Hello Future: Getting performance management right for success
Workforce Singapore
Workforce Singapore (WSG) promotes the development, competitiveness, inclusiveness, and employability of the workforce.
It seemed a simple ask: to better support its growth plans. A Chinese manufacturing company wanted to triple its team from 15 to 45 at its regional headquarters in Singapore. However, with a larger team, it needed a better way to track employee performance.???
The company, which provides critical components for IoT intelligence, had invested in performance management (PM) software and wanted its human resources executive to learn the basics of using it.?
But for the CET Global consultants brought on to make this happen, there was a design flaw in the approach – simply having the software and tracking goals was not enough. To extract the most value from the system, the executive using it needed to be able to choose and track the right goals, understand how they were linked to the business, and be able to extract and act on the right insights.??
Not unlike how continuous monitoring in a manufacturing facility ensures quality and safety, and minimises downtime, PM systems keep a close eye on another key company asset: people. The company first needed to take a step back, says Johnson Wong, Associate Director of Consulting Services, who oversaw the project.??
“They needed to relook how they evaluated performance and align performance goals to business objectives. Then they could figure out who was in the best position to drive the PM system,” he says.??
CET Global suggested redesigning an HR executive role entirely, allowing simple automation to take over manual tasks like payroll processing and monthly reporting, and training the executive to maximise the value extracted from the PM system.????
The software would allow goals to be set at company, team and individual levels, then progress tracked, reviewed and rewarded, so evaluations would not simply be a “template filling exercise”, says Johnson. Instead, continuous evaluations would help identify where training or intervention was needed, and allow for more focused hiring. This better complemented the role of the current HR manager, who worked with the China headquarters and the CEO on workforce planning.?
It also made the HR offering more complete, and allowed the HR team to function better as a business partner to management, rather than as a back-end, transactional role, adds Thomas Yeo, CET Global’s Managing Director.?
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The CET Global team scoped the role and made recommendations for what could be learned both on the job and through external courses. Recommendations were also made for wage benchmarking. The company went on to hire an HR executive with the right skillset.?
CET Global estimates that the value of the role had improved by 68% by the end of the exercise – the HR executive was given fewer tasks, but focused her efforts on those that made a significant contribution to the organisation.???
And that, Thomas says, is one of the most critical outcomes of current approaches to job redesign, especially in growing SMEs. “That’s what it really is about – redesigning jobs in ways that add value,” he explains.?
“Ultimately, better HR business partnering allows companies to better leverage human capital to achieve business outcomes. It’s no different from investing in financial instruments – you want a portfolio that yields the highest returns. Strong HR departments can build the right talent portfolio.”?
CET Global is among the consultants pre-approved by Workforce Singapore (WSG) to help companies redesign jobs and tackle manpower and productivity issues. Up to 70% of the cost can be funded through the Support for Job Redesign under Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG-JR). For more information about PSG-JR, click on the link below.
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