Seventy-Year Old Practices to Support Labour’s 100-Day Plan
Leading up to the General Election on 4th July this year, much was made of Labour’s so-called “100 day plan” forming part of their manifesto to kickstart economic growth. They pledged to introduce legislation within 100 days to implement ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’. There has been much speculation about the detail, but some parts of the Plan are relatively straightforward. Introducing day one basic rights to protection from unfair dismissal will bring Performance Management into sharp focus. Employers will need to be fair and transparent in dealing with employees who are not meeting their standards, so a robust Performance Management process - including recruitment, onboarding and probation - will be key.
Continuing his series of articles, Martin Nicholson highlights decades-old management philosophies that could hold the key to mitigating the effects of the changes in legislation, along with aligning employee performance with business success.
Organisation’s Goals > Individual’s Objectives
Management by Objectives (MBO) was first promoted by Peter Drucker in 1954 in his book The Practice of Management. It is a theory as opposed a specific formula. To decentralise from top leadership and create teams and individuals focussed on the goals of the organisation through their own individualised objectives.
Also, Hoshin Kanri is a 7-step process for strategic planning, originating in post-war Japan, and since adopted across the world. It is a top-down approach where the strategic vision of the organisation is supported by goals set throughout the business.
Seventy years later, we see changes pending in UK employment law to necessitate the management of performance to be more focussed and detailed. The removal of the two-year-service rule for unfair dismissal claims and redundancies will require management in the UK to focus on performance of individuals like never before. If we are going to move the needle owing to the law, then why not seek to spend time using the MBO philosophy, one of the many techniques from Hoshin Kanri, OKRs and KPIs, to ensure all our employees are aligned to the business’s performance and goals of the organisation.
If I have you nodding at this, that’s because it’s pretty obvious! If we have employed someone, we have made an investment. Unless we set a target for that investment, how will we know if it has been successful?
But there is a problem here: if targeting and aligning all staff to the organisation’s goals and performance is so obvious, why does it so often break down?
It is my opinion that the answer lies in management, and the priority that leadership gives (or fails to give) to this subject. Like all Change projects, unless you see the leaders supporting it and prioritising it, it won’t succeed. If setting targets and managing aligned objectives is introduced, but then leadership doesn’t deliver, then it isn’t a priority. If leadership does make it a priority but managers are given mixed messages that other things are more important, then the change won’t occur. Instead, short-term underperformance will be managed, currently through giving paid notice (to those with under two years’ service). The waste to businesses seeking to grow by hiring, firing and then rehiring, is scary! Not to mention that this option won’t be available when Day One Employment Rights become law.
If you really want a cohesive, focussed organisation, seek to introduce an aligned performance management approach with training and visible leadership support. By doing so you not only meet the legal expectations, but you beat your competition as well.
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Martin Nicholson is the Managing Consultant at ProAction HR, providing Human Resources Services to SME businesses in Southampton, Winchester and throughout Hampshire and the adjoining counties.
Co-founder of the Winchester-based HR company, Martin and his team support clients across Hampshire and neighbouring counties, providing HR advice, HR consultancy, and HR services. They cover a broad range of HR solutions, from one-off responsive HR support to a full Human Resources service, along with Learning & Development, Training and Change Management.
“Helping organisations to thrive on the value & uniqueness of their people.”
