Building a high performance organisation or modifying an organisation to enhance its operation is a complex and challenging task that takes time, energy and requires the commitment of its human capital from the shop floor to top management. The discipline of Human Performance Technology (HPT) to improve organisational processes is used to corroborate a company's leadership and corporate culture. This combination forms a powerful Human Performance Improvement (HPI) framework that accomplishes effective performance outcomes for an organisation. HPI specialists work with staff to discover the root performance cause and identify solutions that will best close the gap in performance. The framework encourages the partnership of departments finding the best way to improve lacklustre results.
HPT can be defined as interventions that are drawn from many other disciplines including behavioural psychology, instructional systems design, organisational development and human resources management. The discipline stresses a rigorous analysis of present and desired levels of performance, identifies the causes for the performance gap, offers a wide range of solutions to improve performance, guides the change management processes and evaluates the results.
In a nutshell, both HPT & HPI's focus are on performance. Although the HPI framework is not new and dates back to the1950s, the emphasis on two components, which are the performance consultant's partnership with senior management and the linkage of performance to business needs and organisational goals, makes HPT & HPI the new cool tools.
Management partnership
Given the impact and pace of globalisation, the speed of change and the proximity of the marketplace and its customers, the performance consultant and line management must establish effective partnerships. Successful collaboration is vital to produce improvements in workforce performance, the bottom-line and organisational culture.
Linking performance to business needs
Stephen Covey wrote in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that one should "begin with the end in mind". The HPI process does exactly that by first identifying the organisation's goals and business needs then later analysing the organisation's systems through reverse engineering before diagnosing performance gaps, defining the performance improvement requirements and finally prescribing interventions to close these gaps. HPI strategically links performance improvement needs to the organisation's goals and therefore makes HPT a strategically proactive diagnostic tool for organisational performance improvement.
For the HR practitioner
Organisational performance is the product of individual performance. Hence, by linking employee performance to business needs, the organisation looks at the accomplished performing individual worker; the best high achieving performer. What does the star achiever do to add, better or differentiate performance that distinguishes her or him from the rest of the other employees? This notion focuses on the individual and the people that make up the organisation. As Bill Gates, founder and CEO of Microsoft, once remarked of the company's competitive advantage, "... take our twenty best people away and I tell you that Microsoft would become an unimportant company."
Human capital performance will be more important than technology or productivity in the future hence, manpower planners, senior management and human resource practitioners must take cognisance of human talent and workforce performance when planning long-term strategies and see acquiring and retaining people as the key business strategy.
Establishing partnerships between the human performance consultant and senior management entails continuous interactions and relationship building. HPT emphasises on gaining initial support and advocates process consultation in order to develop a trusting and effective partnership that leads to a supportive work environment.
Front End Analysis (FEA)
FEA aims to align the business, performance and work environment needs of the organisation at the Organisational, Process and Job & Individual levels and is usually done at the start of a HPI and HPT diagnosis. FEA starts with the foundation of the strategies, goals, structures and measures at the Organisational level, moving up to the process goals, structural frameworks and the building blocks of the Process level, and finally examining the foundation at the Job & Individual levels.
The overall performance outcome of an organisation is the function of its goals, structure and management actions at all three levels.
The road map for application
The journey starts with a pre-requisite Organisational level overview, highlighting unique issues and considering the design needs of the firm. But to align the road map with organisational goals, an overall understanding of the entire current system and managing expectations are necessary. The target market, industry trends and customer expectations will be examined alongside with the company's products and services, the competition, the resources needed and its limitations. All external environmental factors such as political and economic situation, legislation and public sentiments and how change could potentially impact the organisation will also be studied. These inputs set the directions for the business needs and allow design work to commence.
At the Process level, the necessary organisation processes are identified. For example, to add an entirely new department or design a new job, the HR department must be committed to supporting the performance goals of other business units and the overall goals of the entire organisation. When HR aligns itself to the needs of the organisation, it will effectively manage the process and goal requirements and the design of more efficient work processes. Interventions may include process re-design, job re-structure, updated training systems, better IT and human resource information systems, modernised performance management, career development, feedback or grievance management and compensation & benefits systems.
Finally, we look at the jobs that are necessary to perform the important processes in the newly designed department. Departments achieve its goals or business objectives through its work processes. We examine activities at the Job & Individual levels by looking at performance goals, reward systems, skills and knowledge, tools, resources, ergonomic environment, monitoring, work measurement and feedback systems. Ultimately, it is the people who operate the processes and perform the jobs that achieve performance outcomes.
The decision for the scope of work in HPI is critical and will dictate the specific procedures that need to be developed in each detailed step and analysis of the entire consulting process. This will affect the project outcome and deliverables in the organisation.
Ivan Spencer Wong, associate human performance consultant
d'Oz International
ivanswong@d-oz.com
BOX:
An FEA of Stallion Auto Repairs and Servicing Company
Besides high performance cars, Stallion Auto also repaired and maintained general vehicles at its newly purchased 5,000 square foot workshop in an industrial flatted factory complex. Stallion Auto's business had dropped since it shifted. The location of the new motor workshop was selected in haste as the owner had to vacate its previous workshop after the area was designated for re-development. The repair shop moved from a prime central locality within a neighbourhood market to a new isolated industrial park location and lost its regular clientele due to the shift.
The top management of the company only consist of the husband and wife, and staff strength was all of five mechanics. The mechanics varied in levels of competence and experience, and management administered marketing, workshop operations, purchasing, pricing and planning of servicing and repair schedules, plus, the finance, accounts and human resources function. The husband and wife team was over-burdened with the micro-managing of daily operations and had little spare time to develop the company or consider long-term marketing plans. Occasionally, the husband also filled in whenever any mechanic did not report for work or was late and hence, the top management became a Jack-of-all-trades.
The analysis revealed that the company lacked formal operational systems and processes, procedures and policies let alone the documented manuals, policies and procedures. It was a typical feature of a small outfit. Everything was run in a laissez faire fashion and "done as it was always done that way before."
Consequently, business was poor, profits were dismal and morale dipped to an all-time low. A mechanic was moonlighting on the sidelines, siphoning walk-in customers and charging preferential rates for repairs or servicing without the owners' knowledge. Owing to the lack of customers, two mechanics were attending to each car with the fifth floating between cars and running petty errands.
FEA revealed the nature of the challenges the company was encountering whilst HPI dwelt further and uncovered the root cause in gaps between actual and desired performance. Based on the conclusions of the assessments in the FEA phase, a list of potential interventions was drawn up. These included installing work processes and operational systems, introducing job aids, training those directly involved in the changes, redesigning jobs, implementing compensation and rewards schemes and restructuring the organisation.
After 16 months, a new clientele was created and is gradually building up. Former customers from the previous location have slowly returned and the staff appeared more enthusiastic especially with the new incentive and performance-based reward structure. Workflow and accountability for job completion is more precise and performance standards became less ambiguous.
