The Future of Performance Management

Insights shared by Sive Nodada from 21st Century

“I joined the 21st Century team seven months ago after three years of Social Impact Measurement and seven years of consulting in the fields of corporate strategy development and digitization, systems implementation and change management. Over the course of these last months, I have had the privilege of applying this experience while learning from some of the best minds in HR in South Africa, both from my team and from clients. Coming into this relatively new but familiar space, I have found myself once again asking the question of purpose and impact. Throughout my various engagements, I attempt to piece together the common thread that defines the endgame by unearthing what the intended purpose and impact of HR is beyond compliance and the avoidance of strikes and CCMA cases. Among the core themes that pop up, whether speaking to HR professionals or general staff, is perception, with HR often being seen as a disciplinary body with annoying processes which can be routinely avoided or bypassed and can be done by just about anybody. This is an old-world view of HR and in the modern, technology-driven world of today, few things are further from the truth.

HR – a supportive business partner

“In speaking to employees from various businesses, the common wish is for HR to transform from a disciplinary body to a supportive business partner that enables line managers to get the best out of their employees, similar to a general manager in a sports team. According to this view, the core purpose of HR is to put policies, structures and systems in place that would enable line managers to bring together the best possible team to deliver the vision of the organisation. The Line Manager’s role is to get the best out of that team through effective employee management which is enabled by HR policies and procedures which also protect managers and the organisation. The intended impact is a motivated and engaged staff that consistently delivers above and beyond expectations and is generally enthusiastic and happy to be part of the organisation.

Employee Performance Management

“My core focus over the last three years has been employee performance management which became intriguing to me because of the introduction of technology, primarily considering how technology has empowered HR and enabled them to better deliver on this purpose. This interest was further cemented by the development of hybrid working models and the dilemma of managing performance as well as enabling performance management, in the context of a remote workforce.  Incidentally, this change has also turned sports betting into one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide with most of the big companies seeing double-digit growth consistently over the past nine years and some seeing growth exceeding 20% in some years. The core change that has created this boom, particularly in South Africa, is the advent of live data feeds delivered straight to your device to the second. This change and use of technology has enabled users to make instant decisions and change their bets immediately based on an ever-growing set of data and automated probability calculators which minimizes the effort required to go through the data and make an informed decision. This same change has had an even more profound impact on team and performance management in organisations.

“In 2011 Brad Pitt starred in a movie called Moneyball, the true story of a baseball club general manager who used data and statistics to assemble the best possible team and staff to win the championship on a shoestring budget. In this story, the team’s general manager leverages individual team members’ strengths and weaknesses based on past performance data to turn a ragtag group of forgotten players in a fledgling club into a championship winning organisation. At the time of this story, the manager was using crude data and complex calculations under constant development and review by an actuary to make these decisions. In our zeitgeist, this has become the order of the day with expanding, distilled and cleaned data stored in systems linked to live dashboards at their fingertips 24 hours a day. As we have seen this development in sports, so too will we see it continue to gain traction in business. Just imagine what performance management would be if these same principles were applied in organisations with modern technology. Line managers and HR would be able to work together to understand and recruit the best fit-for-purpose talent into the right role, that will match the culture the same way sports teams recruit talent for specific roles, positions, and purposes. Managing people would be a whole different ballgame with constant flow of information to create well-informed, regular feedback loops and empower managers with targeted development and motivation practices. Essentially, you would be able to identify, through numerous factors, if an employee won’t reach target and course correct immediately instead of waiting for the next performance evaluation cycle.

Using live data

“Performance analytics is no longer a matter of assessing the past to decide about the future but rather the use of live data to determine current interventions that will produce predictive outcomes in the future. A modern performance report should include recommendations on the best possible interventions that will produce the right results to realise the organisation’s vision. These are no longer scattered data sets requiring complex calculations and all-night assessments to reach the intended outcome. Today, it’s as simple as looking at a dashboard and allowing artificial intelligence-based or pre-built systems to do the calculations and provide increasingly accurate predictions in the same way actuaries have developed spreadsheets to help organisations make financial decisions for decades.

“For the most part, people remain oblivious to the amount and variety of data that is being collected and stored on them as individuals. Most people are concerned with social media, internet cookies and why it is that when they have a conversation about a product, they suddenly start seeing adverts about it. In reality, every app, system, or tool you use at work, play or at home is gathering your data and no one is reading terms of use, therefore, no one really knows how each of these multitudes of data sets is or can be used legally. What we are witnessing is a merging of people and systems with most people caught unaware while continuing to consent. This merge is vast and includes every piece of technology capable of capturing and storing data from the obvious laptops, cell phones and smart TVs to smartwatches, your car, and other tools you use daily, such as an ATM, bank card, or car tracker. Even microwaves, and fridges. Hoovers and other smart household appliances can gather and track your data providing an acute, holistic view of who you are as a person and all your behavioural patterns. All this data is being gathered all the time by various companies for a multitude of purposes.

“This sounds scary, especially because we’re all so far in there’s no way out. However, this also creates a unique opportunity to empower organisations that want to maximise performance and bring value and well-being into the lives of customers and employees. My next article will delve deeper into this, looking at how the same strategies applied by tech giants like Google and Facebook, can help your organisation transform culture and performance internally, moving your workforce from dull and despondent to proactive and motivated.”

Have an Emproved week and stay tuned.

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About 21st Century
21st Century, a level 2 BBBEE company, is one of the largest Remuneration and HR consultancies in Africa, with a team of more than 60 skilled specialists, servicing over 1700 clients – including non-profit organisations, unlisted companies, government, parastatals and over two-thirds of the companies listed on the JSE. 21st Century offers bespoke business and strategy planning services, operating model and organisational design, creative reward practice modelling, change, stakeholder and culture management, training courses and comprehensive human capital and talent plans. These are all underpinned by our analytic and survey capability tailored to the African environment. 21st Century continues to offer solutions via a combination of virtual channels and on-site presence. 

21st Century has expanded its services to offer a full turnkey sustainable business and remuneration service. Beyond remuneration and reward consulting, 21st Century offers local analytics for business advantage; remuneration and HR training; change management services; talent and people solutions; and end-to-end organisational design and development.

Issued By: The Lime Envelope
On Behalf Of: 21st Century
For Media Information: Bronwyn Levy
Telephone: 076 078 1723
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