bury their head in the sand rather than addressing performance issues at the early stages
    How to approach the initial stages of a performance management problem
    – Get your facts 100% accurate
    – Assessing if the problem lies with the person or the situation
    – Getting past the implied issue to the explicit issue
    – De-personalising the situation

EXERCISE: Practical group case study: how would you manage the performance of key individuals?

 

Dealing with Poor Performance A Manager’s Survival Guide

  • Understanding the usual root causes of poor performance
    The importance acting swiftly – damage limitation
    Getting to the heart of the real problem
    How deeply can you probe without compromising the rights of the employee?
    What is perceived to be the problem is unlikely to be the real cause
    Addressing a sudden drop in performance
    Ensuring your practices are compliant with modern HR constraints
    Presenting the business case for improvement
    Critical assessment: how likely is it that the issue can be solved through a performance management process?
    Assessing when its appropriate to involve HR in the process

EXERCISE: Poor performance situations for group discussion, practice and feedback

Implementing a Performance Management Process: A Best Practice Approach

  • Preparing a case for performance management
    – Problem
    – Expectation
    – Gap
    How to communicate with the team or individual concerned
    Preparing for the emotional impact:
    – Anger
    – Resentment
    – Apathy
    – Hysteria
    – Depression
    Ensuring you take the person out, but leave the problem in
    How to diffuse emotionally charged scenarios
    Preparing for a performance management meeting
    Conducting a positive review when there is no improvement

EXERCISE: Responding appropriately to different emotions and characteristics.

 

Essential Communication Skills
Set the rationale (business case) for the process being implemented
How to illicit detailed feedback
Present expectations, requirements, outcomes and objectives explicitly
Check for shared understanding, compliance and commitment
Setting tangible, performance focused objectives
Managing time-scales, feedback and work-flows
Clarifying agreements and expectations from all parties

EXERCISE: Examining real-life situations that delegates are invited to bring with them

Motivation and Performance Management
Keeping them motivated during the performance management process
Striking the balance between fear and reward
Understanding motivational triggers
– Individual
– Team
How to de-motivate in one easy lesson!
Empowering individuals through recognition, challenge, delegation and feeling valued
Using money as a motivational tool
Reviewing progress and rewarding successes

EXERCISE: Motivation what makes you and your team tick?

Applying Performance Management Principles to Team
Getting to grips with the performance differences between teams and individuals
Identifying the root causes of mediocre team performance
– Toxic individuals
– Negative influence
– Environmental challenges
– Unrealistic expectations
– The human impact of change
Identifying what changes can be made immediately
Implementing a team-wide performance management process
The importance of empowering and motivating teams through times of change and uncertainty
Differentiating between reward and motivation
Empowering individuals through effective delegation

EXERCISE: Questionnaire, analysis and discussion of team behaviour versus performance

Aligning Performance Management and KPIs

Is your team’s performance reaching company targets? There’s constant pressure to achieve performance targets, to reach higher performance levels, and to ensure that people’s work supports and furthers the organization’s goals.Performance management is the process used to manage this performance.
The key question asked is, “How well is an employee applying his or her current skills, and to what extent is he or she achieving the outcomes desired?”
The answer has traditionally been found in the performance evaluation process, where managers look for hard data to tell how well an employee has performed his or her duties.
What is often missing from this evaluation, however, is the part about making sure that the employee is doing the right thing. After all, you may have a very hard-working and dedicated team member, but if he or she is not working on things that advance the organization’s purpose, what is the point?
This is where key performance indicators come into play, and they apply both at the organizational and individual levels. At an organizational level, a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable metric that reflects how well an organization is achieving its stated goals and objectives.

The Role of the Manager in Maintaining High Levels of Performance
Why accepting personal responsibility and ownership for performance is a number one priority
Creating and environment where individuals and teams can thrive what does the team need from you?
Are goals, objectives and requirements clearly communicated in your department?
– If yes, how do you know?
– If no, why not?
Ensuring subordinates really understand what is expected of them
– Before laying blame, assess how well tasks and functions were delegated and communicated
There are two options available to every manager when performance is an issue: take action, or not take action
– Assessing the impact and pros and cons of each option
Keeping cool under pressure a practical approach

EXERCISE: Practical group discussion: what works well for you and what needs to improve?

Turning Good Performers into Great Performers
Consistency in approach when reviewing team performance
Benchmarking core competencies and spotting potential
Taking developmental risks and follow-through in decision making
The manager as a coach in propelling performance to new heights:
– Abilities in assessing staff development needs
– Coaching techniques
– Coaching qualities
A model for coaching
Succession planning and staff retention factors

EXERCISE: Practical group discussion: Question the question, how good are you at developing your team?

Time Management Review – Where are You Spending Most of Your Time?

  • Reviewing the cyclical performance curve and the impact on key result areas.
    Understanding why we can be subjective instead of objective with performance issues
    Who are your A star performers and how do you value their contribution what lessons can be learned?
    Planning and prioritising your time between A, B and C star performers what is your ratio calculation?
    Identifying the hidden, silent superstars in your team and tapping into their potential
    Who offers the best return on investment, and how do you apply your findings?

EXERCISE: Key questions to make you challenge your logic and question your approach!

 

Struggling with Key Performance Indicators ?

It’s no surprise that Key Performance Indicators are difficult to set up and manage. The underlying issue is not the KPI’s themselves. Once Key Performance Indicators are set, most employees know what they need to do in order to achieve their critical success factors. The problems with KPI’s are :

 

Problem 1 : KPI’s are written in language which allows people to “game” the system and avoid the intent of the KPI. The impact is that employees get paid their bonuses but the organisation doesn’t perform any better and can even perform worse.

Solution 1 : This can be significantly improved by engaging Dolphins Group’s consulting team to review existing KPI’s and recommend changes. Dolphins Group has patented a method which will align the KPI’s with the strategy of the organisation, while protecting the intent an driving employee performance.

 

Problem 2 : The reasons for needing particular Key Performance Indicators are never adequately understood by the workforce. The impact is that employees work hard to achieve goals for which they don’t have any context or meaning. In the absence of context, employees don’t know “Why?” they need to achieve their KPI’s and their work effort is often misdirected or misaligned. At the performance review employees think they have done excellent work but their manager gives them a low rating at their annual appraisal.

Solution 2 : Helping managers and employees to understand the meaning of their KPI’s is conducted through workshops run by Dolphins Group. The workshops are consistently rated highly by all participants and helps them to understand Why? the KPI’s should matter to them.
“When employees struggle to achieve the KPI’s, managers and executives are challenged to understand the reason for difficulties in achieving those KPI’s”

 

Problem 3 : The reasoning behind the KPI’s themselves is not analysed properly by the executive and management teams. This does not sit well but is prevalent in 90% of organisation’s. Often, Key Performance Indicators are set without understanding their true impact on the organisation. The impacts of actually achieving the KPI’s are not connected to the organisation strategy and the original intent of the KPI is not achieved.

Solution 3 :

: Dolphins Group through our Executive Software Architect Team and has developed software entitled eMasters, which helps managers to analyse KPI’s and determine whether the intended impact on the organisation is the same as the reason the KPI was created. This enhances the decision making capability of the manager by using evidence based data the manager does not have ready access to.

eMasters is used to map intended impacts verses actual impacts for that KPI. This service is provided as a consultation and eMasters software license.

 

Problem 4 : If Key Performance Indicators have been established effectively, it should be possible to predict and quantify the impact on the organisation. For example, if the organisation needs to improve customer service, should the KPI be set for training existing service consultants or hiring new consultants with a different job profile or preventing the best consultants from leaving by better engaging them and setting up a career plan ? All three initiatives have an impact but few organisation’s understand which of the three impacts will directly affect customer service.

Solution 4 : eMasters has been designed to predict the true impact of a KPI on the organisation. This requires behavioural analysis, which can only be conducted by a seasoned organisational psychologist. By combining effective KPI’s with correlated outcomes, eMasters is then able to predict how much of a particular intervention is required to achieve the required level of the KPI. The eMasters software is set up once to suit your organisation and KPI’s and then allows you to use it to manage your KPI’s more effectively.

The eMasters Software for KPI Decision Support

eMasters helps managers and executives to understand the KPI’s they set for their employees and why their employees don’t achieve them. Managers need the decision support capabilities in eMasters to help them understand the relationshoip between employee’s organisational behaviour drivers (personal, job and organisational culture drivers) and KPI’s they are assigned.

EMasters provides an evidence based approach to improve manager’s understanding of KPI’s. Rather than relying on the manager’s gut feel or experience, eMasters goes a step further and uses hard data collected from the organisation to understand the relationship between the KPI itself and the motivational drivers for the employee to achieve that KPI.

Armed with evidence, managers are therefore enabled to take a more strategic approach and to set up KPI’s which help execute the strategy using an evidence based approach. In most cases, organisations already have information they can use but don’t yet comprehend that the same information can be used to help employees achieve their KPI’s. eMasters has data mining capability which extracts this data from existing databases on company servers and then performs rigorous analysis on the data to help organisations achieve their KPI’s.
Dolphins Group uses this data to map the correlates/antecedents of three drivers to the intended impacts of the KPI’s. Therefore, an organisation specific system using eMasters is able to be made available to each unique business. This means the decision making capability of the management team is enhanced because they can thereafter use eMasters to understand the reasons for the problems with KPI’s and how those KPI’s affect company profit, customer service levels, employee retention, client turnover and execution of the operating plan or strategy.

eMasters is then able to predict which of the factors affecting employees require targetted interventions to achieve the KPI’s set by the managers. This can reduce training and development costs signficiantly by reducing interventions which affect the factors not related or poorly linked to the KPI’s in the first place. Finally, by targetting the correct interventions, the KPI is better tuned to the intervention, helping the employee to actually achieve the KPI.

Software Presentation.

Dolphins Group – eMasters Software for KPI Decision Support Outline;

The emasters online software comprehensively covers the following elements,

  1. Human Resources
    a. Employees
    b. Contracts
  2. Recruitment
    a. Applications
  3. Transition
    a. Employee Transfer
    b. Employee Termination
  4. Discipline
    a. Disciplinary Details
    b. Disciplinary History
  5. Training & Development
    a. Training Request
    b. Training Course
    c. Accredited Training Institutions
    d. Department Training Budget
    e. Training Summary
  6. Leaves
    a. Leave Requests
    b. Allocation Requests
    c. Leave Booking for planning
    d. Leaves Summary
  7. Appraisal
    a. Appraisals
    b. Interview Requests
  8. Performance Management
    i. Balanced Scorecard Template
    ii. Balanced Scorecard
  9. Payroll
    a. Employee Pay Slips
    b. Payroll Batches
  10. Organizational Structure
    a. Configure
    b. Organization Structure
  11. Configuration
    a. Job Positions
    b. Departments
    c. Leave Types
    d. Appraisal Plans
    e. Payroll
    i. Salary Structures
    ii. Salary Rules
  12. Organizational Culture
  13. Strategic Plan Module
  14. Integrations with Sales, CRM, Accounting/Finance, Operations, Legal, Govt Regulations ERPs and Related Softwares

Other Key Additional Features;

Enables Employees to input ongoing challenges in BSC(Balance Score Card)

 

Allows Employee to give input in BSC duties

 

Empowers Employees to feed in additional KPIs

 

Contains Excellent Dashboard for system overview at the beginning and at the end, enhanced with wording and images

 

Allows versatility by Bringing in different modules around the HR e.g. Sales, CRM, Accounting/Finance, Operations, Legal, Government Regulations, Partners at a click of a Burton.
Putting all together..
To ensure that these activities are in fact aligned with the organization’s strategy, you need to concentrate on what the employees are actually doing. You do this through performance management. By applying the principle of KPIs to employee goals and performance, you create a direct link between all of the key success factors that have been derived from the overall strategy. The result is that members of your team actually do what they should be doing, and that your measurements for determining how well they are doing are clearly tied to the team and organizational success.

 

Training Development Unit.

 

Dolphins Training & Consultants ltd

View Park Towers ,10th Fl ,Utalii Lane & L584-off UN Avenue, Gigiri.
P O Box 27859 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel +254-20-2211362/4/5 or 2211382 Cell+254-712-636404
training@dolphinsgroup.co.ke www.dolphinsgroup.co.ke

Your No.1 Corporate Training Partner DIT No./ 711

 

We push the human race forward and so do you….. Unleash Your True Potential….!