AHRE - Workforce development
5/05/08
Creating and enforcing policies and procedures
I am looking to get information on how policies and procedures are written or should be written. Any suggestions? I also want to know how to best communicate to employees.
When writing policies and procedures, clarity and simplicity are the two most important things to keep in mind. While policies and procedures can be driven by regulatory, legal or technical requirements, it's important to remember that they need to be written in a way that can easily be understood by every member of your organization. While informal language isn't appropriate, avoid legalistic, jargon driven explanations. A few other points to remember include:
- Use a clear, simple format and layout. Dense paragraphs full of clauses and sub clauses are hard to read and harder to remember. Use white space, bullets, tables or information mapping to make critical information easy to see and understand.
- Don't assume the reader will understand every term you use. If there is vocabulary specific to the policy or procedure you're discussing, be sure to include definitions.
- Where you can, briefly explain the reason for a policy and how it specifically relates to a value or process within your organization. For example, in discussing an anti-harassment policy you might begin with "Because we value the contribution of all of our employees, any form of harassment...
Communicating policies and procedures can be challenging. Thick binders with pages of documentation often go unread and unused. There are a few alternatives:
- If your company has a Learning Management System this can be a very helpful means of informing and instructing staff. Learning policies and procedures in a self-paced environment cuts classroom training time and provides an opportunity to test and measure understanding.
- Identify the needs of the audiences who have to be informed of the policy or procedure and tailor the communication approach. Deliver the most detailed version of the procedures to the audience most affected. An e-mail to the staff who needs to be aware – but not necessarily involved – may meet the needs of that group.
-- STEPHANIE GOODE
Most effective peer review systems
Do you have any suggestions as to where I can obtain a review survey form for peer reviews that is NOT a 360? We are creating a new review process for annual reviews and I am looking for 'best practices." The 360 will not work for us.
The most current research in performance management points to the use of review systems that measure both the quantitative aspects of performance – what measurable outcomes were achieved – and the qualitative aspects of performance - how the results were delivered. The research concludes that best practice systems combine a review of goals and objectives with competency-based evaluation.
Competency-based systems look beyond tasks and activities to the attributes and habits of mind that constitute performance that is consistently outstanding. Two people may have similar responsibilities and functions but achieve widely different outcomes in terms of effectiveness. Competencies look to identify the differences between good and outstanding performance and point towards what constitutes sustainable effectiveness.
There are a number of competency development systems on the market. Some of them are as simple as performing a card sort that allows the members of your management team to identify which competencies are most important to your organization in terms of achieving its strategic goals. Or you may want to identify the competencies unique to your organization by interviewing your most outstanding performers – the members of the staff who consistently make the highest quality contributions – and identifying what characteristics and approaches to work they have in common.
In terms of creating a form, the best practice is to narrow the field to the 8 to 10 competencies that are most important to your organization and to create clear descriptions of what the selected behaviors look like at the poor, good and outstanding levels.
360 review, while a good tool, can be cumbersome and complex to administer. It requires a fair amount of administrative oversight and cultural support to be truly effective. However, while a full 360 may be too much for your organization, you may want to create an area in your form to collect feedback from internal or external customers.
-- STEPHANIE GOODE
Designing an effective training program
I am working on designing a training program that will serve as an orientation to individuals who are coming to work for us with different industry backgrounds. I have two questions: how can we evaluate the skill set of these different groups once they begin working for us? We would like to be able to identify how these different groups transition into our industry so we can better focus on those groups in the future; and is there a way to evaluate the training session to measure its effectiveness?
I'm assuming the people who are coming to work for your organization have the technical skills they'll need to be successful, but they've applied them in industries that are different from yours. In that case, your orientation and on boarding efforts will need to focus on helping them to understand a new business model and new ways to apply their current skills.
In terms of evaluating their skills sets, the simplest tool you can use is a skill inventory. Working with partners and subject matter experts in your business areas, you can develop a kind of list or catalog of skills required to do the jobs the employees will be starting. If you want to get an idea of how well these new employees are acquainted with the skills in the inventory, you can ask them to self assess or ask their managers to provide input based on their observation.
The results of the skill inventory can form the foundation of your training and development plans. Using the skill inventory data, you can organize a learning approach that is supported by an understanding of which gaps are largest and most significant to your organization and then develop the training programs that will close them.
A pre and post-test approach may be most helpful in evaluating the immediate effectiveness of the training. Before delivering any training, staff can take an assessment that establishes their baseline knowledge. The post-test evaluation can give a quick snapshot of how much of the training they retained.
Over the longer term, after training is complete, there are a number of tools that measure increase in knowledge and skills. In the 30, 60 or 90 days after training you can revisit your initial skill inventory to measure progress. Or you can gather additional supervisor feedback about observed job performance. Finally, you can use follow-up testing or surveys to see if the learning has "stuck."
For more information on training evaluation try googling "Kirkpatrick training evaluation."
-- STEPHANIE GOODE
Creating team building programs
I frequently receive solicitations in the mail for team building programs. We have been considered this for some time but have no experience. Can you tell me how we should evaluate these programs and how to figure out which are best for us? We are a medium size firm with about 50 employees - do we include everyone? Senior staff only? All departments?
Song-writing competitions, scavenger hunts, cook-offs, crew (rowing) races, building block projects, and business simulations are just a few of today's experiential programs for team building. Answer the following questions and your team building experience will have a positive impact on employees and your organization's business.
What are you trying to achieve? Does your organization as a whole need to work better together? Has your organization grown so fast that you have a lot of new people who don't know each other? Is there evidence of turf wars between departments? Does your senior team need to work more effectively together? What's getting in the way of the business?
Who should participate? Once you've considered the questions above and scoped out your business goals, you'll know whom to involve.
How will the program accommodate the diversity of the group? Good programs and expert facilitators take into account generational, cultural, and communication style differences so that the experience is not off-putting to anyone.
How will the program connect to the business? Work with your facilitator to ensure that whatever activity you choose is properly debriefed to make overt connections to what's important to your business now. It's not enough for people to walk away with the insight that better communication or clear roles and responsibilities are essential to effective teaming. Their learnings have to be relevant to business success.
-- MARY ANN MASARECH
Tuition reimbursement program standards
We are evaluating our tuition reimbursement program and are wondering what the standard annual tuition reimbursement is for different sized firms? Our company has an $8000 cap per employee, per year but employees complain it is too low. In addition, do other firms have a separate amount for graduate courses vs. undergraduate courses? Is this benefit still considered standard or has it become a perk? We want to be fair.
Tuition reimbursement programs are still common as a standard benefit, especially in larger firms or organizations that depend on specialized skill sets or have committed to being an employer of choice. One recent study found, for example, that access to a program (whether it was used or not) had a positive correlation with organizational commitment.
The amount of reimbursement varies across companies from $3,000 to upwards of $10,000. A better benchmark than size is industry: A recent SHRM study indicated that 94 percent of high-tech firms employing 500 to 999 people offered this benefit vs. 50 percent of retail firms of the same size. Check industry trends as well for policy differences for graduate vs. undergraduate courses. Some firms do handle them differently. Most important, consider what skill sets are most important to your organization's success.
Google reportedly allows employees up to $8,000 per year for pre-approved, work-related tuition expenses. Given the firm's number one ranking on most media lists for innovation and workplace policies, it sounds like your program is in good company. If you do choose to increase the allowance, consider tying reimbursement to grades. Many firms reimburse 100 percent for an A, 90 percent for a B, 80 percent for a C, and nothing lower grades.
Resources: SHRM benchmarking, WorldatWork, International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans, Workforce Management online research.
-- MARY ANN MASARECH
Improving orientation programs
We are a 50 employee company on a hiring spree. I need some unique and interesting ideas on orientation programs. Can you offer some new approaches? Resources for me to explore new ideas? Suggestions to make our program different and effective?
You're right to focus on orientation, because it can play a critical role in sustaining the culture that has propelled your growth so far. It can also be one of the most boring, overwhelming, and administrative employee experiences ever.
- To avoid overload, consider a staggered stream of information through different media: print materials, online tools, executive presentations, videos, and informal get-togethers.
- Tap into new hires' emotions through detail-rich stories that convey the organization's culture, history, mission, or values. Customer testimonials can be particularly compelling in making employees feel they are part of something special.
- If possible, enable new hires to experience your product or service.
- Institute a "buddy" system so that each new hire has a designated person he or she can turn to with questions.
- Establish monthly networking opportunities because it's likely much of the work your employees do depend on strong relationships with co-workers.
Most important, think beyond orientation to onboarding. Whereas orientation is often about the organization, onboarding is specific to the new hire's job. Employee engagement research indicates that job satisfaction is tightly tied to people liking - and succeeding in - their work. The sooner new hires, with their manager's guidance, can get productive, the better - for you and them.
Additional resource: "
All Aboard! The Fast Track to Productivity and Engagement."
-- MARY ANN MASARECH
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