Issue No. 3 February/2016
INTERVIEWS ACADEMICS. PRACTITIONERS. CONSULTANTS. Insights from practice AROUND THE WORLD PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT In the U.S. Department of Justice GREEN PERFORMANCE England’s environmenal agency PETROCHINA Performance within state -owned enterprises ARTICLES INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE Performance management in cross-cultural backgrounds PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT Measuring the performance of software development projects LIFESTYLE BROKE NO MORE! Personal finance management 101 UNDERSTANDING BURNOUT One step closer to avoiding it
PORTRAIT
CAMERON MIRZA Creating a more performant tomorrow.
+ HARDWARE & SOFTWARE, AND RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
INDEMNITY STATEMENT
Š 2016 The KPI Institute Ltd. All Rights Reserved. ID Number: TKI0161001 ISBN-13: 978-1523963607 ISBN-10: 1523963603 An appropriate citation for this magazine is: The KPI Institute, Performance Magazine, Printed Edition, no. 3, vol. 1/2016, February, 2016, Melbourne, Australia Indemnity statement: The KPI Institute has taken due care in preparing the analysis contained in this publication. However, noting that some of the data used for the analysis has been provided by third parties, The KPI Institute gives no warranty to the accuracy, reliability, fitness for purpose, or otherwise of the information. The KPI Institute shall have no liability for errors, omissions, or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Published by:
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CONTENTS
CAMERON MIRZA Creating a more performant tomorrow.
PORTRAIT
INTERVIEWS
FEBRUARY 2016
AROUND THE WORLD
16
36
EDITOR’S NOTE
3 ARTICLES
46
NEWS
6 Individual Performance
EVENTS
12
COVER STORY
14
Operational Performance Performance Measurement Organisational Performance Strategy and Performance Management
46 51 54 56 57
INTERVIEWS
16
ASK THE EXPERTS
58
LIFESTYLE
60
HARDWARE
66
SOFTWARE
68
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
70
Ahmed Al-Ebrahim Andrias Sugunda Harry Hertz Jane Farley Mansoor Ahmed Sam Plummer
17 18 19 22 25 27
PORTRAIT
30
AROUND THE WORLD
36
China USA UAE England
2
30
36 Books 38 Films 40 42
70 71
Aurel Brudan CEO, The KPI Institute
At the same time, one also wonders about things closer to himself. Will my life be detrimentally changed at the end of these 12 months? What will I think about the activities I underwent this year, once it has passed? These questions, as opposed to the first ones, are almost completely under our own influence. Maybe making the world a better place is not up to us, but making ourselves better people is completely in our hands. It is our duty.
Diana Zărnescu Head of Publishing & Media
Continuous improvement is the heart that makes the Performance Management mechanism tick. It drives processes, projects, people, teams and organizations forward, it sheds light on the weaker links of the chain and helps strengthening them.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Performance Management, on the other hand, is also in need of improvement. Some means of achieving that is through professional communities, scientific research, and publications. We represent the latter.
Andrei Costea Editor & Publisher Specialist
DESIGN
Encompassing The KPI Institute’s experience, research and expertise, PERFORMANCE Magazine – Printed Edition, transfers its knowledge into a multitude of resources made accessible to a worldwide readership, helping them quench a natural thirst for information.
Javier Rocha Head of Graphic Design
The content published in Performance Magazine pursues high and wide for some of the best, latest and most pressing topics of discussion in Performance Management and in adjacent areas of interest.
MARKETING
This February’s number plunges into the topics of Performance Measurement and Improvement, KPIs, Balanced Scorecard Systems, Strategic Planning, Innovation and Employee Performance Management, among others.
Valentina Matei Head of Marketing
EDITOR’S NOTE
STAFF EDITORIAL COORDINATION
It’s hard to avoid thinking, at the start of each new year, about what lies in store for the upcoming 12 months. What new advances will the world of technology dawn on us, what new territories will we conquer in our space travels? What mysteries of life will we finally unravel?
Flip through pages of interviews with renowned experts, extensive research studies, concept presentations, insights from practice, alongside software or hardware reviews, and books and movie recommendations, all related to performance management.The exclusive feature of this issue presents you the portrait of Cameron Mirza, a worldwide renowned change and performance leader, with international expertise and a will to rely on people’s attributes, rather than their weaker abilities, so as to drive their performance foreword. So now we invite you to take part in a world dedicated to integrating performance and all that is comprised in the search for improvement, in its smallest details. Enjoy this February’s Performance Magazine! As we are always interested in gaining insights from practitioners who activate in a multitude of environments, contact us at editor@kpiinstitute.org if you are interested in becoming a Guest Editor, or having your interview featured in PERFORMANCE Magazine. Diana Zărnescu Head of Publishing & Media, The KPI Institute FEBRUARY 2016
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NEWS
NEWS
> Agile talent and performance management When it comes to freelancers, very few people actually know what percentage of today’s workforce they represent. Freelancers Union reports that approximately 40% of the U.S.A.’s workforce consists of freelancing individuals. The latest Agile Talent Collaborative (ATC) research paper finds an even more interesting piece of information – over 50% of leaders expect agile talent to increase as a percentage of total employees, as these individuals’ work often is often very efficient, timely, flexible and innovative.
> Building leaders, building companies ”Leaders are born, not made” is how the saying goes. Well, Selina Millstam, Vice President and Head of Talent Management at Ericsson, does not agree with this particular statement. At Birmingham’s 14th Annual HR Directors Business Summit, from 2016, she offered an in-depth, step-by-step description of how leaders are molded within Ericsson. According to her, a complete leader is defined by having three quintessential elements: head, guts and heart. His head offers clear purpose, direction and strategy. Moving on, his guts drive him to do the right thing, at the right time, according to a clear purpose and clear values. Last but not least, his heart allows him to understand, work with and develop others. Based on these aspects, they have developed a somewhat grueling, but edifying program. It consists of two modules, one taking place in Tanzania, the other in Boston. In Tanzania, designated leaders spend 10 days, combining working with NGOs, visiting sessions and home stays. The reason it is grueling is because you have to make do with what you got. Resources are limited, so when confronted with a challenge, it all comes down to whatever skills you’ve managed to hone during your few days of stay there. Many individuals feel that although they have the opportunity to coach local NGO leaders, they feel that it is themselves whom are getting coached and trained. This in turn tends to reinforce the feeling of having a purpose in life. Going back to Boston, their main assignment is to pass down the knowledge that they have garnered, trying to share the very essence of their first endeavor: a sense of purpose. 6
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Now, the question at hand is – do organizations have consistent rewards schemes for this employee archetype? According to the Project Management Institute, most issues ocurring in project performance are the result of misalignment between such individuals and a company’s investment plan regarding their capabilities. As a result, ATC offers are a few tips to help you mend that misalignment. First off, sharing is caring, especially when it comes to context. Freelancers, consultants, advisers, gigsters, all of them wish to be a part of important meetings and discussions, which will most likely offer the necessary info to take their work to the next level and better understand the needs and requirements of the comapany they are working with. Secondly, ”soft” factors count more for agile talent than traditional metrics. Cultural fit, project peculiarities and characteristics are many a times left out of the project meeting and, because of this, when issues arise, they generate costs and difficuties which are more difficult to pinpoint. Thirdly, nurture rapport. It is arguably one of the most important aspects to take into consideration when working with agile talent and should derive out of the two aforementioned aspects. Communication is key, so encourage a two-way feedback system, where both sides can share their opinion on the other one’s propositions. Fourthly, assign the right managers to supervise such professionals. Since freelancers value development just as much as performance, or oftentimes even more, make sure that their supervisors understand this and know both when to focus on tough love and when to offer coaching. Last but not least, acknowledge their results and share them throughout the organizations. Just like your regular employees, agile talent is greatly motivated by appreciation, recognition and commendation. The number of such professionals is increasing and if we are to properly integrate them in our companies’ project and management plans, we have to take into consideration that they too are in need of performance management support and we must be ready to offer it.
NEWS
> HR frozen in time Mike Theaker is a Global Executive Advisor and HR Strategy & Transformation specialist at SAP UKI. At this year’s HR Directors Business Summit in Birmingham, he brought in discussion the fact that many HR departments are still using outdated processes, systems that are inefficient and no longer relevant in today’s digital world. As companies grow, restructure or enter new markets, from Mike’s point of view, the need for business simplification and re-imagined HR approaches is more urgent than ever, as people and information are key drivers for any business. Clinging to the past, just because at some point it might have brought a glimmer of improvement is just no longer viable, as adapting to current trends will most likely ensure achieving greater performance levels. According to Mike, the nature of work is changing due to the transition to a more knowledge-based environment, increasing pressure for innovation and the dynamics of today’s workforce. Furthermore, HR departments should act like Marketing departments, meaning that they have to know their data and even more so, know precisely how to use it in order to attract and retain their talent.
> Gartner releases its 2016 Magic Quadrant for BI and analytics platforms
What should organizations do in regards to this matter?
February of 2016 marked the release of a year-long expected report, the Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms published by Gartner.
A first step would be simplification and modernization: remove complexity from HR processes and modernize technologies and tools – make them comprehensive, accessible and mobile. The next step refers to using data and analytics to predict, plan and measure HR needs in order to better understand employees. A third step refers to processing efficiency and effectiveness – in other words, eliminating non-value adding tasks and implementing intelligent and accessible services. The last step is about ensuring all employees have what they need to keep them motivated and engaged. Mike considers that all of the above issues can be addressed by using a SAP solution – an HR instrument that is comprehensive and accessible.
As prime specialists in this area of expertise, the Gartner team concluded that the BI and analytics platform market has definitely shifted in 2016 to a new, more modern, user-centric business perspective, compared to the older IT-defined enterprises. Leaders in the Gartner Quadrant are Microsoft, Qlik and, the best of them all, Tableau, which holds onto its number one position for the fourth year in a row. The quadrant ranks the BI and analytics platforms based on their ability to execute, correlated with their completeness of vision, among others. Other important ranking vectors are the so-called “use-cases.” These assess how the platform reacts in 5 scenarios: agile-centralized BI provisioning (which allows for an agile workflow), decentralized analytics (which also supports the workflow from registered data to self-service analytics), governed data discovery (highlights the governance, reusability and promotability of the content), embedded BI and extranet deployment (same as the embedded BI scenarios, only with an external end-user). Finally, the Gartner report isolated the BI and analytics platforms trends for the near future. According to them, by 2018, users and analysts will gain access to self-service tools in order to prepare data. Also, this self-service data preparation will be either integrated in an end-to-end analytical platform or become one of the features of an existing platform. Also by 2018, next-gen data discovery will comprise “smart, governed, Hadoop-based, search-based and visual-based data discovery” into one single form. FEBRUARY 2016
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> One Way, our way, or how to turn your employee into a customer As Chief People Officer, Jeremy Campbell is responsible for developing all aspects of HR within Ceridian, including driving leadership and development activities throughout the business. As Talent and Engagement Manager, Ashleigh Evans is involved in the design, co-ordination and delivery of engagement strategies and communication.
> “I create the world that creates me” Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, one of the top ten Most-Influential Business Thinkers in the World, proposes a simple and objective way of analyzing how much of our hopes and dreams are prone to become reality. Author or editor of 35 books, which have sold over two million copies, been translated into 30 languages and become bestseller in 12 countries, Marshall Goldsmith proposes a very powerful and livening technique to better ourselves, telling us to envision not just the image of our hopes and dreams, but also their sound, smell and the elements which they are made of. Techniques such as New Year’s resolutions, burdening oneself with mystical numbers and other such things only serve to deter us from our actual focus points. So we take this approach and relate it to employee engagement. Whilst most companies try their hardest to offer the most outstanding employee engagement plans and packages, one must not lose sight of the big picture – how do employees keep themselves engaged at work? Dr. Goldsmith states that we mustn’t forget the following fact: a relationship, in this case 8
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between the company and its employee, is not a one-sided one, but it goes both ways – “I create the world that creates me.” As a result, he finds that people often asks themselves two types of questions: passive ones, which expect the world to change for the individual, and active ones, which is the other way around. Adding to this, he proposes six active queries that any employee can ask himself/herself to find out where they stand, in relation to their company: did I do my best to be happy, to find meaning, to be fully engaged, to build positive relationships, to set clear goals and to make progress towards goal achievement? According to his research, when employees start finding the right answer for each question, they immediately feel a sensation of exhilaration, they feel like their work matters. There’s no reason to focus on what you don’t have (which is what the world has to do for you), but concentrate on what you do have and how you can make it better. Be the owner of your actions, go for your dreams and have fun, because at the end of the day, what else is there apart from our selfimprovement efforts?
The perspective that they’re bringing is quite a new one: Dear Human Resources teams, go make friends with the Marketing teams! At Ceridian, they’re bringing together the customer lifecycle through Net Promoters Score (NPS) and the talent lifecycle through Employee Engagement (EE), under the purpose of Brand Connection. Basically, they give equal attention and treatment in this formula to both external customers and employees, as internal customers. High Net Promoters Score + High Employee Engagement = High Brand Value. The message is quite clear: inside the company, employees experience the brand exactly as the customers do. This is precisely why they recommend we put together at work both the Marketing and HR teams and create a common strategy. At least, that’s what they are doing and it’s bringing them success. From the work of these two departments, they’ve projected a collaboration platform that supports the application of all the policies, projects and strategies they’ve come up with together. It would be quite awkward to see yourself as an organization that assists other enterprises in making their employees’ work life better and not to boast the same in your own. For anyone curious to see if they talk the talk and walk the walk, a quick inspection of their website will prove enlightening. At the end of the day, the question is - have you ever considered putting together the Marketing and HR departments, to build up strategies for internal and external customers? We say it’s a perspective that shouldn’t be neglected at all.
NEWS
> Sulon’s Augmented Reality Today’s infrastructural developments can be quite an investment. From selecting the right area, to issuing blueprints and starting the construction process, it can sometimes bear quite the financial toll on the individual or organization that it will serve. Here is where Sulon Cortex comes along to help out. With their novel augmented reality head-mounted platform, developers and employees alike will find no more issues with virtualizing problems from a realistic perspective or issuing precise simulations. Equipped with a spatial scanner and digital visor, bundled up in a standalone headset, this new gadget takes immersion to the next level. Your surroundings are not replaced, but enhanced with alternate realities and real-time spatial mapping ensures that you can easily switch between the real and virtual version of reality. If you’ve ever played any video games, you might know that oftentimes, you would get blocked off from certain areas by invisible walls. That is not the case with Sulon Cortex. Its spatial redirection allows users to completely move beyond the walls of their home or office without
leaving their physical space, as any physical environmental limitations are accounted for, so that you can free explore. What makes this product even more astounding is the complete lack of wiring. All rendering and processing hardware is built inside the headset. A wireless device which transforms any existing physical space into a virtual environment, offering users the possibility of going into worlds adapted to their surroundings. Remember, it is not an alternate reality, but an enhanced version of the one you are currently experiencing. Unaffected by ambient light and useable both indoors and outdoors, Sulon Cortex can function without any extra cameras or sensors, apart from its own. Also, if you wear prescription glasses, you can freely keep them on while using this gadget. Even more so, you can observe the environment from all angles – sitting down, walking around or from the top, while pausing or unpausing for a closer inspection. Coming out around spring, 2016, the Sulon Cortex promises to augment our world like never before. serve our needs or around our character. And this is where Schrage’s recommenders come in. Data-driven digital companies from around the world already aggregate, synthesize and customize clear-cut recommendations for improvements, aimed at making people more productive, engaged and efficient. But in his opinion, this will be taken a step further in the near future, as trends show. We will be able to set up programs and devices to monitor and break down communication patterns, so as executives and managers alike draft project reviews, such software programs will, for example, analyze the words used in that respective draft and recommend changing some if they prove to be too aggressive. Managers can of course accept or decline these recommendations, but since the software itself constantly monitors dialogue patterns between all employees, it ends up knowing your employees better than you do.
> The future of productivity
Other functionalities which Schrage envisions are helping introverts use enterprise social media more effective or advocating a more laid back attitude on behalf of overly-aggressive communicators.
We’re living in a digitalized world, where each bit of information can contain details regarding our performance levels. Performance at work, at home, at the gym, it’s all about the numbers and what they can tell us.
In an era in which demand increases day by day, we can use all the aid we can get. But Michael Schrage also warns of the possible issue of not distinguishing between reliance and dependence on such software.
Michael Schrage, research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, believes that the future holds an even bolder prospect: electronic recommenders.
But then again, if managers don’t want to become dependent on such programs, the next best thing they can do involved more work, so that they becoming better acquainted with their employees and create a more organic enterprise, in which everyone can easily communicate with each other. But if this proves to be too much of a hassle, today’s technology is here to help.
Like we’ve said, we use a plethora of gadgets and devices to measure our current development, but these are not specifically catered to
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> The Virtual Workplace
> The art of managing conflicts
Daiga Ergle, SVP Human Resources within AirBaltic, witnessed firsthand how the introduction of game elements into the working environment (or gamification at work) can improve the engagement level of employees.
Is there a limit to what we can exploit in order to increase performance levels? For example, can we generate improvement strategies from a delicate matter, such as a conflict? Grant Ackerman, Professor of Management at Columbia Business School details the topic of how to manage conflict in order to achieve performance.
After a somewhat disheartening moment, when the company experienced major restructuring and was at the edge of bankruptcy, the level of employees’ engagement dropped considerably. Three years in a row after the event, they kept registering low levels even though the company succeeded to recover (below 48%). They started gathering loads of information from Google searches and began filtering the useful from the unnecessary, but at some point the managers just stopped and tried to analyze different things, such as values, income, their family’s state, experience and so forth. As the majority of AirBaltic employees are young people, the company quickly discovered their interest in gaming and so they started to think that gamification at work might act as a trigger to reach higher levels of engagement. Before they knew it, the forecaster forum was implemented with the purpose of encouraging curiosity and was thought out as an ideagenerating platform. All employees had the chance to express their opinions regarding the company’s projects, both those that were in place or those about to be. The CFO of AirBaltic was the one who came up with this idea and with the support of the board members, it was implemented. Managers were addressing business-related questions to their employees and the best answers were rewarded.
According to him, conflict refers to the difference in opinions regarding the allocation of resources, and how people deal with conflict determines how much is enough. Avoiding conflict is not a solution. We have to engage it, especially when we want to bring innovation into the workplace. But it is also true that too much conflict can paralyze an organization, if we don’t know how to manage it and be prepared. Everyone knows that we all fall, so it is important to know how to recover and use the results to your advantage. To understand the link between conflict and performance, Grant described it via an XY axis graph, with performance represented by X and conflict by Y. Yellow represents the value of conflict and its upwards trajectory on the X axis tells us the degree of difficulty necessary to manage the task. The line doesn’t start at the bottom of the axis, which emphasizes the idea that no conflict at all equals no greater levels of performance within a company.
Suddenly, employees started talking about projects discussed on the Forecaster, instead of talking about their outside working hours activities. They now had the opportunity to take part in important decision-making processes.
The Y axis, represented by the color red, implies that too much conflict (especially not productive or constructive conflict) can cause low levels of performance. In addition, the fact that the red line falls below the Y axis means that sometimes conflict might even harm the organization in a very bad way. Afterwards, he showed his audience two scenes from two different movies, presented as examples of conflict and what should we learn from them.
One year later, the managers looked again at the figures and discovered an improvement regarding the levels of engagement (53%). The first positive change in the last 4 years. It wasn’t the most impressive score, but for the company it meant a lot. And it goes to show that meeting your employees’ needs can go a long way, even making your company do a 180 in the right direction.
The first scene was from the movie Elizabeth; its main plot was centered around the idea of finding a common ground for her people. The key learning points reflected the ideas that humor can play an important role in engaging people and changing the tone of discussions. She gave people an illusion of choice, but still she kept them engaged, which ensured that they followed her main objective. The other scene was from Saving Private Ryan. The Bunker scene from the movie emphasized the idea that people might have different objectives, so it is necessary to have a goal alliance/alignment to solve different conflicts that might arise. But when deciding who’s in charge, the leader has to understand the explanatory power of making oneself clear, as it brings clarity to those involved in the conflict and moreover, by sharing some of your power, you get them closer to your objective. Remember, people in charge of solving conflicts have to establish credibility, build common ground, connect emotionally and keep people focused on what their mission is. You have to use whatever conflicts arise to build character, not the other way around.
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> Three game changers in employees annual ranking systems We are currently witnessing how more and more companies are taking their annual ranking systems out for a walk and coming back without them. Deemed cumbersome and ineffective, many organizations choose to disband this system altogether and replace it with something new, more appropriate for this day and age. The following are three examples of a success story, showing how it can be done. First off is Cargill Inc., a Minneapolis food producer and distributor. With over 155.000 employees worldwide, they found it difficult to keep everyone engaged and motivated. As a result, ”Everyday Performance Management” was introduced, back in 2012 and ever since, the company has been on the up and up. It incorporates
daily encouragement and feedback into onthe-task discussions, resulting in a futureoriented vision for its workers, rather than a review of what happened a year back. Then we have Eli Lilly, a Fortune 100 company, ranked as the ninth largestgrossing pharmaceutical company worldwide. Alongside job sharing and other family assistance perks, this organization focuses on the idea of ”trust building”, which spurs employees to voice their opinions and take more initiatives.
And what’s the quickest way of finding information on these companies? Why yes of course, on Google. Speaking of Google, it continues to strengthen and adapt John Deorr’s long-standing employee goal-setting plan, which combines objectives and key results (OKRs), every few months. As he himself said, ” to this day, Larry [Page, co-founder of Google, current CEO of Alphabet] writes his own personal OKRs and Google’s corporate OKRs every quarter.”
This way, they are more likely to trust their superiors, as they can frequently and easily engage in discussions regarding the company’s decisions and objectives for the future.
In today’s business environment, where employees are arguably one’s greatest asset, these companies choose to adhere by that mentality and hone their existing members of staff ’s skills, instead of ordering them around like witless workers.
Climate change, cybercrime, and population displacement hover over the world of today as the biggest risks threatening to disrupt an already fragile equilibrium.
such as climate change and the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution which brings about new technologies that are apt for use in warfare.
The risks threatening our entire planet, over the course of the next decade, ranked according to their impact and likelihood to happen, are as follows:
The world Economic Forum has published, in early 2016, the Global Risks Report which is a detailed analysis of all the global risks that are prone to develop and affect us within the course of the next decade.
Since not only people themselves, but also institutions and organizations are oftentimes exposed to great risks, the Global Risks Report assess the impact of global threats on businesses at regional and country levels too.
1. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation;
A brief description of the report says that “2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies.”
The report was built on the opinions of approximately 750 professionals from the World Economic Forum’s extensive communities. They responded to a survey which questioned their opinions on 29 presented global risks, which have been categorized as societal, technological, economic, environmental and geopolitical. Experts had to consider these risks and their evolution over a time span of 10 years. Finally, the mentioned professionals rated each risk according to its perceived occurrence likelihood and the dimension of its impact, should that risk come into existence.
> The Global Risk Report of 2016
The fastest rising risk that surfaced is related to geopolitical concerns. This risk has manifested itself for a second year in a row, thus drawing increased attention to the international security landscape, especially when correlated with other global trends,
2. Weapons of mass destruction; 3. Water crises; 4. Large-scale involuntary migration; 5. Severe energy price shock (increase or decrease). Concerning the business sector, unemployment and underemployment, together with energy price shocks are considered as big threats in terms of probability of happening and impact. Other risks in the business field that have been linked to certain regions include: fiscal crises, asset bubbles, cybercrime, environmental risks, interstate conflict and terrorist attacks, among the top concerns. FEBRUARY 2016
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THE KPI INSTITUTE’S PARTNER KPISOFT Recognized by CIOReview
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uilding a strong foundation begins with a great partnership. At The KPI Institute, we value our business partners and the important role they play in supporting our development. The KPI Institute is excited to work together with KPISOFT who brings together Performance Management data and external data sources to one intuitive platform so that clients are able to make key strategic decisions faster, based on key performance indicators that run in their company. Our newest partner, KPISOFT makes it to CIO Review’s top Enterprise Performance Management Solution Providers list for its expertise in revolutionary cloud app that aligns, gains real time insights and enables performance on the go. CIO Review constantly endeavors to identify “The Best” in a variety of areas important to tech business. Through nominations and consultations with industry leaders, its editors choose the best in different domains. Enterprise Performance Management Special Edition is an annual listing of 20 Most Promising Enterprise Performance Management Solution Providers 2016 in the U.S. Due to our partnership, KPISOFT is pleased to offer all The KPI Institute’s community members a 3 months’ subscription to their performance management software, that will give an integrated take on data, analytics and performance management – in one intuitive platform. 12 FEBRUARY 2016
About KPISOFT KPISOFT is a revolutionary cloud app that aligns and powers your Organization performance. For the first time, organizations can now have one single platform which connects organization strategy to employee performance management and business reporting dashboards. KPISOFT is mobile ready with intuitive & extremely easy to use features for big enterprises to small & medium businesses.
About The KPI Institute The KPI Institute is a research institute specialized in business performance. Its research programs focus on topics such as strategy, KPIs, employee performance, and customer service, among others. Insights are disseminated through publications, subscriptions services and an online knowledge platform. Additional support is offered through training and advisory services.
For more information, visit: http://www.kpisoft.com/
For more information, visit: http://kpiinstitute.org/
As purveyors of next generation people and organizational performance management application, we feel deeply responsible to simplify and provide meaningful performance engagement promoting greater wellbeing for organizations and humanity at large. Said Ravee Ramamoothie, Managing Partner, at KPISOFT.
COVER EVENTS STORY
A PARTNER IN ACTION KPISOFT
P the overhaul in recent times. Going from erformance management has seen quite
once-a-year reviews to monthly or even weekly check-ups, this field of expertise has matured significantly. But such a bold transition requires appropriate tools to get the job done properly, and KPISOFT – an expert on Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) instruments, is here to deliver after 11 years of extensive research and continuous development.
If your organization seeks to be on top of the game and a leader in its industry, it requires an effective and well-balanced set of EPM tools, which look at building an information-based system that plans out your enterprise’s resources according to its vision, strategy, goals and objectives, seeking to build this as a governance and organizational development catalyst. But what exactly makes EPM solutions worthwhile? Well, for starters, it emphasizes strategic planning and budgeting, integrating data for decision-making, measuring, analyzing and predicting organizational performance. Afterwards, another key couple of factors are being both cost-effective and flexible, as a one-size-fits-all model does not work 14 FEBRUARY 2016
any longer in this day and age. With all these in mind, company vision, values and objectives must stay true to their purpose, so as to ensure maximum effectiveness from these instruments – one wouldn’t want to invest so heavily into perfecting one’s enterprise and forgetting this detail along the way. Taking all these into consideration, what makes KPISOFT’s tools real gamechangers? Innovative user experience Greatly customized with today’s popular social networking apps’ vernacular, their EPM solutions ensure a smooth, user-friendly learning curve, keeping individuals actively engaged.
The more aligned, connected, engaged and driven the people of the organization are, the more organized, agile, and competitive the organization will be.
Enhanced connectivity Another extremely beneficial aspect is the ability to connect “pieces of performance value chains of a disjointed organization under one platform, further adding an aligning model that reduces clutter, duplication and complexity”. It brings the idea of company-wide connectivity to a whole new level.
Katsu Takahashi, Executive Director at KPISOFT Japan
COVER STORY
Performance On the Go The company’s EPM model concentrates on four pillars: alignment, coaching, collaboration and calibration. As such, employees must be able to constantly review their progress and performance levels, to make sure they are on track. KPISOFT delivers yet again – their solutions allow members of staff, with the aid of supervisors, to regularly check up on current headway through scorecards.
ALIGN
COACH
COLLABORATE
CALIBRATE
What’s more, if most companies crumble when faced with massive mounds of data, the same cannot be said about KPISOFT’s data engine. It can easily integrate and consume any volume of business data, in real-time, crunching and delivering relevant and accurate insight of both business and operational performance, on the fly. As an example, key performance metrics related to sales and service can be updated automatically, on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that any fluctuations can be measured and reviewed as many times needed. Furthermore, taking it up a notch, users can also update performance-related data on their mobile phones, through notification requests for updates, offering managers an astounding amount of visibility when it comes to deciding on review frequency and needs. And as a cherry on top, employees can freely boost their in-house connectivity levels by sharing the insight they receive from managers to others who might find themselves in similar situations. Sharing is caring, especially when done by diagnosis and benchmarking.
We are investing heavily in mobile technologies and advanced analytics models to constantly get better, realtime insights. We believe this will be the future of work.
Adaptation, Unlearning and Altering Trend In order to stay ahead of the curve, one needs consistency and most often than not, courage. And that’s what KPISOFT is all about. Continuously engaging in a process dubbed “unlearning”, this company will not rest on its laurels, recently releasing a push content hub platform, which has seen great success worldwide. By continuously focusing on improving its product and customer needs, KPISOFT manages to innovate constantly and consistently. Today’s methods are yesterday’s ideas, so by concentrating on what tomorrow brings, their solutions are always one step forward ahead of the competition.
Naveen Deshpande, Executive Director at KPISOFT San Francisco.
As purveyors of next generation people and organizational performance management application, we feel deeply responsible to simplify and provide meaningful performance engagement, promoting greater well-being for organizations and humanity at large.
Ravee Ramamoothie, Managing Partner, KPISOFT Singapore FEBRUARY 2016 15
INTERVIEWS
EVENTS INTERVIEWS
Ahmed Al-Ebrahim CEO of GCC Interconnection Authority, Saudi Arabia
Director at Real Outcomes, New Zealand
[...] technological advances will be the major contributor to change in the field of performance management.
[...] what we measure needs to change to continue to be relevant.
Andrias Suganda
Mansoor Ahmed
Strategic Performance Management Manager at Gunung Sewu Group, Indonesia
Director Technology Strategic Planning, Etihad Etisalat, Saudi Arabia
Performance management becomes useless without integration/alignment [...]
[...] formal, process-driven performance management can actually constrain performance.
Harry Hertz
Sam Plummer
Director Emeritus, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA [...] organizations realize the need for change and if you are not transforming, changing, you will not be a viable option for the future.
16 FEBRUARY 2016
Jane Farley
Director at The Wellspring Initiative, USA [...] formal, process-driven performance management can actually constrain performance.
INTERVIEWS
What can be considered a limit to achieving higher levels of proficiency is ‘lack of support and direction’ from senior management (Executives / Board). The other is ‘transparency’ on all levels in an organization. In order to achieve proficiency, an organization must be totally aligned and motivated on all levels.
Ahmed Al-Ebrahim CEO of GCC Interconnection Authority, Saudi Arabia In 2015, the Performance Magazine editorial team interviewed Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, CEO of GCC Interconnection Authority in Saudi Arabia. His thoughts and views on Performance Management are detailed below. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view? The key trends are mainly focused on methods of reporting performance, and developing the most suitable indicators to measure performance. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level? By having a Strategy Implementation Office (SIO) in place dedicated to ensuring that the vision, mission, goals and reporting is efficiently done. Having an effective performance management system in place will definitely ensure that all the information is being cascaded to all levels in the organization. Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future? It is expected that technological advances will be the major contributor to change in the field of performance management. Other contributors will be new methodologies and practices to enhance performance. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research? The aspects which need to be explored are: Organizational culture, Resistance, Importance of Strategy, and methods of implementing it successfully. Other aspects are improving the methods of data gathering and alignment of
strategy from the Corporate to the Functional, all the way through to the individual level. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results? Definitely organizations which have successfully completed their performance cycle over a course of 1-2 years. In addition, organizations which have implemented a performance management system, and companies which are on the brink of doing so are also considered a plus. Organizations such as Dubai Water & Electricity Authority, Nama Group (Oman), Electricity & Water Authority (Bahrain), Dammam University, and GCCIA are suitable examples. What Performance Management question would you like to ask researchers? There are 2 questions I would like to ask: 1. Has there been any research or studies conducted on identifying ways to strategically align organizations with the least level of resistance and/or resentment from employees? 2. Has research tackled the issue of creating a strategically-thinking culture in an organization? Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today? The main challenges can be summarized as follows: Lack of commitment from both Management and/or employee; lack of focus in the organization; resistance and sometimes resentment. What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? Not to mention too many of the ideas for improvement and achieving successful outcomes, some key examples are: alignment of organizational strategy with culture – leading
to a reward-based culture. Others may be tools with ‘scenario delivery’ capabilities that will assist management on better decision-making. What would you consider as a best practice in Performance Management? Having a well-established and agreed upon mission, vision, goals and a highly dedicated team, eager to achieve the ultimate objective, and also have a well-developed reward scheme. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs? The following: change management (resistance); organizational culture (creating a strategicallybased environment); communication and the importance of awareness; continuity and determination to achieve goals and methods on how to resolve weaknesses/gaps in the performance cycle. What are the limits that prevent practitioners from achieving higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management? What can be considered a limit to achieving higher levels of proficiency is ‘lack of support and direction’ from senior management (Executives / Board). The other is ‘transparency’ on all levels in an organization. In order to achieve proficiency, an organization must be totally aligned and motivated on all levels. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours? Although this may not be quite apparent to many, it does have its advantages if one really considers applying it. Measuring performance in your daily activities, such as managing your relationships with others, or managing your finances, even managing your health, is definitely a well-proven process that can add value to one’s lifestyle. FEBRUARY 2016
17
INTERVIEWS
We need to educate people that performance management is beyond monitoring and managing measurements, they need to know the end-toend processes from where these performance indicators are derived and how to drive performance successfully and in a correct manner.
What personal performance measurement tools do you use? At GCCIA, we are currently using a Balancedscorecard performance management system to monitor performance on a corporate and functional level. Regarding academia, we are developing a database of subjects/degrees in Performance Management. What are your suggestions relevant to the database (i.e. subjects/ degrees such as the Masters in Managing Organizational Performance)? I believe that this science, considered to be relatively new, should not only be taught at the university levels, but courses and training in this field also need to be provided. As far as consultancy is concerned, what are the processes and tools you look at, in order to differentiate a successful performance management system, from a superficial one? Some of the common issues that consultants have encountered are lack of satisfaction from the user, regarding reporting schemes which the performance system should produce. Also, the accessibility of using the system is another aspect where consultants face resistance. Overall, having a well-defined system that can meet all the requirements of an organization is a necessity, and it should include other features such as ‘scenario’ and ‘what-if’ analysis. From the point of view of a practitioner, which were the recent achievements in generating value from performance management in your organization? Tying up rewards to performance. Ever since our organization began linking our annual rewards to performance, the level of resistance was reduced and the levels of synergy and dedication increased throughout all levels of the organization. 18 FEBRUARY 2016
Andrias Suganda Strategic Performance Management Manager at Gunung Sewu Group, Indonesia In 2015, the Performance Magazine editorial team interviewed Andrias Suganda, Strategic Performance Management Manager at Gunung Sewu Group, Indonesia. His thoughts and views on Performance Management are detailed below. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view? 2015 is a year of uncertainty for many (or almost all) companies, particularly for most of those in South East Asian countries. Out-of-region financial factors bring something what we call, confusion. This kind of situation becomes a lesson learned for many companies to deeply consider that performance management is not just a current performance monitoring tool, but it should bring the company to a higher dimension, whereby performance management should cover scenario planning for the future, as well as be agile enough to adapt for any changes that will impact the sustainability of the companies in the long run. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level? Performance management becomes useless without integration/alignment between the organizational, departmental and employee levels, either vertically or horizontally. One thing for sure, this process should be able to create a culture change, where everyone thinks that they contribute to the organization’s success. Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future? More and more companies will see performance
management as a strategy translation tool, instead of just an operational one. They will drive performance in a more dynamic manner to learn and adapt to the competition landscape changes. In the future, companies also will emphasize more on collaboration and create behavior changes to drive the performance. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research? Two things: firstly, I think we need proven research about the performance management tools/methods which work for every type/scale of company, there’s no “one fit for all” approach for every type/scale of company. Secondly, I think it’s important to do some research on how to get people’s buy-in about performance management. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results? I don’t have any specific organization to be looked at for the time being, but let me share a few about Gunung Sewu Group (GSG), my current employer. As one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia, GSG is trying to connect the dots between strategy development and performance management, always looking for preventive and quick corrective actions, as well as engaging more and more employees to drive performance. As a result, though this year many companies in South East Asia are suffering due to an uncertain environment, GSG is still on the right track and well-performing. What Performance Management question would you like to have answered by researchers?
INTERVIEWS
On the workforce side, the key issue that we are facing is talent management, acquisition of talent and meeting the needs of employees in an increasingly mobile workforce environment, where geographic proximity is becoming less and less important.
It is always interesting to get some answers about the effective style of leadership which can successfully manage the organization’s performance. Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today? Based on my experiences, the main challenges are: Lack of commitment from the leaders Unclear approach/method used in performance management People drowned in administrative tasks when reporting and monitoring What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? What would you consider as a best practice in Performance Management? Performance management is a just tool, we need to understand the complexity of the company and get commitment from the leaders prior to implementation. Connect the dots between multi-year strategies, performance management, inter-departments collaboration and employee appraisal system. Monitor the performance by using Pareto principle, which should be able to determine and focus on the certain most impactful indicators. Involve the employees to drive performance. WhichaspectsofPerformanceManagementshould be emphasized during educational programs? We need to educate people that performance
management is beyond monitoring and managing measurements, they need to know the end-to-end processes from where these performance indicators are derived and how to drive performance successfully and in a correct manner. In this case, governance processes and communication should take important slots during educational programs. Which limits need to be surpassed in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management, among practitioners? Strategy development and the governance process of performance management will (always) be interesting and challenging topics among practitioners. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours? I don’t see it as a necessity for the time being, but it’s interesting to monitor the upcoming trends of it. What personal performance measurement tools do you use? I’m using a tailored performance measurement tool called EPMS (Employee Performance Management System). Which were the recent achievements in generating value from performance management in your organization? Performance management has broken the silo mentality within the organization, where it exposed the importance of collaboration to drive performance and achieve the desired goals. It brought budget savings where we could cut down redundant or unnecessary initiatives, as well as create more synergy and effectiveness between departments.
Harry Hertz Director Emeritus, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA In 2015, the Performance Magazine editorial team interviewed Harry Hertz, Director Emeritus, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA. His thoughts and views on Performance Management are detailed below. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view? I noted down 8 key trends, in no particular order of priority. The first trend would be Digital Integration and Data Use - the whole explosion in digital information, both textual, through social media as well as actual quantitative data. How to bring all of that into managing the performance of an organization, how to integrate, analyze and capitalize on it, both in terms of development of new products and services, using it for customer interaction and in generating services for customers is extremely revolutionary. The second one would be the general area of people, by which I mean Customers and Workforce. Particularly regarding customers, part of this second trend deals with data, but in the form of having more information available - how can you customize services and relationships with key customers and manage those relationships in order to improve business and performance. On the workforce side, the key issue that we are facing is talent management, acquisition of talent and meeting the needs of employees in an increasingly mobile workforce FEBRUARY 2016 19
INTERVIEWS
You have to scan your environment and be constantly on the lookout for competition that’s coming from outside your traditional industry, which might affect your business operations. Some historic examples that are now well-entrenched are things like the fax or electronic transmission of information coming along, which basically had an overnight impact over the whole delivery system for letters, documents. A more recent example might be, at least in the US, this new movement with companies like Uber, which are totally disrupting the taxi and transportation industries.
environment, where geographic proximity is becoming less and less important. The third trend is in the area of Social Responsibility and Climate Change. I’m looking at climate change not from the scientific perspective, but from a general one, as weather patterns without a doubt have been shifting, causing more disasters, stirring more need for preparedness. So since this is the case, how does one deal with employees not being able to get to work, how do you deal with tsunamis, earthquakes, with disruptions to services, facilities, in the supply chain? How do you proactively integrate those aspects in the managing of the performance of your organization, as well as capitalizing on what you are doing in areas like energy conservation, being more green, demonstrating social responsibility and using that to your competitive advantage in the market with your customers. Moreover, in the area of Change Management, particularly implementing and sustaining change. The trend that we are seeing is that organizations realize the need for change and if you are not transforming, changing, you will not be a viable option for the future. But the big challenge is once that change will be decided on, how can you implement it, how to bring the workforce along as participants and partners, rather than “victims” and how can it be sustained, while being constantly vigilant for continuous changes in the organizational structure and workplace, regarding products and services and managing all that from an organizational and people perspective, which ties very closely to my next trend. Competition from outside your industry. You have to scan your environment and be constantly on the lookout for competition that’s coming from outside your traditional industry, which 20 FEBRUARY 2016
might affect your business operations. Some historic examples that are now well-entrenched are things like the fax or electronic transmission of information coming along, which basically had an overnight impact over the whole delivery system for letters, documents. A more recent example might be, at least in the US, this new movement with companies like Uber, which are totally disrupting the taxi and transportation industries. Such competition from outside one’s industry must be taken into account and also how to scan for it, how to be prepared for it - as it will affect you and what you do as an organization. This also ties with another key trend, Innovation. Innovation is another prime topic of discussion. How do you manage it, how do you encourage an environment for it, what do organizations have to do to foster an environment for innovation are some of the questions that we have to ask ourselves. Even more so, what we’re increasingly seeing is that innovation is going outside your four walls. As such, it involves collaboration and partnership and how to build those collaborations so that you bring in thoughts, ideas and expertise that is beyond the boundaries of your organization. The next one is the area of cyber-security and it has a tremendous effect on how organizations protect data, use it, interact with customers and how you manage all of these together. Finally, the last one which I say is overarching and from my perspective, the most important from a performance management perspective, is becoming more adept at looking at the organization as a system and recognizing that what happens in one part of the system impacts other parts of the system. Therefore, you have to manage performance holistically and integrate the parts, so that you can operate as a system and
be agile & reactive, because of other forces. So as strategy shifts, your human resource, workforce plans have to shift with it and you have to be capable of doing that. Your metrics shift as your strategy does and you have to develop additional or new sets of key metrics to measure change, innovation and how you accommodate those two in your workforce system. You need to look at the whole area of systems and managing the performance of the organization essentially as an organism, where what happens in one part affects every other part. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level? I believe it is something we are in dire need of. A simple example of that is and why it should be improved is from a personal experience. I recently received a marketing piece from a credit card company, where I have a credit card. It advertised no foreign transaction fees on the credit plan, in other words no charge for currency exchange on that card. With my next credit card bill, I received a notice from their Customer Service department, stating they are implementing a few changes to the offer, namely instituting a charge for foreign transaction fees. Well, one notice came from the Marketing department, another from Customer Service, at about the same time, and somewhere the decision was made one way or the other. I have no idea which one and this is a simple example of a company that is not operating as a system. Different pieces are operating in their own respective silos and maybe even making their own independent decisions, and the customer’s left not understanding what’s going on. There needs to be a feeling of operating as a system, which implies more cross-functionality and leadership.
INTERVIEWS
[...] educating people on the importance of social responsibility and its return on investment is steadily reaching a global level, whereby multiple actors across the scene are starting to take it into account more and more often.
Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future? The whole area of social responsibility and emergency preparedness. As we get more significant fluctuations in climate, political disruptions, terrorism, how does one proactively manage the performance of an organization, so that you can deal with emergency situations? What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research? The areas that could be explored through research is how to manage an organization as a system, like I’ve mentioned earlier. Another one is innovation, with focus on two things: how to provide an environment that supports innovation, idea generation and has a decisionmaking process for which ones to pursue and the other one is looking at innovation as a collaborative effort, recognizing that more and more innovation will at some point be beyond the boundaries of one’s own organization and require you to bring in outside expertise, to develop something new or meet certain customer needs. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results? Obviously I’m biased here, sitting at the Baldrige Program, so the organizations I would look at are the Baldrige Award winners, since they all have very sophisticated and oftentimes novel performance management practices. To name a few, Midway USA, which is a distributor of hunting supplies for sportsmen. They have embraced digital technology in a big way and are probably one of the best organizations I have seen in terms of managing the whole enterprise as a system.
Then there is the Good Samaritan Hospital, outside Chicago, Illinois. They have done a phenomenal job in terms of integrating performance, administration and medical staff, which at least in the United States is a real challenge, since most medical staff are independent practitioners and not employed by the healthcare system. They also have been one of the leaders in improving the overall area of patient safety and have integrated that into everything they do. I think they are a good example of how to effectively manage performance. Third one is a very different sort of organization, since it’s a school - The Charter School of San Diego, in California. They focus strictly on improving performance and graduation rate of at-risk teenagers. These are teenagers who have already dropped out of school, they bring them back to school and part of their approach is that they operate their schools out of storefronts in neighborhoods where they live or in malls - in places where many of these teenagers tend to gather, rather than in a traditional school house. These are only three that do a very good job of managing performance, but really I would recommend looking at any of the Baldrige Award recipients. What Performance Management question would you like to have answered by researchers? Basically two questions: How do you provide an environment for innovation? What is leadership’s role and how does it provide an environment and make decisions related to innovation, which keep organizations at the forefront and prepared for entrepreneurial interventions that could disrupt what they do?
How are companies managing the whole digital and social media revolution? How are they managing data and information overload? How do they handle it? Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today? Well, picking up on some of the things we’ve already discussed about, managing change and how to implement, manage and sustain it. Designing it is already covered, organizations do a pretty good job, but how do you actually manage change is one of the main challenges today. The other one I would say is how to manage the complexity faced by many organizations, while being agile to respond to a changing environment. What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? I think the main tools that need improvement are tools that relate to the system’s perspective and how to develop tools, management systems, dashboards for performance management, alignment systems within an organization (from senior leaders down to the individuals) that allow you to function more effectively as an enterprise. What would you consider as a best practice in Performance Management? An example of best practice is one where there is clear alignment between your corporate strategy, down to divisional strategies, unit strategies and individual performance. One case that I can mention is the Ritz-Carlton Hotel company, which is part of Marriott International. They get certain strategic imperatives from Marriott International, which they build upon and adapt according to their needs and are afterwards shared with their properties around the world. Properties are also allowed to add their own FEBRUARY 2016 21
INTERVIEWS
We all work in a world where complexity is growing and the need to integrate our services and functions better to streamline what and how we do things, which should help gain efficiencies.
targets and then within each department, you can find quarterly-based objectives and goals that individuals must achieve. All this is rolled up and the results are shown as best practice across the whole Ritz-Carlton system. As you can see, they have a very sophisticated system for taking strategy and operational challenges down even to the individual employee and then rolling the results back up and making them examples of best practices. Part of their success is that in every hotel, every day of the year, at the start of the year and every shift, a daily 5-minute line-up is set up, in which they discuss key metrics, important events at that hotel and also have a message of the day that comes from corporate headquarters, in which various aspects are mentioned that relate to their core values or something on one of their strategic objectives. That same message is shared with every person in the hotels around the world, every day. WhichaspectsofPerformanceManagementshould be emphasized during educational programs? Well, if taken from a social responsibility (SR) point of view, there have been a number of researches that looked at the rate of return on this, like the return on investment for SR, to try to quantify the rate in terms of hard numbers (reduced financial waste, money saved, being more green), but also in regards to educating people/companies on the aspect of customer benefits, marketplace benefits, community benefits. So educating people on the importance of social responsibility and its return on investment is steadily reaching a global level, whereby multiple actors across the scene are starting to take it into account more and more often. Another important aspect relating to education is the whole systems perspective that I have 22 FEBRUARY 2016
mentioned before and I believe that the best way it can be brought in graduate programs, for example, is through some sort of capstone course that brings together all the teachings through a business curricula or an MBA that encourages students to do a study of an organization as a whole and understand the relationships that are key in such an enterprise. Which limits need to be surpassed in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management, among practitioners? A key role that they need to cover and improve in is assisting organizations in providing employees with opportunities for development that both meet their needs and are tied to the strategic directions of their organizations, via clear communication and alignment. This way, employees can feel they are actually contributing to the organization’s path to the future and get a sense of belonging and ownership. This way, the organization also clearly articulates what areas require greater levels of expertise to go forward. So this links development to opportunities, which makes employees feel that they are learning and getting ownership for what’s going on in the organization. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours? I look at myself and my colleagues and I see two main things regarding this topic. The first one is balancing work and private life well, putting it on sort of a scale, where we can improve and or measure one another. The second one, which I find it extremely important, is am I continuing to learn, how do I measure my lifelong learning and ensure that it does not stop. What personal performance measurement tools do you use?
I tend to use the Baldrige criteria as my own performance measurement tool and I’ve adapted some of it to suit my own levels of performance. Which were the recent achievements in generating value from performance management in your organization? The most recent development has been our more sophisticated use of partnering and collaboration and measuring the actual ROI of those partnerships and collaborations.
Jane Farley Director at Real Outcomes, New Zealand In 2015, the Performance Magazine editorial team interviewed Jane Farley, Director at Real Outcomes, New Zealand. Her thoughts and views on Performance Management are detailed below. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view? During 2015, I have been working in the NZ local government sector. There is a strong focus on “Better Local Government (2012)” which is seeking efficiencies and effectiveness that is appropriate for the present and the anticipated future. More recently “Fit for the Future” is about a step change in loca government approach to governing, managing, and delivering core services that help accelerate regional growth. Key to this is initiatives that are focussed on performance improvements and embedding good practice. All of this is an extention to central government’s focus on “Better Public Service (2011)” which has 10 result areas, one of which is the “New Zealanders can complete
INTERVIEWS
I have come across a number of tools that group all performance measures as KPIs, rather than acknowledging that there are differing levels of performance measures. This contributes to the difficulty in explaining the different levels of measures (organizational, department, individual) and results in more confusion for individuals. It comes back for the need to integrate and simplify processes. Clear documentation and good continuing communication is a start. Certainly systems that link the organizational KPIs and performance measures with the individual performance plans is key.
their transaction with government easily in a digital envirnonment�, so that by 2017, an average of 70% of the most common transactions are completed this way. All of this means that not only will there be changes to the way the public sector transacts business with it’s customers, but that the metrics and measures requied to monitor the performance will change such as those for: service delivery, communications, IT/IS and many more. We all work in a world where complexity is growing and the need to integrate our services and functions better to streamline what and how we do things, which should help gain efficiencies. Meanwhile, there is a demand for greater focus on outcomes, that is coupled with simplicity and reduction to achieve a more focussed set of impact measures that will clearly show the progress and trends. Local government is wrestling with determining what the most relevant impact measures should be, along with the supporting output/ delivery measures. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level? Another key focus has been ensuring a full line of sight from enterprise strategic directions and strategies through departments plans down to the individuals goal setting and performance. Enabling an individual to understand the value of what they do & how they contribute to the organisation as a whole is crutial for them to feel they have skin in the game. Partly this can be achieved with the most relevant person reporting progress on the
performance measures for the strategies or organizational plans. The other is enabling the appropriate measures an individual contributes to are included in the individual personal plans. Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future? There is much debate as to when individual’s performance should be assessed: annually, bi-annually, or monthly. In reality they are being assessed on an ongoing basis and the most important thing is to have a frequent and ongoing conversation with them, so that when it comes to a formal assessment there is nothing unexpected or new and they should already have an appreciation of the results. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research? Predicting the required key performance measures for: a) professional and personal. b) enterprise (strategic and departmental), based on current emerging business and public sector trends. Global comparative reviews of applications, especially the best integrated personal performance measurement and organizational measurement systems. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results? I feel that it would be inappropriate for me to recommend one specific organization over another.
What Performance Management question would you like to have answered by researchers? What will be the critical organizational performance measures (metrics) for each corporate support function? (Not what has been critical). What motivates people to take control and want to invest in their professional and personal selfdevelopment? What value organizations put on volunteering outside the workplace as mechanisms for development? What proportion of organizations give time for an individual to do volunteer work? Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today? All organizations are striving to perform to the best of their ability and be as efficient and effective as they can. Therefore the performance of the organization is critical, but this relies on its people and how well they do things is driven by their understanding of how it contributes to the direction of the organization, as well as their ability to use the systems and tools they have to deliver effectively the services. In short this is through consistent practices, with strategic alignment right through to an individual and building the capability by recruiting, retaining and developing the right people. What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? I have come across a number of tools that group all performance measures as KPIs, rather than acknowledging that there are differing levels of performance measures. This contributes to the difficulty in explaining the different levels of measures FEBRUARY 2016 23
INTERVIEWS
Enabling an individual to understand the value of what they do & how they contribute to the organisation as a whole is crucial for them to feel they have skin in the game.
(organizational, department, individual) and results in more confusion for individuals. It comes back for the need to integrate and simplify processes. Clear documentation and good continuing communication is a start. Certainly systems that link the organizational KPIs and performance measures with the individual performance plans is key. What would you consider as a best practice in Performance Management? Best practice is generally defined as a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and is used as a benchmark. However, in this fast changing world, what we measure needs to change to continue to be relevant. Unfortunately, the benchmarking approaches that I have seen in the public services, utilizes measures that may no longer be relevant, as they are no longer collected on an ongoing basis. The application of the method or tool that is adapted so that it meets the organizations needs, represents good practice. Perhaps this is where our focus should be: how well we adopt and apply what may be considered best practice. As I indicated before, the pressures are everincreasing so that organizations are now required to become even more effective and efficient, execute better on business strategy, and add more value in order to remain relevant (public sector) or competitive (private sector). Best practices for performance management include: Alignment of individual actions and goals with the departmental measures and organizational KPIs. 24 FEBRUARY 2016
Providing visibility and clarifying accountability related to performance expectations at all levels. Integrate the consistent practices with strategic alignment and building the capability. Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs? Performance management should taught from an integrated perspective, so that the organizational performance measurement perspective and the individual performance measurement are linked. This should not matter whether the course is focused on management, strategy, HR or on organizational performance measurement. Alignment should be a fundamental perspective. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours? What is being measured is the critical factor. If it is average number of additional hours against employee engagement – then is could be useful, but requires further investigation as to root causes for those hours. If it is the relevant development an individual is prepared to undertake on their own time – then this could be insightful when compared with amount undertaken as part of their paid time. What personal performance measurement tools do you use? I utilize the tools (systems and processes) that the organization I am working for has implemented. In addition, I am and have been for a number of years using personal reflection around the EI competencies. What are the processes and tools you look at, in order to differentiate a successful
performance management system, from a superficial one? A successful performance management system incorporates appropriate processes and integrates organizational performance measurement with individual performance plans and appraisals. For the system to function well, the following are necessary: Be user-friendly. Enables an individual SMART goals to be aligned with those of the organization. Enables organisation’s impact and output measures to be given accountability, as well as updated and reported on. Facilitates priorities for both the organization and the individuals. Supports two-way communication and collaboration. Allow for frequent and continuous constructive feedback. Enable inclusion for comments from peers, customers and supervisors. Recognizes an individuals’ accomplishments, regardless of the difficultly to quantify. Supports recording adequate development opportunities. Requires job descriptions for each and every specific position in the organization. Gives management the necessary information for decisions on personal (promotion, salary increases and terminations) and progress of the organisation (against direction).
INTERVIEWS
I learnt the lesson that every performance management system is fine if it can deliver results under a specific situation / culture / industry. We don’t have to copy-paste and we don’t need to run after the chanting mantra in vogue.
Mansoor Ahmed Director Technology Strategic Planning, Etihad Etisalat, Saudi Arabia In 2015, the Performance Magazine editorial team interviewed Mansoor Ahmed, Director Technology Strategic Planning at Etihad Etisalat (a Major Telecom & ICT Services Provider),in Saudi Arabia. His thoughts and views on Performance Management are detailed below. Disclaimer: All views expressed in the interview reflect my own and do not represent my current or former employer, associates/contacts, associations, customers or contractors. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view? These are really interesting times. Big data analytics is now being harnessed to predict employee performance; on the other hand, more companies are ditching performance management in terms of individual ranking. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level? It depends upon the mind set behind performance management and the context in which it’s being implemented: Perspective A: If it is taken as a set of specific measurements of progress to drive employees to fixed goals: the system would easily be able to cascade corporate objectives down to very specific tasks of an employee. I am assuming nature of work in this case, efficiency orientation, especially in the production / manufacturing environment.
Perspective B: If it is taken as a set of specific measurements of behavior that lead employees to agile goals: the system would be team specific without going into individual specific details. In this case I assume work settings would be oriented to creativity and risk taking e.g. R&D, development of new products or new line of business etc. It’s possible to mix both in the same organization but for different verticals and objectives. Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future? We are seeing increasingly distributed, mobile & technology based workforce with declining EQ factors to drive; pushing PMS up to individual with personal balanced score card may turn things into more mechanized systems which, I fear, might be counterproductive. I anticipate therefore that even more companies will start abandoning the classical individual level performance management ranking, disillusioned by its decreasing effectiveness. As I explained in response to the previous question, in such cases, PMS with perspective B would be the more favorable one to adopt. It will also be helpful in enhancing employee engagement. We will also see innovative approaches, like gamification and agile, making inroads into mainstream PMS. Reinvention of PMS is on the move.
Performance management & group dynamics in not-for-profit organizations; Role of leadership vis-a-vis incentives in effective performance management. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results? I came across an American company case study which was able to flourish its business through aggressive employee-last policy (yes you heard me right) with stringent performance system at the cost of high employee turn-over. It is ostensibly counterintuitive but it delivered business results. I learnt the lesson that every performance management system is fine if it can deliver results under a specific situation / culture / industry. We don’t have to copy-paste and we don’t need to run after the chanting mantra in vogue. I would again like to emphasize that it’s not the tool but it’s the application of the tool with context which is to be learned/ educated with appropriate awareness at every organizational level.
What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?
Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today? Making it meaningful; most often numbers would be skewed due to bias and / or political issues, even if we discount the disability of many executives to interpret data correctly and with the right perspective.
Human behavior / psychology / traits in response to various performance management approaches;
Numbers are mere bodies without soul, because the way these are projected, discussed and reacted to may eventually lead FEBRUARY 2016 25
INTERVIEWS
We will also see innovative approaches, like gamification and agile, making inroads into mainstream PMS. Reinvention of PMS is on the move.
Making it acceptable: PMS is not against an individual, it is for the individual, to help him / her. Most of the time positioning of PMS is the problem that it creates a perception of an employee entrapment framework. One of the ways we can increase performance management acceptance is to decouple PMS with most of the incentives and let the team be using it as a project management tool to achieve the negotiated agreed objectives. Management will use it to track the execution efforts being put up by team and individuals. In such cases, incentives could be linked with the overall outcome and let teams (negotiate &) decide the contributing success (requirement &) factor of its individual member. It would help increase PMS acceptance, team collaboration and employee engagement. Making it continuous: Year-end performance management appraisal is not only inefficient, but it has also become irrelevant now. Fast paced challenges and needed changes in businesses (especially ICT sector) require agile goal settings with constant feedback and dialogue setting both horizontally and vertically. Adaptation of such approaches is painfully slow in big organizations; one of the reasons I assume is the difficult culture change that lies underneath. 26 FEBRUARY 2016
What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? Simplify (both software & process) to create focus, and design solutions from within the organization through guidance, coaching and controlled collaboration, instead of implementing a generic model as it is. It needs to reflect continuous performance evaluation with feedback of what is going on great, as well as what might require adjustment.
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These are really interesting times. Big data analytics is now being harnessed to predict employee performance; on the other hand, more companies are ditching performance management in terms of individual ranking.
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a company to either a path of actual progress, or to mere notion of it until disaster hits. Very often, the incentives behind achieving numbers (instead of goals in context of big pictures) encourage a culture of un-realistic figures (for both commitment & reporting). Reward & compensations unfortunately are either not aligned properly, or poorly executed, resulting into disbelief of PMS itself. Decoupling it to a certain extent is the way to go.
Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs? It would really be helpful if trainings are case study based, highlighting what worked and what didn’t & why. It should engage and inspire participants to think: What if? It should help them to identify pros and cons of using various approaches and finally enable them to craft unique solutions for respective companies.
Which limits need to be surpassed in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management, among practitioners? Everyone needs to be a performance management practitioner, in a way, at a certain competency level. Performance Management Practitioners ought to invest an extraordinary amount of time in creating awareness, getting buy-in, and helping individuals setup achievement roadmaps for personal and professional goals. Awareness and learning gained through training and its application internally with departments through fast experimenting, tweaking and mass collaboration will make consulting practitioners truly successful. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours? If you could recall the diary of Benjamin Franklin, I would say that full day Individual performance management is not new trend. However, in comparison, the ability to collect number of data points and resultantly trend analysis has astronomically increased. Many tools are available now, starting from simple online To-dos managers to GTD (Getting things done), to goal & effectiveness oriented balanced scorecards, to complex automatic multi-tools integration systems. It all depends upon personal needs. Measuring what matters, is what matters most. What personal performance measurement tools do you use? I am using many tools (e.g., Trello, Any.do, one Note) but the most important one is to try answering three simple questions daily, what do I stand for, what I am going to do about it today; and, retrospectively, what I could have done differently?.
INTERVIEWS
I think the main challenge is getting managers to stop relying on performance management systems and to start engaging directly and regularly with their staff about their performance on a regular basis. And the starting point for this is to ensure that a performance management system is not a complex bureaucratic requirement but a tool that is useful to managers in the performance of their job.
Sam Plummer Director at The Wellspring Initiative, USA In 2015, the Performance Magazine editorial team interviewed Sam Plummer, Director at The Wellspring Initiative, USA. His thoughts and views on Performance Management are detailed below. Which are the 2015 key trends in Performance Management, from your point of view? As markets mature across the ASEAN region and companies prepare for the increased opportunities and competition that the ASEAN Economic Community will bring, there is an increasing demand for effective performance management practices. There is also a growing focus on performance within public sectors as the demand for improved public services increases, and the development sector is also moving from a focus on provision to one of performance and quality as funding becomes harder to secure for the region. At the same time, there is a growing global realization that formal, process-driven performance management can actually constrain performance. Factors such as rapid economic growth and expanding market opportunities, technological development and increasing public service expectations are forcing organizations to re-examine how they manage their performance. New project management methodologies such as agile in the tech sector and problem-driven iterative adaptation in the development sector are influencing the way we plan and measure performance, and
companies including Deloitte, Accenture and Microsoft have recently conducted significant overhauls of their individual performance evaluation systems to remove bureaucracy and the inherent bias and to refocus them on improving performance and motivating staff. What are your thoughts on the integration of Performance Management at organizational, departmental and employee level? There obviously needs to be good integration across the three levels, but this is not simply about rolling planning and measurement processes down through the organization. Many organizations rely on performance management systems to drive performance without realizing that it is the corporate values that underpin behavior and performance. These values will guide managers in regards to the way they recruit, develop and manage, and staff in the way they perform, while the performance management system operates more as an information and measurement system to ensure that everyone is oriented towards the same performance goals. Which will be the major changes in managing performance, in the future? There’s an increasing recognition that organizations’ worth lies not in their plant or systems but in their human resources. I think this will lead to an increasing realization that performance is more than the sum of its parts. It’s not about adding up individual or departmental contributions to the bottom line as a measure of organizational performance and more about engaging with individuals, building teams and establishing healthy values to support sustainable performance. In addition, the increasing flexibility of the
workforce will require new ways of managing performance, encouraging a more of a focus on performance and delivery instead of hours worked and activities completed. What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research? We’re all well aware of the different cultural effects on effective performance management, but there is relatively little research currently available on the effectiveness of performance management practices in the ASEAN region – we tend to rely on research conducted in western countries and organizations that often doesn’t translate to our region. The growing focus on performance management in the region would be best served by research into areas such as effective staff motivation, reward and recognition and staff development practices. Another interesting area of research is that of the core values that are common across ASEAN organizations and their implications for effective performance management practices. Which organizations would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to managing performance, and their subsequent results? I wouldn’t specify a particular organization but I would remind readers that every organization has its own particular culture, values and systems and so what works in one organization won’t necessarily work in another. The starting point for the development of effective performance management is always within the organization. Others’ research and practices may provide a source of inspiration but its best to look at the particular context and needs of your own organization. FEBRUARY 2016 27
INTERVIEWS
There’s an increasing recognition that organizations’ worth lies not in their plant or systems but in their human resources. I think this will lead to an increasing realization that performance is more than the sum of its parts. It’s not about adding up individual or departmental contributions to the bottom line as a measure of organizational performance and more about engaging with individuals, building teams and establishing healthy values to support sustainable performance.
What Performance Management question would you like to have answered by researchers? I’d like to know how best to link pay to performance, especially in the ASEAN context. I’ve seen many organizations implement such systems but end up with quite some perverse outcomes as staff pursue individual objectives at the expense of organizational goals. I think that there needs to be more of a focus on linking rewards to organizational outcomes, with the aim of engendering the engagement of staff in the organization’s success, rather than trying to breaking these objectives down to an individual level. Of course different types of pay for performance schemes are going to work in different sectors and contexts, but if researchers could provide us with a conclusive statement on what works, we’d all be better off!
or review activities – we should simply encourage them to deliver results.
Which are main challenges of Performance Management in practice, today? I think the main challenge is getting managers to stop relying on performance management systems and to start engaging directly and regularly with their staff about their performance on a regular basis.
And that requires a two-way communication mechanism – managers providing feedback to staff and staff providing feedback to managers.
And the starting point for this is to ensure that a performance management system is not a complex bureaucratic requirement but a tool that is useful to managers in the performance of their job. Managers need to be held accountable for the performance of their teams and to be given the tools that they require to do their job as managers. So performance management systems need to be simple and flexible and owned by managers. We shouldn’t judge them on their ability to complete complex performance planning 28 FEBRUARY 2016
What should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes? Performance management tools and processes should simply clarify the organization or department’s goals and then support the achievement of those goals. They need to remain flexible and useful. There needs to be a shift away from trying to measure performance at every level to one of identifying ways of improving performance – more of a focus on what can be done to improve structures, supply chains, systems and processes, what staff training and development is needed, what extra resources might improve performance.
What would you consider as a best practice in Performance Management? Best practice in performance management is excellent managers. Systems cannot substitute for managers so organizations should focus on establishing the right values and culture and developing managers to lead their teams. The result will be that you don’t need fancy systems and you have the flexibility to respond to needs as they emerge, at the individual, department or organization level. What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours? The number and diversity of apps available
to help individuals “perform” in their personal life – related to health, wealth, time management etc - is increasing exponentially. But of course we each have our own technology thresholds and personal goals. I’ve watched some people let their lives become dominated by some of these apps either without achieving anything or stopping to enjoy the benefits. I’d suggest that we should be discreet in what we choose to use – stay aware of the goals that you value and employ appropriate tools and approaches to help you achieve them. What personal performance measurement tools do you use? An exercycle and a stopwatch! What are the processes and tools you look at, in order to differentiate a successful performance management system, from a superficial one? The best measure of a performance management system is its perception by managers and staff. If it is viewed as a bureaucratic requirement that takes extra time and effort, it is not effective. If it is recognized as a useful management tool and referenced and used by managers and staff in their daily work, then it is doing its job. To this end, performance management systems should be simple and effective. Great systems will never outperform great managers when it comes to getting the best out of a group of people, but effective systems can always help managers to improve the performance of their team. At the end of the day, performance management is about bringing people together in the pursuit of common goals.
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FEBRUARY 2016 29
PORTRAIT EVENTS
CAMERON MIRZA
Head of strategy and projects, Higher Education Council. Kingdom of Bahrain
Creating a more performant tomorrow. DIANA ZARNESCU
Biography
C has earned his prestige in over 15 years of international
ameron Mirza is a highly experienced change leader that
experience with public and private sector reforms.
“My view of performance management took a 360 degree turn and changed forever since.” 30 DECEMBER FEBRUARY 2016 2015
His specialization and passion is oriented towards education and social impact reforms, especially implementing strategic decisions to improve the performance of public organizations and services. Under his guidance, Bahrain jumped several positions in just one year, within the Global Competitiveness Index released by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries according to their performance. He is also known for his people skills, being a strong believer that by strengthening someone’s attributes, you can enhance performance.
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I think the biggest thing I have learned about the Performance Management profession is how you are able to influence people around you in an organization to understand its benefits. Introduction Listening to Cameron speak about his experiences with Performance Management, one detail of his choice of words kept surfacing. He repeatedly used the term “human beings”, when talking about people. After disseminating the overall feel Cameron’s interview transmitted, one conclusion rose above others. That was that Cameron’s use of the notion “human beings” was not random, but a thoroughly rational choice. While the word “people” might be more closely related to a collective, a mass of sameness, “human beings,” on the other hand, spurs out as living, breathing, independent individuals with their own free will and rationality. All similar, but none the same. And this is how Cameron talks about the people he met in the past, the people he works with today, and the people that are yet to come into his path. Naturally, the humane sequence in Performance Management is of utmost importance to Cameron or, as he had oftentimes said: “Fundamentally, Performance Management is still about people either at individual or team level.” The turn of the century found Cameron working as a consultant in the UK. The next ten years, however, will carry him cross the world in a professional adventure of great proportions. From the UK, to Europe, to the USA and then to the Middle East, he worked on projects for both public and private sector organizations, for governmental projects,
especially in the education sector. Ultimately, it was his experience with the educational dimension that led him to the Middle East, where he has been working as a Director of Projects and Strategy for the Higher Education Council in Bahrain as of 2012.
Stepping stones towards a grand career In 2004 the Olympic Games were scheduled to take place in Athens, Greece. However, 2 years earlier, in 2002, the administrative operations were seriously faltering behind schedule. With work to be done on the infrastructure, the stadium and so on, the chances of the Games taking place in 2004 got slimmer day by day. So the answer was to implement a Performance Management System to isolate the problems and come up with solutions to get the project back on track. Cameron Mirza was part of that team which was deployed to implement the system. He was assigned the implementation of a full Performance Management Dashboard. As he remembers, “that was the first time I really understood the value of Performance Management.” Needless to say, the Olympic Games of 2004 were held according to schedule. Moving onwards in time, Cameron Mirza found himself, 5 years later, working for project in the educational field, within governmental institutions. This represented a revealing moment for his career as it brought back the focus on education, and teachers, especially. This span of time spent working on projects brought a great deal of understanding of the “nuts and bolts” of the career he had
embarked on. Cameron sees himself lucky to be part of several projects, as “with projects you can get results very quickly and you can see your value and your impact. I think that once you start creating a momentum things become a lot easier because when you get quick wins, results may lead to other results quicker because you had already developed the momentum and you are taking people with you.” A new understanding dawned on him, of how teachers not only have the power, but also the responsibility to bring about change and a lasting impact on the young people they educate and on society at large. In his own words, “teachers now have a huge responsibility to develop not just an educated workforce, but to develop human capital that are creative, innovative and entrepreneurial by nurturing talent. The fundamental shift in these last 20 years has been the internet so now people don’t actually pay you for what you know, they actually pay you for what you can do with what you know.” Nowadays, information is readily available, there for the taking when we need it, where we need it. In this context, the world has altered in the sense that today’s focus does not fall on the quantity of knowledge you possess, but on your abilities, on how you put information and knowledge into practice. Good teachers of the 21st century do not merely pass knowledge onto their pupils, they pass 21st century skills, too. They give young learners the ability to solve problems, think critically, work in teams, and communicate effectively, all skills that they require in the FEBRUARY 2016 31
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world which awaits them after graduation. It was this environment that made Cameron see in education more than just a collection of information being delivered by the learned to the learners. Education today holds the power to impact the world of tomorrow. Thus, teachers are the ones who bring about change in the world.
Finding inspiration in role-models and ordinary people Understanding how a person you know might influence your life and your professional development, in particular, can be a crucial moment that, if recognized, will yield great benefits but, when ignored, can detrimentally alter one’s career options. However for Cameron, recognizing a person with power of influence over his life did not pose any obstacles. He remembers how Neil Watkins( director of Think IT- an organisation working with UK schools on IT/cloud solutions) was the first person to mark his career, more than a decade ago, sharing with him the key aspect needed in order to become a successful person, believing in him and granting Cameron the opportunity to try his hand on several interesting projects including the high profile respect programme under Prime Minister Tony Blair. There also the people who you didn’t meet and probably never will, who can yield a great influence on your professional development. For Cameron these are today’s technology innovators. People such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, the innovators who are leading the new collaborative economy and creating value for people at zero marginal cost. The new types of global businesses such as Airbnb and Uber are disruptive tech based, global and resource light that offer consumers great value by challenging the big players. Perhaps the greatness of their creations often falls from our sight, since we’re so used to having these services at hand now. However, the story of these creations and the people who made them are not to be disconsidered. Organizations can also take the role of influencers since they represent the vision of the people running them. One such example, that caught Cameron’s admiration, is Dubai’s The Talent Enterprise. They choose to focus on human development by exploiting their 32 FEBRUARY 2016
strengths, instead of their weaknesses. In Cameron’s words: “Rather than focusing on weaknesses all the time, we focus on the positive aspects of human beings that you can have a really big impact in terms of performance.” Therefore, taking into account not only individuals, but also organizations, who you choose as your role-models can be highly beneficial.
read, he still comes back to it every now and then. Covey states the importance of several beneficial habits, such as being proactive, envisioning what you want to obtain the future, prioritizing, seeking mutually beneficial solutions in your relationships, being emphatic, focusing on the positive power of teamwork and, last but not least, focusing on continuous improvement.
An influencer can be indeed one remarkable person, that one individual whose presence radiates confidence and respect and who most of us immediately recognize as a leader. But influencers are not limited to that. In fact, for Cameron, this aspect is related to how open you are to really learning and expanding yourself, not just career wise but as an individual. He confidently states that “I think you can draw influence from everyone you work with, you can always learn from them if you are aware and looking.”
Deepak Chopra’s the soul of leadership is also another book mentioned by Cameron, whereby Chopra’s book shows that true leadership comes not from exploiting peoples fear and anger but by helping them tap into their potential.
Gaining knowledge from written sources
a matter of choosing one video source against another, but rather filtering the information he’s watching and taking what he finds to be useful either for his work, or for his personal life.
There are many books that pass through the hands of a person avid for information. Some of them pass into oblivion, some seem to lurk around, repeatedly coming into attention, every now and then. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” written by Stephen R. Covey and first published in 1989 is mentioned by Cameron as the one book that, even after 15 years since the first
While the knowledge obtained from books is obvious, what about what one can learn from audio-video sources? What should one watch to become a more successful individual? For Cameron it is not necessarily
As he says, “when I’m watching a movie or the TV, I always think what’s the one thing I can take away while watching and apply it to my work. You filter things either consciously or unconsciously.”
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Rather than focusing on weaknesses all the time, we focus on the positive aspects of human beings that you can have a really big impact in terms of performance. Talking about Performance Management When choosing what to filter from the multiple information sources everyone comes across each and every day, it is only natural that you choose what is important from your individual perspective. We all have personal perspectives on habits, relationships, and work. With that in mind, we asked Cameron Mirza to share his opinion on his work. Talking about Performance Management Systems, Cameron defines them as allowing you to have “a clear level of understanding of where you are today and managing your performance to get to your intended goal. Performance Management is a combination of a scientific approach by using data, key metrics and working with human beings as well, in terms of improving performance personally and at team level. People, process and tools, without that framework you are basically just relying on luck in order to get you where you want to be.” It is a system designed to guide you to meet your goals. However, it is the actions you take, the intervention that
ultimately drives performance. He refers to the notion of “targeted intervention” as the ability to make the right decision and apply it at the right organizational level, based on data and facts, in order to obtain the highest impact. But for Cameron there is one more aspect of Performance Management which stands out above all others: “Ultimately, Performance Management is still about managing people within teams and organisations.” The system provides multi-layered benefits, meaning individuals and organizations can reap results from several different levels: track their progress and the distance that is still to be travelled in order to meet the established goals; at the individual level, people can work either alone, or as part of teams to improve their performance singularly and collectively. One cannot call yourself a professional if you have not stumbled over any obstacles in your career. There are 2 elements that are important to understand, when talking about Performance Management, from Cameron’s perspective. For example, while operating in the Middle East, Cameron was faced once with the poor quality of data and secondly with the difficulty of making people get a good understanding of the presented data. People often miss the purpose of metrics, KPIs and agreeing to a general baseline of the current status. In fact, it all comes down to managing people and from here on the challenges arise: “You can have the best systems, the best data, but unless you are able to work with people and improve what human beings do, you’ll find it very difficult to move things.” Furthermore, the difficulty in managing people is that you cannot have a “one size fits all” approach to it, but rather an individual technique: “You have to contextualize your approach to people in terms of helping them improving performance. Creating a culture of excellence and the effective use of performance improvement is often a paradigm shift, it also takes time. On the whole, though, people should become aware that, as human beings, we are set to seek continuous improvement in our lives. This perspective should also be reflected in the quality and effort one puts into his or her work. In this sense, the wellbeing of the company concerns and can be altered by all employees, not just top management. Simply put: “People need to understand that very few organisations can operate these days by being
inefficient. In the current global economic climate employees have to make a contribution towards a organisations success. Otherwise, they just won’t have a job. [...] The drop in oil prices has put a sharper focus on organisations in the Middle east both public and private to seek efficiency and increased effectiveness”. This is the point where a tougher side to managing people is brought to surface. It is still a part of Performance Management, although it oftentimes fails to be recognized as it should. There comes a time of realization when it becomes clear that, no matter how much effort is put by an individual to obtain certain results, they fail to attain them. At times like these, some people have to exit the organization. It is a quintessential part of Performance Management and of managing people. In Cameron’s words, “that’s the hardest part of PM but it’s an essential part and I think we have to recognize it.” To sum up, the challenges enumerated by Cameron are: the quality of data, setting up an agreed baseline of the current status and managing oragnisations in improving performance, in summary creating or changing culture to one of improvement and performance. So now that the obstacles are clear, how to can we begin improving? First things first, as a professional, you have to be aware. By being convinced of the value a Performance Management System has, you can pass on this knowledge onto all departmental levels, from executives, to employees. The key is that people must stop considering metrics and KPIs no more than mere numbers and start realizing that what you do to generate these numbers is actually crucial. From here on it is important how teams work together or with managers, to drive performance forward. It is also not enough just telling someone they are going to be measured against certain targets. One must bear in mind that a Performance Management System is not tool of control but a means for continuous improvement, it’s a culture. And this bring us to the best practices subject. According to Cameron, the best practice scenario works in 4 dimensions: FEBRUARY 2016 33
PORTRAIT
Leadership buy in and driving the performance culture Having process and systems in place The right tools (today’s IT systems, for example, are very sophisticated, despite being easy to use) The people. These 4 dimension are key to having a functional Performance Management System. So now that Cameron’s theory of Performance Management is clear on paper, how does it work when put into practice? In 2013-2014, Bahrain was ranked 43rd on the Global Competitiveness Index. It’s measurement against the 8 indicators used by the report, to build the country ranking scale, showed rather poor results. Thus, the logical decision was to implement a Performance Management System to isolate the problems and come up with improvement solutions. And this is where Cameron’s role came into play. One year later and we see that Bahrain ranked 39th this time, jumping 4 country positions in just one year. Improvements have been registered in all of the 8 country indicators, particularly in the Higher Education and Industry indicator, which jumped 31 positions across the timespan of one year. At the heart of this obvious improvement ticked one efficient mechanism: a Performance Management System. For Cameron, this was “the biggest performance achievement for me so far, we moved a Nation forward”.”
Taking Performance Management home Performance and improving it, particularly, is not limited to the business field. Over the last years, performance began to enter our homes and personal lives along with the mass production of new tracking devices and software, such as smartphones, smartwatches, smart appliances, and so on which make measuring performance easier. Measuring personal performance has not necessarily spun out of the business field, but rather from professional sports. Fitness levels in sports has reached new peaks in the last decade as athletes are being tracked down to their very 34 FEBRUARY 2016
I think you can draw influence from everyone you work with, you can always learn from them if you are aware and looking. finest details in order to find that 1% needed to push their sports performance forward. A well-tuned tracking system allows trainers to know when their athlete is likely to become injured due to body fatigue, or from overtraining, or to know their calorie intake levels and so on. These advanced digital trackers have since migrated from the sports world into our homes, in the shape of smart devices and their linked applications.
because you are not able to have a break away from thinking about work. […] you’ve got to find time in a day to do something for yourself otherwise you tend to be consumed by work and that’s not healthy.”
For Cameron, the use of such a device, a smartwatch to be more precise, is important in order to track his activity levels throughout a day. He is a firm believer that your physical wellbeing is tightly related to your work performance. He keeps a watchful eye on the professional sporting world to see how the data they obtained is put to use and what measures are taken to improve the athletes’ performance. “Is has taught me about myself,” Cameron explains, “I know now how much sleep I need to get in order to operate at high levels the next day. I know how many times I should exercise in a week in order to feel good about myself. I know myself both as a person and as a body better, the times I need to rest and the times when I’m most alert, in terms of when in a day it is the best time to take decisions, when my mental state is at a peak. All these things made me understand how I operate as a human being, when my highs and lows are during a day, and it has made me more effective as a leader.”
Final thoughts
When talking about managing one’s personal life performance, balance is a term you are bound to mention but whose applicability, unfortunately, often fails to be gripped. Separating your professional life from your personal life is, indeed, difficult, but not impossible. Disconnection is what Cameron talks about when he refers to obtaining a proper work-life balance: “Unless you are able to have downtime in a day, it wears you down
Thus, whether you off one hour or more to watch a movie, meet friends, go to the gym and so on, it is vital that you do it daily, if possible, or as often as you can.
Closing in, the general idea Cameron transmits is that you’ve got to keep what’s important to you always in sight, without losing awareness regarding the surrounding context tough: “I think the biggest thing I have learned about the Performance Management profession is how you are able to influence people around you in an organization to understand its benefits. Basically, my advice is that rather than just focusing on the data, the systems, on the IT, we should not lose focus that Performance Management is based around human beings. I feel that Performance Management professionals should take more time to help people understand what the benefits of PM are and get their buy-in, it’s a process of managing change” The ending idea is that Performance Management will not go away. The more challenging the business climate will become, the more necessary it will be to have a system in place that allows you to have an overall perspective, point out the flaws in the operations and allow for quicker and sharper feedback on whatever improvements are taken. In the end, businesses and institutions are driven by 3 key components: technology, systems and people. This is unlikely to change, and neither the importance of managing performance.
Asia Pacific’s premier HR Business Event The ultimate knowledge and networking platform for performance leaders! Become a top-notch professional and improve your business performance by grasping the latest trends and best practices on performance appraisal, employee engagement, performance evaluations and more!
key benefits to attend Discover key trends in performance appraisal, employee engagement and performance; Grasp the best practices in implementing performance based rewards and recognition;
join the most forward thinking leaders in the field!
70 +
participants
12
sessions
12 + 3
Retain your Gen Y top performers, by offering customised employee benefits;
speakers
Benchmark your performance management and employee appraisals with regional leaders;
professional workshops
Align the organisational strategy with human resource strategy, performance culture and employee appraisals.
International and regional thought leaders sharing best practices at the Forum aurel brudan
Chief Executive Officer The KPI Institute, Australia
platinum sponsor
irmanto bernardus Director of Human Resources and Corporate Affairs PT Vale Indonesia, Indonesia
strategic partner
MAY-LENE TAN Region HR Business Partner SEA, Alstom Group, Singapore
sandra kosasih
Human Capital Managing Director Sinar Mas Land, Indonesia
media partners
Read more about the Forum by accessing: http://kpiinstitute.org/events/HR-Performance-Forum/ FEBRUARY 2016
35
EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD
PETROCHINA Performance within state-owned enterprises CATALIN STOIA
T
here is no doubt that all companies aim to increase their overall performance and boost their revenues, no matter if they sell dairy products, second-hand furniture or petroleum products. The solution lies in careful planning and resource allocation, which automatically involves setting targets, drafting objectives and imposing goals. PetroChina Company Limited is part of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and PRC’s biggest oil and gas producer. It is also one of the world’s leading companies, according to Forbes Magazine and even if it is currently suffering from recent corruption scandals and oil price declines, this state-owned company is highly appreciated for employing a very accurate and efficient performance evaluation system. A very comprehensive article from Jiang, Lin and Yu, entitled PetroChina Budget Planning and Performance Evaluation Systems, describes how PetroChina uses KPIs to evaluate the performance within each regional company and for each product line company. But what caught my attention is the following innovative document that the company uses for enhancing performance: the performance contract. No, it’s not a contract like the one artists sign before a concert or event, even if these have the same label; this contract serves as a stimulus to ensure that the overall strategy is carried out. Basically, all managers in nationwide companies, regional companies, senior management and several functional departments are required to sign 36 FEBRUARY 2016
this document, which uses specific KPIs as key instruments and emphasizes meeting budget targets. For nationwide companies, KPI targets are discussed and then set by the CEO, senior management and the company’s general manager before being sent for approval to the budget commission and the board of directors. As predicted, the KPI target values for an individual regional company are later jointly determined by the general manager of the nationwide company and that particular company’s top management. All values are clearly mentioned in these performance contracts, which are first signed by the board of directors and then by managers from nationwide and regional companies. Based on these, you would expect to have a rigid decision-making hierarchy, with most of the power being consolidated at the very
top, which admittedly is pretty common in the Chinese business environment. But PetroChina involves its middle and low management officials in the budgeting process – managers who submit the annual budget drafts to top level decision-makers, which include specific annual targets, goals and action programs for each product line company. It seems that top-down decisionmaking is not always the answer. The budget implementation phase begins with distributing profit plans, continues with educating managers and other staff, and ends with execution. The control process plays a significant role here and includes results reporting, analyzing budget variances and measuring performance. For the latter to take place, the finance and accounting departments compile and analyze the achievement of the KPI targets per month and year-to-date, comparing current performance with the desired state. When it comes to compensation, PetroChina proves to be pretty innovative again; besides their fixed salary, a senior manager is awarded a performance bonus, which is offered at the end of the year and depends on his/her performance evaluation. The performance contract score for each unit has two components, namely contribution score and actual performance score, each having interesting calculation formulas. In brief, these two scores added together represent the performance contract score for a senior manager, 130 points being the maximum allowable score.
AROUND THE WORLD
PetroChina managed to design a system that allows users and managers to access their centralized database through web applications.
If the manager scores 100 points, he will earn the standard bonus settled prior to deciding budgets. If the performance contract score is above 100, the bonus will increase by 2% for each additional point. In the same way, the bonus will decrease by the same percentage if the score is below 100, but if a company had a net loss that year, the bonus will be reduced by 3%. For scoring below 80 points, the manager will get nothing; additionally, when this happens, higher-level senior managers will want to have a meeting in order to find ways of urgent improvement. A score below 60 points entails removal from that leadership position, while refusing to sign the performance contract will be regarded as resigning from the job. This scheme proves to be highly efficient and managers have substantially improved their work performance. Driven by the result of this KPI-based performance contract, PetroChina’s leaders plan to implement a balanced scorecard system, not only to monitor organizational performance, but also to align their business activities to the organization’s vision and strategy. But there’s more about PetroChina’s budget allocation and rewards system, but also about enhancing performance using key metrics; from the very beginning, the company has been committed to becoming a global leader in the energy industry and adopted dozens of smart initiatives to support its vision, plenty of these focusing on value creation with key performance
indicators. One of the areas that benefits from important investment is Information Technology – understandable, given the number of oilfields that PetroChina has and the necessity of accessing accurate data in a timely manner. Two of the most significant initiatives are represented by the A1 and A2 projects, fated to centralize, standardize and integrate mission-critical IT systems. The A1 project was meant to solve the issues with data gathering, caused by storing data on employees’ personal computers, data that was oftentimes lost when workers were transferred or left the company. The A2 project, finished in 2007, was a broader one and was intended to standardize and integrate the production volume data management for all of the company’s fields, given the fact that the previous system, implemented several years earlier, couldn’t provide enough information to evaluate all oilfields based on the same criteria. In brief, the company invests differently in each oilfield based on performance, but before implementing the A2 project, each oil production company calculated key indices based on different business rules. Hence, it was imperative to establish standard rules and procedures for oil/gas/water production data management, which every oilfield had to comply with. With help from an important Exploration and Production (E&P) solutions vendor, PetroChina managed to design a system that allows users and managers to access their centralized database through web applications. Now, decision-makers throughout PetroChina can view KPIs for all the existing oilfields, using the A2 dashboard. Performance can now be evaluated using the same rules and upper management can better allocate budget and resources; adding to this are the improvements in knowledge retention, lower IT costs and enterprise-wide access to vital information. In conclusion, it is clear that PetroChina has understood the importance of effective communication and top management involvement for both employee engagement and budget allocation. Careful planning proves to be essential for this organization’s well-being and let’s admit it, proper motivation leads to benefits. For both parties, of course. FEBRUARY 2016 37
AROUND THE WORLD
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT In the U.S. Department of Justice IRINA PALESCIUC
I
n 2010, the United States government passed the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, which sought to bring great improvements to their justice department. In line with this act “quarterly performance assessments of government programs for purposes of assessing agency performance and improvement, and to establish agency performance improvement officers and the Performance Improvement Council� are required. The agency performance updates will be made available on the public website of each of the 23 agencies, as well as on the Office of Management and Budget website, comparing actual performance results with the established goals. In addition, the agency is obligated to update its strategic plan every four years and cover a period of no less than four years ahead. For practical reasons, the focus here will be on the performance report of the Department of Justice. A set of three FY 2014-2015 strategic goals were developed in alignment with the FY 2014-2018 strategic plan. The strategic goals stated in the annual performance report are as follows: Strategic Goal 1: National security Protect the Americans from terrorism and other threats to national security, including cyber security threats Strategic Goal 2: Violent Crime Protect our communities by reducing gun violence using smart prevention and investigative strategies in order to prevent violent acts from occurring Strategic Goal 3: Financial and Healthcare Fraud Reduce financial and healthcare fraud 38 FEBRUARY 2016
The net costs for achieving the measures in FY 2014 were $12.629.456, a decrease of 0.54% in comparison to FY 2013. However, in the figures below we can see that the achievement percentage also dropped, in FY 2014 the department managing to achieve only 80% of its key performance measures, in comparison to 85% in FY 2013. Status of strategic goals
Target achieved
85%
Target not achieved
15%
Achievement of FY 2013 Key Performance Measures
Target achieved
80%
Target not achieved
20%
Achievements of FY 2014 Key Performance Measures
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Summary of Goal 1 Performance Results Strategic Objective
Performance Measure Name
Page Number
FY 2014 Target
FY 2014 Actual
1.1
Number of terrorism disruptions (FBI)
II-5
50
214
1.2
Percentage of counterterrorism defendants whose cases were favorably resolved (NSD)
II-8
90%
92%
Percentage of counterespionage actions and disruptions against national counterintelligence priorities that result from FBI outreach (FBI)
II-11
10%
7.3%
Percentage of counterespionage defendants whose cases were favorably resolved (NSD)
II-12
90%
98%
Number of computer intrusion program disruptions and dismantlements (FBI)
II-15
100
2,492
Percentage of cyber defendants whose cases were favorably resolved (NSD)
II-16
N/A
N/A
1.3
1.4
Summary of Goal 2 Performance Results Strategic Objective
2.1
2.2
Measure Name
Page Number
FY 2014 Target
FY 2014 Actual
Number of gangs/criminal enterprise dismantlements (non-CPOT) (FBI)
II-20
99
167
Percent of criminal cases favorably resolved (USA, CRM)
II-21
90%
167
Number of communities with improved capacity for a coordinated response to domesic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (OVW)
II-25
5,008
5,426
II-26
90%
96%
Percent of children recovered within 72 hours of an issuance of an AMBER alter (OJP) 2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
Consolidated Priority Organization Targetlinked drug trafficking organizations (DEA, FBI, OCDETF) dismantled, disrupted.
II-29
Number of criminal enterprises engaging in white-collar crimes dismantled (FBI)
II-32
368
464
Percentage of dollar amounts sought by the government recovered (CIV)
II-33
85%
90%
Percent of civil right cases favorably resolved: criminal cases
II-36
85%
90%
Percent of civil rights cases favorably resolved: civil cases
II-36
85%
99%
Case resolution for DOJ litigating divisions percent of criminal cases favorably resolved (ATR, CIV, ENDR, TAX)
II-40
90%
95%
Case resolution for DOJ litigating divisions percent of civil cases favorably resolved (ATR, CIV, ENRD, TAX)
II-40
80%
96%
dismantled - 150 dismantled - 208 disrupted - 350 disrupted - 431
Goal 1 Looking at the first goal’s performance results, it is visible from the start that the targets of objectives 1.1 and 1.4 are greatly surpassed, but the department did not succeed in reducing terrorism disruption and the number of computer intrusions. After seeing these findings, the FBI has taken the initiative to prioritize specialized training sessions for their agents to ensure a skilled workforce. Moreover, the FBI has also taken steps to streamline the information chain between themselves, their partners and stakeholders, through their information sharing platform – Guardian In addition, for the achievement of objective 1.4, the department will collaborate together with private sector companies, to gather and share threatrelated information. For FY 2015 and 2016, the targets have been adjusted to 500 instead of 100, by taking into account the actual results of FY 2014. Goal 2 Contrary to the first goal’s results, the performance of their second goal paints a better picture, as all targets are reached. Furthermore, as a result of the increased number of records submitted to the National Criminal Background Chick System (NICS) Index, 87.160 individuals were denied firearms. This goal was particularly accentuated in light of some unfortunate events that took place in the last year.
Goal 3 Progress was made in FY2014 to reduce the number of financial and healthcare frauds, some of which were pending for 2 years. Pending investigations were reduced by 7% from 5.075 to 4.753. This is due to the fact that the United States Attorneys’ Office paid more attention to cases of fraud which were up and waiting for more than 2 years. Additionally, in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries, the department invested more than $ 2.2 billion to resolve civil or criminal involvement in cases of unapproved use of prescription drugs and healthcare bribery.
FEBRUARY 2016 39
AROUND THE WORLD
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Best Practices from the UAE Government CRISTINA TARÂTA
G are pressured to provide higher added overnments from all over the globe
value, better public services, improved transparency and accountability towards their citizens. The financial crisis of 2007 - 2008, which has forced organizations to look for more efficient means to meet their objectives, the increased expectations of citizens - as currently, public services are expected to provide the same experience as private companies and the raise of new governance models that embrace technology and innovation, are but a few of the factors that could have facilitated this shift.
The Middle East is one region in particular that in the recent years, has distinguished itself through an increased interest towards improving public sector performance. Some challenges observed by The KPI Institute in the public sector related to performance management are: Lack of connection between strategic objectives and monitored KPIs; Misalignment between governmental agencies or departments within the same agency; Difficulties in collecting and managing data in an efficient manner; Difficulties in measuring productivity; Challenges associated with measuring and improving employee performance; 40 FEBRUARY 2016
Low awareness in regards to performance management good practices. However, many of these challenges seem to slowly fade away, as more and more governments have started to invest in developing a sustainable performance management framework. An example of good practice is the United Arab Emirates Government and its long term strategy released in 2010, entitled Vision 2021. In the process of strategy formulation, it is important to identify factors that bring value or strong points for the organization, in order to create a strategy that will explore these value drivers. To achieve its vision: ”to be among the best countries in the world by 2021”, the UAE Government, has identified the following enablers: Skilled Human Capital Customer-Centric Service Efficient Financial Management Good Institutional Governance Dynamic Government Networks Effective Legislative Process and Integrated Policy-Making Effective Government Communication
Future development of the 7 strategic pillars should be done by leveraging the value drivers mentioned above. 7 STRATEGIC PILLARS 1. Cohesive Society and Preserved Identity 2. First-Rate Education System 3. World-Class Healthcare 4. Competitive Knowledge Economy 5. Safe Public 6. Fair Judiciary 7. Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure 8. Strong Global Standing Each strategic goal or pillar has its own innate Key Performance Indicators that will provide clarity on the UAE Government’s progress towards meeting its targets. Performance scorecards are available online, on a portal dedicated to the national strategy, as can be seen on the following page. These offer comprehensive definitions for each indicator, so as to ensure a clear understanding of their objectives and focus areas and furthermore, this does not allow for any subjective interpretation.
AROUND THE WORLD
Indicator
Definition
Source
Results
2021 Targets
Key Sponsor
1
Human Development Index
A composite indicator that measures the wellbeing of nations on (3) perspectives: age (life expectancy at birth), educational attainment (literacy enrollment rate in primary, secondary and tertiary education), and the standard of living (GDP per capita).
United Nations Development Programme
Rank 41 (2015 Report)
Among the top 10 countries
Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority
2
Happiness Index
A composite indicator that measures an individual’s assessment of their standards of living and life satisfaction, using a survey to assess the extent to which individuals feel happy and satisfied with their lives. It includes perspectives such as income level (GDP per capita), average healthy life expectancy, social support, generosity, absence of corruption, and freedom to make life choices.
United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions NetworkGallup World Poll
Rank 20 (2014 0 2015 Report)
Among the top 5 countries
Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Aurhority
3
National Identity Index
A composite indicator that measures the sense of belonging and national identity of citizens. (NKPI specific to UAE).
United Arab Emirates University
90,8% (2013)
100%
Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Community Development
4
Social Cohesion Index
A composite indicator that measures the level of national and social cohesion among the people in the UAE based on the following themes: family cohesion, education, culture, equality, justice, security, participation and national belonging (NKPI specific to UAE).
Higher Committee for National & Social Cohesion
86% (2013)
Work in Progress
Higher Committee for National & Social Cohesion
5
Family Cohesion Index
A composite indicator that measures the social bond between family members. Its main perspectives are: relations between parents, parents’ relations with children, relations among children, relations with bigger families, upbringing of new generation (NKPI specific to UAE).
Ministry of Social Affairs
86,4% (2013)
95%
Ministry of Social Affairs
6
Number of Olympic Medals won
An indicator that measures the achievements and number of medals collected in the Olympic and Paralympic championships in various sports.
General Authority for Youth and Sports
13 (up to 2014)
20
General Authority for Youth and Sports
Index
The scorecard depicts both the target and the actual result for the KPI, but also the data source for each figure, to outline reliability of data. Each pillar has between five and twelve KPIs associated with it, and various types of KPIs are used from complex indexes like # Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), to process KPIs like # Average response time to emergencies, # Time to obtain a loan / house to simple measurements like # Olympic medals won. Lessons to be learned The resulting strategy, whether at the organizational or country level, should enable maximization of value drivers; For each strategic objective, KPIs should be identified to keep track of progress against established targets;
Scorecards are valuable tools that provide structure to a performance management system and facilitate performance monitoring and reporting. Transparency and communication between governments and citizens should be enhanced. The UAE’s online platform, dedicated to conveying the national strategy, KPI targets and results is good practice in this sense; Innovation right at the heart of a strategy plan is another common trend that we frequently notice nowadays. There is an increasing interest in stimulating and managing innovation more effectively, both in private organizations and the public sector. The UAE Government has a National Strategy for Innovation, which at the moment is targeting 7 sectors: renewable energy, transportation, education, health, water, technology and space. The initiatives to support innovation aim at providing supporting laws, institutions and education programs for this topic of interest, encouraging players in the private sector to develop research centers. FEBRUARY 2016 41
AROUND THE WORLD
GREEN PERFORMANCE England’s Environmental Agency TUDOR MODRUZ
The Environmental Agency and the bond between humans, nature and wildlife in England
E encouraging ngland’s
Environmental Agency is sustainable development through the creation of a suitable place for nature, wildlife and people to live and grow in harmony. This governmental agency was established in 1996 in order to protect, support and improve England’s environment. In 20 years’ time, they were involved in hundreds of environmental improving projects, having nowadays 10,600 employees across all England. The Environmental Agency’s main responsibilities are: Regulate major industry waste; Find suitable ways to treat contaminated water; Improve water quality and fisheries; Enhance inland river, estuary and harbor navigation; Monitor conservation and ecology. The Environmental Agency set a series of priorities in order to enhance the environment protection importance in people’s minds: To work with businesses and other organizations in order to manage the use of resources; 42 FEBRUARY 2016
To increase the resilience of people, property and businesses to the risks of flooding and coastal erosion; To protect and improve water, land and biodiversity; To improve the way they work as a regulator, protecting both people and the environment, while achieving sustainable growth.
Being the leading public authority for improving and protecting the environment in England, they were also keen on reducing the environmental impacts of their actions by conducting activities in a sustainable way, which is efficiently monitored through an environmental management system. England’s Environmental Agency achieved efficiency and performance in the following areas of their work so far:
Energy efficiency The Environmental Agency managed to reduce their carbon emissions by 33% up until March 2015, compared to the 2006 baseline year. They were also capable of generating around 400 MWh of renewable energy on their own sites. Total MWh 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
Environment Agency’s renewable energy generated
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FTE per m
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0
3
Water reduction They’ve managed to reduce water consumption by 23% as of March 2015, compared to the 2006 baseline year. In order to achieve lower water consumption, efficient meters were installed on all sites, accompanied by clear rules and water reduction targets. Rainwater harvesting, low flush toilets, low flow showers and infrared activated spray taps were other improvements made in order to reduce water consumption.
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Water Actuals (m3)
Water Targets
Water per ave FTE (m3)
Environment Agency’s mains water consumption
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
FTE per tonne
Waste disposal The biggest internal improvement relies in the waste disposal area, where they achieved a 90%reduction for the office waste sent to landfill as of March 2014 this time, compared to the aforementioned baseline year. They managed to achieve this waste efficiency by introducing three new methods of waste disposal. The Environmental Agency recycled 67% of office waste, 25% of it was incinerated, generating energy recovery and 3% was composted.
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Environment Agency’s residual waste
The Environmental Agency managed to achieve high-efficiency with its internal operations regarding consumption and environmental protection. But their mission is to improve the entire country’s environment by adapting to climate changes and encouraging sustainable business development in a way that will not affect wildlife, nature and people’s quality of life. They have created and implemented the following corporate plan, “Creating a better place 2011 to 2015”, in which they outlined their accomplishments and vision for improvement in the following areas: Reduce climate change and its consequences; Protect and improve water, land and air; Work with people and communities to create better residence conditions; Work with businesses and other organizations in order to maximize resource efficiency and effectiveness.
From the “Creating a better place 2011 to 2015” plan, the following accomplishments and downfalls were significant for their agency performance appraisal and future development plans. Managing rivers and waterways One of their objectives is to create a healthier natural water environment that is resilient to climate changes, industry pollution, drained land in the river and modified river banks. Therefore, all of these activities are massively affecting river catchment and as a consequence, the quality of water. With the involvement of 2000 volunteers across all England, the Environmental Agency managed to restore 79 kilometers of river banks, put up 97 km of fencing, installed 3 technical fish passes and successfully removed 29 barriers that inhibited fish migration. Minimizing the impact of pollution incidents Every year, England is faced with thousands of pollution incidents that affect the quality of the air its inhabitants breathe, the land they live on and reap crops from and the water they drink. Trying to prevent and diminish pollution’s long-term effect, the Environmental Agency even created a series of projects that include: Working in partnership with fire and rescue services to provide special pollution equipment; Communicating to people and businesses the major impact of incorrect waste disposal; Prioritizing dirty highway outfalls; Explaining and highlighting to industry managers the importance of implementing pollution prevention measures. The Environmental Agency was not able to achieve its target and reduce the occurrence of such incidents; as a matter of fact, these have increased by 44% from 2012/2013 to 2013/2014, even after all efforts made to reduce them. Managing invasive non-native species Invasive non-native species harm the native plants, fisheries and whole environment. The Environmental Agency developed a plan in partnership with the Canal and River Trust and Leicester City Council to eradicate the Floating Pennyworth from the River Sour. The Floating Pennyworth is an invasive plant which lives in slow moving waters and grows up in size up to 20 cm per day, having a huge impact on ecology, flood and navigation. Despite its setback regarding pollution incidents, England’s Environmental Agency is one of the leading governmental agencies in Europe in terms of efficiency, performance and when it comes to successfully achieving improvements in its area of expertise. By taking several internal and environmental improvement measures, they proved commitment and dedication to their goal is the way to go when creating a better place for nature, people and wildlife all together. As recognition for their hard work, they have even received a series of awards, out of which the most noticeable ones are the following: “2014 Sustainable business of the year”, “Best Public Sector Fleet Award in 2013” and the “Public Sector UK Green Champion 2013 “. FEBRUARY 2016 43
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FEBRUARY 2016 45
EVENTS INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
CEZARINA BARBIERU
D community or society)”, culture plays a vital role efined as a “social heritage of a group (organized
in any organization. Multinational and international companies are the most challenging environments, when talking about various cultural dimensions grouped up together. It is very important to analyze the impact of these cultural dimensions on Performance Management in organizations. As the same Business Dictionary states, “culture is a pattern of responses discovered, developed, or invented during the group’s history of handling problems which arise from interactions among its members, and between them and their environment.” Each culture of the world has its perceptions, beliefs, values and characteristics. Concepts such as creativity, engagement, authority, accountability, bureaucracy are dealt in different ways according to different cultural perspectives. Managing human resources in an organization becomes not only challenging, but also critically important, especially when it comes to multinational and international companies.
environment is called cross cultural environment. Since Performance Management has become the central concept of nowadays’ business productivity, entrepreneurs, professionals and analysts share a connection via the innovative tools and techniques that they use, which are meant to improve not only organizational productivity, but also operational, personal and individual growth.
Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): This dimension refers to behavior among and towards communities. It is about the degree of individuals’ integration into groups or communities.
Cascading Performance Management, starting with the individual level and going up to the organizational one, focuses on re-establishing the organizational culture and values of a company. In other words, Performance Management creates and measures the context for performance. As a result, human resource management is the most challenging and critical aspect when dealing with improving performance.
Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance (UA): Usually, this dimension deals with the need for structure, that is to say, cultures with low uncertainty avoidance tend to accept risks and change and prefer flexible rules.
Of course, this stays true not only for personnel members, but also managers and shareholders. When one wants to link branch offices in different countries, there must not be any sort of differences regarding the nature of organizational culture, goals, industry scenarios, resources, market characteristics.
Today’s globalization tendency that brings about the integration of local and national perspectives into building economic, financial, trading and communication connections, became more and more popular among business environments. Geert Hofstede, in his study – Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, demonstrates how organizational values are influenced by culture. Furthermore, he has identified five dimensions of culture that usually involve critical challenges when it comes to establishing organizational values:
As an example, think about the company’s main headquarters, located in the country of origin and then think about its different branches of the corporate entity in other locations – these must share the same values, goals, characteristics and so forth, in order for it to be congruous. This business
Small vs. large power distance (PD): This dimension deals with presenting the ways society handles inequalities and the extent to which less powerful members of organizations and institutions (e.g. family) accept and understand that power is frequently distributed unequally.
46 FEBRUARY 2016
Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS): Distribution of roles and behaviors
Long vs. short term orientation (LTO): this dimension clumps up the differences between the long-term values of a society and the short term ones. Cultures with long-term values and traditions place their focus on family, discipline and moral values, established by social institutions. In order to address all the challenges and risks that may occur as a consequence of the above-mentioned cultural dimensions, several performance management objectives can be established. First of all, build a high performance culture, for both individuals and teams and take personal responsibility for improving the business’ processes on a continuous basis. Secondly, raise competences by upgrading skills, which are achieved by attaining superior standards of work performance. Finally, boost the performance levels of your employees by encouraging employee empowerment and motivation through the implementation of an effective rewards system.
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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN CROSS CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
HOW TO CREATE A MOTIVATING AND PRODUCTIVE WORKPLACE ROXANA BARB
M a company’s workplace, in a very competitive
otivated employees can bring added value to
industry. Happy, driven and productive employees are a great asset to a company’s market growth and as such, an organization should constantly seek to improve its work environment, in order to meet the expectations and needs of their employees and keep them engaged. People work to get rewarded and live well, but these factors are not as important as others when it comes to examining the makings of a motivating workplace. There are other, intrinsic factors which influence an employee’s commitment to a job. Some of the attributes of a great place to work in are the following: Every employee should be included in a strategy, whereby they are offered a part of the company’s success, like profit sharing, stocks or bonuses; Creating work environments which are safe, pleasant and comfortable to spend breaks in. An attractive and clean office intensifies the drive of staff members to outperform themselves and become more efficient in their line of work; Companies should provide their employees with healthy food, spaces where they can exercise, socialize with each other or just unwind after long, tiring meetings. Some companies have specially-designed areas, where employees can take short naps if they need them; A workplace where members of staff are encouraged to give feedback creates feelings of appreciation and shows them that their opinions are valued by their higher-ups and they matter in improving the organizational performance of the company. Any feedback received from
general management regarding an employees’ work efforts should never be avoided and ought to be taken with utmost seriousness, as it is one of the premier paths to improvement; Creating constant opportunities for employees to learn and develop new abilities and skills. Employees get a sense of fulfillment if they know they have the chance to grow and this is also another major catalyst for development as well; Designing products or providing services which offer employees the feeling that what they sell is meaningful to customers and on top of this, it shows them that their work brings satisfaction and joy to clients; A company should allow staff members to place their offices in whatever way they feel it can enhance their creative thinking and generate innovative ideas. Colors and inspiring works of art can have a great impact on the performance levels of one’s employees. It is important for a company to offer appealing benefits, so as to attract the right types of employees and the right kind of motivation; generally, members of the younger generations are more drawn to this type of approach. An example of a company which gives many amenities to its employees is Google. The following are some of the benefits enjoyed by their employees: Employees can get free haircuts and they can schedule themselves at the on-site hairdresser; Google also boasts a gym, filled with equipment where people can exercise or simply go for a
stretch, to unwind after long hours spent at their desks. Also, there are swimming pools with lifeguards on site; Members of staff can relax by playing games such as ping pong, billiards, table football or even video games; Other amenities offered by Google are the laundry facilities and dry cleaning services. Many employees wash their clothes at the Googleplex and it is quite common for their personnel to do their laundry over the weekend at the organization’s site; The company offers on-site healthcare services for employees who suffer injuries or end up feeling sick during work hours; To counter stressful situations, Google employees can enjoy a relaxing massage at a specialized therapist, against a small fee. Overall, any perks and benefits offered by a company can easily ensure high levels of employee performance at the work place. Google learned from and listened to its employees’ needs and as a result, it created an employee-oriented workplace. In my opinion, companies should focus more on how to create an appealing working place so that they can keep their employees efficient, motivated, relaxed, creative and engaged. If staff members are functioning at maximum capacity, an organization can thrive on the market. Managers should take into consideration any examples, in their respective industries, of such practices and implement one or more in their own organizations. Either copying a successful model or coming up with a new one is fine, as long as it’s meant to enhance their personnel’s performance. FEBRUARY 2016 47
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
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RATING THE RATER The annual game of Show and Tell MARCELA PRESECAN
hile some companies spend decades on
review and evaluation systems, other companies such as Adobe, GAP or General Electric are eliminating them altogether.
There is something about an annual performance review that takes both employee and manager out of their comfort zone. Moreover, there are also the inadvertent sturdy biases and the idiosyncratic rater effect that make individual performance reviews seem rather useless. The interesting thing is that most of the inefficiency of an annual performance review comes with the aforementioned idiosyncratic rater effect: how much of what is being measured is the rating tendency of the rater. This means that without any context, the rater will provide a rating based on his perception of the rated element (e.g. performance, competency, behavior). The shocking fact revealed through research is that 75% of the individual data collected through performance reviews is biased due to measurement errors, idiosyncratic effects and rater perspective. This leaves a mere 25% of data that really reflects on the ratee, which, in turn, means that individual performance reviews actually reveal more about the rater than the ratee. So, how reliable is this individual annual performance review if it’s so biased and inconclusive? What is the acceptable amount of bias and subjectivity that rates an employee on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is “Unsatisfying” and 5 is “Outstanding”? Do we rate talent according to our own perception of talent? Do we rate 48 FEBRUARY 2016
high potential based on our own subjective definition of high potential? And how exactly do we configure a scale to measure talent or high potential, for that matter?
“
75% of the individual
data collected through
performance reviews is biased due to measurement errors, idiosyncratic effects and rater perspective. This leaves a mere
“
W perfecting their individual performance
25% of data that really reflects on the rate […]
There are several instruments on which organizations generally base their annual performance evaluations on: The Individual Scorecard Performance management tool that states individual objectives and uses KPIs to measure and monitor their achievement; The Competencies List List of attributes necessary to successfully fulfill a specific role and their desired performance level; competencies are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for each competence;
Desired behavioral commitment Assesses the individual’s commitment to the company’s organizational values through behavior exhibited while at the workplace; behavior is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for each type; While the individual scorecard secures a measurable, objective evaluation of the individual, a subsequent assessment of an individual’s competencies and behavior will almost certainly be biased, as it mostly relies on the perception and tendency of the rater. Some of the multiple biases that research has encountered with performance ratings can be summarized as follows: The halo effect The tendency to rate an individual using the same score, or a similar score, on all categories Similarity The tendency to over-rate an individual due to similarities unrelated to performance (e.g. age, sex, gender, race) Central tendency The tendency to assign average ratings, independent of the actual performance of the ratee (e.g. a general score of 3, on a scale from 1 to 5) Leniency The tendency to give favorable ratings on an individual’s performance, regardless of the actual performance of the rated person
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
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PERFORMANCE EVALUATION TOOLS
BIASES IN PERFORMANCE RATINGS
ACCURACY OF THE RATER’S FEEDBACK
THE INDIVIDUAL SCORECARD
THE HALO EFFECT
FAMILIARITY AND COMFORT
SIMILARITY CENTRAL TENDENCY
THE COMPETENCIES LIST
LENIENCY
OBSERVANCE OF THE RATE
TIME SPENT IN OBSERVATION
STERNNESS DESIRED BEHAVIORAL COMMITMENT Sternness The tendency to assign unfavorable ratings, independent of the actual performance of the ratee Fear of retribution Tendency to give favorable ratings to individuals, out of fear of punishment The accuracy of the rater’s feedback depends on other multiple factors such as: The rater’s familiarity and comfort with the performance review process The opportunity raters have to observe the ratee The time spent observing the ratee
FEAR OF RETRIBUTION
LIAISON WITH THE RATEE
We have condemned organizations for searching performance in financials only, and we preached the use of performance management tools that look for multi-dimensionality in business success. We sponsored the achievement of greatness by encouraging people who embrace continuous learning and growth.
Organizations who have dropped the ineffective ways of individual assessments based on annual performance appraisals stand to give us a lesson. And here are some of alternatives they suggest:
So why don’t we fully commit to our progressive ways and also look for the future in the people that we build our organizations upon? Why do we keep making them bow to a meager 1 to 5 scale, which is more biased than bias itself?
Regular check-in conversations to replace the annual “review”
“
There is something about
Liaison with the ratee on work-related tasks
an annual performance review
Degree of friendship between the rater and the ratee
that takes both employee and
“
We have rendered practices of monitoring past performance obsolete and praised the emergence of leading KPIs to push forward all that’s lagging in the performance of our companies.
manager out of their comfort zone.
Assessment of future intentions instead of past performance
Focusing on people’s strengths instead of rating and perfecting their weaknesses Big data for real-time feedback on individual performance Cloud solutions for 360-degree reviews Opportunities to improve instead of issues to correct Total elimination of costly forms and useless questionnaires So, to all the companies who say they have embraced the new ways in managing performance for success, be dared: Do you have the audacity to go all the way? FEBRUARY 2016 49
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
LEADERSHIP MODELS WITHIN ORGANIZATIONS RADU FLOREA
T in
he term leadership has two meanings organizational contexts: the activity of leadership practice and the process of influencing and guiding people through noncoercive methods in order for them to carry out job-related activities. Leadership is a key element of organizational culture. It is a concept which relates to an individual’s ability to motivate, influence and optimize a working team. In his research paper “Concepts of strategic management”, Lloyd Byars defines organizational leadership as the ability to influence attitudes and opinions with the purpose of obtaining a coordinated effort from a group of employees. In this regard, the purpose of leadership is to create a general framework that can provide a direction for strategy planning. This particular way of thinking implies that employees have good knowledge of the organization’s performance standards. According to Lloyd Byars’s theory, organizational leadership is manifested in three dimensions: Individual perception of the appropriate organizational strategy Individual perception of the current organizational strategy Individual perception of what needs to be done By demonstrating that one has the aforementioned leadership skills, these three aspects need to be balanced at the individual level, so each employee will have a positive perception of the company.` The concept of organizational leadership can also be defined through the following models:
The theory of dyadic relationships Formulated by Danser, Graen and Hague, it was originally called the Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory (VDL), as can be found in the Encyclopedia of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, and was later named Leader Exchange Model (LMX). The theory postulates that individuals act differently in group situations than when separated. The theory states that effective leadership depends to a large extent on the type of interaction between manager and subordinate. The following aspects should be remembered as being the main ideas of the theory of dyadic vertical links: Managers identify members of the working group who are committed to team goals and to the entire organization with a high degree of autonomy. Identification of the individuals who form the “in-group” (those who have a greater degree of freedom of movement than the rest of the employees) and those who form the “outgroup” (employees with which managers keep a formal status). Next to the manager, the in-group’s members represent a vertical dyad The working group members, possessing a high capacity to form interpersonal relationships at work are more likely to obtain leading positions.
The theory of transactional management Numerous authors have contributed to its meaning across time, such as Max Weber, Edwin Hollander, James Burns, Bernard Bass, Robert House and Richard Steers. In Hollander’s vision, leadership is defined as a process that involves a social exchange (transaction) between managers and subordinates. The variables that define the concept of leadership are the following: leaders (that possess specific characteristics and abilities needed for their role), subordinates (according to their skills and personality traits) and situations (tasks reported to available resources). The concept of transaction is aimed at defining the social exchange theory between managers and subordinates. The overall look promoted by the authors mentioned above is to highlight the importance of transactions between members of the company occupying a different hierarchical status. In the conception of Burns, types of exchange that can take place between managers and subordinates are economic, political and psychological. To sum this up, transactional leadership theory is only partially applicable, being dependent on the multitude of features that define the organizational culture of a certain company. Leadership is not necessarily a feature specific to managers. Any member of a company may influence his co-workers to improve their performance and can be considered a leader, whether he influences the person right next to him, those working at the same floor or in the entire building. But at the end of the day, most often than not, managers are the ones that need to put on the shoes of the leader, which is an indispensable ability when it comes to managing a group, regardless of its size.
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EVENTS OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
5 STEPS FOR INCREASING HOTEL EFFICIENCY TUDOR MODRUZ
T permanently on a move for hoteliers around
he hospitality business environment is
the world. The increasing segmentation of hotel types and customers conditions the industry to search and define its position. The occurrence of new brands and the re-modelling of old ones are a clear indicator of development at all levels. Hospitality managers believe that benchmarking represents the ideal performance measurement tool, because by using this instrument, businesses are always mindful and quick when it comes to adapting. Keeping a hotel on a successful track demands a lot of effort from managers and staff, to ensure that daily operations are running well and guests are satisfied with the services provided. The main objective of every hotel owner is to make as much profit as possible by increasing revenue or decreasing costs. The ideal scenario for raising the hotel’s bottom line is linked to the growth of sales, doubled by a decrease of costs in a way that it will not lower a hotel’s quality and guest’s expectations. Following the battle for customers, market share and worldwide recognition, small steps can be taken in order to improve the current state of a hotel and achieve the desired results. Initiate incremental revenue sources Incremental revenue sources can come from any hotel department or activity done in-house which will generate money. Therefore, the upsale technique proves to be a reliable tool for incremental revenue generation in modern day hotels that are trying to exceed guests’ expectations and perceived value of said hotels. Front office personnel can persuade guests to invest more money inside hotel premises by offering them a higher quality room instead of the booked one.
Design hotel branded products Selling hotel branded products can become another source of revenue if guests are satisfied with the quality and design of the products found in their room. Branded towels, bathroom slippers and bath robes are the most interesting items which can catch the attention of guests and determine them to buy new ones when they check-out. Conduct an online travel agent (OTA) audit Online travel agencies are tricky partners for hotels because they send guests and businesses towards one’s establishment, but can have a direct impact on other revenue sources. Usually, OTA’s charge a commissioned fee from every reservation made to hotels; this fee can be transformed afterwards by OTA’s into special offers for customers that may use them to book their next reservation. Therefore, attracting customers to book through an OTA will have an impact on walk-in guests and corporate customer’s revenue streams. It is recommended to conduct regular OTA audit and balance winnings with other revenue stream performance checks. Concentrate on important customers Interesting findings in this domain reveal the fact that 20% of the total number of an establishment’s guests are responsible for 80% of the guest’s revenue. Usually, corporate customers and travel agencies are the ones which initiate repeat businesses with hotels, and it is wise to pay more attention to this area, so as to retain and enhance the bond. Change incandescent to LED lighting Hotels are massive energy consumption facilities, depending on their size, technology or location. LED lighting proves to be more efficient in terms of energy consumption and sensor connectivity than incandescent ones. This change from incandescent to LED lightning demands a bigger investment on behalf of the hotel, but in the long-run it represents the safest method to decrease costs and increase profits.
The following three hotels have made significant forward strides when it comes to improving their efficiency and perceived value, by implementing a few very novel strategies. The Radisson Suite Hotel from Toronto Airport has channeled its efforts on a “go green” strategy. They achieved important savings by recycling cardboard, glass, plastic bottles and aluminum cans. In every room, a towel wash program was developed in order to prevent washing clean towels if customers did not used them. Also, the guest room lamps, which are turned on most of the time, where equipped with energy saving bulbs. The Country Inn & Suites from New Hampshire Airport has become an entirely non-smoking hotel. They have installed energy efficient doors and windows and use recycled carpets. The guest’s rooms were equipped with heating and cooling sensors and low-volume toilets and shower-heads. Nonantum Resort from Maine is a local leader if we talk about water and energy conservation. Besides consumption efficiency, they also buy, support and encourage local farmers, which helps ensure that the hotel’s F&B needs are met. Moreover, the Nonantum Resort initiated an environmentally friendly project together with a middle school from its area, in order to find new ways of redecorating hotel rooms. Running and managing a successful hotel is quite the task for everyone involved, because so many factors need to be continuously taken into consideration. Therefore, every hotel must set its priorities in accordance to their desired state of evolution in order to successfully pave its way towards higher profits and greater levels of customer satisfaction. FEBRUARY 2016 51
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
THE ICEBERG MODEL ANDRADA MÎIA
W environment
e are all witnessing how today’s business is becoming increasingly challenging and complex, causing managers to reach out and develop tools to support their organizational performance. However, there still are a few delicate aspects that could make a difference when it comes to what outcomes we may experience. With the risk of approaching a rather old chestnut, let’s talk about competence. Such a simple term, which you have grasped and tackled long time ago, yet there is one really interesting approach coming from psychologist David McClelland that might raise a few questions and is worth mentioning. In many of his past research papers, McClelland explained why when given a new opportunity, two separate individuals that went through the same educational experience and acquired the same skill set, could potentially act appreciably different. For a long time, we got stuck upon the idea that the key to performance was intelligence, which was also back when IQ tests were highly popular. At that point in time, McClleland published an article entitled “Testing for competence rather than for intelligence”, where he attempted to explain through a series of studies that the key to work performance was not in fact so easily uncovered, as psychologists first thought when they started predicting individual performance levels through their numerous intelligence and aptitude tests.
52 FEBRUARY 2016
McClleland however came up with the alternative, namely his competence measurement. Now, dictionaries define competence as the ability to do something well, or the quality or state of being competent. It sounds pretty simple so far, but there is in fact more to this concept. “Criterion Samples” and “Behavioral Event Interviews”, these are the key instruments that McClleland developed and which allowed him to truly understand the ability to reach performance. What he did was to go past the area of expertise of an individual and concentrate more on the psychological inner identity, trying to gather the thoughts and feelings behind their behavior. There was indeed a thoroughly structured interview that McClleland developed and applied, but his method mainly moved the individual away from a work-related scenario, choosing a more personal approach that allowed him to tackle into the world of hidden, deeply embedded traits that influence a certain sequence of actions and have the potential to drive people’s excellence. Now I am asking you to reflect on yourself for a while, understand how much of your personality you actually reveal at your workplace and to what extent do you consider it important for your overall drive, motivation or actions. I would assume it is a considerable amount. The Iceberg model of managerial competencies accurately described his theory, by attributing several layers to competence, similarly to the shape of an iceberg. We can only see the tip of the iceberg, which in our case we refer to the knowledge and skills that one possesses, but the most substantial chunk of ice lies deep underneath the water and embodies the social role, self-image, core traits and motivations that frame the foundation of each individual personality and stabilize the entire iceberg.
Now, what I hope you can take from this is that when it comes to human resource planning and reaching performance, it is essential to understand that it is not rocket science to spot an iceberg. Anyone can tell you that a certain individual has the right qualifications just by scanning through their career path, but it takes quite a bit of time, effort and knowledge to collect enough data about the shape, size or depth of an iceberg. This is one of the simpler reasons that oftentimes causes businesses to fail. Companies notice skills, they appreciate them and offer management positions to what they see as being their most wellprepared employees a bit too soon. The purpose is to place a flag on the tip of the iceberg quickly, but there is a good chance that that particular iceberg is going to sink your ship. McClleland differentiated between two distinctive groups in his approach, “star” and “average” performers, beneficial to understanding the difference between people reaching performance excellence and just “doing your job”. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that knowledge and skills should still be highly valued and continuously developed by employers, but when it comes to organizational management positions, the key to top performance is going further, looking into the core embedded traits of an individual and harnessing that hidden potential. Lower costs, employee motivation, customer retention and capitalizing on opportunities are only a few of the reasons why you should consider applying the McClleland model. Ask yourself this: is it enough to identify the level of expertise, capabilities and characteristics required by a certain position of employment or are there any undefined behavioral traits that can enable and streamline excellence within it and as such impact the entire organizational performance of a company or institution?
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ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE IN THE CUT FLOWER INDUSTRY ANDRADA MĂŽIA
H when it comes to performance management, orticulture may not be the go-to subject
however, it represents a specific industry branch where KPIs are indispensable. Over the past few years, the cut flower sector has completely evolved, shifting towards global supply chains. A shift that enabled the industry to reduce costs and deliver products worldwide. While focusing on a global supply chain may seem revolutionary and rather suited for today’s business reality, especially when we refer to fresh flowers, we do acknowledge that managing supply chains comes along with a lot of complexity and a highly important impact on environmental performance. Properly managing a fresh flower supply chain involves sensitive settings when it comes to the processes involved in every junction of the chain, from cradle to grave, or in this case, from seed to your table. This can only be achieved through measuring and optimally managing key performance indicators. When purchasing flowers, customer’s behavior is most likely influenced by a perceived level of quality, objectified in the aesthetic appeal of the product, the fragrance, the predicted vase life or the choice of packaging. However, recently consumers became more aware of the environmental implications of their possessions. Now, considering the actual context, some organizations promptly grasped the fact that maybe solely focusing on diminishing costs is not the way to go.
The cut flower industry is in fact a perfect example that depicts performance status as the condition of those organizations which excel not because they are profitable, but because they focus on eliminating waste and inefficiency. These can be key drivers not only for sustainable production, but for sustainable consumption. Conventionally, this situation pushed most organizations towards offshoring, but what if instead of striving to identify the cheapest alternative we would focus more on vendor selection, supply chain integration and environmental sustainability? What if we would consider post-contract supplier development and continuous improvement? Once we agree that this is a two-way street, we can start to compete in efficiency and effectiveness, this time using quantitative, relevant and comparable measures. Flesh flowers come along with a specific, pointby-point movement, inventory and transportation process, where activities across the chain are closely interlinked. This requires a dedicated and effective relationship within the supply chain, one that is going to display a clear picture of what, how much and when to produce. It is important to understand that as the orders streamline across the supply chain, there is a critical point in time that indicates certain levels of quality, and this usually concerns the flower breeder. Continuing from here, quality can no longer be enhanced, therefore every ensuing step focuses on preserving quality.
What this should tell you is that you cannot simply do it all by yourself. Your organization represents a part of an integrative system, one that should function in alignment with a common final goal. There is no point in designing an astoundingly beautiful, genetically innovative, vase life extensive rose if it is not going to be properly handled in the future. Responsiveness, lead time or temperature are key factors that span across the entire journey. Focusing solely on your performance is just similar to being dehydrated and deciding to take a bath in order to fix the problem. These difficulties can be tackled through a collective strategic approach to vendor support, engagement and supply chain management, one that encompasses a holistic perspective on performance and KPI integration in distribution, use or product design. Measuring emissions to air, water and land, resource usage and focusing more on perfect order rates might be the way to identify any underlying issues and take the necessary steps towards improvement. There is indeed no simple solution to measuring the impact of supply chains and environmental performance levels on one another, but what businesses can achieve is making smart, relevant, data-based decisions and therefore provide better products, bring less damage to the environment and optimize their use of energy, resources and hazardous substances. It is not an easy fix, but it is a long-term solution.
FEBRUARY 2016 53
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PERFORMANCE EVENTS MEASUREMENT
MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS ANDREEA MOISE
T on how well its managers and executives he performance of an organization depends
know their goals, which can best be used to measure their business’ performance and results against them. When it comes to optimizing business value in software development and delivery projects, the same performance management practices we regularly use can and need to be applied. This is crucial in today’s world, where software is used by many successful organizations to gain competitive advantages and drive innovation. According to the Standish Group’s “CHAOS Chronicles”, only 34% of software projects are deemed successful, costing over $300B annually; 49% of budgets suffer overruns and 62% fail to meet their schedules. Considering today’s economic difficulties, results have to be delivered not only under deadline-induced pressure, but also developing innovative products and applications must be done within a strict budget. So what is there left to do? At first sight, reorienting teams to focus on ROI, risk management, reducing costs and reaching the business’ goals might seem like the best solution, but many industry studies have shown that aligning projects to achieve quantified ROI and mitigation risk is not a wellestablished discipline, with two thirds of managers making decisions based on their “gut feel” rather than verifiable information. That in most cases results in a poor decision-making process, which as well results in a large percent of lost revenue. Things such as productivity and ROI may seem impossible to measure considering the level of 54 FEBRUARY 2016
complexity involved in software development projects, since in order to measure productivity, one needs to monitor all the inputs which go into the business process of software delivery and at the same time, determine a way to measure the outputs of the process. Simply collecting measurement for its own sake will not result in value for an organization, but adapting the performance management process to fit within the established team and tool constraints will. The main challenges in measuring and managing software projects usually spring up when separate teams focus on numerous tasks, such as the development, build, testing and deployment steps, each having its separate bulk of processes. Moreover, it gets even more complicated when we talk about large organization, because we need to take into consideration the geographical/ regional distribution of team members, crossing organizational boundaries, and also the multiple, heterogeneous team infrastructures. A very careful approach is needed when deciding how to measure a developer’s performance, given the fact that traditional methods like lines of code, number of check-ins and so forth are proven to be subjective with today’s software engineering concepts. Rather than measuring individual KPIs in a project, we need to have a team-oriented performance approach. However, when working in a commercial development environment it’s important to keep track of and a close look at a few factors for individual developers:
Willingness to take over complex tasks and the amount of effort involved in delivering them Different people work on different parts of the code and on different levels of the problem, making absolute measurements misleading at best. Test coverage and completeness The amount of work that will be covered by an individual needs to be decided upfront, and when a developer often fails to meet it, it has to be taken care of. Code review comments On each project, there is a specific number of code reviews that need to be conducted for a given time period. This helps assess the coding standard improvement for each developer, based on the code reviews feedback, as well as detect recurring issues and bring them to light. Technical mastery Assessing the mastery level of each developer individually is crucial when it comes to delegating tasks among your team. However, keep in mind that when reviewing a developer, it is very important to not only assess the quality of their work, but also define “good work” in the context of your organizational needs and that of the specific projects and positions he will take over in the organization. Remember, at the end of the day, every project is unique and even though the measurements of the development team and the expected performance levels are decided based on the final release, there are different aspects and requirements that each team member should be aware of when it comes to expected performance.
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
HOW TO MEASURE WORLD PROSPERITY? RALUCA VINTILA
T
he end of the year represents the right time for individuals to look back on what they’ve achieved and what learned along the way in order to set up actions regarding future improvements for the upcoming year. Traditionally, the wishes refer to prosperity, wealth and well-being. Besides individuals, teams and organizations, this principle applies also to countries. Going further, we can even take into consideration the global level of affairs. Have you ever thought about measuring world prosperity? It is at least challenging to consider dimensions such as opportunity and freedom of the citizens, how citizens can take control of their lives in the context of prosperity calculations that when combined, illustrate the state of the world. In today’s context, human progress and the way nations can grow represent key elements that highlight national success and people’s options when they choose where they’d like to live in or the country where they’d like to do business in. Focusing on calculating the world’s best and worst places to live in, The Legatum Institute has recently published the 2015 Prosperity Index that exposes the annual ranking of 142 countries which covers 96% of the world’s population and 99% of global GDP. What makes this index so special? It is the only global measurement of prosperity that considers both income and well-being. Based on the assumption that prosperity represents more than material wealth, the index comprises not only macroeconomic indicators, such as GDP or GDP per capita, but also indicators that complement or go beyond them, through determinants of the subjective well-being of citizens. The deciding factors of world prosperity go beyond conventional analysis and are clustered in eight equally weighted sub-indices. The following examples are a short preview of the 89 variables that have been standardized.
Economy $ Capital per worker $ Gross domestic savings % Unemployment rate % Market size % Inflation # Satisfaction with standard of living Education # Class size # Girls to boys enrolment ratio # Tertiary education per worker # Satisfaction with educational quality Entrepreneurship & Opportunity $ R&D Expenditure $ Business startup costs # Mobile phones per household # Internet bandwidth Governance # Confidence in the judicial system # Confidence in elections # Confidence in the military Health
Now that we’ve analyzed the factors that contribute to the calculation of prosperity, let’s have a short look at the findings, especially at the top and bottom of the list. According to 2015 Prosperity Index, the world’s most prosperous country is Norway. It tops the index for the seventh year running, considered strong for its social capital, education, personal freedoms and health system. Still, it has slipped down for the economic dimension because of the unemployment figures. The Central African Republic is the lowest ranking country. Some of the variables that have significantly contributed to its position are represented by capital per worker, adequate food and shelter, internet bandwidth, rule of law, immunization against infectious disease and perception of social support. One of the more sensitive aspects at the moment, measured at a global scale, is represented by the safety and security topic. The report says that the world has become a more dangerous place due to declines in Africa and the Middle East. Coming back to the idea of calculating prosperity at a global level and its impact, let’s all wish and act for a strong improvement in the upcoming period.
% Immunization against infectious disease # Life expectancy $ Health spending per capita % Infant mortality # Hospital beds # Satisfaction with health Safety & Security # Property theft # Refugees and IDPs # State-sponsored political violence # Express political opinion without fear Social Capital # Volunteers $ Charitable donations % Marriage rate
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EVENTS ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE
GOOD ETHICS MAKE GOOD BUSINESS IRINA PALESCIUC
A notice behavior at the workplace that is
ccording to reports, nearly half of employees
either unethical or illegal. However, in most cases, these occurrences are not reported or addressed. This is very surprising, considering that the costs accompanying unethical behavior are stupendous. In 2011, business owners worldwide and the economy incurred $1,228 trillion in costs from unethical behavior. Since 1980, unethical behavior has been the cause for more than 10 of the biggest corporate bankruptcies. As an example one can think of Enron, Lehman Brothers and WorldCom. Moreover, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concludes that a systemic breakdown in ethics was a major contributor to the 2008 financial crisis. No wonder that the public has become less trusting of financial services industries and organizations in general “to do the right (ethical) thing.” Luckily, there is still hope for the organizations that maintain an ethical culture and which outperform their less ethical peers and competitors in all important aspects. An organization’s culture acts as a strong indicator of the market value that will be created for each dollar that the shareholders invested. Researchers have found that an organization’s culture is the strongest predictor of how much market value that firm will create for every dollar invested by shareholders. The company’s culture plays a major role in the creation and sustenance of value. How can you develop an ethical culture? An ethical culture within the company can be created through the implementation and monitoring of a compliance and ethics program. Through compliance and ethics programs organizations can reduce costs incurred from fines, sentences or deferred prosecution. 56 FEBRUARY 2016
Furthermore, compliance and ethics programs come with readily available protection plans of the corporate brand, which help reduce the probability of unfavorable events and diminish their effects if they should happen.
and also the board of directors and senior management. A system should be adapted to streamline internal risk assessments and assist in setting up action plans for where compliance gaps exist.
The effective ethics program consists of seven essential elements:
Monitor and audit the program’s effectiveness. Automated scheduled assessments should be implemented on a monthly or quarterly basis. The results of which should be visible through dashboards and alerts to all stakeholders, creating transparency and the company’s leaders will always be up-to-date with the organizations’ status on compliance.
Setting up policies, procedures and controls and linking them to laws and regulations. It is necessary for an organization to determine standards, procedures and controls as a way to ward off and detect unethical behavior. After determining the necessary procedures, they should be integrated into a code of conduct which allows auditing systems to monitor and prevent misconduct. Apply effective compliance and ethics controls. The effectiveness of the program should be guaranteed by involving multiple layers of management and each individual in each level should have good knowledge of the program. Try to avoid delegation of authority to unethical individuals, persons which have a history of illegal behavior or behavior that is not in accordance with an effective ethics and compliance program. In the case of outsourcing functions that are not an organization’s core strengths, the company should be diligent in checking whether the companies to which functions are outsourced are reputable and ethical. Functions can be outsourced but liability not. Compliance and ethics programs should be communicated and taught to employees. All the aspects of the program should be clear to employees on all levels of an organization,
Consistent promotion of the program and discourage violations. Individuals that show adherence to an ethical culture should be rewarded and those that do not should be disciplined. Respond in the appropriate manner to an incident and take measures to rule out future incidents. Incident-related information should be captured and stored on a server and implemented in a computerized system, to track the progress of investigations, allowing the automation of compliance management. In conclusion, organizations should develop compliance and ethics programs that are linked to laws and regulations and should also evaluate their current policies, to measure whether they conform to standard regulations. If a compliance and ethics program is successfully implemented, the organization will notice its results in the value & improved organizational reputation that it generates, the degree of internal and external loyalty, the level of positive atmosphere, and on top of all these aspects, a culture of integrity will be established.
EVENTS STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS HOMECOMING The repatriation challenge IRINA PALESCIUC
C to further their talent management objectives.
ompanies use international placements as a way
According to the 2015 Global Mobility Trends survey, conducted by Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 23% of companies use international assignment objectives as a way to build international management experience, compared to the 17% in 2009. On the one hand, much attention and many procedures have been adapted to aid employees in their stay abroad. The repatriation process, on the other hand, is greatly neglected and seemingly forgotten by multinational corporations: 82% of survey respondents indicated that they do not have set in place a career management process for expatriates. Even more so, another 86% stated that they do not have formal repatriation strategies with regards to the career management and retention of international assignees. As a result, “more than 50% of international assignees left their companies within two years of returning.” Generally speaking, the international assignee attrition rate is so high due to the following reasons: Lack of suitable career possibilities; Not enough challenges and responsibilities in the home-organization; Absence of understanding and appreciation of the knowledge and experience gained abroad, on behalf of the home-organization colleagues; No long-term career path planning for expatriates. Although this is greatly discussed in literature, it is not put into practice; Differences regarding the definition of a successful repatriation. Expatriates focus on country culture readjustment, while HR managers largely focus on work-related results; Loss of autonomy; Technical and managerial obsolescence.
The Repatriation Strategy Many organizations assume that returning to the home country will be an easy process, as the expatriate is familiar with the language, culture and conditions at home and will believe that they remained the same as when left behind. Repatriation, however, is just as difficult and complicated a process as it is when coping with expatriation, and assignees can oftentimes experience the so called reverse culture shock. Organizations should establish an effective repatriation strategy and understand that the need for support after the return to the home country, and the support before leaving are equally important. An effective repatriations strategy is composed of four stages. Stage 1: Repatriation Planning An organization should develop a repatriation plan long before the employee returns to the home country. Having some form of planning will reduce the stress associated with the repatriation process and provides stability. Stage 2: Repatriate agreement Early in the expatriation process, a plan must be developed, to conclude how the skills acquired in the host-organization can be utilized upon return. Furthermore, the assignment period, return details, incentive payment, guarantee of suitable position on return, re-entry training and repatriation program to assist in the adjustment upon return should be specified in the agreement. Stage 3: Repatriation programs Most organization have repatriation intentions; however, these intentions are often not translated into practice. Intentions can be put into practice by using the previously mentioned repatriation agreements and at the same time, ensure that the expatriate career paths compare favorably with the ones
available for the employees that did not go abroad. Furthermore, the organization can make use of a mentor that serves as an adviser, confidant and link between the homeorganization and the host-organization. By keeping the expatriate up-to-date with ongoing developments in the homeorganization, there will be less conflict regarding home operations and more commitment when they return. A list of other practices includes the following: Previewing types of jobs guaranteed upon return; Setting a fixed-return date by using a “school schedule”; Increasing repatriation options by offering cross-divisional moves; Creating temporary holding jobs to bridge placement problems until a suitable position is found; Creating a repatriate network and directory; Training and preparation for new expatriates. Stage 4: The repatriation strategy should be evaluated not only based on turnover, but one should also measure the impact it has on the individual’s work commitment, job satisfaction, work values and the expatriation process in its entirety. If organizations are willing to recognize that supporting employees upon return as they would upon expatriation, not only will they reduce their expatriate turnover, but they will also gain employees with substantial knowledge related to specific practices in local management and markets, management skills and interpersonal relations. FEBRUARY 2016 57
ASK THE EXPERTS
ASK THE EXPERTS
6 PILLARS OF THE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK CRISTINA TARĂ‚TA, HEAD OF RESEARCH
I KPI Institute, 42% of professionals admitted to using n the latest research study (2015) initiated by The
1.
the Balanced Scorecard. In spite of the popularity of this framework, there are many organizations in which performance management seems to be failing in producing the expected added value for the respective business. Less successful Balanced Scorecard implementations are mainly caused by the lack of leadership support, the limited ability to adapt the Balanced Scorecard to the organizational context and link it to other processes like budgeting or process management due to a poor understanding of this tool.
Tips KPIs should be linked to objectives When your strategy changes, the KPIs may change; even if the strategy has been the same for a` longer period of time, your KPI set can evolve: you can measure the efficiency in reaching your objectives, but also its effectiveness.
Similar factors, like the ones just mentioned, can operate as enablers or obstacles in implementing change within organizations or managing innovation. 32% of professionals questioned during our latest research study claimed that organizational culture is the main enabler of a performance measurement system. In other words, no matter how sophisticated your tools are, whether your performance measurement system is supported by the Balanced Scorecard methodology, the Performance Prism or the EFQM – a performance oriented culture is vital for a successful performance measurement framework. Developing the performance measurement capability in the organization consists in ensuring the right tools, processes and talent are in place. The KPI Institute has consolidated its own Performance Measurement Framework, which relies on 6 pillars, each equally important in developing the performance measurement capability of an organization. Performance measurement is regarded as a distinct component, related to establishing KPIs and collecting performance data, which should be completed via strategy formulation (objectives setting) and performance improvement (reporting, decisionmaking and continuous learning).
KPI Selection This is an important pillar that ensures the relevancy of the entire framework by monitoring the right KPIs. KPI selection is a step that follows immediately after strategic objectives are established. In practice, this seems to be the most challenging aspect in working with KPIs for most professionals. Many organizations fail to deliver the right data for decision-making, despite having long time experience in using KPIs. Sometimes they focus on what is easy to measure or what has been always measured.
The KPI selection technique KPI clustering, Value Flow Analysis or KPI balancing can be used to provide more context to monitoring performance results and ensure a balanced approach to measurement. The right environment to identify the right KPIs Organize workshops, during which stakeholders can discuss and clarify each objective, brainstorm KPI examples and practice KPI selection techniques. These workshops will not only present meaningful KPIs but will also raise awareness on performance measurement among stakeholders and create a common business language in this field.
2.
KPI Documentation Documenting the performance measurement approach for all the monitored KPIs sets the basis for a standardized and reliable KPI framework. KPI documentation forms will ensure a consistent measurement process and will act as clear procedures for data custodians. Tips Standardized KPI documentation forms This type of template ensures all critical information related to measuring a KPI is captured and available to all parties involved in the performance measurement process. A centralized KPI repository Acting like an internal library; can become an important educational tool in measuring performance.
58 FEBRUARY 2016
ASK THE EXPERTS
3.
Target Setting Although it is part of the KPI documentation process, given the complexity of setting targets, it is regarded as a separate pillar. As target achievement is either formally or informally associated with employee performance and professional competencies, targets have a significant impact on how people behave. Tips Assesses the extent to which target-setting relies on data and ensures a stimulating environment to reach and exceed targets.
Each of the colors used should have a meaning and consistency and ought to be provided from one page to another; Legends should be included to enhance the understanding of data.
6.
Governance The Performance Measurement Governance Frameworks identifies key stakeholders involved in the system and their roles and responsibilities in accordance to Figure 1.
Breakdown long term targets into short term targets, to be keep people engaged and reward small successes as well. Involve KPI owners into the target-setting process.
4.
Data Gathering Along with KPI selection, this is among the most challenging processes in measuring performance. Common difficulties associated with data gathering are data timeliness, accuracy and completeness. The process to collect data for each KPI may prove to be costlier than expected compared to the benefits of having performance results. Tips Data sources should be identified for each KPI; The data collection process should be clearly mapped and communicated to data custodians to ensure that the information will be ready on time; Data custodians should be trained and engaged in an internal community of practice to support a continuous learning process. In this manner, any data collection difficulties can be discussed and addressed.
5.
KPI Data Visualization Developing competencies in data visualization is an important pillar of the KPI Measurement Framework, because it supports the efficiency principle: data should be grasped immediately by managers. Measuring and reporting KPI results should be facilitated by the visual design used in scorecards, dashboards or reports. Tips Graphs should be selected considering the type of data displayed (bar-charts facilitate comparisons, line charts indicate with ease evolution over time, scatter graphs enable pattern identification); Simple backgrounds help the reader concentrate on the performance results;
Figure 1: Governance Framework The State of KPIs and Performance Improvement Practice Report 2015 indicate that 55% of professionals have a dedicated office that manages strategy and performance management in organization. This trend is a common practice because such a governing body, which in some cases can be just one person, can provide specialized advice to managers on how to monitor performance and is responsible with maintaining an updated and relevant performance measurement framework. Tips Adapt the size of the Strategy and Performance Management Office to the organization’s size and needs in this area; Consider building a mixed team and bring together technical competencies as data analysis, performance management, strategic thinking and modern technology skills, with soft competencies like communication, mediation skills, coaching and training. In the end, it can take year for an organization to reach the highest performance measurement maturity level. A performance-oriented organization needs to invest both in technology and its human capital, in order to support constant improvement initiatives. Such organizations are also very skillful in change management, in training employees on how to adopt new work methods, in addressing challenges and are also very adept at seeing the business environment and even themselves from varying perspectives. FEBRUARY 2016 59
LIFESTYLE
LIFESTYLE
BRAIN TRAINING APPS AND YOU A personal performance and usability analysis ADELINA CHELNICIUC
we have a mobile app for almost T oday, everything: from tracking our physical
activity to budget management and from enhancing language skills to cooking. A great emphasis has been placed lately on brain training apps, which are meant to help you stay sharp, whether it’s about improving focus, memory or attention. Using such apps is not only enjoyable and motivating, but it can become almost addictive. I, for one, look forward to those 10 minutes I get to spend with my brain training apps, every day. After months of using Elevate, Peak and Lumosity in parallel, I can now draw a fair comparison between them, from two points of view. On the one hand, there is the personal performance component – do these apps motivate you to go on with your training? Can you get to tangible results? Do they make you feel empowered, after fulfilling your daily training?
On the other hand, there is the usability – usability, functionality, design and whatever other elements might make your experience with these apps more enjoyable and keep you from tapping “Uninstall” any time soon. The science behind brain apps
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All these apps are based on computerized cognitive training principles, which are considered to significantly improve cognitive functions, with everyday life applicability. Today, there are numerous concerns on the relevance of the Brain Training industry. The best example is Stanford’s “Consensus on the Brain Training Industry from the Scientific
LIFESTYLE
Community”, where specialists claimed that there is no compelling scientific evidence behind these games. As a response, more than 120 scientists signed an open letter which contains arguments for some of the critiques mentioned by Stanford Center, along with 132 studies which are meant to prove the importance of computerized cognitive training in improving cognition. While discussions will always exist on the accuracy, relevancy and practicality of these games, one thing is certain: they are engaging, motivational and they discipline the user onto creating a routine out of this daily training. Elevate, Peak and Lumosity – a personal performance perspective All three apps roughly follow the same principle: a set of daily exercises that are customized based on your level and evolution, as you go. For all three apps, these exercises address different areas, from memory, mental agility, problem solving, focus and coordination to emotion, math, and language skills (writing, reading, listening and speaking). An overall rating is calculated by gathering the scores of all components and in addition to this, visual representations of your performance are also displayed. When it comes to motivating the user to go on with the training session, I find Peak to be the most engaging of the three apps. With its Brainmap, you can compare your performance with your peers’ results (by age and profession); on top of that, it motivates
you to go on and delays the inevitable boredom that people encounter at a certain point when using different apps. The next in line is Elevate, which also has very appealing visual representations of your performance, and last but not least is Lumosity which, from this point of view does not excel at all, as its free version only allows you to see your stats as a simple chart, while the premium version enables the ability to compare between results – an important element for benchmarking your scores and even with establishing goals. On the one hand, some elements that bring Elevate a huge advantage are the possibility to set goals, such as “Improve your problemsolving abilities” or “Articulate your thoughts more clearly”, as well as its educational materials embedded within the game – theory and exercises for public speaking, speed reading, math, vocabulary, many of which are available in the free version as well. Peak also offers the possibility to set training objectives, but only for Pro users. Peak’s greatest advantage is the existence of a daily goal that you sometimes have to struggle in order to achieve, and which is featured from the app’s main screen, in order to show your progress towards accomplishing it. Lumosity, on the other hand, sports a great advantage in the complexity of its exercises, which in my opinion is one of the more important aspects to look for in such an app. Elevate, Peak and Lumosity – a usability perspective
The apps’ usability makes a huge difference – an app that’s difficult to use contains many pages with difficult navigation between them, small fonts and huge images that will only frustrate an individual, eventually resulting in the user hitting the “Uninstall” button. From this point of view, all three apps are very easy to use, have a minimalistic design and very high processing speed. Also, Peak and Elevate use different colors for certain targeted areas. Color coding helps in creating connections in the user’s mind and guides him throughout the set of proposed games. Peak even offers colorblind and dyslexic users the possibility to adjust games according to their possibilities. Sound effects can also be activated or deactivated very easily for all three apps. Another important aspect is represented by notifications, more specifically their customization. For Elevate, you can select the reminders you want to receive, eliminate the updates and marketing messages and only keep your daily training reminder. Peak and Lumosity only offer the possibility to enable or disable your brain training reminders, select the days and hours for receiving them. By being easily customizable, straightforward and pleasant to use, as well as engaging and motivating, all three apps are good practice when it comes to both personal performance enablers and offering an addictive user experience, enabling you to analyze your current state, improve skills and have fun, all at a tap or slide distance. FEBRUARY 2016 61
LIFESTYLE
UNDERSTANDING BURNOUT One step closer to avoiding it ADELINA CHELNICIUC
and psychological issue, with more and more specialists studying it in order to come up with solutions and recommendations. Should we work less? Rest more? Do more of what makes us happy, outside working hours? Or a combination of all these? Burnout has become one of the problems we all struggle with, in today’s very fast-paced, competitive world, where you either keep up or are left behind. But beyond all this hype, what exactly is burnout, what are its specific signs and how is it affecting our lives, both personally and professionally? Burnout – some clarifications Today, burnout is defined as “the condition of someone who has become very physically and emotionally tired after doing a difficult job for a long time”. An interesting aspect here, though: it is also defined as “the time when a jet or rocket engine stops working because there is no more fuel available”. This might just as well sum up what it is all about – the exhaustion of personal resources, resulting in your body and mind’s inability to function at their highest potential, due to prolonged effort and stress. According to Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, burnout is usually defined as a state of exhaustion in which one is cynical about the value of one’s occupation and doubtful of one’s capacity to perform. Are you suffering from burnout? As Maslach and Jackson mentioned, burnout includes three primary symptoms: Emotional exhaustion: feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work; Depersonalization: also known as cynicism, detachment from others at work; Reduced personal accomplishment: the tendency to evaluate negatively. 62 FEBRUARY 2016
From an interview with Dr. David Ballard, head of the APA’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program, Lisa Gerry (Forbes) extracted 10 specific signs that show you’re suffering from burnout, namely: Exhaustion: emotional, mental or physical; Lack of motivation: not feeling enthusiastic about anything anymore and having a hard time dragging yourself to work every day; Frustration and other negative emotions: feeling more pessimistic than usual; Cognitive problems: attention and concentration difficulties; Slipping job performance; Interpersonal problems at home and at work: either by getting into more conflicts or by withdrawing from any interactions; Not taking care of yourself: drinking, smoking, sedentary behavior, not eating enough or not getting enough sleep; Being preoccupied with work when you’re not at work: having your work activities interfere with your free time; Generally decreased satisfaction: unhappy with your career and home life; Health problems: different issues that might appear on the long term, such as digestive issues, heart disease, depression and obesity. Moreover, the author Sherrie Bourg Carter offers numerous signs that might show you have reached burnout, this time divided between the three above-mentioned components, which can oftentimes form a vicious circle and be a result of one another.
“
My advice? Take relaxation
“
the last couple of years, burnout has I nbecome an increasingly important social
seriously and to whatever
helps you relieve stress[...]
Physical and emotional exhaustion Chronic fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness/ impaired concentration and attention, physical symptoms (chest pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal pain, dizziness, fainting, and/or headaches), increased illness (infections, flu), loss of appetite, anxiety, depression and anger. Cynicism and detachment Loss of enjoyment, pessimism, isolation, detachment. Ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment Feelings of apathy and hopelessness, increased irritability, lack of productivity and poor performance. If you are currently experiencing more of these signs and, of course, after ruling out any physical causes, you might get to the conclusion that you’re suffering from burnout. My advice? Take relaxation seriously and do whatever helps you relieve stress, as this is all a vicious circle: daily work stress can lead you to burnout. Burnout has, as one of the symptoms, low productivity and performance, which can make you feel like no matter how much you struggle, you can’t get things done. What this feeling will cause is nothing else than more stress, and this is how the circle closes. Make a weekly relaxation schedule and stick with it. Go out, breath some fresh air, sleep more and eat balanced meals. Reach out to the loved ones and ask for their support and always remember – your body and mind are your most valuable assets, worth way more attention, care and love than whichever part of your life put you in this situation in the first place.
LIFESTYLE
BROKE NO MORE! PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGEMENT 101 ADELINA CHELNICIUC
V
ery simply put, personal finance looks into how your money is managed. From budgeting to investing and from debt to insurance, personal finance management is often considered challenging, especially when managing a restricted budget. Having enough funds to meet both your primary needs, your self-development ones and the socalled life’s little pleasures has always been a great desideratum. But how can you gain more clarity upon your finances and, eventually, get to a proficient financial management? Take a look at your bank account. What do you see? Like in any other improvement endeavor, assessing your current state is the first step towards progress. By simply analyzing your income and your expenses, you can get a clear view upon the current situation. When speaking of income, make sure you take into consideration all the available sources, such as wages, public assistance, child support, alimony, dividends and so on. Also, when it comes to expenses, make sure you compile an exhaustive list which includes both fixed (rent/mortgage, insurance, car payment, loan payments etc.) and flexible expenses (transportation, education, food, car maintenance etc.). What do you want to achieve? Simply wishing you had more money at the end of the month is not a goal in itself. Establishing clear, specific financial goals is the next step for improving your personal finance management. Here, it can be useful to set goals for different timeframes, from the shortest to the longest term. Some simple examples are: Short term: Save up for a new smartphone in the next two months; Medium term: Get to a salary level of $200k in 5 years; Long term: Save up %1.000.000 by the age of 60.
When it comes to this, establishing SMART goals is, of course, a must. However, why not make them smarter? Decomposing a SMART objective can help you remember it easier, it can increase your awareness regarding the specific measurements used and, as a consequence, your ownership regarding the goal might be positively affected. SMART goal Decrease the variation from the planned expenditure to 5% in 2 months, by cutting the consumption of fuel. Decomposed goal: Objective: Decrease expenditure variation Key Performance Indicators: % Variance from planned expenditure $ Household consumption expenditure on fuels Target: 5% Timeframe: 2 months What KPIs could be used? Using KPIs to track your personal finances might sound, at first, as an unnecessary effort and it can even be regarded by skeptics as an exaggeration or a waste of time. However, just think of the benefits of having instant access to relevant data, which can tell you what dimensions of your personal finances require attention, what is the situation of your savings or your debt. Regarded from this perspective, clarity upon your results and focus on what matters and on what requires attention are the main advantages you can get out of measuring personal finance KPIs. Here, it is especially important that you should evaluate the cost of measuring that KPI toward its benefits, in terms of time required, data collection enablers and so on. Choose only the KPIs for which you can collect correct and relevant data and which will bring you value in terms of improving your financial performance! The following are a few examples of financial KPIs that can be divided into several clusters:
Assets # Cars owned; # Properties owned. Debt # Mortgages; % Debt to annual income ratio. Expenditure $ Expenditure on holiday trips; $ Tax payments; $ Household consumption expenditure. Income % Growth rate of income; % Variance from income target. Investments # Property investments; % Investment return. Savings % Variance from target savings; $ Pension plan. Now, how can you collect all this data? Today, it is no secret that you can find an app for almost everything. It is also the case of personal finances. Mobile apps for numerous types of devices and operating systems are now available, many even for free, and they can help you keep track of multiple financial aspects. Some of the functions that can be found in these apps are: Clustered / categorized expenditure tracker; Credit / Debit card management; Instant statistics, charts and graphs; Different currencies; Goal setting; Alerting; Trends identification and prediction; Data security; Dropbox integration. Finally, certain complex software solutions for personal and family budget management allow you to sync and keep track of your transactions. FEBRUARY 2016 63
THE KPI DICTIONARY 路 REFERENCE COLLECTION OF BOOKS
Find the most suitable KPIs to measure your business success! Examples of documented Key Performance Indicator Definitions for an in depth view on Performance Measurement Newly released publications: 14 Functional Area KPI Dictionaries 18 Industry KPI Dictionaries
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2013 - 2015 TOP KPIS REPORTS Reports by Functional Area Top 25 Accounting KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Accounts Payable and Receivable KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Administration / Office Support KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Advertising KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Application Development KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Asset Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Compensation and Benefits KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Compliance and Audit Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Contract Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Corporate Travel KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 CSR KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Customer Service KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Data Center KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 eCommerce KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Efficiency and Effectiveness KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Email Marketing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Enterprise Architecture KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Environmental Care KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Facilities Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Finance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Forecasts & Valuation KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Governance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 HSSE KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Human Resources KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Information Technology KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Innovation KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Inventory Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 IT Security KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Knowledge Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Legal Services KPIs of 2013-2015
Top 25 Liquidity KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Logistics / Distribution KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Maintenance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Marketing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Network Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Online Advertising KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Online Publishing - Weblogs KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Portfolio Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Procurement / Purchasing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Production KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Profitability KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Project Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Public Relations KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Quality Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 R&D KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Recruitment KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Retention KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Risk Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sales KPIs of 2013-2015* Top 25 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Service Delivery KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Service Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Supply Chain Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Supply Chain*, Procurement, Distribution KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Talent Development KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Web Analytics KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Workforce KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Working Environment KPIs of 2013-2015
Reports by Industry Top 25 Academic Education KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Accounting Services KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Airlines KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Airports KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Banking and Credit KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Broadcasting (TV and Radio) KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Business Consulting KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Call Center KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Civil Engineering KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Coaching / Training KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Coal and Minerals Mining KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Colleges and Universities KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Construction of Buildings KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Crops KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Customs KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Electricity KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Emergency Response / Ambulance Services KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Engineering KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Event Production and Promotion KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Film and Music KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Forestry and Logging KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Healthcare KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Hospitals KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Hotel KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Insurance KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Investments KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Land Transport (Road & Rail) KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Legal Practice KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Libraries and Archives KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Livestock, Hunting and Fishing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Local Government KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Local Public Transport KPIs of 2013-2015
Top 25 Medical Laboratory KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Medical Practice KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Mortgages KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Museums KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Natural Gas KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 NGO KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Oil and Gas KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Pension Funds KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Ports KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Postal and Courier Services KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Preventive Healthcare KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Primary and Secondary Schools / K-12 KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Property Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Publishing KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Railways KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Real Estate Development KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Real Estate Transactions KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Recruitment / Employment Activities KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Restaurant KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Retail KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Roads KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Shipping KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Social Media KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sport Club Management KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sport Event Organisation KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 State Government KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Sustainability KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Telecommunications KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Tour Operator KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Training and Other Education KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Travel Agency KPIs of 2013-2015 Top 25 Water and Sewage KPIs of 2013-2015
FEBRUARY 2016 65
HARDWARE REVIEW
HARDWARE
and time-consuming traveling, done from one company branch to another. An integrated video system, the Cisco TelePresence EX60, ensures optimal videoconference experiences via its standardsbased H.323/SIP videoconferencing calls, which can go up to a 1080p30 resolution and 6 Mbps point-to-point.
iRobot, iMeeting
Remote Presence for the Enterprise With companies today being more global in span, executives, managers and employees alike need effective ways of keeping in touch, in order to ensure that everyone is on-board with current developments. And with iRobot Ava 500, you don’t have to worry about that any longer. Telepresencing, as means of making someone, through technology use, feel present in some other location, has been something in development for quite a few years now. However now, with iRobot, you can be a 21st Century Harry Houdini. Boasting immediate, flexible scheduling of face-to-face meetings or even open area meetings, obstacle detection and avoidance capabilities, autonomous navigation and also a manual control feature, the Ava 500 removes any costly
Heads up on the road with SenseHud The future of automotive connectivity!
When you are on the road, you have to be mindful of your surroundings and paying attention to your phone is something that more and more drivers have learned not to do, as the cost can greatly outweigh the benefits. Imagine if you had a video-game-like heads-up display for your car – that would make driving and being connected to the rest of the world much, much easier. And that is where SenseHud, from SenseDriver, comes into play. Integrated microphone & speakers, screen folds flush that offer greater portability, adaptive display controlled via light sensor and a host of USB slots, for phone-charging or other capabilities ensure that you are constantly connected to the outer world while behind the wheel. Lightweight and featuring adaptive display that changes with lighting conditions, a 20 degree adjustable ball mount and an 66 FEBRUARY 2016
Simply input your destination and the device will automatically send you to your destination. Offering advanced mapping technology and a real-time view of surrounding environments, be ready for a smooth sail to whatever branch, in whichever country you need to be. On top of this, you can adjust the height and camera angle to suit whatever premises you are located in at the time of the conference. Furthermore, since it is a 21st century novelty, it can easily be managed from an iPad or iPhone. It automatically assigns and provisions a robot from the available pool, which then travels to the inputted destination, initiating the videoconference. After it has concluded, it automatically returns to its charging station, to power up for the next session. Management of the iRobot Ava 500 is done through a Cloud Service of its own, which handles all the available robots, tracks and manages their scheduling, health, battery levels & charge status and also provides errorreporting capabilities. Since communication is such an important part of today’s business environment, the iRobot Ava 500 ensures that the message will always get through, clearly and unaltered. adaptive adhesive dash mat, this is a device that can easily be mounted in any car model. From speed, phone calls to tweets and gas levels, you will always have your eyes on the road, now with the added bonus of it being technologically enhanced.
HARDWARE
Sulon’s Augmented Reality
Tracking health performance with Lifetrak
Today’s infrastructural developments can be quite an investment. From selecting the right area, to issuing blueprints and starting the construction process, it can sometimes bear quite the financial toll on the individual or organization that it will serve.
Ever wished your wristwatch would do more than just show time? Well now, you can count steps, track sleep patterns & distances, measure heart rates, compute calories. All of this while checking the time or date, with Salutron’s Lifetrak.
Here is where Sulon Cortex comes along to help out. With their novel augmented reality head-mounted platform, developers and employees alike will find no more issues with virtualizing problems from a realistic perspective or issuing precise simulations. Equipped with a spatial scanner and digital visor, bundled up in a standalone headset, this new gadget takes immersion to the next level. Your surroundings are not replaced, but enhanced with alternate realities and real-time spatial mapping ensures that you can easily switch between the real and virtual version of reality.
The Lifetrak Activity Tracker is a wristwatch that measures all of the above-mentioned aspects and then sends them to the A&D Connect App, where you can visualize all your activity logs and your daily, weekly or monthly graphs.
Enhance your reality
If you’ve ever played any video games, you might know that oftentimes, you would get blocked off from certain areas by invisible walls. That is not the case with Sulon Cortex. Its spatial redirection allows users to completely move beyond the walls of their home or office without leaving their physical space, as any physical environmental limitations are accounted for, so that you can free explore. What makes this product even more astounding is the complete lack of wiring. All rendering and processing hardware is built inside the headset. A wireless device which transforms any existing physical space into a virtual environment, offering users the possibility of going into worlds adapted to their surroundings. Remember, it is not an alternate reality, but an enhanced version of the one you are currently experiencing. Unaffected by ambient light and useable both indoors and outdoors, Sulon Cortex can function without any extra cameras or sensors, apart from its own. Also, if you wear prescription glasses, you can freely keep them on while using this gadget. Even more so, you can observe the environment from all angles – sitting down, walking around or from the top, while pausing or unpausing for a closer inspection. Coming out around spring, 2016, the Sulon Cortex promises to augment our world like never before.
Capture the best
Boasting a battery life of approximately one year and up-to-date computational power, this tool is what any health-savvy enthusiast needs in his or her life. With the WellnessConnected feature, all of your graphs, trends, results can easily be transmitted to your doctor, family, co-workers or friends, as this also acts as a connection platform between users. An integrated LCS display, impact resistant lens, water resistant to 30 meters, a long lasting, replaceable coin cell battery and full iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device support via Bluetooth Smart technology is what A&D offers so that you can track how many calories you have burned via their Automatic Advanced Calorie tracking system, how far you walked/ran each day with a very precise step and distance tracker or how you have to adjust your efforts in order to reach your target heart rate, measured by an ECG Accurate Heart Rate system. The device also has the possibility of offering users blood pressure monitoring and a smart weight scale. In addition, make sure that your members of staff are always in topnotch condition! HR or employee wellness coordinators can use the information transmitted by this device to customize health programs in a company, ensuring that the overall well-being levels of your workforce stay on the up and up. Since tracking your health is a major topic of concern for many people, the Lifetrak Activity Tracker makes it so that you have all the data you need at the turn of a wrist. FEBRUARY 2016 67
SOFTWARE REVIEW
SOFTWARE
Analytics made easy with SPSS
Managing your business in detail with Revel
Do you often find yourself swimming in an ocean of data, without the faintest idea of where it all starts and ends? Have spreadsheets and Excel files gobbled up all of your space? Fret no longer, for IBM’s Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program is here to help.
Have you ever experienced those awkward moments in either supermarkets or coffeehouses, when their point of sale systems completely shut down and you are left there standing and waiting for the power or the internet to come back on? Well, you can be sure that it feels even more worse for the other side – the manager’s. But fret no longer! Revel Systems, the iPad Point of Sale Solution is here!
Predictive analytics software and solutions
Offering an extremely wide array of options for data analysis, such as correlations, linear regressions, reports, descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate general linear models and much more, it banks on giving the user as many options as he/she desires to manipulate and examine data. Adding to this, it is quite easy to set up and use, even for those who merely dabbled in statistics, as the user interface is clean and one function flows from another. Furthermore, its customizable charts are equally impressive, since the Chart Builder instrument allows you to portray your data as you please, as it provides a gallery of models to choose from, the option to edit basic elements in each one, choose where you wish to put clusters or point IDs and even add titles, subtitles and footnotes. By double-clicking on the generated chart, you open up more options, to take your chart customization to the next level, by inserting reference lines, grids, text boxes or rescaling the entire chart. IBM’s SPSS was designed with the intention of helping out anyone, from individuals to small and big businesses. Data or company size does not matter – all that counts is your desire to find out the links between information A, B and C – or more, for that matter. Moreover, by constantly keeping their software updated, IBM ensures that it is always relevant and if statisticians find new ways of analyzing data, SPSS will quickly integrate that into its build. With very good system optimization, being able to run smoothly on either low end or high end systems, and with so many options to choose from, SPSS can prove to be the partner you need to finally get down to the bottom of things, in terms of knowledge and information. 68 FEBRUARY 2016
The iPad POS solution for your dream business
Revel Systems is an award-winning, quick, intuitive and secure Point of Sale (POS) system that offers integrated payroll, inventory tracking, customer relationship management software, power and internet downtime solutions and roundthe-clock customer support, to ensure that your business never falters. About the point we mentioned earlier, their Always On Mode makes it so that you can continue to process payments and orders during any technical hick ups, allowing the POS to run on a local network or even offline, whilst maintaining the advantages of a cloud-based system. All of your data will be stored and re-synced one connectivity or power return. In regards to their customer management options, if you run a parlor of any kind, e-mails and texts can be sent to customers, asking for confirmation of appointment. Moreover, their easily configured face-to-face communication system will satisfy any drive-through needs that your business may have. Furthermore, to keep your clients coming, Revel offers customizable loyalty & gift cards programs, making sure you celebrate that longtime patron. To top it all off, their customer support service will most surely answer you in minutes, making sure that you always receive help when you need it. As a final point, when it comes to payment, one of the most outstanding aspects is their Split Bills feature. Revel servers can split bills for any situation and payment type, whether it’s between clients, individual items or payment amounts. Users can also divide order based on individual seat numbers, to accommodate large-sized parties. The system also allows consumers to order by mobile phone and offers PayPal payment options.
SOFTWARE
What to expect from 2016’s software developments Submerging into virtual reality
The world of technology is a fast-paced environment, where innovation is at its best and market leaders can be replaced from one day to another. With 2016 in front of us, we cannot but think about what future developments we will see in the technology department, in the upcoming 12 months. The Internet of Things (IoT) If 5 years ago, IoT seemed to some a beautiful but distant concept, today we see it becoming more and more the reality of our daily lives. Technology is interconnected with itself, its surrounding environment and with us. There already are baby monitors that track a baby’s body temperature, breathing regularity, sleep patterns. There are mattresses that change themselves to increase the quality of your sleep, smart refrigerators that connect to your phone and show you what products they contain and smart TVs are already a commonality. But probably the biggest development in this sector will take place in the automotive industry. Based on analyzed data, cars will be able not only be able to optimize route
choices, but also connect to your phone, and even to your home appliances and point what groceries you need to buy, or if you left your lights on and so forth. Augmented Reality If up until now, the benefits of Augmented Reality have only been obvious to gamers mostly. Future developments in this field will travel far beyond gaming and enter almost any sector, from education, to tourism, to military training, construction and the business world. In 2015, for example, Disney invested $65 million into a start-up specialized in creating virtual reality content in order to bring Augmented Reality into cinema theatres. Biology lessons hold great potential as students might visualize the life of cells, the complexity of a nervous system, or travel to Giza and engage in an archeological adventure and so on. Medicine, physics or infrastructure projects can also benefit from seeing the unseen. Being able to break conventional barriers and venture out into new territory, such as seeing the human body from the inside out, in large-scale 3D models, ushers in a new era of technological advancements.
WebSocket IoT, Augmented Reality and other developments awaiting future implementation would not be possible without an internet connection. Presently, this connection is not fast enough in most places, thus delaying a webpage’s time of response, the reload time and the overall functionality of apps. With Web Socket, this connection becomes faster as it significantly improves the communication speed between a server and a client (such as a webpage). Although it is always on, Websocket acts only when requested, thus clearing bandwidth usage and improving internet speed. Additionally, the reload time is diminished as only the new elements within a page will reload, while the stagnant ones are left alone. An immediate consequence of WebSocket is that apps will become more interactive, more responsive and more visually complex. The general idea consumers extract from new and upcoming software and hardware advances is that these are great times to be a technology consumer. 2016 will see an accelerated rate of development in the field of IT and all the other sector influenced by it.
FEBRUARY 2016 69
RECOMMENDED
RECOMMENDATIONS
Titles to include in your 2016 reading list 1
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2 1. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World By Adam Grant
If generating new, innovative ideas is difficult to do, then implementing them into a world that rejects change and opts to maintain the status quo is an even greater challenge. Read through the experiences of such non-conformists who refused to be silenced, from an Apple employee who confronted Steve Jobs, to an analyst who stood up against the CIA’s secrecy policy, and to a billionaire entrepreneur who fires employees for not criticizing him.
3. Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap By Paul Leinwand
A great proportion of all businesses fail to implement their strategy, despite their apparently flawless plans. Some successful international businesses have managed to skip the gap between strategy and execution. Read about how IKEA, Lego, Natura and more others have implemented their strategy by not chasing multiple opportunities, not copying others, not struggling to change their culture, but via smart investment plans and influencing the future, instead of being influenced by it.
5. The Opportunity Analysis Canvas By James V. Green
The award-winning educator from the University of Maryland, leader of the educational activities at the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), brings a new title for entrepreneurs and those who seek to improve their business abilities. The book consists of multi-layered information, taken from various fields, guiding entrepreneurs in their quest for a fresh mindset. 70 FEBRUARY 2016
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2. Endurance Executive: A CEO’s Perspective on the Marathon of Elite Business Performance By Alex P. Bartholomaus
“How badly do I want this?” is the question that ultimately led to the creation of the Endurance Executive book series. It was also the question that helped the author find the right equation to implement a successful business strategy. The book is a guide for CEOs and Executives which prepares them for “The Wall,” an apparently indestructible obstacle that may arise from any aspect of life, and aids them navigate their way to success.
4. Performance Management in Higher Education: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Investigations By Martin Reeves, Knut Haanaes, Janmejaya Sinha
While most strategies for the higher education field focus on what to change, few actually show how to implement these changes, or what they may bring along in terms of consequences, issues or risks. The educational world has gone through significant changes in the past 30 years, from “massification” to “marketization” and budget cuts. The present study comprises the first literature review of performance management in educational institutions, along with a state of the art research report.
6. The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win By Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
The book tells the story of Bill, an IT manager at the Part Unlimited, and his journey to delivering an important project on time, or risk his department being outsourced. Along the way, Bill sees the similarities between the IT department and a living plant, but also notices how one single department can make or break a business.
RECOMMENDATIONS
OF THE 2007 FINANCIAL CRISIS T Financial Crisis that would hit in 2007, years before it happened.
he Big Short is the story of how a handful of people foresaw the
Although many people like jumping on the greed bandwagon and start pointing fingers at Wall Street execs, The Big Short is more of a movie depicting what a dire lack of foresight and oversight does when one is sharking his way towards profits. Michael Burry, Scion Capital hedge fund manager, Jared Vennett, Deutschebank trader, Mark Baum, FrontPoint Partners manager – part of Morgan Stanley, along with Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley, the youngest of the main characters who are two minor investors that started out small, but ended up big – these are the people who foresaw the demise of the housing market and the ensuing fall of the economy wordwide, in 2007-2008. When Lewis Ranieri first came up with the idea of mortgage-backed securities, it was hailed as the fastest and most secure way to fortune. Issues arose when items such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) or property trading entered the playing field. No one supervised or monitored how these are handled and quickly spiraled out of control, with banks finding a quick and, as they put it – safe way to make a buck. Or more. Adding to this was the lack of oversight on behalf of rating agencies which often accepted payments for fraudulent ratings in order to keep their banks coming and not abandon them for their competitors. This turned steadily for the worse. And here is where the four aforementioned characters enter into play. Michael Burry studied long and hard the data concerning the U.S. housing market, noticing that most of the loans offered on it are subprime loans, which are extremely high risk and provide increasingly less return, as people are unable to keep paying their mortgages. He immediately realized that this could only result in a bubble which will burst with unforeseen consequences, if not curtailed. He immediately started betting against the housing market, by acquisitioning credit default swaps against these subprime deals, which ultimately led to him earning a profit of $100 million dollars and of more than $700 million for his investors, when the bubble finally burst.
Jared Vennett and Mark Baum’s stories are intertwined. Vennett got wind of someone engaging in credit default swap acquisitions and called Morgan Stanley, to see if they knew about this, only he got the wrong number and dialed FrontPoint Partners, where Baum worked. After a brief and blunt meeting, Baum was curious to see if Vennett’s words rang true. He and his team went out and started inspecting some of the houses they could, thus finding out that most owners were long overdue on their mortgage payments. This, in turn, prompted him to immediately do the same as Burry, and accept Vennett’s offer for shorteneing securitized subprime home mortgages. Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley were two youngsters who just wanted a seat at the big boys’ trading table, but they lacked the necessary capital for an International Swaps and Derivatives Association Master Agreement, or ISDA for short. By chance, they discover one of Michael Burry’s many prospectuses of the subprime loans, which he had sent to most big banks. Seeing as this is a very well-researched paper, they believe in its authenticity and feel that it is their way to big money. With the aid of retired banker named Ben Rickert, the three go to the Las Vegas Securities Forum, where they buy their own credit default swaps and after the buble bursts, receive an immense profit. The men never met each other and although they never saw themselves this way, they were the heroes the U.S. housing market needed, but did not deserve. While everyone was too focused on short term gains, these individuals decided to short the shorts and focus on long term stability and profits. After all was said and done, most of them went about their lives in different directions. Burry semi-retires and focuses solely in water, Baum never said the words „I told you so” ever again from that point on, Rickert goes back to his retirement, while Geller and Shipley are the only ones trying to make a last effort in righting the wrongs and attempt to sue the ratings companies for their intentional oversight, but are unsuccessful. The whole affair got wrapped up with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which brought significant changes to the federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every other part of the U.S.A.’s financial services industry, in an attempt to safeguard against such incidents in the future. FEBRUARY 2016
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Performance Magazine, Printed Edition. Third issue, February, 2016. Content: News. Agile talent and performance management. Building leaders, building companies. HR frozen in time. Gartner releases its 2016 Magic Quadrant for BI and analytics platforms. One way our way or how to turn your employee into a customer. “I create the world that creates me.” Sulon’s augmented reality. The future of productivity. The virtual workplace. The art of managing conflicts. Three game changers in employees’ annual ranking systems. The Global Risk Report of 2016. Events. The KPI Institute’s partner KPISoft recognized by CIOReview. Cover story: A partner in action. KPISoft. Expert Interviews: Ahmed Al-Ebrahim. CEO of GCC Interconnection Authority, Saudi Arabia. Andrias Suganda. Strategic Performance Management Manager at Gunung Sewu Group, Indonesia. Harry Hertz. Director Emeritus, Baldrige Performance Excellence Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA. Jane Farley. Director at Real Outcomes, New Zealand. Mansoor Ahmed. Director Technology Strategic Planning, Etihad Etisalat, Saudi Arabia. Sam Plummer. Director at The Wellspring Initiative, USA. Portrait. Cameron Mirza, Head of Strategy and projects, Higher Education Council, Kingdom of Bahrain. Creating a more performant tomorrow. Around the World: Petrochina. Performance within state-owned enterprises. Performance Management in the US Department of Justice. Performance Management. Best practices from the UAE Government. Green Performance. England’s environmental agency. Individual Performance. Performance Management in cross cultural backgrounds. How to create a motivating and productive workplace. Rating the rater: The annual game of show and tell. Leadership models within organizations. Operational Performance. 5 Steps for increasing hotel efficiency. The Iceberg Model. Environmental performance. In the cut flower industry. Performance Measurement. Measuring the performance of software development projects. How to measure world prosperity? Organizational Performance. Good ethics make good business. Strategy and Performance Management. Business homecoming. The repatriation challenge. Ask the Experts. 6 Pillars of the performance measurement framework. Lifestyle. Brain training apps and you. A personal performance and usability analysis. Understanding burnout. One step closer to avoiding it. Broke no more! Personal finance management 101. Hardware Review. iRobot, iMeeting. Remote presence for the enterprise. Heads up on the road with Sensehud! The future of automotive conncectivity! Sulon’s augmented reality. Enhance your reality. Tracking health performance with Lifetrak. Capture the best. Software Review. Analytics made easy with SPSS. Predictive analytics software and solutions. Managing your business in detail with Revel. The iPad POS solution for your dream business. What to expect from 2016’s software development. Submerging into Virtual Reality. Recommended. Titles to include in your 2016 reading list. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, By Adam Grant. Endurance Executive: A CEO’s Perspective on the Marathon of Elite Business Performance, By Alex P. Bartholomaus. Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-toExecution Gap, By Paul Leinwand. Performance Management in Higher Education: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Investigations, By Elsa Serpico. The Opportunity Analysis Canvas, By James V. Green. The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win, By Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford. The Big Short of the 2007 Financial Crisis. Keywords: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Balanced Scorecard. Performance Management. Performance Measurement. Performance Improvement. Strategy and Business Planning. Employee Performance Management. Supplier Performance Management. Personal Performance Management. Data Analysis. Data Visualization. Benchmarking. Customer Service Performance. Innovation Performance. Balanced Scorecard Management System Performance. Measurement. Evolution. Accuracy. Big Data. Management. Business Intelligence. Ethics. Education. Solution. Problem-solving. Decision-making. Project Management. Project Planning. KPI Selection. KPI Documentation. KPI Evaluation. KPI Life-cycle. Data gathering. Data presentation. Initiatives. Adjustment. Management techniques. Ishikawa. The 5 Why’s. The Fishbone Technique. SWOT Analysis. Value Flow Analysis. Expert Interviews. Academics. Consultants. Practitioners. Events. Research. Mission. Vision. Strategy. Best know-how. Data and Facts. Common Sense. Data Accuracy. Performance Magazine Focus Categories: Editorials. News. Interviews. Multimedia. Strategy. Balanced Scorecard. KPI. Organizational Performance. Operational Performance. Individual Performance. Personal Performance. Around the World. Interviews. Articles. Editorials. Multimedia. News. The KPI Institute’s Professional Certification Programs. Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional. Certified KPI Professional and Practitioner. Certified Performance Improvement Professional. Certified Employee Performance Management Professional. Certified Personal Performance Professional. Certified Data Visualization Professional. Certified Data Analysis Professional. Certified Benchmarking Professional.