AS A governance and leadership consultant and as operations head of this circulation, I put premium on starting the year right. You see, every new year presents a new opportunity not just to make things right but to realize that much sought vision of every organization. The first few weeks of the year can make or unmake the institution. And so what better way to start things than to start them right.
Allow me to share three things on how to start right. This goes to all private and government agencies regardless of how big or small they are who genuinely wish to achieve greater heights this year. This could be considered an investment for the company and it may seemed like a waste of time and resources, but in the longer run it will bring the needed and the desired change you so wish to happen.
First is of course to start the year with a clear plan. There are different kinds of plans in an organization ranging from long to short term targets, but the new year necessitates revisiting the blueprint of the organization, what it really wants and how it wishes to achieve them.
Creating the yearly plan is first and foremost grounding back to the institution’s mission and vision and then translating them into calibrated programs, projects and activities that are measurable within the year. Crucial in crafting the plan is allowing stakeholders to participate in the process. Only if and when the people from the top to the bottom have a clear grasp of the bigger direction can it successfully be translated into measurable outputs and outcomes.
Second is to create a scorecard for performance. After the direction is clearly set, this should be translated into deliverable tasks by each and every member of the team. A scorecard is a Human Resource mechanism for strategic performance management. This should apply to all personnel from the chief executive down to the rank and file.
Each institution can make its own scorecard that will better work for them. Although all government agencies under the Civil Service Commission (CSC) are required to adopt the PRIME HRM systems specifically the strategic performance management system (SPMS) designed by the CSC. It is therefore best that the performance management team (PMT) sets this month for SPMS refinement.
Crafting the scorecard is very vital in achieving the desired output. Here, targets are set individually as well as the kind of measures the institution wants to hit the success indicators they wish to materialize in a fiscal year. Again, this process should involve not only the officers but most importantly the employees themselves.
This brings me to my third point which is to create a commitment contract between the employee and the institution. A commitment contract should have the agreed targets set both by the company and the employee for the said employee to deliver on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis on this fiscal year. It should be the basis for performance appraisal. For government agencies, this comes in the form of individual performance commitment review (IPCR) which sadly had become just a futile exercise of copy pasting for compliance purposes and was never really maximized as a tool for output and outcome management.
An added trick to ensure efficiency and productivity in the workforce when all these mechanisms are already in place is to come up with a rewards and recognition system where good performance is incentivized. Even a simple certificate of recognition for performing employees can already propel a worker to do more and be more for the company.
Start things right and hit the ground running. Happy New Year!