Corporate Learning: Training Doesn’t Have to Be Old School

Corporate learning programs get a bad rap because people assume you just sit through an endless string of boring training sessions. How can employees learn when they have to suffer through 10-hour sessions with instructors akin to Charlie Brown’s teacher? Whaa-whaa-whaa.   

Your employees already went to school, so now’s the time to change the way your company approaches learning.

Beef Up Corporate Learning

“Beef up” doesn’t mean “add more of the same.” We’re talking about making the learning more meaningful. When corporate learning can be integrated with development plans, employees know there’s a reason why they might need to attend training or complete a learning activity in the first place.

Look to diversify your current learning offerings. You could use online learning modules that employees can complete on their own, saving you the time and expense of trying to get everyone in a room. Videos can provide just-in-time training when an employee needs a refresher, and a wiki can include the most up-to-date information on a project.

Don’t forget about the topics. If your learning library only offers training on mastering Excel or Word, your employees could be missing out. Ask around — what do your employees wish they knew? There are going to be a number of missed learning opportunities for a variety of situations. For example, an employee traveling overseas on the company’s behalf for the first time could watch a quick video on how to prepare for travel, how to behave in the country, and how to manage time and expenses.

Don’t Make Learning a Distraction

When corporate learning programs force employees to put their jobs on hold, everyone sees the drop in productivity. Instead, learning should help people improve their skills without pulling them away from their daily tasks for too long.

Homework takes on a new meaning with corporate learning. Instead of theoretical pre-work, have employees bring on-the-job challenges to training sessions. Activities should focus on improving the employee’s job performance instead of completing exercises that appear irrelevant. By focusing on job-related topics, employees could end up developing templates and processes you wouldn’t have known you needed if you’d stayed in the theoretical.

There are many options for learning programs and technology on the market. Adding modules or updating systems might be expensive, but if you build in proper tracking, the investment is worth it. When you combine tracking with a beefed-up program that doesn’t distract employees, you will make your corporate learning program a success.

Use 360 Degree Reviews to Help Employees Process Feedback

Employees don’t like being railroaded with feedback about poor performance. If it’s the first time they’ve heard the news or they only ever hear it from one person, it can feel like an attack. The employee can’t focus on a development plan when he is still trying to figure out where the negative feedback came from.

Sometimes, employees need time to process.

Using 360 degree reviews as part of your performance management process can help employees absorb feedback before coming to a performance review meeting. Here’s how you give employees room to process and prepare:

·       Conduct the 360 degree review. Help the employee pick a 360 degree “A” Team so that the review paints a complete picture. Also, make sure the review is done with plenty of time to capture feedback and get the report to the employee.

·       Review the feedback report. Some 360 degree review tools have reports that don’t require a manager or HR professional to walk through the report with an employee, but doing that might still be helpful. This report review meeting focuses only on the feedback report and helping the employee process the information.

·       Allow a little time to process. Let the employee take the report and review it for a few days. This gives the employee time to form questions and to understand the feedback, and it also gives the employee time to feel whatever emotions might have come up from the feedback.

·       Prepare for the performance review meeting. Both you (the manager) and the employee need to prepare for the review meeting. The employee can ask questions related to the 360 degree review report and should come with ideas on how to start improving. And you should come with a working development plan so that together, you can determine what the employee’s next steps will be.

As a manager, you should be giving feedback year-round so you don’t surprise an employee. Sometimes there are going to be surprises. By using 360 degree reviews, you give employees a report they themselves can review. You also empower employees to be part of the development process, encouraging them to contribute their own ideas. Employees who take ownership of their development will be more invested in their jobs. You then improve performance and engagement, something that can help your team continue to succeed.

Giving Feedback: When Your Gen Yer Isn’t No. 1

Gen Y stereotypes indicate that this group of young employees demands feedback but can’t take criticism. It’s always easy to tell your employee when he’s a rock star, but what do you do if he’s not? You don’t want your performance review meeting to result in shouting or crying because the news came as a surprise to your employee.

Avoid a messy performance review by following these tips:

·       Have your Gen Yer take an active role in preparing for the review: Don’t leave the discussion up to chance. Ask your employee to reflect on the last year’s successes and challenges. Then take it a step further and ask for areas where the employee fell short; have him articulate what he would or could have done to make things turn out better. This approach separates personal responsibility from situational circumstances.

·       Prepare for the review yourself: It’s really easy to remember the project that bombed or the client who yelled. But reviews are about both the good and the bad. Make sure you’ve got the good things prepared and can explain to your Gen Y employee why he handled things so well in those instances.

·       Be clear about development opportunities: There’s a saying, “Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution.” When employees have a bad performance review and walk out knowing they need to fix things but don’t have any idea where to start, managers aren’t being part of the solution. Find out what development programs and resources are available and help the employee make a concrete plan for improvement. Get your Gen Yer to be involved as part of the solution, too. There could be social training tools or local networking events that can help your employee get the skills he needs.

·       Check in frequently: Many Gen Yers have a hard time with feedback because it can easily feel like an ambush. If it’s the first time your employee hears about his weakness, he’s going to wonder about all those times he could have course-corrected. Set up progress checks at regular intervals (at least quarterly) so you both can mark whether there’s been improvement.

Employees aren’t always going to be on the rock star path. Make sure to check with HR around performance management protocols, but do what you can to help make sure the employee gets plenty of notice when there’s a problem. You might find that things are easier to correct simply by having open lines of communication.

Compensate Differently: Use Employee Engagement Tactics

Money is a tricky motivator for employees. Based on an infographic from Bolt Insurance, 22 percent of employees leave their jobs because of pay/benefits issues. But the biggest reasons have more to do with non-monetary factors:

·       Heavy workload — 43 percent

·       Lack of opportunities for growth and advancement — 43 percent

·       Unrealistic job expectations — 40 percent

Yes, people want raises (especially if you’ve been in a salary freeze for three years), but more money won’t always keep people if the job or environment is awful.  

Compensation doesn’t have to be only about the money. Instead, expand your definition to include rewards and engagement. A few dollars can go a long way if you apply them effectively. Let’s break it down based on these other turnover factors:

·       Heavy workload: People wear more hats than ever in their jobs, and at some point they’ll burn out. See where people are working under, at and over capacity. If the workload on a team isn’t distributed properly, redistribute. Then continuously check with your employees, celebrating big wins. If someone’s going above and beyond, say “thank you” with a long weekend.

·       Lack of opportunities for growth and advancement: Have you told your employees about all their career options? Create an internal site for job postings and positions. Make it easy for people to get information and apply. Then take it a step further and provide internal networking opportunities. These could be in-person happy hours if everyone is local, or virtual brown bag discussions for the remote. You're helping people to get to know one another and then to see what else is going on in your company.

·       Unrealistic job expectations: This is something you can catch early when recruiting candidates. Are they being hired for the job they interviewed for? Set the right expectations upfront and keep them. Help managers have regular discussions with employees to make sure everyone’s on the same page. If there’s a major discrepancy, encourage employees to come up with solutions to make their job more inline with their expectations.

Compensation is only one part of the equation, so think about the reasons your employees might be frustrated or leaving. Find alternate rewards and ways to encourage engagement before employees become dissatisfied. You’ll be using budget more efficiently and seeing greater productivity from your teams.

Holiday Performance Burnout

Avoiding Compressed Performance and End-of-the-year Stress

The end of the year is coming and with it comes accelerated deadlines. Even if your office is open between the Christmas holiday and New Year’s, your ability to be productive is really tightened by a three-week month. On top of that, people are distracted, stressed and trying to get out the door for vacation. While you might need to wrap up the year performing at your best, your employees might already be drained. So how do you survive holiday performance burnout?

First, understand what factors hinder your employees from performing at their highest potential:

·        Unrealistic timelines: It’s tempting to say “Yes” to new business so you can close the year with some realized revenue, but can you actually deliver? While retailers are experts at thriving during the holiday season, they’ve been planning since spring. Something new in December can put the pressure on, especially if there’s already a lot of work in the pipeline. Employees might feel like they’re being set up to fail if the timelines are completely unrealistic.

·        Process shortcuts: When timelines are tight, people might take shortcuts just to get things done. Sacrificing process for the sake of saving time can lead to having to redo projects later. When certain teams take a shortcut, other teams could suffer the consequences. If this becomes a habit, some employees won’t bother making the fix after the fifth mistake.

·        Vacation holes: Vacation time can be tough on teams when the departing employee hasn’t ensured that projects can run in their absence. Dropping projects and hoping that teams can handle coverage means more things get dropped. Those left to pick up the pieces will also become frustrated, adding stress to the team dynamic after the New Year.

Next, see how you can address these challenges:

·        Adjust timelines appropriately: Even if new business is knocking at your door, set expectations with the customer and your team as to what realistic timelines look like. Maybe you can deliver some elements over a staggered timeline. Then continue to create a dialogue of expectations between the executing team and the customer.

·        Stop shortcuts before they happen: Processes are put in place to help ensure quality. If people are cutting corners, you can’t guarantee the quality (and then why are your customers paying you?). Check in with employees frequently to catch process shortcuts before they start, reminding teams that the process is there to help. If a project has to be reworked, help employees take the time to do it right.

·        Fill the vacation gaps: Set up a vacation schedule with your employees so people know who’s coming and who’s going. Then have a departure checklist or plan. Employees should be able to provide the status on a project, any expected next steps that need to happen while they’re out, and who’s going to handle those steps (and the handler should have a heads up). Projects can continue and customers won’t be frustrated because things get behind.

These practices should happen throughout the year. Tell your employees that this time of year might feel stressful, but they should go about business as usual.  Following processes and communicating effectively will reduce stress and keep things on track. Remind managers that they shouldn’t add stress if they don’t have to. By aligning performance expectations during the end of the year, you’re likely to have happy and productive teams leading you into the next year.

 

Now What? Why Continuous Learning Improves Performance

It’s been six months since your latest performance review. You had walked out of your boss’s office with a development plan in hand, and you were ready to get started.

And then it got busy. And there was that emergency project. And you suddenly realize you’ve made zero progress on that plan. OK, well, no one’s really paying attention. You can say you worked on “improving communications” — just send a few more emails. It’s not like there are training classes or checklists for you to actually use as part of your development.

As a learning manager, that’s not the picture you want to see. You want employees not just thinking about development but also acting on their plans. You want managers to be involved year-round, not just at the annual performance review. You want a continuous learning culture.

But how do you get there?

The first step is easy: Know what you’re doing now. Do the development plans include clear actions? Or are the steps vague, with subjective measures of improvement? Do you offer a library of training materials or budget to reimburse employees if they seek outside training? You want to perform an audit of everything you’re currently doing at your company with learning, including getting some honest feedback from employees. Do you offer online training but no one uses it? Find out why.

Next, review the gaps in your program. Once you’ve done your audit, you can match the current state with the desired state to see the gaps. Maybe you’re not using an online Learning Management System (LMS) or there isn’t budget to send employees to outside training. Or maybe employees just don’t know what you offer. See where the gaps are and determine which areas are priorities for improvement.

Bring the learning and development together. Ideally, a development plan would have action items that match the learning activities your company offers. “Improving communications” would include the online module about giving feedback, a quarterly check on communication styles and perhaps written exercises so the employee can practice. Bringing the current state and ideal state together requires some work, but you can start small. Do an internal communications campaign to tell employees what resources are available to them. Informing the workforce is a good way to get people to use the programs. Next, revamp the review process, making the development plan more reflective of the learning programs you have in place. Then start looking at changing the resources. You can find technology that automatically creates development goals or has progress checks for managers.

A continuous learning culture doesn’t have to come with a big investment upfront. Knowing what is happening in your company and which areas you want to tweak can start making changes for you immediately. As you plan ahead, include these audits on a regular basis. You won’t get to the ideal state right away, but you’ll be marking progress so you know how you’re doing. Just like in your own development plan.

Feedback Lineup: Building a 360-review “A” Team

During 360-review season, you’re asked to select raters to help evaluate your performance. Just like picking players for a kickball team, you want raters who will make you look good.

But you don’t want to look good because the raters are all generic and wishy-washy. You want to look good because there’s something worthwhile in the feedback.

Think about the kickball team: If people are picking daisies in the outfield and constantly missing the ball, even if you score home runs, you could still lose the game. If everyone contributes to the best of their ability, then you’ve got a match.

Selecting 360 raters who are going to contribute to the best of their ability means selecting people who will be honest, fair and objective. They’ll also take the time to focus on the survey, not just click through it to get it over with.

These “A” team raters also aren’t going to give you a perfect review.

If you really want to improve your game, you need people who are going to tell you the good and the bad. What makes these raters helpful is that with the bad, you’ll get suggestions on how to improve. You won’t have poor ratings because someone’s had a bad day.

Here are some of the players you should look for:

·        A peer who’s known you for a long time

·        A mentor or indirect supervisor

·        One new and one long-term client or customer

·        A project teammate from another department

·        A remote employee you’ve worked with

·        Someone you’ve faced a work challenge with

All of these people have had a variety of experiences with you. A project could have gone perfectly or it could have been a mess. You could have played different roles on different teams. Clients see a different side of you than your co-workers do. Selecting these people will help you get a full picture of your past performance.

If you don’t get to choose your team of raters because a supervisor selects them, go ahead and make a list anyway. You can then tell your supervisor to add these people — and show that you’ve given thought to the process. 

Once you’ve built your “A” team, give the same courtesy to the 360 reviews you’re selected to give feedback on. Be honest, fair and objective, and take the time to really give quality answers. Both you and the rest of your co-workers will get more out of the process by being “A” team players for each other.

Take the Drama Out of Compensation — Strategies for Honest Communication with Employees About Pay

Negotiation strategies indicate that when both sides work together to share information, both parties come out better. When you hide information or believe the other party is hiding something, both sides come out with worse deals than if they had been honest. Yet, it’s in our nature to think we’re leaving something on the table.

 

Then again, just bothering to ask for a raise can get you nowhere (or a knee in the groin). “The Secret Life of an HR Lady”  shows just how painful that compensation conversation can be.

 

Compensation drama makes things more tumultuous in a company culture because people think they’re missing out. Or that decisions aren’t being made fairly. A lot of worry and gossip stems from people trying to fill in the blanks themselves. There will always be people who make compensation discussions dramatic, but you can reduce anxiety by being upfront.

 

Here’s how to communicate honestly with employees about pay:

·      Be upfront when there isn’t money. Employees get more frustrated when you hide the reality of your business than if you had let them know things were tight. It’s tough to hear that the business is going well but that people will have a fourth year of no raises. It’s a mixed message. Is the extra money going to pay off debt? To invest in a different rewards system? Employees can be on your side if you’re not hiding information.

·      Measure performance so you have data to support compensation decisions. If your company is truly implementing pay-for-performance, you are no longer distributing rewards evenly (aka the peanut butter approach). When someone doesn’t get a bonus or raise, you'll have the information to support the decision. You'll also need a plan for developmental steps so that performance can be improved. And if you want to reward a top performer, you'll have the documented justification to request the spend.

·      Deliver on your promises. When you have contracts or agreements that call for bonuses, commissions or raises, you're obligated to deliver. You can add language around performance deliverables or goals, but if you renege on the agreement, employees will find out. They’ll wonder what else you’ll renege on. There might be good reasons for having to back out, but be prepared to have a conversation about why you can’t deliver and about a plan to revisit the obligations in the future.

Employees will gossip; that’s why they call it water-cooler talk. You can still control messages but also share information. Your behavior influences how employees perceive your honesty. Don’t let compensation drama impact your company’s productivity and culture. Strive for transparency, document your decisions, and deliver on your promises.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Performance review season can be messy. Managers and employees get squeamish, and the appraisal process itself can be clunky and time-consuming. Everyone wants to get back to work, but the review becomes a necessary evil that everyone has to slog through.

Managers can make this process even more unbearable. In fact, we’ve got 10 ways managers spoil performance appraisals:

1.     Seeing the process as a distraction. Managers forget that in addition to meeting sales goals or improving financial performance, they need to actually manage their people regularly. If you’re doing it right, reviews are an opportunity to realign everyone to the company’s goals, not a distracting ordeal. If the manager sees reviews as a distraction, so will everyone else.

2.     Not taking reviews seriously. When managers simply go through the motions with performance, employees aren’t going to be invested in the process. Why should employees try if managers aren’t even taking the time to accurately assess performance?

3.     Reviewing everyone as “exceeds expectations.” If everyone is the same, there’s no reason to go above and beyond. Managers should understand that making everyone exceptional often means putting high performance and low performance on the same level.

4.     Over-promising and under-delivering. Rewards and bonuses rarely happen, and forget about the 3 percent cost-of-living raise. Managers who really have no control over compensation rewards shouldn’t promise them. HR rewards managers can provide direction on what recognition programs are being used when financial rewards are off the table.

5.     Making performance management a one-time event. Bad managers starve employees of feedback all year and then hope that the appraisal process provides enough nourishment to get employees through the next year. Good managers are continuously aligning employees to goals and giving feedback along the way.

6.     Using their own “system” for reviews. When companies roll out a new performance appraisal process, it’s easier to use what’s familiar than to learn what’s new. By not using the same process across the company, managers may be depriving employees of accurate measurement, rewards opportunities and promotion prospects in other departments.

7.     Making an example out of employees. While it’s good to learn from mistakes, managers shouldn’t deliberately call out employees for mistakes in front of the department or company. Innovative company cultures include room for failure, so managers need to find better ways to help teams learn without throwing an employee under the bus.

8.     Using popularity as an objective measure. Gut instinct is frequently used to support decisions, but without objective measures, performance suddenly becomes more focused on whether a manager likes the employee. If performance is based on popularity, then no one will ever want to be the “unpopular guy” focused on getting things done.

9.     Removing anonymity from 360-reviews. The reason 360s work is because you get honest feedback. If there’s no anonymity, people will hunt down whoever said, “Sally’s so process-oriented, she’s inflexible.” Removing anonymity means people will provide vague and useless feedback, depriving employees of actionable advice for improvement.  

10.  Not communicating performance expectations. At the end of the day, performance appraisals help ensure that everyone knows what they need to be working on. An employee should be able to walk into the review knowing how he’s been doing and what’s expected for the next year. If it’s a surprise that he’s been failing, the manager hasn’t been communicating expectations along the way or didn’t set them up to begin with.

These are things that can ruin a performance review as well as day-to-day productivity. As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.”

In order to really get the most from their employees, managers should see performance management as an opportunity to enhance productivity and add to the bottom line. Schedule regular check-ins, take the review process seriously, and use the tools that are available. Managers who have teams that excel will have a good review with their supervisor, too.

HR Technology Conference and Exposition 2012 - Ask the Expert - The Cure for HR Tech Angst

Dear HR Tech Conference Expert:

My travel reservations are confirmed, and I can’t wait to visit the Windy City for the 2012 HR Technology Conference & Exposition! Our company is in the very early stages of selecting a new performance management system to replace our manual processes, so “kicking all the vendors’ tires under one roof” will be a great way to compare software and evaluate what’s right for our midsize company. My problem is, I’ve never attended an industry trade show of this size. With more than 200 exhibitors at this year’s event, finding the best performance management solution for our midsize company could be like finding a needle in a haystack. Help!

Signed, HR Tech Angst in Albuquerque

Dear Albuquerque Angst:

Fear not, my HR Tech Conference novice; with a clear talent management vision, some simple preplanning and a sensible pair of shoes, you’ll be navigating the labyrinth of the 2012 HR Tech Conference Expo Hall like a seasoned veteran and return to Albuquerque with a solid plan of action.

1.      Create your vision. Take a cue from Stephen Covey and begin with the end in mind. You mentioned that you’re currently using manual processes for handling performance reviews. Bringing automation to your people processes will save your organization time and money, and performance management is a great place to introduce a more streamlined and efficient process. Since you’re a midsize company, you may not have the resources available to get the whole enchilada of talent management technology today. But before you begin your selection process, consider how your talent management practice will evolve over the next three to five years. For example, after you’ve successfully identified and implemented a performance management software solution, will integrated learning content and activities be needed to reinforce development? Will you eventually tie performance results to compensation decisions? Understanding your organization’s three- to five-year talent management road map will help you determine what you should plan for today, as well as what you can set aside or eliminate entirely from your technology equation.

2.      Build a tactical Expo plan. With an understanding of your talent management vision and a road map laid out, develop a tactical plan of attack for the HR Tech Expo. As a midsize company, maybe you’ve identified performance management, goal planning, 360-degree feedback, compensation and learning management as your core talent management needs. That’s a great start, and knowing exactly what you need will help you eliminate providers on both ends of the talent management spectrum — those that under deliver (don’t offer these solutions as a fully integrated platform), as well as providers that over deliver (bundle additional solutions that you don’t need). Evaluate the vendors exhibiting at HR Tech and make note of those providers offering that sweet spot of solutions your company needs.

3.      Work your plan. Once you’ve made it through the HR Tech Conference on-site registration, you’ll have a complete map of vendor locations and corresponding booth numbers in your conference guide. Find a comfortable corner and map out a path to the booths you’ve identified in your plan. Ask specific questions, watch a demo, take notes and grab some swag. Summarize your booth visits when you’re back at your hotel and review your materials on your flight home before the entire experience becomes a blur.

4.      Have some fun. Above all, enjoy yourself! There are hundreds of talented, knowledgeable, experienced HR technology professionals just waiting to talk to you. Don’t be afraid to meet, greet and participate in any contests or giveaways offered by the Expo vendors. I’ve even heard one vendor (Reviewsnap) is holding a “Happy Hashtag Challenge.” Be sure to visit them at Booth #754 to get in on their unique contest and get a chance to win some of the great prizes they’ll be giving away. While you’re there, take a test drive of their performance management software solutions; they may be the perfect fit for your organization and a quick remedy for your HR Tech angst!

Signed, the HR Tech Conference Expert