In today's times
when competition is at its peak, it's essential that the employee's goals are
aligned with those of the firm's. To measure and keep this in check, firms are
incorporating Organisational Effectiveness (OE). "OE is when every employee
within a company is aware of the company's long and short-term goals and feels
that his individual job function is positively impacting the same," explains
Avirat Sonpal, managing director, 4004 Incorporated India. For Nabanita Phukan,
head, HR, Red Hat India, OE is the ability to maximise results in the competitive
external environment. "Maximising results is nothing but meeting customer
expectations," she says. "It is the ability to serve customers successfully
and tackle competition." For Manu Srinivasan, senior manager, Human Resources,
Nous Info systems, Bangalore, OE is an indicator of how well or optimally the
organisation's resources are utilised to achieve the firm's objectives. "It
helps track, plan, forecast and strategise," he says. According to
Venkatesh Rao, CEO of TravelPort India, OE is very important for an organisation.
"An organisation functions because of its people," he says. "If
the firm is effective, there are better growth opportunities for its employees.
| | Methods
used by firms to measure OE
Balanced score card,
The
Goals and Objectives method
Customer, stake holder, and employee
feedback surveys
Evaluating the suitability of processes and practices
Evaluation of communication and patterns of decision making
Bell
Curves systems
Evaluation of an employee’s performance
Re-inforcing long-term vision through internal communication tools |
They get a feeling of security and a sense of belonging and this
brings out the best in them," he explains. OE signifies high performance
organisations and helps employees. "It leads to increased productivity, faster
decision making and less internal conflict," feels Phukan "OE helps
in developing a strategic and cultural framework to integrate vision, strategic
goals, performance measures, guiding principles and competencies, leading to self-motivated
employees," she says. Sonpal believes that without aligning employee functions
and growth with the company's goals, OE cannot be reached. "This could result
in alienating employees professionally and personally This may develop a lacking-sense-of-achievement
for the employees and it influences the firm's success," he explains. How
does OE help increase performance? "An assessment of organisational strengths
and weaknesses, allows decision makers to focus on areas of improvements,"
says Srinivasan. "It allows organisations to measure and track progress,
and improve the line-of-sight between people processes and organisational goals,"
he adds. For Sonpal, OE brings in structure in a systematic manner. "Because
of OE, every employee knows precisely what he/ she is expected to do, and is also
aware of how it is projected to impact the growth of the organisation," he
asserts. And how do companies measure OE? "At Nous, OE is measured
by a continuous and dynamic tracking of the goals and objectives that are drilled
down to the function and business units," says Srinivasan. "Coupled
with this analysis, periodic customer and employee feedback drives also help understand
and track performance and progress towards achieving the organisation's objectives."
Red hat aims at creating a culture which also includes a lot of fun activities.
"Fun activities act as a stress buster in the hectic work schedules,"
says Phukan. "Our goal is to convert each engagement to a long term relationship
with our customers— both internally and externally" In 4004 Incorporated,
the firm adopts a 'Key Result Area' (KRA) approach to employee effectiveness.
"Here, every employee is assigned a set number of tasks that align with the
company's goals. These KRAs are re-visited on a quarterly and half-yearly basis
to ensure proper execution, to identify roadblocks or hindrances if they exist,"
elaborates Sonpal. In TravelPort India, an HR manager interacts with the employees
to help them do the job better. "And once in a month the employees are given
answersheets and are asked to write what they feel about the company," says
Rao. In this way, the management gets to know what the employees think and feel. Many
firms also concentrate on being internally or externally effective. "External
effectiveness is perceived by business and financial success, value driven business
practices, in-depth domain expertise, establishment of a brand identity and contributions
to the society at large," says Srinivasan. Phukan believes that a sense of
commitment and ownership to continuously deliver high standards of performance
would transform all short term engagements to life-time relationships. "Customers
should register the experiences as 'memories to be cherished'," she adds.
"For being internally effective, an organisation must create an environment
that can motivate and groom talent, as well as engage employees effectively to
contribute to the achievement of business goals," elucidates Srinivasan.
"This requires robust HR policies and processes that align the efforts of
people towards the goals, as well as supports them in the quest for excellence."
Phukan feels that efforts for self development would ensure meeting expected results
and would also build an appetite for doing things better. "An effective
organisation is one in which every employee is happy," says Rao. "There
should be no fear in the organisation and everyone should be confident to talk
to his senior and voice his opinion," he signs off. |
