Business Management Skills

When dealing with performance management through the Ready, Willing and Able method, the goal is to create employee results. This calls for, instilling awareness, compliance, and acquiring skills. Managing employee change is often a problematic issue for organizations. This is especially true during periods of larger scale business change management. Dealing with performance management like vendor relations can result in less confrontation during employee performance management.

For an employee to be Ready, they need to understand what they are expected to do. This requires that there be real clarity regarding the task. The employee has to be marginally inclined to the change. The employee must accept, at least, why the change is occurring. Moreover, they need to be available. An employee that is going on vacation the next day is not mentally available to be engaged by new changes.

Without agreement, an employee cannot be thought of as being Willing. A different way to consider Willing is that the employees need to think they are getting a fair deal. Meeting the needs of employees is part and parcel to this. The workers are given full knowledge of the incentives available for the change. The agreement of the employees is what makes this work. The employee needs to agree that they are receiving fair incentives for performance of the new requirements.

To be considered Able, the employee must have the requisite knowledge to engage in the new work. This simply means that they receive necessary training. It can also mean that they have received a class to impart the necessary knowledge, perhaps for a new piece of equipment they will use. This is nothing more or less than not asking employees to perform jobs for which they lack the competencies.

There’s nothing earth shattering to any of that. Nonetheless, there is a deep gap between the ideal and the reality. Employee performance management is often a strained area during the best times. If a company is involved with organization-wide business change management, employee performance management can become a nightmare. Businesses can import their methods from vendor relations to improve this area. In reality, there are genuine similarities between the two.

There are features of vendor relationships that equate to the employee relationship. Where a vendor has a statement of work, an employee has a job description. Vendors bring qualifications to the table. A skill set is required from employees. Both vendors and employees are subject to performance evaluations. Vendors receive payments and employees get compensation and incentives. General terms govern the work of vendors. Employees are subject to company policies. By running employee performance management as they would a vendor relationship, many of the problems in that area would be resolved.

The purpose of the Ready, Willing and Able system is to create a better transition from one set of tasks to a new set of tasks. Establishing comprehension of new job requirements is a way it does this. It seeks to achieve employee agreement for the changes that are occurring. It completes the process by imparting the skills to do the task. Dealing with employee performance management as though it were a vendor relationships can be a useful strategy. It generally results in better outcomes.

For more information, please see our website: Business Change Management