Bridie Fanning

High-performance Organizations align HR practices and programs to business goals and the desired culture to meet customer expectations.

They are characterized by:

• A clear, compelling, communicated corporate purpose to shape business decisions, generate client loyalty and inspire employee commitment and maximum contribution.
• Shared organizational values that guide people as well as influence business practices and decisions as the organization delivers on its promises to all its stakeholders.
• An environment that encourages individual ownership of the organization's bottom-line results and clear line of sight between contribution and rewards through performance management systems that drive accountability.
• A customer focus with fewer layers of management.
• A strong employee brand, cohesive clear culture and employee opportunities for career development and career advancement.
• Employees who are willing to give their discretionary time because their personal aspirations are in sync with the company purpose – work has meaning.

The clearest indicator of a high performance organization or culture are its business results.

The External Environment includes all external stakeholders - industry, regulators, competitors, shareholders, customers and communities and trends such as – demographics, technology innovation and globalization. All these factors input into creating the environment in which an organization operates and will impact how an organization performs and it's culture. These factors need to be taken into consideration when setting the strategic direction of the organization.

Mission addresses what you deliver. People believe their efforts can make a difference, and work with greater commitment when they find meaning in their work. A Mission is a task, purpose, calling of a team or organization.

What is it: Mission is a statement of what an organization stands for in relation to key organizational stakeholders – employees, customers, investors, regulators and communities – the fundamental purpose that it’s leaders believe are shared and valued among those stakeholders. A mission answers why an organization exists or its reason for being. It is a means of communicating the organization's purpose.

Why use it: To be at its best, human nature requires meaning. Meaning is gained from knowing why an organization does what it does. An effective mission communicates meaning by answering the why. By clarifying the purpose of an organization, a mission provides strategic direction, motivates employees and gives meaning to work.

When to use it: A mission is set early in the organizational change process. It is often developed after an environmental scan and/or benchmarking. It is used to guide and align organizational choices.

How to use it: Below is a list of the attributes of a good mission statement.

• Long-term perspective
• Short and concise
• Memorable
• Meaningful

Vision addresses who you are. Components include:

• Reflects a high standard of performance
• Describes a unique attribute
• Represents future accomplishments
• Conjures up an image or picture
• Presents a unifying theme
• Appeals to shared values

What is it: Vision is a simple statement of where the organization is going, and what the organization’s leaders want it to be in the future. A vision can be developed for an organization, an organizational unit (team, group, department, or division), or a process.

Why use it: A vision can be motivating and inspiring. Passions are intertwined with aspirations. An effective vision gives life to passions and sparks employees' energies. It partners with the organization's mission to provide meaning to work and give direction to decision-making. A powerful vision guides interactions with customers and among employees, and it provides purpose for shareholder financial returns.

When to use it: A vision is set early on in an organizational change initiative. It is used to guide and align organizational choices. Often it is developed after performing an external scan and/or benchmarking.

How to use it: Below is list of attributes of a good vision statement:

• Short and concise
• Memorable
• Meaningful
• Inspires and motivates

Without people performance, a great Strategy is just an idea…it's your people who make it real.

• How do you execute your strategy? - What is your company's biggest expense? – People?
• The critical driver for strategic execution is your ability to put the right talent in the right positions and then aligning your people to your strategy.
• People Strategy is about shifting the focus and performance of your people to do more of the right things - faster, better quality and more innovatively than your competitors.
• The closer you come to fully aligning employee performance with strategy, the greater the chance of achieving your corporate goals.
• Performance management is the foundation of people strategy and promotes the focus on execution and aligning behavior with strategic goals.
• The collective skills, experience and efforts of your people are what drive strategic change.
• Talent Management is about making targeted differentiated investments in your human capital.
• Not every employee is equally important in driving your business. Different jobs contribute differently to both top and bottom line, and the performance of individuals differentially contributes even more.
• Organization design is a balance between effectiveness and efficiency. Properly resourced strategic work requires dollars, however, not all work can, nor should be, resourced the same.

Values translate external customer expectations into internal employee and organization behaviors and start with clarity around external customer expectations – what does the organization want to be known for by its best customers. As an organization grows, it is impossible for a leader to be personally involved in every important decision. The most a leader can hope for is that all of the dispersed people making decisions in the organization make them in a way that is consistent with the strategic goals of the company. The only way this can happen is if the organization has developed clear priorities that employees instinctively employ as criteria when they make decisions.

• Values driven decision-making guides behavior and decisions – empowers employees and managers to make independent decisions.
• Ideals that guide employees to prioritize between right and wrong.
• Enable a new culture…leave behind a legacy…clearly state the new expectations.
• Inspire everyone to be their best – facilitate employee motivation and engagement… improve productivity and performance while adhering to a clear set of values.
• Stronger market and employment brand – gives employees a reason to embrace the culture.
• Everyone in the organization is expected to hold these values and practice them – the foundation standard for all employees – they are not optional or a performance differentiator.
• The handful of attributes needed to get a competitive advantage in the future and establish the internal environment in which all employees are motivated to do their best.

Values reflect the desired culture and align attitudes and behaviors with business strategy - essential to consistent decision-making as the organization grows in size and complexity.

Performance Management engages all employees to continually improve their performance and realize their full potential to achieve company goals. It provides a consistent foundation to focus every employee on the right priorities, measure individual performance, increase accountability to deliver results and align performance with rewards.

Performance management moves the performance distribution curve for the whole company improving everyone's performance - same employees - better performance. Values + Competencies + SMART Goals = Holding employees accountable for business results and living the values.

Performance Management is the foundation for a robust talent management strategy.

The performance management system and calibration process needs to be fair and perceived as such by managers and employees recognizing differences in performance against role requirements. Individual performance cannot be strengthened without coaching and feedback. It's important to train leaders in conducting performance reviews and the documentation and process need to be easy, efficient and effective to ensure maximum participation. It is important both to design the process well and to implement it thoroughly.

Comprehensive internal Communication strategies and plans should be developed with managers to send messages that are:

• Clear and easily understood.
• Concise and to the point.
• Consistent and do not change from group to group or from day to day and are frequently reinforced.
• Complete and contain all the information needed to act.
• Compelling and move people to action.
• Credible and viewed as trustworthy.
• Two-Way dialogue with feedback mechanisms.

Aligning the Recruitment infrastructure, processes, policies to the leadership profile reinforces the employer brand and enables the selection of candidates who fit the strategic profile of the business and the desired culture.

Time invested in thoughtfully planning the recruitment and selection process can make the difference between a good or poor hiring decision – amongst the most regrettable decisions a manager makes are hires that don't work out. However, interviewing is a learned skill and with the right process, training and support Managers can make good selection decisions.

Candidates should be identified from broad and diverse sources utilizing the latest technologies, eg: LinkedIn. Technology is a key enabler with high volume recruiting and can assist in increasing operational efficiency, compliance, quality and governance. Screening should include “what it takes to succeed”, both technical skill and “fit” with the business's values / culture.

Interviewing should be based on structured, consistent, job-relevant questions, include multiple interviewers, specific rigorous evaluation of interviewees and realistic previews of the job.

The accuracy of selection decisions increases when multiple sources of data (e.g. interview, reference, past experience, test, performance history) are gathered and combined to make hiring decisions.

Strategic Employee Relations programs promote ethical behavior in interactions with customers, vendors, contractors and employees and create a supportive culture that encourages employees to do their best while adhering to a clear set of values.

Values provide the foundation for code of conduct and ethics policies in strategic employee relations programs and turn customer and business requirements into employee behaviors.

Code of conduct and ethics programs establish the framework for professional behavior and values-driven decision making, empowering employees and managers to make independent decisions. They establish the guidelines for leaders to promote high standards of practice and provide a resource for employees when they have questions about ethics and compliance.

The code of conduct and ethics program is a written document that summarizes significant policies and procedures that impact culture and provides corporate governance, meets legal obligations and ensures the consistent application of policies and practices.

Anchoring all People Management Processes in one Leadership Profile strategically aligns and integrates all people programs to the company goals and desired culture. It provides a consistent foundation for all people programs and ensures that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Leadership Profile defines what good leadership looks like through values, competencies (leadership behaviors) and skills and knowledge.

The leadership competency model should be created from three perspectives – employees, clients, shareholders / owners and derived from the organization's mission, vision, business strategy and values and broadly define what sets the organization apart from its competitors. Well defined competencies can be taught, learned, measured and monitored. They can be used for all people programs including matching an individual to a particular job, measuring individual performance and developing skills and behaviors of leaders.

Leaders directly impact employee commitment and control the majority of key drivers and inhibitors that develop and engage their employees. Leaders must be given coaching, practical tools and techniques so that they have the right capability required to develop their people and lead their teams. Having all people programs and training grounded in one leadership profile enables this process.

Talent Management requires securing the right people with the right skills in the right numbers to execute the business strategy and enables differentiation ensuring that the company's limited resources are targeted on those people and/or roles that will achieve the greatest return on investment.

Strategies can by differentiated by both role and individual:

Role Assessment

• Role type - those roles most impactful to delivering the strategy.
• Mission critical roles - roles that are key to delivering the goals of the organization in any given year.
• Level - top 100 leaders.

Talent Assessment

• Performance - Leading / Valued / Solid / Developing Performer
• Promotability - leaders promotable potential one or two levels
• Diversity - people whose individual characteristics are under represented in the talent pool gender / ethnicity / global

Career Development and Training includes:

Needs Assessment

Assess needs of both individuals and business, now and for the future.

Shared Responsibility

Training is linked to an individual's career development plan and responsibility for development rests primarily with individual, with assistance from the manager and organization, and begins with orientation to each job assignment.

Work Assignments

Providing individuals with opportunities to engage in high value added and challenging work assignments that includes lateral, developmental job-rotation, and special assignments. Moves are made to promote learning, not merely provide titles, levels, raises.

Candid Feedback

Providing mechanisms for follow up to reinforce personal change and growth - realistic feedback is provided about performance, potential, career options.

Promotability Assessment

Practical, relevant mechanisms are used to assess potential, as distinct from immediate past performance.

Succession Planning

Ensuring a clear succession path to maintain expertise in critical roles. Each manager identifies potential replacements and actively managers the development and grooming of their people.

Training

Offering training programs that focus on basic skills, technical skills, leadership skills and cultural skills. They should be relevant and practical and classroom training (inside and outside the organization) is available and encouraged, but not the primary developmental tool: on-the-job learning, new assignments emphasized.

Coaching

Coaching managers in how they provide on the job development support to their people - the dominant managerial style is coaching, problem-solving, helping.

Defining Rewards and Recognition programs so that they align with the organizations strategic objectives is key to an Integrated People Strategy – many organizations have pay for performance philosophies that aligns their total compensation with the external market for their industry comparators providing superior pay for superior performance. The mix of compensation – base, bonus, equity also needs to be taken into account and it is usual to increase the percentage of total pay “at risk” as employees move to greater levels of responsibility with those in more senior positions having less fixed pay and more variable pay. Different compensation components (base, bonus, equity) focus on different objectives in strategic plans and create a balance between attention to short term and long term goals.

Deciding what proportion should be paid in cash and what proportion should be paid in equity can be influenced by those with a more direct impact on corporate performance receiving a greater portion of compensation in equity. Annual equity awards subject to multi-year vesting schedules reward executives for commitment to the long term success of the organization and are also used as retention tools.

Programs should be:

Affordable

Provide value to employees while managing costs.

Fair

Perceived by employees and external stakeholders to be structured fairly.

Consistent & Simple

Clear and consistent components year-to-year that align with governance best practices

Tax Efficient

Simple, cost and tax-efficient on a group basis

Accountable

Necessary controls in place to hold employees accountable for trading activity, financial reporting errors or fraudulent actions

Business Results include the financial outcomes of the organization and can include - earnings per share, free cash flow, organic revenue growth, margin performance, expense management, customer satisfaction and loyalty and sales quota attainment.

Successful organizations have strong bias to action Cultures that are agile, aligned with the organization's mission and recognize the external environment. A strong culture provides consistency of perception, problem definition, evaluation of issues and options, and preferences for action. It is a useful force for integration, consensus and reduces conflict. Culture is the most powerful operating system the organization possesses for strategy execution.

Culture can be defined as:

• A pattern of shared underlying assumptions, values, beliefs, norms and behaviors that the organization learns as it solves internal and external problems.
• The processes and priorities – the ways of getting the job done - that employees instinctively assume when solving problems and making decisions.
• What employees do when no one is around to tell them what to do.
• Shared criteria and methods for decision-making.

Culture is dynamic and evolves with new experiences - as a company acquires history, it acquires culture.

All culture levers – vision, mission, values, strategy, integrated people strategy, office environment, brand promise, operating meetings - should work together in such a way that they are mutually reinforcing and should be in alignment with the desired business and culture outcomes.

Employee Engagement is an outcome from HR programs and practices working in an integrated way to provide meaning in work. It can be a competitive differentiator enabling an organizations employees to be more productive, motivated and innovative and than their competitors' people. Engaged employees are committed, focused, accountable, achieving, energized, skilled, and growing. Employee Engagement can be defined as the emotional connection (passion) that an employee feels for his or her organization that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.

An Integrated People Strategy includes the key drivers of employee engagement:

• Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and “walk the talk”.
• Nature of the job – is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
• Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
• Career growth opportunities – are there future opportunities for growth?
• Pride about the company – how much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
• Co-workers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement.
• Employee development – is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
• Relationship with one's manager – does the employee value his or her relationship with their manager?

Mission, Vision and Values guide the actions of individuals, teams and organizations. Together they form an organization's identify, inform Strategy, and inspire commitment.

An Integrated People Strategy, founded on the company core values, geared towards building a high-performing workforce is a powerful driver of business success.

People Strategy is an integrated, mutually reinforcing package of people programs that ensures outcomes are greater than the sum of their parts. It should be aligned to the business strategy and your desired business and culture outcomes.

Integrated People Strategy increases the probability that employees will display behaviors that align with the company's overall strategic direction and lead to improved business results.

Outcomes are the results produced by the organization. The outcomes provide feedback to the organization on how it is performing for its many stakeholders. Organization outcomes are driven by the choices the organization makes. What the organization chooses as its mission, its strategy and values and how the organization does it works, organizes it, hires people, trains them, informs them, rewards them will determine the results.

If you want to change the outcomes you to need to change the levers that drive those results. The High Performance Organization model is dynamic and can start with the desired business outcomes that describe what the business really wants and where it wants to be. These desired outcomes can then be used to inform mission, strategy, values etc.

Transactional

Ensures that the delivery of human resources service and information to leaders, managers and staff within the organization is accurate, efficient, timely and cost-effective and that human resources data is managed professionally through technology, shared services and / or outsourcing.

Strategic

Understands how to align people practices to the organization's overall business strategy and desired culture to significantly improve business results.

Helps business leaders find integrated solutions to support organizational change and address complex challenges to ensure sustainable capability.

Transformational

Integrated, aligned, innovative and business focused approach to redefining how HR work is done within an organization so that it helps the organization deliver on commitments made to customers, investors and other stakeholders.

• Scalable technology
• Shared services/centralized service center
• Compliant, standardized process and procedures

• Quicker business decisions with greater accuracy
• Utilization of resources improves workforce deployment
• Benefit plan design
• Total compensation philosophy

• Management reporting - data driven solutions - accelerating the speed of business
• Standardization enables transferability of employees across businesses
• Identifying skills/competencies; offshore or retain
• Reporting people, data/metrics

• Scalable solution to support growth commitment to the organization
• Acquisition integration
• Skill inventory / talent deployment (resource planning)
• Leadership pipeline and succession planning
• Define employment brand
• Single benefit platform
• Employee engagement capability

HR should focus on the value they create for key stakeholders: employees, managers, customers and investors. Creating Value at every stage of the Employee Lifecycle for competitive advantage.