Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

The Brave New World of Agile Performance

Agile performance management has been adopted by large corporations such as Microsoft, Accenture, and Cargill for over a year.  Despite these large companies adopting, an agile approach and seeing positive results, SilkRoad’s The State of Talent Management Report has found that 84% of businesses are not agile and only 15% are moving towards an agile performance system this year. According to our report changes in performance management rarely happen since performance management is only an issue once a year. However, moving toward an agile performance system is not only easy; it can remove many issues in the workplace.

How to build a DIY Agile performance management system

Step one: Set goals and check in with managers

The hardest part of implementing an agile performance system is that you need manager buy-in.  Work with your test team to discuss how frequently agile goals and updates will be given, and set goals on what productivity increases your manager would like to see.  You can have your manager give you microfeedback on if the agile performance system is working and if goals are being met.

Step two: Start Small

Changing your performance management system is not an overnight task.  Which is why improving it is often pushed to backburner.  When implementing an agile system start small pick one team and work with one manager in the beginning so it’s easy to monitor and make changes along the way. At first educate the manager and the team aboutagile goal setting and microfeedback.  At first it’s okay for your manager and team to use inter-office communication such as email, skype for business, or an instant messaging service.

For the rest of this post, check out the SilkRoad blog.

Are Your Millennial Leaders Primed for Success?

In 2014, I worked with Deloitte on a survey that assessed the state of millennial leadership across the globe. We quickly learned that millennials were not the kids anymore. Instead, fully half of our respondents consider themselves leaders, with decision-making authority and direct reports. And they want to do things a bit differently than their predecessors.

When we asked millennial professionals about the most important actions required of future leaders, they cited the ability to develop skills in others, the ability to inspire, encourage, and motivate others, and the ability to foster an inclusive work environment.

Millennials diverged from prior generations in their significant emphasis on inclusion.  For millennials, workplace diversity is mandatory and they expect team members to be treated with the same level of respect and dignity regardless of their gender, ethnicity, and experience level.

Defining the Ideal Leader

Perhaps due to the impact of globalization, we found surprising cross-cultural similarities in how millennials portrayed the future business world and described their perfect leader.  There were, however, subtle differences.  For instance, millennials in more mature markets such as Germany and the United Kingdom admire leaders who solicit and take action on their feedback while explaining business contexts and communicating a vision.

Less developed markets like Brazil and Mexico like leaders who encourage risks and provide constructive feedback and resources.  Across all geographies, millennials expect 21^st century leaders to be more transparent – departing from the baby boomer model of leader as distant and autocratic.

Many working millennials came of age at a time when senior executives were under increased scrutiny due to ethical violations, which may explain their desire for future leaders to be truthful and trustworthy. These traits were consistently listed as the most critical leadership characteristics among millennials in most geographies.

For the rest of the post, check out the SilkRoad blog.

Filling the Gaps Between Recruitment and Hiring Folks

At this year's SilkRoad Connections conference, IDC VP of HR and Talent Research Lisa Rowan discussed the differing expectations that recruiting and hiring managers have regarding HR-related issues. These disconnects matter because the all-important employee experience begins with the first candidate contact, and employees are at the heart of the customer experience.

In a 2015 study of 500 executives, IDC examined gaps in the following 10 areas:

• Gap #1: Corporate Culture: Culture is viewed as a shared responsibility with an emphasis on HR. Line of business managers want more HR involvement. The main issue for HR? How do you translate culture?

• Gap #2: Employer Branding: Managers want HR to do more here as well. If the brand is good, respondents feel that it sells itself. But if it’s unclear, how can we figure out the right message for candidates, and whose job is that?

• Gap #3: Leadership Development: HR professionals think the responsibility resides with them, while line of business managers think it’s a joint effort and would actually like more direct involvement.

• Gap #4: Translating Corporate Goals: HR professionals feel they should lead the charge here and line of business managers think it’s a joint effort. Both groups would like more involvement and collaboration.

• Gap #5: Recruiting Strategy: Both groups are split on whether this was mostly an HR or shared responsibility, but both also feel that HR should do more. HR would like a bigger role in the overall workforce strategy, which directly impacts the recruiting plan.

• Gap #6: Candidate Pipeline: HR professionals see themselves as mostly responsible, while line of business managers feel this is a shared activity. Both groups want more control over the candidate pipeline.

• Gap #7: Writing Job Descriptions: Sixty percent of HR professionals say this is a joint activity and 60 percent of line of business managers admit that they should step up and do more.

• Gap #8: Job Posting and Social Outreach: Line of business managers are vocal in wanting a bigger role. The survey was clear that they aren’t being asked by HR to tap their networks for promising candidates.

• Gap #9: Screening of Candidates: HR is frustrated by line of business turnaround times. These professionals acknowledge ownership but nearly all (98 percent) want managers to step up!

For Lisa's key takeaways, visit the SilkRoad blog.

Are You Taking Advantage of Microfeedback?

A few months ago, I attended an employee engagement workshop. The facilitator suggested that millennials require performance feedback more than once a year. “Maybe once a quarter,” she said.

More like once a day!” I couldn’t resist calling out.

I wasn’t kidding. For the 80 million millennials who now make up a majority of the workforce, no news is bad news. If they don’t hear from their managers frequently, they think they’re doing something wrong and quickly grow disillusioned.

Nevertheless, an open door policy in which employees are invited to stop by a manager’s office for extended feedback sessions multiple times a day simply isn’t practical. So what’s the solution?

The innovative concept of microfeedback originated in the consumer space and consisted of collecting a small amount of information from customers at key moments in their shopping experience. The goal was to gather relevant customer feedback for a more accurate assessment of their satisfaction.

Think about this, though. Why can’t the idea of microfeedback be extended to performance management? We certainly have the technology. Intra-company messaging systems like Yammer, Skype for business, and Slack are growing exponentially and with some groups (like millennials), are even  more popular than email.

Imagine that your direct report gives a status update in the departmental meeting for the first time. You think she did an exceptional job, but instead of noting it in her file to be reviewed in six months (or worse, forgetting about it completely), you send her a “thumbs up” emoticon via Slack. The action takes you less than 30 seconds, and yet your employee has a piece of encouraging feedback that will make her day.

Check out the full article at the SilkRoad blog.

A New Way to Envision Onboarding

The world of work is changing, and talent acquisition is no exception. At this year's SilkRoad Connections conference,IDC Research Director Kyle Lagunas discussed the impact that social and mobile technologies have had on the candidate experience.

Increasingly, candidates are our customers, hiring processes are collaborative, and talent acquisition and marketing are attracting top talent and managing company reputations via a powerful employer brand. We are part of one global economy, using one global talent pool, and leveraging a myriad of data sources to make decisions.

However, recruiting has traditionally been a cost center and measures of success have been focused on efficiency. Those organizations that have embraced more modern recruiting practices are grappling with old metrics. Today’s most effective hiring organizations are leveraging talent analytics to optimize recruiting efforts for a competitive advantage.

Moving Beyond the Administrative

Onboarding is so much more than an administrative checklist. It’s a critical juncture in HCM between the talent acquisition and talent management processes. According to a recent IDC survey, 77 percent of organizations say that onboarding is at least “very important,” yet statistics on the level of sophistication of current efforts don’t bear this out.

After the recruitment and offer phases, most organizations go into radio silence mode until a candidate’s first day. Lagunas said that 63 percent of new hires completed forms online prior to their first day, but only 37 percent received calls from their hiring managers and 25 percent received a detailed schedule for their first week. Only 15 percent of employers asked for candidate feedback prior to start date and 17 percent provided multiple communication channels (access to a new hire portal, etc.). In order to elevate onboarding, Lagunas suggested solidifying answers to the following questions:

• When will onboarding start? Don’t leave everything for Day 1. Pre-onboarding is now a best practice.
• How long will onboarding last? It often extends beyond the first day and even beyond the first month.
• What kind of impression will we make? How do we want employees to feel? Challenged, appreciated, amped up? Pre-hire and the first day or two are the ideal times to shape these emotions.
• How will we support socialization? We need to connect new hires to an organization’s mission and values, and foster meaningful connections with co-workers.
• What role does everyone play? In addition to HR, what should hiring managers, business unit leaders, and executives be doing to facilitate assimilation?

For the rest of Kyle's insights, head over to the SilkRoad blog.

Is the Future of School on a Chromebook?

When I was growing up, it was all about “Apples in the classroom.” Then, while I was in college, every student had to have access to a PC and connected printer so our term papers would be legible. If you’re a school-aged child today, though, chances are you’ll interface with Google hardware before you ever hear the words “Apple” and “Microsoft.”

My husband grew up in Norwalk, CT, and according to Dian Schaffhauser at The Journal , this school system currently provides a huge number of Google Chromebooks to its students. Ralph Valenzisi, chief of technology, innovation, and partnerships in Norwalk, told Schaffhauser that he needed the devices so students could take the Smarter Balanced online tests.

“We also wanted to move to a cloud-based computing platform that would deliver applications and provide a 21^st century learning environment allowing creative thinking, collaboration, and communication among students, while giving them access to whatever they need,” he said. “Since most teachers were already using Google in their pockets, the Chromebook was the easiest tool to move forward with.”

A 2015 Futuresource Consulting study found that Google Chromebook sales now account for more than half of all devices sold for U.S. classrooms (not including the still-ubiquitous desktop computers), up from less than one percent in 2012. The Chromebook device has a built-in keyboard and cloud-based storage.

Why the sudden takeover? “Chromebooks have the perfect value proposition for education: They're easy to manage, secure, can easily switch between users, and are cost-effective,” Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder told CNBC’s Harriet Taylor. “Plus, a great deal of educational content and software has been optimized for Web-based delivery.” Case in point: Google Apps for Education is an easy solution for word processing, presentation building, and spreadsheet development.

Chromebooks are also very lightweight and hard to break.  Compared with similar devices, they are also relatively inexpensive, and their software allows teachers to offer learning plans that are tailored to a diverse range of student abilities and requirements. The only issue with the Chromebook (and it’s a fairly big one), is that functionality is limited and students often get stuck because the device can’t perform as, for instance, an iPad would.

Printing is one major area that has proved cumbersome for Chromebook users. Up to this point, if a child wanted to print out a document, they had to send it to a parent or teacher first. But fortunately, my partner Xerox has a new solution that may just save the Chromebook’s efficiency. The Google Chrome store now offers the Xerox Mobile Print app, which, when it comes to printing, immediately turns the Chromebook into a standard mobile device that students already know how to operate.

The app lets students send their Chromebook docs to any printer, even the old, laser jet ones that might be sitting in the office. School districts purchase access to the Mobile Print cloud server, and with basically the flip of a switch, tens of thousands of students have access to the app. The districts, in turn, can set policies for security, accounting, and tracking so they can restrict access where necessary.

In a digital world, why is it so important for students to be able to print easily? Obviously, assignments, lesson plans, and tests sometimes require it. But there is also a psychological component, which a MediaPlanet article describes well. “Imagine a student spending hours on that well-crafted report or project — and the pride experienced when seeing the fruits of their labor in printed form or when receiving the proverbial gold-star of approval from their teacher. Equally, many parents still want to proudly display their child’s handy-work on their fridge or at the office. None of that is possible without paper.”

In short, the future of education appears to be on a Chromebook that’s connected to mobile apps like the one offered by Xerox.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this trend develops!

Essential Leadership for the Future of Work

At this year's SilkRoad Connections conference, keynote speaker Cheryl Cran challenged our attendees to upgrade their leadership operating systems to meet future work requirements. How can we change how we think, do, and share?

Twenty-First Century Changes and Challenges

The future of work will be about saying goodbye to blaming, bureaucracy, and bad leadership. Gen X, Gen Y, and Zoomers (baby boomers who refuse to age and retire) will work together to create an environment of shared leadership, freedom of expression, creativity, inspiration, and fun. And work will look very different. By 2020, 90 percent of employees will stay on the job three years or less, 50 percent will work remotely, and a majority will be independent contractors. Given these changes, the person who can embrace flexibility will have the most power.

Cran asked attendees about their top challenges related to HR and the future of work. Not surprisingly, they cited recruitment, retention, and skill development. We are fighting for talent globally and many twenty-first century skills such as creativity and agile leadership are sorely lacking. These skills are not natural and we have to teach them.

HR’s top three opportunities, according to Cran’s survey, are partnering, having a strategic advantage in the organization, and leading change. The biggest challenges, on the other hand, are transitioning to a fully digital andsocial mindset and mobile friendliness. In recent years, HR has made progress using dashboard analytics to get a real-time view of people and processes, and leveraging robotics to automate basic tasks, but there is still work to be done.

Cran pointed out the differences between the work environment of the past and that of the future. In the 1990s, for example, business was autocratic, centralized, task-focused, and based on the single perspective of the leader. But today and in the years to come, work will be shared, values-based, virtual, creative and revolutionary, and based on multiple perspectives.

Is The Performance Deck Stacked Against Women?

I recently conducted some research on gender differences in the workplace and learned that the same behaviors that were praised in men were often criticized in women. In particular, women who were more assertive, or confident in expressing their views, were often perceived negatively. Assertive men, on the other hand, were viewed as strong and competent.

A colleague pointed me in the direction of this Fortune piece by Kieran Snyder, who had a linguist do some number-crunching to determine if gender plays a role in the type of feedback an employee receives at review time.

Snyder asked men and women in the technology field if they would be willing to share their performance reviews for a study. Assuming that only strong performers would be willing to share, Snyder was most interested in looking at the critical feedback that these strong performers had received and whether the review tone or content differed based on employee gender.

Snyder collected 248 reviews from 180 people, 105 men and 75 women at 28 large, mid-size, and small companies.  About 71 percent of the reviews contained critical feedback. However, critical feedback was not distributed evenly by gender.

When breaking the reviews down by gender of the person evaluated, 59 percent of the reviews received by men contained critical feedback, but 88 percent of the reviews received by women did. The men were given constructive suggestions. The women were also given constructive suggestions – and told to pipe down.

The critical feedback men received was heavily geared towards suggestions for additional skills to develop. A few examples:

“Constructive feedback on your performance as a feature crew tester can be summed up by saying that you still have some skills to continue to develop.”

“Hone your strategies for guiding your team and developing their skills. It is important to set proper guidance around priorities and to help as needed in designs and product decisions.”

Women receive this kind of constructive feedback too. But, according to Snyder, the women’s reviews included a sharper element that was absent from the men’s:

“You can come across as abrasive sometimes. I know you don’t mean to, but you need to pay attention to your tone.”

“Your peers feel that you don’t leave them enough room. Sometimes you need to step back to let others shine.”

For the rest of the piece, check out the SilkRoad blog.