Measurement

Monitoring HR Practices

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Organizational strategic planning has three distinct components. The first component is the establishment of the plan, which includes the high-level setting of vision, mission, and organizational objectives. The second is making the plan operational, and includes the implementation of the plan throughout all levels of the company, so that departments and business plans align in support of the planned strategy. The final element is that of monitoring all of the organizational activities, which is critical for ensuring the workforce is moving in the direction set by the plan, in order to meet the strategic objectives.

While HR plays an integral role throughout the strategic planning process, workforce monitoring (the third step) is the purview of the HR function. It is the role of HR to track and measure what the workforce is doing. HR provides the monitoring framework to ensure that not only is everyone headed in the same direction, but that the workforce activities are meeting timelines and required projections.

The concept of monitoring the workforce is not new. The means in which workforce monitoring takes place, however, has adjusted significantly with the evolution of HR technology. For example, the use of artificial intelligence platforms allows for computer keystroke monitoring. This is used as a measurement tool to track and report on employee performance levels. While the impetus for this type of monitoring stems from the need to track, measure, and report on productivity as a performance metric, it does come with a negative perspective. As noted in this article, keystroke monitoring has a distasteful aspect of spying or snooping on employees. The use of this intrusive software is made worse in these days of remote workforce management, due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Is the continued practice of workforce monitoring with spyware necessary?

A recent post in the Canadian HR Reporter provides us with a refreshing approach to meeting the current challenges that face the remote work environment. The article highlights the real opportunities that HR can put into place by eliminating unnecessary practices in order to sustain business continuity for the organization. Rather than obsessing about employee productivity levels, through the elimination of unnecessary and intrusive practices, a simplified HR approach can lead to a new way while still maintaining support for the organizational strategic plan.

Discussion Questions:

  1. To what degree do you think the employer should be able to monitor the remote workforce?
  2. Instead of keystroke monitoring software, what other mechanisms can be put into place to track and report on employee performance?
  3. How would you react if you found out your employer was using spyware to monitor your work patterns? Explain your rationale.

Does It Work in the Real World?

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In our training and development studies we spend a lot of time discussing the need for proper measurement and evaluation of employee learning or training programs. While these discussions may be theoretical in nature, it is critical to find resources and supports that provide us with practical strategies to be applied in the ‘real world’ that exists beyond the classroom.

The American-based Association for Talent Development (ATD) is one of the many resources used by learning and training professionals around the globe. Recently, ATD posted some very practical advice on how organizations can use data analytics effectively to track, monitor, and evaluate the success of employee learning, training, and development programs.

Click here to read Part 1 on how to use L&D data effectively.

Click here to read Part 2 on how to use L&D data effectively.

As noted in both articles, the methodology for determining what types of learning or training data should be collected and used for evaluation purposes is fairly simple. It follows the basic practice of asking the 5W questions (Who? What? Where? When? Why?) from the beginning of the planning process for collecting, monitoring, and evaluating data in order to ensure the effectiveness of learning and development programs. In fact, both articles suggest using the 5W framework in order to perform a data-based needs analysis.

As we have learned elsewhere in our training and development studies, the needs analysis process is one of the critical first steps that must be taken when applying the structure of the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) model. It is both comforting and encouraging to note that these theoretical tools do make the transition into the practical application of processes that evaluate learning and training programs. When used effectively, they also provide the path to organizational outcomes that drive and thrive on data-based decision making.

Keep your textbooks, the need for data-based evaluation is real.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does your current workplace keep track of employee learning and development?
  2. How would you apply the needs analysis process to training-related data collection for your current workplace?
  3. As an employee, how do you know what types of training or learning programs you are required to achieve? Who is responsible for keeping track of your professional learning plans?
  4. How can an organization’s Human Resource Management System (HRMS) be used to track and measure organizational learning and development programs? What types of employee learning and training data do you think should be collected through the HRMS?

CEO Perspectives

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How does an organization implement corporate strategy successfully? Chris Catliff, the CEO for BlueShore Financial, offers three key leadership techniques that focus on high employee engagement as a driver of corporate strategy. According to Catliff, successful strategy implementation begins with employees understanding what the strategy is and why it is important for organizational success.

Click here to read the article.

Catliff’s article focuses on the primary need for leaders to ensure that all employees are able to drive the mission and vision, because they (the employees) are empowered to do so. Of the three key tools that the author advises leaders to use, the need for tapping into legitimate authority stands out as a critical piece of this particular leadership puzzle. Legitimate authority, according to Catliff, is the application of consistent and dependable practices that allow employees to know where a leader stands from a values point-of-view, without needing to be told.

The article goes on to describe the need to support creative talent, flexibility, and the implementation of new ideas when the need for change is evident. What is notably absent, however, is the role that Human Resources could and should be playing in the delivery, support, and implementation of a leadership vision through effective employee engagement.

This is where the use of Human Resources research and analysis becomes critical. Catliff notes that only 29% of employees can accurately identify their organization’s strategy. In order to increase this percentage, the Human Resources function should be actively engaged. The Human Resources focus should begin with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the leader’s key drivers and messages.

As leadership’s ambassador to employees, Human Resources is the purveyor of legitimate organizational authority. In this capacity, Human Resources must uncover and address information gaps by delivering consistent and dependable findings that evaluate real levels of employee engagement in order to drive organizational success.

Discussion Questions:

 

  1. If you were the Chief Human Resources Officer for BlueShore Financial, what types of metrics would you put into place that would measure employee engagement that aligns with its corporate strategy?
  2. How can the Human Resources function assess the impact of legitimate power within an organization?
  3. How can the Human Resources role identify the gaps between what an organization’s leader wants and what the workforce is actually doing?

SodaStream Helps Candidates Fit In

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The basics for most recruitment campaigns begin with the premise that an organization is looking for the right person to fit the right job.

To achieve the right result, the Human Resources practitioner must design and implement a series of recruitment tools that value and measure the “fit” relationship between what a job-seeking candidate offers and what the job itself provides. There is a heavy emphasis on how these types of tools are developed so that, when implemented, they can validate the closeness of that fit to produce a reliable result. The bigger the gap between what is measured as required for the candidate and the job, the less likely it is that the outcome is a reliable, or good, fit for the organization.

This candidate-to-job fit approach seems to work best within a traditional recruitment planning process. There is an increasing trend, however, to move away from this narrow approach and use a broader strategy that seeks to recruit candidates based on the fit between potential candidate and company ethics and/or social values.

This approach is identified in a recent online recruitment campaign implemented by SodaStream International Ltd., an innovator in home-based water carbonation.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZoPBThVwk8[/embedyt]

The messages that are provided through this online recruitment campaign are clearly linked to SodaStream’s corporate and ethical values. It is an innovative and broad-reaching approach given the international growth for this particular company.

How do these values translate into tools that can be used to assess the necessary fit relationship between people and jobs? At the end of any recruitment process, no matter how creative it may be, a hiring decision needs to be made that serves the best interests of the organization. This decision may not necessarily be the one that serves the best interests of the candidate. In this case, traditional tools that measure and provide reliable results may still need to be in place in order to support the organizational decision that is made when the recruitment outcome does not support a good fit between the two.

Discussion Questions:

  1. As the Human Resources advisor for SodaStream’s recruitment campaign, design a recruitment measurement tool that is valid and reliable, based on the values identified by the CEO.
  2. What are potential challenges that SodaStream might face when deciding to exclude candidates from moving forward in the recruitment process?
  3. What types of branding/corporate messages does the SodaStream recruitment video promote?
  4. In your opinion, who is the target audience for the SodaStream recruitment campaign and is it effective? Explain your rationale.

The Painful, Yet Important, Job Analysis

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Why is Job Analysis so important and yet, so very very painful? Ask any HR Practitioner if they would rather; a) do a complete job analysis for every single position in their organization or b) have dental surgery performed without any anesthesia or freezing agent? Absolutely guaranteed that the answer will always be the latter. Job Analysis may not be fun, but it is a crucial step to ensure organizational success.

Source: Tumblr. The above content constitutes a link to the source website.

Job Analysis is a fundamental tool that every HR practitioner must understand and/or use at some point throughout their career. It provides a cornerstone to ensure that job specifications are built from a neutral perspective, job descriptions can be created, effective recruitment processes can be built and put into place, and good decisions can be made based on good processes established from the beginning.

Click here to view the article.

Good job analysis resources are available through an number of live websites including, the one provided above. There are not a lot of varying opinions about the need for job analysis.   This is one area of HRM where the ‘just do it’ approach comes into play. What may be an on-going concern for the HR Practitioner, however, is access to useful tools, methods and processes when taking on the task of Job Analysis.

Discussion Questions:

Given how critical job analysis is, especially when related to formulating a recruitment strategy, why are there limited professional perspectives on effective job analysis?

  • How do we, as HR professionals, ensure that we fully comprehend the importance of this approach?
  • How do we explain and use job analysis effectively when we engage with hiring managers as partners throughout the recruitment process?