VentureWoods

Here are the next 5 Ideas for better Business performance in building Human Synergies. In this posting you would find basic information about Induction, Probation, Grievance Redressal, High Requirement Hiring and Setting Expectation of Performance. These are very day-to-day issues and needs to be addressed on the go.  Please do read and add new inputs and perspective to make this blog a repository for simple & practical solutions.

6.Induction for Performance : Induction of a new employee into the system is the first step for building Human Synergies. Induction is a process which would help the new joinees contribute the best by understanding the organisation and its systems. Organisation helps the new joinees to understand the history, policies, procedures, cultural values along with some bit of experiential learning.  This process can be simple to complex based on the person / seniority and/or implication of the decisions by the person (if they are serious more days and more in-depth induction).  Since we bring people into the organisation to perform and deliver the best, Induction would help that process effectively.

Idea: Induction plan can be few hours to few months as per the intensity of the requirement. Create a standard template for a day or two and make sure you execute as soon as you have a new joinee. You can discuss with your senior team members and set expectations of information sharing and experiential learning. Eg : The template can have columns like Date, Function/Department to visit, person to meet, Questions to Ask and time(from-to). Do not forget to ask the Inductee to ask for feedback report at the end of those few hours/days.

7. Probation: Probation is primarily to help the new joinees to get used to the environment and fit into cultural of the organisation. It is noticed that there are different set of probation methods in organisations. Some have a probation for junior level people. Some organisations follow for all the levels.  It is noticed that however the experienced or accomplished in other organisation does not guarantee the same performance in the new organisation.  The duration of the probation can be defined based on the general time frame that a new joinees get adjusted into the new system.  Based on the organisational need and the general time taken for adjustment can be considered as a yardstick in defining the duration.  There is a perceivable notion that Probation confirmation is linked to the increment/revision in salary.  This is totally not true and should not be linked to monetary gains, so that the sanctity of organisational fitment can be managed.

Idea: Set some basic parameters to help assess the involvement of the Individual into the organisation.  An open-ended one page report from the Supervisor would help in confirmation of services to keep it simple in consultation with the team member. Its also important to set the next set of expectations and measurable outputs agreed at this time.

8. One-time High Recruitment Needs: Many times you may have a need to recruit large pool of people at once.  This number would vary from organisational size.  Smaller companies to have 3-10 number of requirement may be high.  For large organisations the number could run in Hundreds. You can segregate the positions in different buckets of experience and expertise and define a different strategy.  Like for all fresh positions you can approach a college for database or for organizing interviews. For experienced you may want to use the position posting and a database access service for a short-term, with a job portal to make sure you reach the target.  Or alternatively your own employees can be of great help with little focus.

Idea: Call any Recruitment Agency and negotiate a different model, where they would work on retainer basis to close all the positions within a specific time period.  This is possible and doable for the Recruitment Company. If you really assure some basic fee for their efforts, they can do a good job than just on success based in such situations.

9. Performance Expectations:  Setting the performance expectations at each level is important. It not only important to set the expectations but also to share what outcome you would like to see as a performance. for example: for a sales person Revenue & Collection %age. Production: Production Output in numbers, Wastage %age to be maintained, For HR person : %age of positions to be filled in days from requisition, employee turnover to be contained at a level.

Idea : For every job/ position / individual define only two key components as output that you would be expecting and communicate in writing. Set a frequency of review to ensure that your single point of agenda is to discuss and see the progress.

10. Employee Grievance : Grievances typically are handled through a process of grievance handling procedure for large teams. However, In case of smaller organisation, Identify the problem related to Work norms  infrastructure, performance,Salary, increments etc., and appropriately respond.  All the policy related framework done by HR need to be interpreted and clarified.  Also see that if you need to resolve with the appropriate documents/ approvals.   If it is related to interpersonal relationships, work related issues you may want to involve the manager to get the right picture and help them to resolve.  This is a quick overview and specific problems can be handled based on the need/situation/background.  One thing for sure, do not jump to resolve issues… identify the core of the problem and involve the appropriate authorities to make sure that grievance is resolved to the best of organisational capabilities/boundaries. Finally, never think that you are going to satisfy all the parties 100%….

Idea: If you really work on a detailed grievance redressal policy  would be great. However, if you do not intend/can’t define, then Identify last one year issues and resolutions. Set some basic guidelines in such cases if repeated and communicate to the teams in common forums/intranet/meetings etc.,.  For any unresolved issues, set an escalation point and also what level it would be final and binding for resolution.