High Tech Manufacturing Company Drives Performance Alignment
A high tech manufacturing company approached Pilat looking for assistance with improving the alignment of individual performance plans. The organization operates primarily in the USA but is owned by a Japanese company and has a number of international sites. The Japanese connection has driven extensive quality initiatives and the company operates at the cutting edge of manufacturing processes in its field. However, its day-to-day management of individual performance and development displayed many of the classic shortfalls of such processes everywhere.
The company has a complex management structure. While most of the typical roles exist, large numbers of people work in fluid project team matrix structures. In addition, the nature of the products that it manufactures place severe restrictions in some areas and limits its ability to move people or to change working practices, etc. This unusual structure added to the classic problems of cascading goals and objectives.
Pilat implemented a configured web-based HR Pulse® Performance Management system: Performance PulseTM. The configuration design drives and supports alignment in many ways, including:
- individuals, when setting each personal goal, are required to create a link to their manager’s goals (he/she may make this link more specific by attaching it to a specific goal)
- individuals may, when setting each personal goal, identify other individuals who require them to achieve the goal. Through an automatic notification e-mail and access to the same web site, they can then acknowledge, confirm or deny this linkage. In the latter case, they then have to define which of their own goals this contribution will contribute to. This Spider PlanningTM creates a complex web of linkages that can rapidly drive the completion and updating of performance planning. It also ensures that all individual plans are well defined, interlinked and approved
- individuals, when defining each personal development activity, are required to create a link to one of the competencies in the template that applies to their position.
