Performance Management & Organizational Change

Hi all,

Thanks for today's discussion board posts on our poor performance case. We seem to have a good grasp on the seven key actions to take in planning and executing a performance warning meeting. Keep in mind that this meeting is in the context of Muller's progressive discipline (or my performance improvement) steps. Each meeting will be a bit different depending upon where you're at in that process.

Your questions to one another were profound and fascinating. Many of you touched on a common theme: what do we do if Barbara does not improve? Well, the fast answer is that we move to the next step in the progressive discipline process. It might also be helpful to understand some of the basics around change management.

Many of you noted that Barbara's performance problem seems, at least on the surface, to coincide with the recent reorganization. Now that the company has reorganized, putting Barbara back in her former role with former management team is probably not an option. So, how do we move forward if dealing with this change is at the heart of Barbara's problem?

I've put together a 3-part video on personal change management basics below to introduce you to a few tools that can be helpful in understanding the issues associated with how people respond to organizational change. Take a look and see if you find the info useful. I also recommend picking up the book the material is based on: Managing Personal Change, by Cynthia Scott (2009, Axzo).

One final note, just because Barbara's problem seems to coincide with the organizational change, don;t assume that's the problem. This is where step 3, mutually assess the situation, is of critical importance. It would not be unusual for the root cause of Barbara's performance problem to be something completely different from the organizational change.

See you on Monday!

Performance Management Systems

Hi all,

Thanks for today's online performance management system discussion. I appreciated your reflections on integrating and contrasting the views of Blanchard and Ridge (2009), Muller (2013) and Chewning (1990). Janine, Karson and Rob did a great job covering the bases on what each of these authors bring to the table.

Matthew and James, Laura and Julie, all have important discussions about how Muller and Blanchard & Ridge can be integrated. This is indeed the case. As James and Lauren discussed, Muller's rating system is often used in a situation in which you need to compare large groups of people. This is most common when you have a large number of people doing the exact same job... maybe on an assembly line, in a call center, or maybe even a retail store. This goes directly to a point Julie notes in her post regarding the importance of personalization. Recall that one of the marks of the 2020 workplace will be intense personalization (Meister & Willyerd, 2010). Blanchard & Ridge's model provides companies with the opportunity for that personalization in the performance management system.

Check out Courtney's post for an important discussion regarding hiring for skills vs. organizational fit/motivation. This choice made during the recruiting and selection process then has an impact on performance management strategy and execution. Successful companies have hired either and both ways. See Courtney's post for a discussion of how it works at her current employer.

Finally, Eric helps us reflect on the importance of love of neighbor -- and co-worker -- in the context of performance management. Check his post for a very thoughtful integration of Chewning's (1990) concepts with our performance management discussion.

Nice work, everybody. See you on Monday for a very targeted discussion of managing poor performance.

The $50,000 Retail Sales Job

Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store, has some not-so-typical notions regarding pay and performance in the specialty retail sector. Click on the link below to go his October 14 interview in the Wall Street Journal. (If the link doesn't give you the full story, do a new Google search for the article title, and you should get the whole thing.)

http://online.wsj.com/articles/container-store-bets-on-50-000-retail-worker-1413340639

Great pay, rigorous performance management, and no HR department. What do you think?

PS: there is a Container Store in KOP.  :-)

Asking & Responding to Behavioral Interview Questions - Feedback

Hello hiring managers!

Thanks for last week's online experimentation with asking and responding to behavioral interview questions. Overall, nice work with both the asking/responding, as well as the critique of your own work.

See the attached video for my six observations after reading last week's discussion board.

1. Asking follow-up questions.
2. Addressing the competency asked about in the interview question.
3. How much detail to provide in your STAR response.
4. Explaining technical terminology.
5. Turning a negative STAR into an illustration of how you learn on-the-job.
6. Telling your own story.

See you in class on Wednesday!

Responding to a Behavioral Interview Question with a STAR

Hello recruiters!

We begin our interviewing and selection module by sitting in the candidate's seat, responding to a behavioral interview question.

Before we get into the specifics of a STAR, let's go back to the core concept behind behavioral or competency-based interviewing:

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. (Kessler, 2012, p. 22). 

Whether siting in the candidate's or hiring manager's seat, this concept is central to competency-based interviewing. We'll spend more time on the manager's perspective next week, so now let's discuss responding to behavioral questions from the candidate's perspective.

As you saw in the interview posed to the candidate in the Fisher College of Business video, a behavioral question asks candidates to provide a specific example from past experience. This example illustrates the candidate's level of effectiveness regarding a particular competency in which the hiring manager is interested.

From the candidates perspective, we always want to (1) understand the question (competency) being asked about, and (2) be sure to answer the question directly, speaking about our own experience.

The question asked of the Fisher candidate is both typical and well constructed. It asks for a specific example from the past. Note that the focus of the question is not to play "gotcha" with the candidate when he identifies a failure, but to understand how he learns from failure and applies that learning in future circumstances.

Many of you picked-up on this in your own responses to the question. Courtney, Janine, Julie, Karson, Lauren, Eddie, John, Greg, Matthew, Ricky and Rob all identified examples of goals not met, but then quickly went on to discuss how those missed goals (failures) were actually learning opportunities. Courtney does a great job setting this stage at the beginning of her post.

Keeping the STAR (situation, task, action, result) acronym in mind when responding to interview questions will help you to answer the question directly and provide a full response. Of course you want to do this when a behavioral question is asked, but doing so when a hiring manager is not asking competency-based interview questions is even better. Providing a behavioral responses in that circumstance will set you apart from the other candidates.

Overall, nice work with your behavioral responses and STARs. You'll have an opportunity to build STARs related to specific competencies next week, as well as examine how to design and execute a competency-based interview from the hiring manager's seat.

See you in class on Monday!

Unlimited Vacation Days!

We're not in our compensation and benefits module yet, but here's something to consider when designing a benefits strategy: unlimited vacation days! Richard Branson has implemented this policy at Virgin. Check out an excerpt from his recent book at the link below. (Note that Europeans refer to "vacation" as "holiday".)

Who's ready to intern at Virgin?! And for managers, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of such a policy? Lots of food for thought.