Performance Management Over Competency
Much money has been thrown to make training organisation very rich but has the productivity and performance standards increase through these years?
The Training and Development approach that Singapore has adopted is the Competency model, which simply means reaching the bare minimum ability to carry out the task. However, such a method will not create a Continuous Learning attitude, and also will not improve the performance and productivity in the workplace.
Thus, it is important to reTHINK and put the resources more into PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, which will help the workforce develop a continuous learning attitude plus also their performance will improve which will also increase productivity.
When we talk about Performance, we need to consider the following:
1. Structure; Initiator of Organisation Goals, Project Team
2. Planning the Organisation Goals: Key Performance Index
3. Projects Monitoring and Evaluation; PDCA cycle
4. Skills Development: Hard-skills and Core-skills
5. Validation and Rewards
Let’s look at each of these aspects!
- Structure; Initiator of Organisation Goals, Project Team
Organisation’s management needs to always focus in aligning their Vision, Mission and Core values by carrying out strategic planning to set organisation goals and the reporting structure.
Staff are also form into small team because in big team, some people always end up not doing much work. Personally, I find a team of 3 to 4 pax is more than enough.
2. Planning the Organisation Goals: Key Performance Index
Once the Strategic planning is carried out, and various organisation’s goals need to be scheduled with KPI clearly written and communicated.
3. Projects Monitoring and Evaluation; PDCA cycle
The various project teams will then be required to fulfil the KPIs and report on the project progress and meeting the deadlines.
4. Skills Development: Hard-skills and Core-skills
In Performance Management, using the Project-based approach is by far the best approach because you get the staff to carrying out the organisation’s goals and monitoring on the Output and Outcomes.
Though the process, you will also allow the staff to know about their Skills proficiency (Hard-skills and Core-skills) which will in turn trigger their motivation to pursue a lifelong learning attitude.
5. Validation and Rewards
The ability to appraise or validate skills is critical and one way is to map it against the competency framework that was developed, so that if staff shows weakness in which abilities, then they will know what are the courses they need to embark as part of their continuous learning.
Organisation also need to budget a reward system based on the staff performance.
I remember once our department helped the organisation save millions of dollars due to the machine design we have done, the HR simply said it is our job and did not even give us a bonus, which resulted in the whole group resigning. I guess the HR was also very happy because they helped the company to reduce the workforce.
About the Author:
Patrick Oh is an Enterprise Singapore approved certified management consultant and solutions designer (Products and Services design using Design Thinking).
He was previously an Industrial Automation design engineer and a consultant in sustainable community development while in China for 13 years, working closely with the Yunnan Anti-Narcotic and HIV Prevention Training Centre (PSB-Yunnan University).
He is also an ISO 31000 Risk Management professional, ISO 27001 & 27702 Lead Auditor providing PDPA consultancy in Singapore and the Asia region.
Website: www.sgventure-consulting.com
