Our Client is a service organization with a reach over 80 countries across the globe with their offices and agencies set at strategic locations. The entrepreneurial flair of top team has reflected in the commendable growth the organization has achieved within a comparatively short span of time since its inception.

Business Challenge:

However as the business scaled up the management started slowly losing its grip over the performance of its employees deployed across various locations. Over the years the Top Management Team had become quite apt at “hands on” management and close interactions with employees. However they started finding it difficult to communicate performance expectations and evaluate employee performance as the workforce expanded in terms of number and geographical scope of deployment.

As the organization operated from different international locations it was important for employees to work efficiently with a high sense of accountability by mastering the various statutory norms/guidelines prevalent in these countries and avoiding losses owing to fines, statutory irregularities or other financial implications that may create dent on profitability of the business operations in a particular region.

Being an IT enabled service organization it was imperative that employees working close to customer be more empowered and accountable for performance. At the same time it was also critical that the role specific performance and service quality parameters (Observable Behaviors) are communicated and evaluated through a systematic and formalized process.

Process Methodology:

1. Defined and communicated the purpose and importance of this strategic initiative across organization to create positive energy and enthusiastic buy in from workfoce.
2. Conducted Focused group meetings and interviews with MD, Management Team and Other key officials to gather data related to
   • Brief organizational History, cultural nuances, growth vision and strategies, business value chain and role of various functions in delivering services to customers.
   • Key business challenges/concerns and specific performance management issues
   • Key long term expectations from each of the functions in terms of revenue growth, cost control, improving service quality, asset utilization, resource optimization and behavioural/ leadership behaviors to bring sustained results.
3. Conducted detailed interviews with key officials in HR Team to understand status of existing HR processes, challenges, concerns and their expectations on the operational aspects of performance management.
4. Conducted structured interviews of existing job holders and their supervisors to obtain the data on job descriptions, role specific behavioral and accountability expectations.
5. Integrating the above data defined SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound) goals, KRA/KPIs and key roles specific behavioral and leadership skills.
6. Designed performance appraisal system model that integrated the following aspects to derive seggregation of employee performance in different performance groups.
   • Measurable and Quantifiable Performance
   • Leadership and Behavioural Competency Feedback
   • Past Performance Track Record
   • Growth Aspirations and Self Development Drive
7. Recommended customized strategies, career and compensation management for each of the perormance groups. Guided managers to create time bound development plans for their teams along with specific compensation and career moves suggestions from a business centric perspective.
8. Created process documents and conducted detailed process training for business leaders and managers to empower them with the knowledge and expertise on -
   • Purpose and Business Rationale of the Model
   • Performance Management and Appraisal Process Guidelines
   • Method of performance assessment, business rationale behind scoring/ weightages,
   • Categorization of employees in to different Quadrants based on their performance
   • Performance Review mechanism with linkages to compensation and rewards decisions
   • Guidelines/ideas for identifying causes of lower performance and rectifying such aspects

Results:

• Improved performance accountability and result focused behaviours across the team.
• Enhanced revenue, profitability, cost efficiency and productivity due to high performing workforce.
• Availability of auto pilot system to enable self-assessment of performance across levels.
• A fair and explainable basis for employee career development and compensation decisions.
• Identification of pool of internal leaders for future growth based on an objective and fair process.