Evaluation: Beware of ready-made indicators
27 May 2009
Read by 2033 persons
• Employee performance is too often neglected
• To boost teams, set clear, known, accessible and appropriable objectives
The end of the year often coincides with performance reviews. Synonymous with gratification for some, with readjustment for others. All employees must find their place, flourish. For their own good and that of the company. 'Evaluating the employee means better understanding their skills in order to offer them more suitable training or a position,' explains Marc Mazzolini, director of Ogip, an industrial organization consulting firm. The key: less stress and pressure. 'Often, the pressure felt by the individual is due to their incompetence for the task assigned to them,' he continues.
Company performance also depends on employee well-being. An obvious fact that not all companies seem to be aware of. Some don't even conduct performance reviews. In this process, the financial aspect remains king. However, on its own, it does not allow to maintain course.
'Performance is not just about numbers. More and more Moroccan companies are becoming aware of this, but they often struggle to find the right indicators,' recalls Laurent Weil, operations director of BPI Maroc. 'Good performance indicators must be specific to each company, to each function. As are the evaluations,' he emphasizes. Ideally. Reality is often the opposite. Global measures for sectoral objectives, overly general evaluation criteria, lack of communication. The social dashboard then loses its main function: optimizing decision-making.
All variables must be adapted to the company's strategic vision. Otherwise, instead of aiming for excellence, the company will remain average. 'For example, an industry may decide to weigh its efficiency rate by a quality rate. Another whose policy is based on innovation will reward the sale of new products more,' emphasizes Laurent Weil, of BPI Maroc. There are no ready-made indicators. Especially not for non-industrial activities. Measuring the performance of workers and maintenance agents is easy: their productivity is quantifiable in terms of volume produced. For salespeople, the number of new clients is a classic indicator. For executives, engineers, administrators, managers, the contribution to turnover is more complicated to evaluate. Their behavior is paramount. Rigor, dynamism, initiative, qualities that deserve good marks.
Individual, but also collective performance
To evaluate its employees, the Valyans firm uses a skills chart. A mix of common and specific criteria. 'We don't expect exactly the same thing from a manager as from a consultant or a senior consultant,' says Lamia Bennis, human resources director. Responsiveness, involvement, stress management are the lowest common denominator.
To be effective, the employee must have benchmarks to situate themselves. Hence the importance of setting clear objectives, both collective and individual, short, medium and long term. Then regularly measure everyone's progress using relevant indicators. 'If they cannot participate in the development of the indicators, employees must be able to easily appropriate them,' says Abdelwahed Erroussafi, managing director of Axia Consulting. Before adding: 'Indicators must be quantifiable.' And the employee who has achieved the objectives valued. Not necessarily by a material reward, he tempers: 'Seeing the quality of their work recognized can be enough'.
'Individual performance is played out within collective performance. The employee who has benchmarks, who knows what they are worth and where they are going, will give their best,' he insists. 'Sustainable performance must take the form of a fun challenge, it must create virtuous pressure on employees, make them want to invest themselves, to surpass themselves. That is why objectives must be accessible.' Inappropriate to the reality of the company, they will lead to unhealthy pressure. Stress, aggressiveness, depression, resignation.
Often taken into account in social dashboards, resignations sound like failures for companies. A hard drive is gone. Two last year, a warning sign at Valyans. Mentoring is reactivated. 'It allows new recruits to integrate more quickly and to better target the expectations and needs of each person,' explains Lamia Bennis. Like employee performance, the system will be evaluated in June. And perhaps supplemented by a 360° evaluation. A way to responsabilize the entire pyramid.
Published on December 25, 2007
Posted online on May 27, 2009
ojraweb.com
• To boost teams, set clear, known, accessible and appropriable objectives
The end of the year often coincides with performance reviews. Synonymous with gratification for some, with readjustment for others. All employees must find their place, flourish. For their own good and that of the company. 'Evaluating the employee means better understanding their skills in order to offer them more suitable training or a position,' explains Marc Mazzolini, director of Ogip, an industrial organization consulting firm. The key: less stress and pressure. 'Often, the pressure felt by the individual is due to their incompetence for the task assigned to them,' he continues.
Company performance also depends on employee well-being. An obvious fact that not all companies seem to be aware of. Some don't even conduct performance reviews. In this process, the financial aspect remains king. However, on its own, it does not allow to maintain course.
'Performance is not just about numbers. More and more Moroccan companies are becoming aware of this, but they often struggle to find the right indicators,' recalls Laurent Weil, operations director of BPI Maroc. 'Good performance indicators must be specific to each company, to each function. As are the evaluations,' he emphasizes. Ideally. Reality is often the opposite. Global measures for sectoral objectives, overly general evaluation criteria, lack of communication. The social dashboard then loses its main function: optimizing decision-making.
All variables must be adapted to the company's strategic vision. Otherwise, instead of aiming for excellence, the company will remain average. 'For example, an industry may decide to weigh its efficiency rate by a quality rate. Another whose policy is based on innovation will reward the sale of new products more,' emphasizes Laurent Weil, of BPI Maroc. There are no ready-made indicators. Especially not for non-industrial activities. Measuring the performance of workers and maintenance agents is easy: their productivity is quantifiable in terms of volume produced. For salespeople, the number of new clients is a classic indicator. For executives, engineers, administrators, managers, the contribution to turnover is more complicated to evaluate. Their behavior is paramount. Rigor, dynamism, initiative, qualities that deserve good marks.
Individual, but also collective performance
To evaluate its employees, the Valyans firm uses a skills chart. A mix of common and specific criteria. 'We don't expect exactly the same thing from a manager as from a consultant or a senior consultant,' says Lamia Bennis, human resources director. Responsiveness, involvement, stress management are the lowest common denominator.
To be effective, the employee must have benchmarks to situate themselves. Hence the importance of setting clear objectives, both collective and individual, short, medium and long term. Then regularly measure everyone's progress using relevant indicators. 'If they cannot participate in the development of the indicators, employees must be able to easily appropriate them,' says Abdelwahed Erroussafi, managing director of Axia Consulting. Before adding: 'Indicators must be quantifiable.' And the employee who has achieved the objectives valued. Not necessarily by a material reward, he tempers: 'Seeing the quality of their work recognized can be enough'.
'Individual performance is played out within collective performance. The employee who has benchmarks, who knows what they are worth and where they are going, will give their best,' he insists. 'Sustainable performance must take the form of a fun challenge, it must create virtuous pressure on employees, make them want to invest themselves, to surpass themselves. That is why objectives must be accessible.' Inappropriate to the reality of the company, they will lead to unhealthy pressure. Stress, aggressiveness, depression, resignation.
Often taken into account in social dashboards, resignations sound like failures for companies. A hard drive is gone. Two last year, a warning sign at Valyans. Mentoring is reactivated. 'It allows new recruits to integrate more quickly and to better target the expectations and needs of each person,' explains Lamia Bennis. Like employee performance, the system will be evaluated in June. And perhaps supplemented by a 360° evaluation. A way to responsabilize the entire pyramid.
Published on December 25, 2007
Posted online on May 27, 2009
ojraweb.com
