Human resources

Onboarding Employees

Onboarding Employees is a routine task that is rarely done well. Some organizations have HR groups or other infrastructure to help Onboarding Employees, but individual managers should not allow a lack of such infrastructure stop them from doing so. Below we talk about:

Why All Managers Should Pay Attention to Onboarding Employees
The Three Components of Onboarding Employees:
- Orientation
- Adaptation
- Acceleration
The Minimum Requirements for Onboarding Employees

Why All Managers Should Pay Attention to Onboarding Employees

Employees are at most risk of leaving in their first 12 months on the job. How they are integrated into your business is critical to ensuring their success.
Encourages better morale, productivity, attendance, and safety.
It helps reduce the chances of mistakes or bad habits being developed.

The Three Components of Onboarding Employees

Orientation

Orientation is the first component of Onboarding Employees. As the name implies, this is the stage where we help them become familiar and comfortable with their new surroundings:

Review of policies and other new job administration.
Introduction to others with whom the new employee will be working.
Job specific training.
Telephones, computers, tools, and supplies ready to go in advance, so the new employee can begin work right away.

Adaptation

The second component of Onboarding Employees is Adaptation. In this phase, we integrate the newcomer into the culture of the organization.

How do you describe your culture?
How is that culture “lived”?
What stories can you tell about how you live that culture?
Is there an employee association or social club?
Do you have articulated and communicated the mission, vision and values of the organization?
Exposure to other business areas that may be on the periphery of the new employee’s view (central services, suppliers, customers, other internal departments, etc.)

Acceleration

In this phase, an organization can really benefit from a well thought-out process for Onboarding Employees. This is how we get new people to “hit the ground running”, and accelerate their journey to full productivity.

Provide written goals, objectives and standards, and ensure they are understood by the new hire.
Start regular one on one meetings between the new employee and his/her immediate supervisor. These meetings may need to be more frequent at the beginning of an employment relationship.
Identify development areas, and begin immediately to address those gaps.

The Minimum Requirements for Onboarding Employees

It may be difficult to implement a comprehensive process for Onboarding Employees all at once. As a minimum, the following elements need to be covered:

Introduction to policy, benefits, and basic procedures (the HR things)
Introduction to site specific Health, Safety, Environment & Security guidelines.
Introduction to job specific procedures, expectations (covered by the immediate supervisor)
Introduction to people s/he will be working with (as a courtesy)
All required equipment – phones, computers, security cards, tools, etc. to allow the new hire to get to work on the very first day.

3 Things to Remember About Onboarding Employees

You need to have a process and dedicate 100% of your attention to it when someone new is starting.
The personal touch goes a long way – as the supervisor of a new hire, try to make yourself as available as possible during those first few days.
Onboarding lasts more than a day. Some organizations take weeks and months to onboard someone new.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Onboarding Employees (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Be a Game Show Contestant and Win Future Leaders

The 9-Box is a simple tool that helps you make better talent management decisions (for example, who to assign a special project). Get instant access to the 9-Box for Succession Planning Video and Cheat Sheet by becoming a Wily Manager member today.

There are many who find it distasteful that organizations have big war-rooms full of maps where they move their people around like pawns on a chessboard. It depersonalizes the people, and treats them more like material assets. General Electric pioneered the idea of putting people on a 9-box grid ranking them in their performance and their potential, as an integral part of the talent management process. Now many leading organizations use similar systems.

Even if you find such practices distasteful, it is easy to see their utility when managing a large organization.

Why not have a bit of fun with it? A 9-box grid looks a lot like a tic-tac-toe board, and that has been the foundation of many a game-show. Of course, in a viable organization, you wouldn’t want the over-manicured pretty-boy game show hosts, the mentally impaired contestants, or the “celebrities” desperately using the show as venue to launch their big come-back.

But you could have managers competing to get 3 high-potential, high-performers in a row. You could find a washed up HR guy with a nice haircut to facilitate, and you could over hear a District Manager say, “I’ll take Paul Lynde for the block”! (YouTube the Original Hollywood Squares if you don’t get the reference).

Not every manager would be comfortable managing their talent this way, but for those that either don’t like the idea, or don’t manage to compete well, we have some lovely parting gifts – including a one-year supply of Orville Redenbacher Gourmet Popcorn – most every kernel pops!

Next week we’ll be talking about onboarding new employees. You won’t want to miss out – become a Wily Manager Member today.

The 9 Box for Succession Planning

The 9 Box is part of a talent management system to help organizations manage the capability of their workforce. The Nine Box is in wide use now in many companies, but is generally credited as having been pioneered by General Electric and McKinsey. Below we talk about the following aspects of the 9 Box:

What is the 9 Box?
The typical 9 Box grid.
How to use the 9 Box.
Common challenges to using the 9 Box.

What is the 9 Box?

The 9 Box is a Leadership Talent Management Tool used to assess individuals on two dimensions:

Their past performance and
Their future potential

The outcomes of running a 9 Box session include:

Helping identify the organization’s leadership pipeline
Identifying the ‘keepers’.
Identifying turnover risks.
Identifying employees with potential to provide development assignments or special projects
Making ‘improve or remove’ decisions about those employees and leaders whose skills are out of date.

The Typical 9 Box

Nine Box Grid (9 Box Grid)

How to Use the 9 Box

The 9 Box system is most often part of a larger Talent Management system. It is also easy to understand and implement, but efforts need to be made to people to explain why it is being done, and how it will impact them.

The tool is most effective when used by a team.
Have each manager fill in a grid assigning each of their team members to one of the squares on the grid.
Consider asking for additional information, such as years in current position, retention risk, or relocate-ability.
Conduct the calibration meeting. This is where you as a manager get feedback from your peers, and potentially your boss on where you have elected to place your people on the grid.
Use the grid as a guideline to developmental activities, promotions, and transfers
Repeat every six months.

Common Challenges to Using the 9 Box

Although the 9 Box is conceptually easy to understand, there are some challenges to implementation:

Open or closed? This essentially asks the question as to whether people are made aware of their place on the grid or not. There are good arguments on both sides of the argument. Regardless of the decision to reveal their place or not, every employee should be given regular performance feedback, and developmental opportunities. The Nine Box can assist greatly in doing this effectively.
Defining Potential. Most organizations have some infrastructure to assess performance. Fewer assess potential as effectively. In a traditional hierarchical organization, potential may be defined as how quickly someone might climb one or two rungs on the corporate ladder. In other organizations, it might be worth facilitating a conversation on what “potential” means.

3 Things to Remember About 9 Box Grids

The 9 Box is only part of a larger Talent Management process.
Action plans on what to do to improve performance and/or potential are much more important than simply completing the Nine Box.
Encourage healthy debate and set high standards.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about The Nine Box (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Writing Performance Appraisals

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Writing Performance Appraisals is a required job of every manager, that few enjoy doing. When done well, Writing Performance Appraisals can drive performance of both individuals and of the organization. Below we talk about:

Why Bother Writing Performance Appraisals
Key Actions When Writing Performance Appraisals
Potential Pitfalls When Writing Performance Appraisals

Why Bother Writing Performance Appraisals

In some organizations, Writing Performance Appraisals is so painful, that the question is asked whether they are worth doing at all. Consider the following:

Feedback is critical to success. People need to know how they are doing and where they stand.
Performance Appraisals are often painful, and done poorly. It doesn’t have to be this way.
When done properly, Performance Appraisals can drive, and drastically improve performance.

Key Actions When Writing Performance Appraisals

Form the Foundation
Make Performance Appraisals Part of Ongoing Feedback
Make Performance Appraisals Future Oriented
Conduct Your Appraisal Meeting

Form the Foundation

Make Performance Appraisals consistent with other documents – use the same definitions and competencies in all documents. For example, it makes no sense to have one set of criteria on a Job Description, and another on a Performance Appraisal.
Articulate clear goals and expectations. People need to know and understand well in advance what they will be evaluated on. Show them the forms and the rating system significantly in advance of the Performance Appraisal meeting.
Define the performance criteria. Managers must not say, “Be Organized”. There need to be behavioral descriptions of what “organized” means.
Use measures where possible. Not everything is easily measured, but every attempt should be made to use objective, measurable criteria where it exists.
Support with examples or behavioral descriptions wherever possible.

Make Performance Appraisals part of Ongoing Feedback

Managers must offer feedback more than one or twice a year during Performance Appraisals. Feedback must be continuous, and be informal as well as formal.

There should be no surprises on Performance Appraisals.
Performance and feedback should be discussed at manager – employee one on ones regularly.
Communicate about the Performance Appraisal process. Tell people what to expect, and show them the forms to be used.
Choose your timing. In some cases Writing Performance Appraisals is attached to the calendar. In other cases, managers have discretion as to when they are conducted. Do what is most appropriate for your situation.

Make Performance Appraisals Future Oriented

The less a Performance Appraisal feels like a report card, the easier it will be for all parties.

The past doesn’t count. You cannot change past performance, but you can learn from it. Use the past only as a guide to improve for the future.
Overcome employee resistance. The manager needs to facilitate a conversation that will ultimately improve performance. This is much easier if the employee is not defensive and angry.
Tie very closely to development plans. Again – future performance is what counts. For this reason, Performance Appraisals and Development Plans should be very closely linked, and highly correlated.

Conduct Your Meeting

The Performance Appraisal meeting should be much easier if the manager has followed the steps above.

Before the meeting:

Let employees know what to expect
Have them fill out the forms themselves, so you can compare notes during the meeting.
Envision the entire meeting beforehand. Prepare responses to any pushback you may get. Also prepare tangible examples to support the ratings.

During:

The Manager should ask lots of questions
Be consultative and listen
Focus discussion on improving performance, not on discussing dead issues of the past.

Potential Pitfalls When Writing Performance Appraisals

Only offering feedback during Performance Appraisals
Not dedicating adequate time
Not having predetermined, crystal-clear expectations
Poor or unclear process

3 Things to Remember About Writing Performance Appraisals

Everybody hates performance appraisals for a reason – they are usually done poorly
Make it future oriented
Offer feedback continually – not just once per year.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Writing Performance Appraisals (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

4 Secrets to Management Success

‘Distributed Leadership‘ is the latest management buzzword. Is it a good idea or just another ‘Flavor of the Month’ management mistake? Discover the pros and cons of Distributed Leadership and the potential pitfalls that could derail both your company and your career by becoming a Wily Manager Member today. Our newest video and cheat sheet gives you the scoop. You’ll get instant access to this career saving guide and over 90 other vital management topics immediately.

I once did a one-year project for an enormous insurance company.

They had some significant challenges – they were hemorrhaging cash, it took them way too long to process a claim, they had ridiculously high levels of staff turnover, and they had a remarkably poor public and brand image. This organization was to insurance what Twinkies are to fine pastries.

They tried a number of things to attempt to improve the situation.

They reorganized every few months, thinking that if they arranged the boxes on the org-chart differently, it would magically change results.

They read the latest management books, and within a five-year period, they implemented:

Self-directed teams
Democratic leadership
Co-managers (having two managers cover one portfolio to ensure adequate coverage)
Business unit autonomy
Total quality management
Continuous improvement teams
Lean manufacturing methodology
Six-sigma

After working in the organization for several months, it became clear to me that despite significant rhetoric to the contrary, the single most important organizational value was to maintain the status quo.

The entire organization, from the CEO to the janitor, desperately wanted different results – as long as they personally didn’t have to do anything different to get those results. It’s kind of like yelling in anger at the speedometer in your car, because you’re going too fast.

Flavor-of-the-Month management practices work about as well as a chocolate teapot. If they really wanted to succeed as an organization, they would need to do a few simple, but fundamental things:

Value leadership – you need to hire, develop, promote and reward people for being great leaders.
Set clear direction, and create crystal-clear expectations of people.
Hold people accountable for those well-understood expectations.
Continually reward and reinforce the things you want.

Most of the “Management by Best-Seller” crowd get parts of this right – but they think that the latest stuff the gurus are talking about is going to somehow make the four things above easier.

It won’t.

The truth is, there’s NO flavor-of-the month technique that will make your job easier. The only route to management success is to diligently focus your efforts on the basics.

You can safely ignore what the latest best-seller is saying…that’s just a distraction you don’t have time for.

You won’t have to worry about missing anything important, because we read all the latest management books and journals, so we’re up-to-date with what’s new. Every week we focus on a different management or leadership topic, and give our members bite-size chunks of information and advice about that topic. It’s quick to digest and easy to understand, and you’ll keep up-to-date in less than 20 minutes a week.

It’s the best of both worlds – you’ll save time and energy by zeroing in on what’s really important, but you’ll still be informed about the latest management trends.

Try out a Wily Manager Membership – it’s only $17 per month or less, and it’s absolutely risk-free

Next week we’ll be talking about Performance Appraisals. These don’t have to be stressful time-wasters – you’ll learn how to structure them so they lead to the behavior changes you really want to see. You won’t want to miss out – become a Wily Manager Member today.

Understanding Distributed Leadership

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the upsides and downsides to implementing Distributed Leadership.

Watch the ‘Distributed Leadership’ Video (16 mins 11 sec):

Download the ‘Distributed Leadership’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Understanding Distributed Leadership

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Distributed Leadership is currently a popular way to organize a business. Below we discuss:

What is Distributed Leadership.
The positive and negative aspects of Distributed Leadership.
Potential Pitfalls if you’re implementing Distributed Leadership.

What is Distributed Leadership

The only thing that is generally agreed upon is that Distributed Leadership lacks a commonly understood definition.

Also called:

Shared Leadership
Team Leadership
Democratic Leadership

Focused on moving authority away from an individual.
Has caught on in Educational institutions – particularly in the UK.

The Positives of a Distributed Leadership Approach

There are good and bad things about any approach to organizational design. The positives of Distributed Leadership are:

Avoids CEO celebrities (that usually ends badly).
Pushes authority further down a traditional organizational hierarchy.
It can discourage command and control cultures.
Forces positional leaders to rethink their authority, and other ways to exert authority.
Can be more inclusive

The Negatives of a Distributed Leadership Approach

It is likely things will move more slowly.
It is unclear that it would work outside of academia.
Authority is an illusion unless it is accompanied by accountability, and accountability could be illusive in an organization with Distributed Leadership.

Pitfalls to Implementing a Distributed Leadership Approach

If you or your organization has made the decision to move towards a Distributed Leadership approach, here are some things to consider:

It is unclear how difficult decisions would get made. Often important decisions are unpopular, or are not democratic. For example, a business decision that may result in layoffs would be difficult to arrive at in a Distributed Leadership organization.
Democracy is a good idea, but is never tidy. Building consensus and majorities is hard work, so be sure this is what you want
If everyone is accountable, no one is accountable. Regardless of how you are organized, accountability must be clear to get anything done. If moving towards Distributed Leadership dilutes accountability, it will fail.
It could be hard to get current holders of power to let go.

3 Things to Remember About Distributed Leadership

There is no magical system of leadership that will fix all your organization’s ills. If you already have a shortage of leadership, moving to any other organizational model will not fix it.
Accountability and authority should be pushed as deep into an organization as possible. This is the most compelling reason to move to a Distributed Leadership model.
Some decisions will never be appropriate for a Distributed Leadership model. Difficult or unpopular decisions cannot be arrived at democratically, and will create nothing but gridlock.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Distributed Leadership (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Managers – The Ultimate Renewable Resource

Many organizations plug a new manager into a vacant position without having done anything to develop the talent required for that job, then insist the manager work 60 to 80 hours a week. When the manager burns out, they replace him with a younger model, and the cycle is repeated. Managers – the Ultimate Renewable Resource.

I once worked for such an organization. We called the head office Jurassic Park because:

It was full of dinosaurs, and
It seemed like an appropriate location to produce a horror film

In this organization, the only way to advance was to have started when you were sixteen years old, and then work excessive hours your entire working life.

Education was actively discouraged. If you had any aspirations to better yourself through post-secondary education, you had to keep it a secret or risk being put on ‘student status’ which meant your benefits were curtailed, and you were ineligible for advancement.

This company didn’t infuse their management ranks with talent from the outside, either. They very much believed that if you did not ‘grow up’ with this company then you didn’t have any experience worth considering. They didn’t believe their competitors had any talent, nor were skills learned in any other industry worth anything.

It was so inbred, it made the kid on porch playing the banjo in Deliverance look like a Rhodes Scholar.

Interestingly, this company was in a highly competitive industry with a number of new, aggressive entrants to the market. Yet I was once told the company was doing well because it only lost 5% of market share and 2% of revenue in the previous year. That’s right – they measured their success by how little their performance sucked.

You can imagine how this all ends.

In such a company, all the highest potential people leave to go where they can advance their skills and their careers. The few who remain become more overwhelmed than George W. Bush at a Mensa meeting, and sooner or later just give up.

Until now, organizations have been able to get away with treating managers as the Ultimate Renewable Resource. But demographics are quickly turning the tables. The Baby Boomer mass workplace exodus has begun, and many companies are shocked to discover that they are having trouble filling those vacant positions, especially management roles.

If you work for a company where the senior leadership looks anything like the characters from Jurassic Park, how can you evolve from the age of dinosaurs?

Smart organizations have realized that they need to proactively develop potential leaders in-house. When a vacancy arises, they have a pool of qualified talent to choose from, instead of scrambling around trying to find a warm body to fill the position.

The first step is an organizational commitment to ongoing development of leadership skills in employees at all levels.

A Wily Manager Corporate Membership gives you and your co-workers practical, ‘in-the-trenches’ leadership advice that’s actually fun, requires less than 20 minutes a week, and doesn’t take you away from the office.

And best of all, your organization pays. They’ll be happy to foot the bill when they see how inexpensive it is, how easy it is to get started, and all the ways it will benefit the company.

You can help – put us in touch with the right person at your workplace, and we’ll suggest a Wily Manager Corporate Membership for you and your co-workers.

Succession Plans – An Introduction

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Succession Plans are an effective, but often under utilized tool that leaders can use to better manage their business. Below we discuss in more detail:

Why Bother with Succession Plans
Where to Start with Succession Plans
The 9 box system of Succession Plans
Replacement Planning
Development Planning
Talent Management

Why Bother with Succession Plans

Many managers would not bother with Succession Plans unless their HR group insists they are done. Good managers in competitive businesses must take on Succession Plans on their own, even if there is no organizational support.

The success of your business strategy depends on having the right talent in place to execute it.

“If I were to pick one marker above all others to use as a warning sign, it would be a declining proportion of key seats filled with the right people.”

Jim Collins, How the Mighty Fall (Page 57).

Where to Start with Succession Plans

Any attempt to improve a business or its people is only effective if it is done within the context of better achieving business results. Start by asking these questions:

Will your Succession Plans advance the strategy of the business or your department?
Do your Succession Plans enhance the competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) required to achieve the business strategy?
Are your Succession Plans consistent with the values of the organization?

Then look at where you are now

What are the key jobs in your organization?
What percentage of those jobs are filled with the right people?
Do you have the organizational diversity that will drive innovation?
How many people in those key jobs are nearing retirement eligibility?
How many would you characterize as a turnover risk?

The 9-Box System of Succession Plans

Succession Plans - Talent Review

Replacement Planning

Succession Plans - Replacement Planning

Development Planning

Many organizations have significant training and development activity. Far fewer do so in a systematic way that will advance the goals of the organization. All training and development that does not change specific, targeted behaviors is a waste of time and money.

Targeted Development asks fundamental questions:

What are the future requirements of the organization?
What are an individual’s strengths and developmental opportunities?
What are the current business needs?

Talent Management

Succession Plans - Talent Management

Three Things to Remember About Succession Plans

All Succession Plans must be future focused.
Succession Plans must be action oriented.
Succession Plans are more than simply Replacement Planning.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Succession Plans (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Strategy for an Inexperienced Workforce

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There is a looming experience gap in your workforce, presenting a significant risk to many businesses. Here are some specific strategies managers should implement to anticipate and overcome this problem.

The Demographic Reality

Most of the population is older than 50 and younger than 30 due to the baby boom
Organizations fired most of their middle managers in the ‘90s when they restructured/reorganized
As more experienced employees retire, you’re going to have trouble replacing them
Immigration only partially addresses the problem
Your 20-somethings used to have 15 years to develop their skills, whereas now they might have only 5 years

The bottom line: You need to “skill up” people faster (both accelerated leadership development and technical development).

What To Do?

We need to lead our businesses differently to account for this looming experience gap. This problem may or may not be addressed by HR in your organization, so you need to go ahead with or without their support.

1. Build a Talent Projection

You need to know your situation. What is the scope of your problem? What is the gap in your skilled talent?
How many people do you lose per year due to normal attrition?
How many people will you lose to retirement in the next 5 years?
What people demands will the growth of the business place on your talent?

2. Become a Capability Building Machine

You need to figure out how to capture the knowledge of retiring employees, and transition it to younger employees.
Training is one method, but should not be the only method (and many organizations default to training).
Other more effective methods include mentoring, job shadowing, stretch assignments, and coaching.

3. Insist Leaders Be Coaches

If you have an inexperienced workforce, or are anticipating one, your leaders must be coaches. They must be inspired to bring out the excellence in others.
The number one priority of leaders in such situations must be to build skills (both leadership and technical) in the organization.
You need to hire, promote, reward, and reinforce for the development of people.

3 Things to Remember About Anticipating and Dealing With an Inexperienced Workforce:

This is NOT an HR problem. This is a management problem, and a significant risk to many businesses.
Don’t let leaders off the hook because they are technically excellent. They need to make others excellent.
Think beyond training.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about dealing with an inexperienced workforce (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Onboarding Employees

Be a Game Show Contestant and Win Future Leaders

The 9 Box for Succession Planning

Writing Performance Appraisals

4 Secrets to Management Success

Understanding Distributed Leadership

Understanding Distributed Leadership

Managers – The Ultimate Renewable Resource

Succession Plans – An Introduction

Strategy for an Inexperienced Workforce

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