Should Business Be Concerned About Digital Detox?

Right now there’s something of a backlash against technology in many circles.  Everyday the press is full of stories about how technology is creeping into more and more areas of our lives, trashing our social skills and turning us into a race that has to be connected even to function.  There are reports, mostly negative, that technology is so pervasive at work and it continues eating into our leisure time –  the average US adult reportedly spends more than half of his or her waking life staring at a screen.

I’ll not deny that there are issues and indeed that our cultural norms are changing, but I am not yet ready to jump onto the digital detox bandwagon. Technology is an incredibly powerful tool, which has brought enormous positive change to our world.  It has transformed the economy, helped build bridges – both literally and figuratively – and revolutionized the way we work. What concerns me now, is that this anti-tech feeling is spilling over into the workplace. If the workforce starts to distance themselves from the very methods that make their working lives so much easier and more effective, we have a problem on our hands.

Let us imagine a scenario, one that in my consulting world, I ran into recently.  An organization has been using paper-based systems as part of its annual performance review program. The method works, but it’s cumbersome, error prone and expensive. At board level, a decision is made to implement new Human Capital Management software which will empower the workforce, cut down on data entry errors and deliver HR headcount savings. So far so good, but at the same time, one influential employee announces that this vacation he’s taking a digital detox. He’s leaving behind the cell and the tablet. He’s ignoring the email inbox and the SMS and heading off to the woods to reconnect with his ‘authentic self’.

That one employee’s actions can have a big impact, especially if he returns from his annual trip determined to keep up with his new way of living. Instead of embracing a fast, effective way to feedback on his goals and achievements, he’ll resist it. He’ll resent the very technology that could take him, his colleagues and the organization he works for to higher levels of performance.

What we’ve got here is a problem with perception. The term digital detox does technology no favors. That sneaky little suggestion that anything digital is poison does damage. It is important to realize that technology alone is neither wholly good or wholly evil. Technology is a tool, and we ‘re the master of that tool. When we use it right, it doesn’t destroy our lives, it enriches it.  A smart deployment strategy for our hypothetical organization would have carried that message to every user, including to our sceptical ‘detoxer’.  

We shouldn’t ignore genuine concerns about ‘yet another’ thing that’s gone online or fears of never being able to fully ‘switch off’, but we can manage these concerns and create positives with a little work. Well-managed technology deployments realize that all users are different and that some are prejudiced or change-averse, but even for these individuals, adoption of new technologies doesn’t have to be a battle. With personalized support and communications, relevant and accessible training and feedback, every user can become engaged and effective. The fact that the solution is a digital one should disappear. The key things the user should take away is how much easier, faster and more enjoyable it was to get the task done. It’s a matter of selling the benefits, not the name of the software, not the training on how to use it and not the usage of dumb terms like 'self-service' without making the employee feel they are getting value.

Technology in business isn’t going away. It can’t. it’s too effective to be ignored and in most instances doesn’t deserve to be disparaged, but it does need to be managed and deployed with the workforce, not the power user in mind. A big part of that is managing, understanding and respecting various attitudes to our digital toolbox. And while we’re doing that, let’s not be guilty of using the term detox alongside digital. 

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4 Ways To Make Sure Your App is Adopted: Mobile Natives Are Here To Stay!

We have a workforce made up of Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives and a new term on the horizon, Mobile Natives.  By 2025, not one member of the workforce will not have grown up with a mobile device being their main form of interacting with a process.  Are you ready?

Between the iTunes App store and Google play there are 3.5 million mobile apps available to the consumer today. But only a tiny percentage of them will ever be installed and only a further smaller percentage will see regular usage. In fact according to Localytics nearly 62 percent of applications will only be used 11 times or less. What this means is that there is a glut in the app market that is struggling to retain its users. This, in turn, has lead to a slowdown in the app market with investors hesitating to bet on new apps and programmers daunted by the high barriers to app adoption both for the consumer and the enterprise.

In this economy where capturing the attention of new consumers is next to impossible and retaining them is a further herculean task your app needs to be perfect right out the gate.  Here are some things to keep in mind whether you are deploying pre-built apps or building your own.

1.  Getting attention is an uphill battle and always will be: App adoption is heavily skewed towards the top. The apps that become popular, stay popular and simply getting discovered can seem like a pipe dream. It’s a vicious cycle, the apps that get featured are the ones with the most downloads but you need to get featured to get downloads. Marketing your app in a store is also a challenge as you will only be able to use screenshots and texts to convince people to download. This is where change management and marketing by your internal process/technology team is so important.  Your reviews are also likely to skew negative, as typically a negative experience is more likely to motivate someone to write a review, so you’ll have to put in more effort to cultivate a great review. The point of this is that you will have just one shot. If your app isn’t satisfactory the consumer can and will drop you and all the effort that it takes to just get to the point where you will have the capacity to prove your app will have been wasted.  Chances of getting them to try the app again after abandonment is slim to none; so remember, LAUNCH IS CRUCIAL!

2.  Make it usable: This, of course, goes without saying, but your app can not be buggy or broken by the time it’s ready for usage.  It can also not be the desktop app only available via a mobile device.  There may be flaws that will crop up and need to be ironed out, but if basic functionality isn’t there it’ll be dead on arrival. That having been said there are factors to consider beyond this. Every mobile phone on the market today has some bugs. Be sure to test your execution process across a number of platforms to avoid download failures. Not only will they cost you adoption but it’ll hurt the reputation of your app and overall system initiative if it is found to be inoperable on certain models.

3.  Make the download process easier: The biggest difference between apps and websites from a business POV is the level of difficulty in accessing them. The download and setup process represents a major convenience barrier when it comes to apps. that websites do not have to deal with. This is why despite the fact that the app market is only 6 years old compared to the 20 of websites, it’s easier to build a business online since the consumer will browse far more sites than they’ll ever download apps. Going forward, easing this barrier may just be the industry’s most important task. Google is taking steps in this direction with the advent of Instant Apps, which will simplify the launching process to just one click of URL. Another way to offset some of this damage is to provide incentives to consumers willing to share and recommend your app with others in the workforce.

4. UI vs UX.Despite often being lumped together and both starting with a U, User interface and User Experience are two different things. UI is the look of the app, it’s primary purpose is to be visually appealing to the customer. No one wants to download an ugly app. UX, on the other hand, is all about ease of use. UI is not to be ignored, especially for a new app still looking to grab eyeballs. Good aesthetics go a long way towards attracting new users, but to retain their favor past the initial download you need a good UX as well. A good UX must provide the user with a sense of flow. Going from step to step should be easy, users should never have to search for more information . Users should not have to repeatedly input relevant information, the app should be able to predict their intent and provide useful suggestions. A great way to fine tune your UI and UX is A/B testing. In essence, you put out to versions of your app with different UI and UX and see which one is more satisfactory to the consumer. Good UX is vital not only for consumer apps but also if you intend to create business software. An enterprise application with well thought out UX can improve workforce satisfaction, reduce error rates, reduce the need for training and thus increase efficiency.

This can not be stressed enough, the app market is crowded and it is not friendly to newcomers. Your best bet is to deliver quality and to deliver it fast. Make an app that will make people want to use it, shift your metrics from adoption to addiction and drive further addiction by making them glad to keep using it.

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We implement modules; We DEPLOY experiences! 3 Ways To Success

One of the things that I see daily in working with enterprises around the world is that we still aren't doing a great job of differentiating between vendor modules that we IMPLEMENT and the experiences we DEPLOY to the workforce.  

“There is a HUGE difference between implementation of modules and deployment of experiences and something that is very important for us all to understand. ”

— Jason Averbook

As we work with our various software vendors that make up our HR/workforce technology solution, we often are looking at modules from here and module from there to solve a business demand.  While we are doing a great job (and spend too much time many times analyzing a feature here versus a feature there), the biggest mistake we can make is to not explore the difference between a module and an experience and how we can guarantee success and return on our investment.  

I love these definitions to help make my point:

MODULE - a set of standardized parts or independent units that can be used to construct a more complex structure

EXPERIENCE - a complex set of pieces and parts put together to create a seamless physical, emotional and perception.

You see, based on the above definitions; modules are a component of an experience (worker experience in this case); but do not make up the entire component.  To create the experience we need to take:

REINVENTION + Creativity + Strategy + Module + Process + Change + Culture + Workforce Listening + Personalization + Demographic + Connectedness + Data Outcomes = Experience

Where many organizations stop is simply thinking about implementing a MODULE and hoping that it sticks.  Below are a few tips I have to make sure this doesn't happen and I LOVE TALKING to organizations of all types; vendors and enterprises about this, so please don't hesitate to reach out to jasonaverbook@gmail.com or jason@jasonaverbook.com with questions.

1) A software vendors job is to create the complex module required to meet the technical requirements of a complex business process.  The software vendors job is not necessarily responsible for making sure that this module integrates into the rest of your enterprise HR/workforce technology strategy; your enterprise data strategy or making sure that your organization truly needs and knows the value of such a module.  Once again, module + the other pieces mentioned above = successful deployment.  Don't blame the software vendor and it should always be assumed that you can never just take a module, have a vendor or partner put it in, and assume it will be successful.  It is like a heart replacement where you finally get a new heart, drop it in, and don't connect it to anything. REJECTION occurs which is more than likely what you will experience.

2) An experience is what the workforce (employees, managers, applicants, retirees) are looking for.  They are not looking to jump from module to module; doing pieces and parts here and there.  It doesn't happen with consumer apps and CANNOT happen in business apps.  If it does, organ rejection will occur and your investment will start to bleed out before it begins.  You must map your overall workforce experience, WHICH WILL INCLUDE MULTIPLE VENDORS (GUARANTEED) and think about what this will look like before you begin a deployment.  If you do not, you will implement a module not deploy an experience and will more than likely be doing nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig process.

3) Organizations must realize that an experience crosses all of the artificial silos that we have created within the enterprise and the workforce could care less about our departments such as Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Payroll, HR Operations, HR Technology, COE's, etc.  This is like checking into a hotel and having to check into each of the departments such as the gift shop, the room, the spa, the housekeeping function, the concierge all separately.  Imagine that experience; time to look elsewhere.  Silos must be broken down in ALL CASES when deploying experiences and if this cant happen, you might as well stop spending the money.  Governance and overall collaboration amongst every part of the organization that touches the experience and journey is required before implementation of the module and deployment of the experience begin.  If you don't have this, do it NOW!

This is just a start but wanted to get this out there.  I see SO MANY implementations that are missing the experiential factor only realizing that they are going to have to go back and do it later.  In the world I watch, later almost always equals never and never equals time to shop for a new vendor (or in other words, the circle continues) without HR making progress.  

“We live in an era with the best technology available to us that has ever existed. Lets not waste it team!”

— Jason Averbook

Another infusion of knowledge...

Lots of building required to move from module to experience for the workforce!

7 Steps Towards a The Start of A Digital Workforce Transformation

I am constantly thinking about this concept of Digital Transformation that the world is going through on a daily basis.  Whether it be Uber, how we keep track of scoring at our kids games or how we get "serviced" through tweeting to service bots from our service providers like airlines; digital transformation of the world is fully upon us and now is the time (and has been for a bit) for all of HR to think about the future of a digitally transformed workforce.  The problem is, this is a ton of business jargon that many don't know what it means.  Here are a few thoughts based on the 7 key steps to transformation from a great article I read doing research for one of my clients on the topic (article here).

1. Be unreasonably aspirational - for HR, look at building quick wins and market the heck out of the value that is being created.  A digital transformation is not a long systems deployment (while that might be part of it), value has to be created and communicated frequently and through multiple channels.  Push the boundaries, find quick wins, break glass and show the organization you are serious about the initiative.
2. Acquire new capabilities - in this area your choices are buy, build, have or outsource.  To truly tackle digital transformation for the HR function, you will need to buy talent and outsource to some strategic consultancies.  It takes a village to think through all of the options and building the strategy and plan requires "groupthink" - get started now!
3. "Ring Fence" and cultivate talent - you have to have a group within the HR function that is thinking about transformation and transformation mostly.  If you are trying to do this at night or in your space time it simply will fail.  Innovation Labs are a great way to do this.  I am currently working with a client to put in place an innovation lab within their HR function and the success fencing this group off is highly successful.  Not everyone has the chops to think transformational; find your group and grow it, whether they come from HR or not.
4. Challenge Constantly - Ask yourself, are we really transforming and disrupting or simply placing new technology on top of old stuff.  I call this "lipstick on a pig".  This is not the vendors job, this is your job and your responsibility.  Don't leave it up to a single person, get your team of transformation and disruption experts together to constantly ask "why are we doing this?" and "is it still relevant?" and "will it be relevant in a year?".  You HAVE to do this and NOW, stop wasting time and money on things that are not driving your future.
5. Be Quick and Data Driven - With every one of my clients, I tie back to data and outcomes first.  What are we trying to measure and based on that, who do those measures matter to?The concept of quick requires quick wins as mentioned earlier but also we must train our organizations to think about not "release cycles" from vendors or "support models" from vendors but 52, 1 week sprints and what we are accomplishing from the eyes of the workforce each week.  These are massive "mind shifts" for most organizations but the thinking has to start NOW!
6. Follow the Money - We can measure money and we are getting closer to measuring the true value of people.  Your initiatives for transformation have to focus on both efficiency and effectiveness of the organization; but more and more organizations are realizing saving their way to the future is not the way to go.  The true market leaders are spending to create value which means being able to tie investments to customer outcomes, revenues, etc.  A transformation initiative that is not tied to generating effectiveness in terms of business outcomes is not a initiative, it is a task mostly designed to create efficiency for the HR function only.
7. Be Obsessed with the Customer - In this case, the workforce.  OMG, if I see one more organization design processes and think about transforming work without having the workforce part of the process, I am going to write a new book :).  The entire focus of our business process transformation, marketing management and how we communicate and collaborate with the workforce is the wild, wild west today that one single vendor will NEVER solve for you. They will help but not solve.  You MUST take the time to stop thinking about modules and think about experiences.  Stop thinking about names of departments within HR and start thinking about experiences and you must stop thinking that adding a new piece of functionality alone will change the workforce experience.  It is a massive undertaking that we as an industry have ignored for decades, partly waiting for IT and partly waiting for the tech to catch up.  Guess what, it is here!

Digital Transformation, while a buzzword, is real.  It is not a vendor selection, it is not an upgrade. It is not the cloud.  All of these help, but what it is is a true strategy as to how organizations work today and into the future.  While we spent the last decade trying to decide on a HR technology strategy, the time has come to blow that up and realize the people, processes and technology we need to be seen as successful today require the next level of thinking and disruption.  Enjoy, here we go!

Another infusion of knowledge...

Minneapolis HR Tech Expo - LEHRN

I am so excited to be MC'ing this years LEHRN Tech Expo on April 28th in Minneapolis.  I guarantee it will be worth your while to attend with more vendors, more sessions and of course, more takeaways that you an put to work immediately after the event.

Take a watch of the video below!  Cant wait to see you and work with you all.

Another infusion of knowledge...

4 Keys To Success While Transforming to World of Digital HR

Anything with the word "digital" in it these days seems to be a hot topic.  When you see the word "digital" and "transformation" together - we all snap to attention and think to ourselves "am I doing this stuff?" or "am I falling behind?"  I had the opportunity to read a great piece in HBR that you can access here and it made me think about the world of Digital HR and the transformation that we all are making on a daily basis (or should be).  What are the 4 things and how should we address them, read on...

“No transformation is more challenging than meeting the service expectations of a digitally empowered workforce”

1. Expectations - I love the quote from the article and will change it to our language of HR - "no transformation is more challenging than meeting the service expectations of a digitally empowered workforce".  This quote cannot be more true and something we discuss and try to take action in our strategies.   A key thing to understand about expectations going forward is that the experience is so much more than the user interface or technology, it is all about the proactive experience.  One of the keys to this will be leveraging data from all systems to create a "personalized" experience for the entire workforce (candidates, employees, contractors, former employees, retirees). Managing expectations of the workforce on a global basis will only continue to be harder going forward.  One of my recommendations is to make sure that within the HR Process and Technology team, there is someone focused on nothing but thinking about the expectations of the workforce and how we today and into the future will provide a proactive experience.  This will not come from one vendor, but come from a truly holistic, thought out digital HR/Workforce strategy, that will empower and keep your top talent focused on doing their jobs while giving you access to data to know more about your talent than ever before.

2. Enhancements - We have grown up in a world where the "go-live" and Phase 1 of any solution deployment is a huge milestone and after that, well, we haven't done so great. We live in a world of "perpetual beta" where we must continue to try new things, create new experiences, continue to push the boundaries of how we exceed the expectations of our changing workforce and most importantly, mirror our initiatives based on what is happening to us as consumers, not just what our software vendor tells us to do next.  We as a function have so much to offer the business in each of the different aspects of attracting, developing, managing, engaging and retaining a workforce that just like the world leaders do at creating the future, we should have a "workforce lab" in our function.  This "lab" should be tasked with nothing but listening to both the internal and external world trying new things that continue to push the boundaries of our capabilities as a function.  We must end the world of stopping at "go-live" or waiting to deploy the next module.  The world doesn't work in modules and the workforce could care less about our modules, constant enhancements are required to show the business and the workforce that we as a function are up for this challenge and we will treat our workforce as well or better than we do our customers.

3. Collaborative Innovations - One of the areas I see HR lacking in greatly is the concept of continuing to innovate in collaborative ways.  We have through our history been very "insular" when it comes to who we work with, who we share with and for the most part, have not necessarily been good at thinking through collaborative ways to partner with neighboring companies (competitors perhaps), vendors, integrators and customers to re-think how we continue to perform our business functions. These innovations could be as simple as partnering with the community to make sure we are attracting talent to our brand on a continual basis to as complex as asking vendors to partner to create a seamless, integrated experience for the workforce.  The most important point around collaborative innovations is that nothing happens simply on our own anymore.  Whether you read the latest book from Reid Hoffman, The Alliance to The Age of the Platform by Phil Simon,  we must think different about talent, work and technology moving forward and only through collaboration will competitive advantage be realized.

4. Organizational Leadership - The shift from "Mad Men" to "Math Men" as the article highlights is a key to the organizational leadership change needed as we move to a Digital HR world.  I talk about this a ton in my keynotes, the need for HR to realize that Data is Sexy and in order for Digital HR to become a reality in organizations, the data that is collected and the data that is then distributed back to the business has to get better and be tied together with actions.   We must also truly start to realize that many of our HR processes and therefore technologies that were used in the production-oriented industrial economy will not work in the more global and fast-changing digital economy.  The sooner that your organization and its leadership realize this the better and the faster your organization can "leapfrog" the competition and change these old processes and technologies, the better off you will be.  Another huge issue around the digital age is that of risk.  Just like all technological change, there is risk and probably more than ever around digitization.  We live in a world and are in a situation where HR has two choices, it can curl up and make more policies to mitigate risk for the .01% who might do something bad or focus on the 99.99% who are ready to take advantage of technology to change work forever.  I don't mean the wild, wild west but would propose that organizations really look hard at themselves in the mirror and realize in order to survive, it will have to focus on the latter. Organizational leadership might be the hardest aspect of change depending on where you are, but know that this digital change is a question of 'when' not 'if' and those that move the fastest will have huge advantage.

In every era of transformation, changes in process and technology tend to make the skills of existing resources become dated.  This another huge risk and point to take into account when moving to the wold of Digital HR.  Unless you are continually updating the skill sets of your teams and giving them the opportunity to learn new things, you will find yourself without the talent needed to continue to evolve and as in the past, spend more money in order to stay competitive.

The world of digitization is both scary and exciting.  The most important point is that it is completely in our control and there has never been a more thrilling time to be alive and in the working world.  Take advantage of it and realize that the future is now!

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Impact of the Selfie Generation on HR/Workforce Technology in 5 Steps

All of the talk about "millennials", the "selfie-generation" and whatever else you want to call it is everywhere these days.  You can't go to a business publication without seeing stats that make you go, hmmm.. So what did I do, I went hmm..  Here are a few of the stats and an interesting video that I found interesting and their sources.  Watch the video first for a chuckle:

• Although 85% of employees use video as part of their everyday lives today, only 28% say their employers are proactively encouraging them to use video at work to communicate, the research from BlueJean Technology finds

• Asked a longstanding social science survey question, ‘Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people,’ just 19 percent of millennials say most people can be trusted, compared with 31 percent of Gen Xers, 37 percent of silents and 40 percent of boomers.”

• 41% of Millennials prefer to be rewarded or recognized for their work at least monthly, if not more frequently, whereas only 30% of non-Millennials would like that level of frequency. 

• 63% say that younger employees now expect to use live video as a communications tool when they enter the workplace.

• 73% of Millennials expect to be able to modify and customize their work computer, 63% will go around IT to find the solutions they need and 69% believe that office attendance on a regular basis is unnecessary and will do whatever they can to not work for an organization that demands this.

These stats, while not surprising give us reason for sure as a HR Technology (Workforce Technology) as you know I prefer to call it, take pause and realize it is time for a 5 steps approach to prepare for this next generation of digitized HR and worker.  Those 5 steps are:

1. Your HR/Workforce Technology strategy must be designed with Millennials at the core and with their thoughts and patterns that they have grown up with infused into the strategy.  It is more important than ever not to adopt vendor software off the shelf without this strategy.
2. The governance around the selection, design and deployment of HR/Workforce Technology solutions must involve HR, IT, Lines of Business and Millennials.  We don't know how they think and can't since we didn't grow up that way.  INCLUDE THEM NOW!
3. Our core is more important than ever.  We are going to be snapping and unsnapping solutions onto our core more than a wardrobe malfunction at the US Super Bowl.  Our core HR solution and data/integration strategy must be solid and agile to meet the changes as fast as they will come.
4. Our talent processes must be flexible, engaging, addicting and drive a level of transparency, trust and frequency into the entire workforce interaction paradigm.  This is so different than stupid intranets of the past.  The category of agile talent processes and engaging portals and "mash-up" tools is the future growth and innovation area for HR and Workforce technology.
5. Last but not least, we are working with not just four/five generations of workers but these generations are more different than any of the past.  An approach around talent, rewards, recognition, acquisition, etc. cannot be a "one size fits all approach".  Branding to each of the audiences is more important than ever and designing processes that meet the workforce where they work and how they think will win the game versus having them search for tools and processes that don't fit them.

I plan to focus much more of my work going forward on how to blend this workforce of employees, contractors, multi-generations, multi-geographical and complexities of the future of work together in my work around HR/Workforce technology.  All I do know is the quote, "what got us here will not get us there" is more apropos than ever before.

Another infusion of knowledge...  

HR.. We Can Do Better!

It seems that each week we see a news story related to do with an ancient HR process called performance management.  You see, it appears that this aged practice, as we know it, is finally reaching end of its life and not too soon for anyone.  Whether the headline reads something about abolishing ratings or increasing the frequency of the review process; whether the newsbyte is related to the performance management practice not really increasing performance to an outright attack on HR for trying to do something yearly in a world that measures daily; it is clearly time for a change.  We must take a minute to realize that the process that many of us are questioning now was born during the manufacturing economy when people ran machines vs. the knowledge economy we live in today where the true value of an organization and its competitive advantage is its people.  We must realize that we are calling something performance management that was designed to justify a compensation increase and fulfill an obligation to unions versus truly understanding, developing and retaining our most important asset, our workforce.  We must realize that, just like all things, change happens as the world continues to evolve and now is our time to work together to make this change real and now.

The latest news story related to this topic is from an often publicized company in the world, Yahoo!, link here!  You see, it seems that someone at Yahoo! Is saying the “emperor has no clothes on” and that it is time for a lawsuit.  While lawsuits happen all the time and involve HR and labor relations, this particular suit is especially important as it calls into question how we in HR do most things related to a CEO’s strategic priority, talent management.  A core fundamental of most talent management processes is the “rating” and we are now realizing based on both academic and professional studies that our process of managers rating their employees once a year on their performance is flawed, produces bad data and poisons most of our talent management processes and tools that we use today.  This is one of those moments that we will look back on 10 years from now and say “remember when we did that yearly?”, “remember when we asked managers to rate employees?” and “remember when we used that data to make promotion and compensation decisions?”.  All of this said, an avalanche of change is upon us and organizations that leapfrog others and truly “rethink” their performance process leveraging the right data gathered at the right frequency from the right audience will have a tremendous advantage over their competition in the war to retain and develop talent.

 The 3 “right’s” mentioned above; the right questions asked to the right audience at the right frequency, while seem easy to understand have been at the center of the problem with our processes today.  If we add “what is the purpose of measuring and improving performance” which has nothing to do with giving a compensation increase of fulfilling a union requirement; we have a pile of explosives about ready to change the way HR and business professionals work.  Simply stated, the right questions come from asking people questions that they are qualified to answer.  If someone is asked to rate me on time management but they don’t know what good or bad time management is, how can we even begin to use their rating as valid.  The argument around getting rid of ratings is wrong; the prescription should be to make sure our ratings are valid and meaningful.  Getting to the right audience is difficult based on how work has changed, but we must make it happen.  As work has become more decentralized and virtual, so has the concept of teams.  We do most of our work in teams, not how we look on an org chart.  That being said, we must focus our efforts on building tools and processes for team leaders, not the HR function and not just line managers.  Lastly, the world along with our goals and objectives change way to fast to be measured once a year.  We must think of our work in 52 weekly sprints and understand how people are feeling, what they are working on and how we can help.  If we do this and get rid of a cyclical, once a year process; not only will our leaders be more connected with their teams (which is the ultimate goal in increasing performance), but our data that we can leverage as a HR function will be good, real-time data based on real-time work instead of something dictated by a form on a cyclical basis.   

We as working professionals know that performance appraisals and management as we know it today is broken.  There is not a company, firm or organization that you talk to that say “we really value the performance management process”, instead you hear most line leaders and the workforce saying “it is another thing from HR that we have to do, so let’s get it done.” 

This is my issue and my call to the function to do something about it NOW.   Lets as a function not let inertia stop us (this time) and use the perfect storm of a new era of leaders, an emphasis on good data, litigation such as the Yahoo! case and technology to reinvent performance management once and for all.  HR, it is our time to show we can do and be better and truly design processes for the business, not just for us.

Another infusion of knowledge…