Measuring Performance
Most commonly, companies use the concept of balanced scorecards to measure individual, departmental and organisational wide performance. Balance scorecards measure both the financial and non-financial outputs, with each component tagged and weighted to a given percentage (e.g. 5% of the overall ‘score’).
Examples can include the measurement of the company’s core competencies, technology input/output, and budget utilisations. In this way, the measures link top management’s judgement about key internal processes and competencies to the actions taken by individuals that affect overall corporate objectives. This linkage ensures that employees at lower levels in the organisation have clear targets for actions, decisions, and improvement activities that will contribute to the company’s overall mission.
Other examples also include benchmarking procedures as another technique companies use to compare their performance against competitors’ best practice. Many companies have introduced “best of breed” comparison programs: the company looks to one industry to find, say, the best distribution system, to another industry for the lowest cost payroll process, and then forms a composite of those best practices to set objectives for its own performance.
Essentially, this acts as a report card that the employees present to the company as success indicators for the year!
How do you Determine Company Progressions?
According to research done by Adecco Group, half of workers under the age of 35 believe promotion should come every two years! Promotions are often seen as a way to progress in companies – but did you know there are in fact many different ways to measure it?
Some ways that companies advocate for career progressions and rotations include:
(a) internal communications and posting cycles within organisations, and/or
(b) a career ladder system, or a framework which defines the career progression path for employees based on their skills, experience, and type of service!
There are also many different tools available for you to measure what is the right way up – and here is an open-source website that features companies’ HR frameworks, ranging from Buzzfeed to Kickstarter! Link below!
[LINK]: progression.fyi
Are Promotions and Climbing Up the Corporate Ladder the Only Way to Grow in your Job?
Many people still believe that the only way to achieve success in one’s career is to “climb the corporate ladder.” Starting from the bottom and working one’s way to the very top is undeniably something many people want to achieve. While they are not wrong, this is not necessary. You don’t need to follow others and climb the ladder. There is no one-size-fits-all approach and everyone grows with different challenges and skills.
Not aiming for the corporate ladder does not equate stagnating. Pursuing other forms of growth can still allow one to still increase his value to the company as an employee in various ways.
Some of such ways is being a subject matter expert about the industry that one’s company is in. Developing your knowledge base and being an expert on the opportunities and challenges in your industry can enable one to become a great mentor of advice and help to other colleagues, executives, new hires, and even external parties. Another way is to continuously improve on one’s technical and soft skills. Technical skills can mean digital skills, especially in this age of digital transformation and the growth of IT. Soft skills range from communication, critical thinking, and teamwork to conflict resolution. The value of constantly upskilling oneself in these areas, though not necessarily validated via an upwards promotion, still does not diminish as these produce adaptable and people-oriented employees that drive an organisation’s culture and future development.
References:
Kaplan, R.S., Norton, D.P. (1992). The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1992/01/the-balanced-scorecard-measures-that-driveperformance-2
Fisher, F. (2013). Which Way is Up the Career Ladder? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/careers/which-way-up-career-ladder
Greene, L. (2018). How to grow in your job – Without Climbing the Corporate Ladder. Retrieved from https://www.peacefuldumpling.com/climbing-corporate-ladder
Craig, W. (2018). The Nature of Leadership in a Flat Organisation. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2018/10/23/the-nature-of-leadership-in-a-flat-organization/
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