For the country's largest freight forwarder, Bax Global India, My Dream was, quite literally, a moving experience. The project took off from a personal leadership exercise the company's managers had undergone in July 1997. During the exercise, managers had listed their dreams or wish-list on five non-work priorities: health, family, personal finance, social life and personal growth.Now, in order to win the commitment of employees to the new Performance Management System (PMS) introduced in January 1998, Bax India resurrected those dreams in a two-day exercise. Each manager now began sharing how far he had come in terms of achieving his dream: Was he sticking to his exercise plan? Had she lost weight? Was he spending more time with his children? Had she learnt to cope with a demanding husband and boss?
As managers bared their souls to each other, the moments of tragedy (failure to meet a dream) and triumph (success in meeting a dream) started emerging. Some felt miserable (I'll never be a good father),others felt they were cheating themselves (diets just don't work for me), a few were enthused (I've begun a savings plan) -- but all swore to work hard towards their personal dreams.
Says Bax India general manager (human resource) Mohan M Prasad: "We thought that if emotions can be a change agent, can't we look at the application of emotions for changing the workplace too." My Dreams spilled into the workplace.
If spending time with children was an issue, managers were made to realise their team members were also like children who needed time and guidance. If physical fitness was important, training and development at work was also important. Meeting the demands of a mother and a wife was similar to the time management needed to reconcile conflicting work priorities.
As the My Dream bandwagon rolled around Bax India locations across the country between January and April this year, Bax India managers began committing whole-heartedly to the position description questionnaire (PDQ). This time, without fearor prejudice, listing exactly what each person's key result areas were.
The transformation came just in time. For only with the PDQs complete could Bax India have moved on to implementing the Performance Management System in full. That's because from each position description sheet emerges each Bax India employee's annual performance appraisal.
Says Navin Bhatia, head of corporate business, north, at NIS: "What's unique about the Bax India system is that they use weights to measure key result areas (KRAs). Secondly, they are the only company to invest in human values before implementing a performance management system."
Here's how the annual appraisal system works. Once again, each employee sits with his or her immediate supervisor and against each key result area on the position description form, discusses the results obtained. The performance is then rated according to the following scale:
Five points for exemplary performance, if the achievement is above 100 per cent of the agreedplan/standard.
Four points for good performance, if the achievement is between 90 to 99 per cent of the agreed plan/standard.
Three points for satisfactory performance, if the achievement is between 60 to 74 per cent of the agreed plan/standard.
Two points for meeting minimum requirements, for achievement between 60-74 per cent of agreed plan/standard.
One point for achievement below 59 per cent of agreed plan/standard, as it did not meet expectations.The weightage for each key result area -- defined earlier in the position description form -- is transferred against each KRA in the appraisal form. Points are then awarded for each KRA by multiplying the weight attached to the KRA with the performance rating.
With performance now banded between a maximum of 500 points to a minimum of 100 points, the overall performance evaluation for each employee gets measured by the following grade:
Employees who get points between 375 to 500 are those whose performance has exceededrequirements and is characterised by significant achievements.
Employees whose points total between 250 and 374 are those who consistently meet requirements with sustained enthusiasm and effort.
Employees who get total points of between 100 to 249, are those whose performance does not meet minimum expectations and who require significant improvement.To clinch the overall performance rating, not just the employee and the supervisor, but even the immediate boss of the supervisor sign the evaluation and attest their approval of the overall performance evaluation.
Or, at least they are meant to. With the system only just in place, on June 22, 1998, Bax India is kicking off a dry-run: each employee will undertake a half-yearly self-appraisal exercise based on the KRA performance. The scores will be discussed with the superior and any mid-course corrections put into place so that there are no nasty surprises at the end of the year.
Seems like a whole lot of extra work? But then "implementingthe performance management system at all responsibility levels through a process of getting the PDQs and KRAs defined for each employee" is one of Mathews KRAs -- and he's determined to go for an exemplary score within this year. But then, speed was never a problem for the country's leading freight forwarder. "Now, Bax India is moving in the right direction, too."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
