Three Awesome Examples of Great Job Descriptions

If your company is struggling to find new talent, is it possible that your job descriptions could be to blame?

It’s a question worth asking, because your “now hiring” advertisements determine, in part, just who applies for your position. Craft your ads the right way and you’ll capture the attention of talented innovators.

Write a generic post, on the other hand, and you may as well head to the nearest corner and shout, “Who wants a job!”

If you’re looking for a little inspiration to up your hiring game, here are three examples of job descriptions that pack a punch. Remember, if you’re going to spend hours of your time asking strangers open-ended questions in the interview phase, you might as well stack the deck in your favor.

1. Clear and concise

So what’s the most important rule to follow when writing job descriptions?

It’s simple: you must speak like a normal human being. Consider chucking phrases like “core competency,” “leveraging assets,” and yes, even “best practices.” If you must use business speak, couch the terms in simple sentence structures.

In other words, don’t be opaque just because it’s the norm. Writing professionals agree that it’s not a good trend, and in fact many don’t even consider this type of writing be a valid form of communication (since it seems to do everything but communicate).

Additionally, language like this makes it harder for applicants to understand exactly what the job is and what skills they’ll need to apply. The strongest descriptions use language that’s both succinct and concrete. Take this job ad for a T-shirt designer as an example:

You will be expected to generate your own amazing ideas as well as illustrate subjects provided to you in a style which the ThinkGeek customer enjoys. You’ll also be making web graphics for the products you help create, as well as filing in other design tasks around the office. You must have a great sense of humor and amazing illustration abilities and technique. Can you draw Rancors with your tablet while blindfolded? Good. That’s a start.”

In this posting, the requirements are clear and easy to comprehend. An applicant can quickly gauge the expectations of the company and can decide whether his or her skill set meets those requirements. When it comes to writing job descriptions, a simple and compact style will save you time, because when you’re clear about your needs, you won’t have to interview candidates who simply don’t fit the bill.

2. Packed with personality

Have mercy on your applicants. Many of them will have spent days or weeks combing through dry job descriptions while slowly losing hope of ever repaying their student loans. Would it kill you to entertain them a bit? Add some wit to your writing and you’ll capture the interest of all the young creatives.

Not sure what we mean? Take a look at this opening paragraph for Woot.com’s posting for an electronics buyer:

You started out an acoustic buyer. When you made the change, everyone gasped. One called you Judas, another tried to cut the cable with an axe. But you held on, and now you’re a trendsetter, an industry leader, and sometimes called a visionary in your field. You’ve mastered getting deals on all things electric and you’re reading to push the envelope again. Hey, guess what? Us too! Why don’t we go on the road together, man? And by the road we mean you can buy electronics for our website. See, it’s slang.”

Would this paragraph provide the perfect sample job description if it appeared on its own? Of course not, but it does whet your appetite and make you want to read more. The tone matches the company’s personality – and that’s important. After opening with a bang, this job posting unpacks the necessary details, and does it in a truly unique way with headers like “worst part of the job” and “degrees of separation from the CEO.”

This sends a message to potential employees (and the site’s competitors) that the company is one that’s willing to take time on the details in all areas of their business – right down to their job descriptions.

3. A challenger appears

If you’ve ever been forced to sort through a pile of applications, you know that many candidates don’t exactly give it their all. They hand in cover letters riddled with spelling mistakes, and their resumes detail work experience that’s just not applicable. Of course you want to invite a wide range of applicants when you’re hiring, but you don’t want to waste time on people who can’t even bother to proofread.

The solution? Issue a challenge like this one, used by Reddit in their search for a programmer: “Applications must be sent to S@reddit.com, where:

• S is a three-character string which, when given a null terminator and encoded in hex, is equivalent to the eight-digit hexadecimal number H.
• H is the hexadecimal representation of the decimal number N.
• N = A * B * C * D
• A is the number of 1 bits in the current serial number on the SOA record for reddit.com.
• B is the number of seconds in a day.
• C is the ASCII value of the character that appears 5304 times in *.html files in a fresh checkout of the reddit repository. (It’s also the EBCDIC representation of the \a character.)
• D is the port that you typically connect to when you need to get an encrypted shell on some remote machine.”

Is it a riddle every would-be applicant could solve? Definitely not – but that’s the point.

This creative touch ensures that everyone who does apply will not only have the skill set needed for the job, but that they’ll also be the kind of people who don’t cut corners, who get excited by challenges and who are happy to put in a little extra effort where it counts. Add a puzzle or other creative task to your job posting and discover employees who are up for the challenge.

Some jobs will always be easier to fill than others. The position of “gourmet chocolate taster” for instance, is likely to generate far more interest than, say, “unpaid data entry intern.” When writing job descriptions for some openings, there’s only so much you can do.

But if these creative examples of job descriptions teach you anything, it should be this: it’s not just about what you say, but about how you say it. Paint a picture of a workplace full of wit and enthusiasm and you’ll attract applicants who mirror those qualities.

By Eric Gaydos - Buzz Marketing Manager at The Resumator, a SaaS applicant tracking system and recruiting platform

The Job Description: From Static Relic to Dynamic Business Tool

Recently, many HR pundits have begun advocating abandoning the job description as a relic that can't keep pace with the dynamic nature of today's workplace. However, what is outmoded is not the job description, but how it has been designed and used.

Job description content has been too general, too subjective and too one-dimensional. No wonder employees have been unclear about their jobs when the job description itself lacks specificity.

Dynamic job descriptions are both job success profiles and blueprints for an organization's ideal workforce designed to achieve its strategic objectives. They enable an organization to compare actual employees against the ideal workforce based on pre-defined competency and performance criteria. And they provide employees a critical "road map" of personal work priorities, performance expectations and job competencies - all aligned with a company's business strategy.

With dynamic job descriptions, an organization can:

a) Compare each employee's actual competency levels to those required for job success.

b) Get information necessary so that managers know which employees are ready to fill jobs in the future at a given time.

c) Customize performance planning and evaluation forms to each employee that are linked to strategic business objectives.

Dynamic job descriptions are a powerful vehicle for communicating clearly to employees about specific performance expectations and success competencies. They can also contribute to performance planning, goal setting and evaluation; feedback and coaching; development planning; career path planning; succession; compensation and rewards; and candidate selection.

What Is a Dynamic Job Description?

A dynamic job description consists of functional and detailed information, further modified by essential job responsibilities and required job success competencies. Accounting for that last element - job competencies - is the "secret sauce" that makes a job description truly dynamic.

Multiple levels of job descriptions are required.

a) Functional job descriptions are internal benchmarks developed collaboratively by business function leaders and HR. They reflect what's needed to achieve current business strategy and should be revisited and updated when business strategy changes. In effect, they translate the organization's broad business objectives into job-specific, actionable deliverables and success competencies.

b) Once employees have an appropriate functional job description they should be involved (with guidance from managers and HR) in editing and customizing that functional job to create a personal job description (derived from the functional job) that specifically fits their local or work unit circumstances.

c) Personalized job descriptions reflect each employee's personal roadmap for job success. Involving employees in personalizing their job descriptions helps them understand expectations and increases their buy-in and commitment to meeting job performance objectives.

Job descriptions should also capture two vital elements that enable job information to be applied to multiple other HR processes - essential job responsibilities and job competencies.

Essential job responsibilities describe the key deliverables, work outputs and performance expectations of a job. To be effective, they must be updated when changes occur in business strategy. Then, they can be used to customize an employee's performance planning and evaluation. Essential job responsibilities provide employees a direct line of sight between personal performance expectations and business strategy.

Job competencies - often overlooked but essential - represent both the core organization and the job-specific functional and technical skills, behaviors and approaches to work required for job success.

d) Core organization competencies reflect an organization's "DNA" - its distinctive qualities and marketplace persona. They must be understood and practiced by all employees when performing their jobs, interacting with customers and collaborating with each other. For example, core organization competencies might include communicating openly and honestly, teamwork and quality focus.

e) Job-specific competencies embody the functional or technical knowledge, capabilities or specialized behaviors required to perform a job's essential responsibilities.

If organization core and job-specific competencies are clearly defined, along with their associated proficiency levels and accompanying behavioral anchors, then this provides truly objective standards against which an employee's actual competency levels can be measured and compared to the ideal. This is critical information both for performance reviews and for guiding employee development.

For example, job description competencies and associated target proficiency levels can be used to more accurately assess an employee's development needs as well as readiness to move up to the next job.

The dynamic job description, when clearly articulated and integrated across multiple talent management processes, can be a powerful tool that supports hiring, measuring performance, identifying training and development needs, coaching, succession planning, career path planning and analyzing workforce readiness to contribute to an organization's real-world performance.
By Robert Levy - president of HR Technology Solutions Inc

You Can Prevent Layoffs

As a manager, here are some actions that you can take to reduce the likelihood of layoffs in your organization:

First and foremost, watch out for creeping structural complexity. Just like any living organism, organizations have a tendency to grow, adding unnecessary layers, positions, and locations. As such we end up with headquarter staffs, divisional staffs, regional staffs, and local staffs all creating work that justifies their existence. Maintaining structural simplicity to begin with, with limited layers and as few extra locations as possible, is one way of avoiding layoffs.

Phase out products and services. Although we are always looking for new ways to benefit customers, often we don't eliminate the ones that have outlived their value. Without sunset laws for outdated products and services, we allow costs and infrastructure to build up that will eventually have to be taken down.

Manage the balance between today's revenues and tomorrow's opportunities. Managers always have a choice between investing in current operations and innovating for the future. When the balance is overly skewed towards short-term revenues, it's easy to build up costs (and people) that provide results today but cannot be sustained in the long-term.

In today's business environment, layoffs have become an accepted fact-of-life and a common tool for managers to maintain profitability. But we might be better off if we spend more time preventing layoffs rather than managing them.

By RON ASHKENAS - managing partner of Schaffer Consulting and a co-author of The GE Work-Out and The Boundaryless Organization.

Managing Up: How Do You Build a Relationship With Your Manager?

“I need to talk to you about an employee that I am having trouble with.”

Like a lot of you, I get calls all the time with people that want to bounce things off of me. I also volunteer my HR services to non-profits. This statement came from a founding member of the non-profit that I have been working with for the past year.

The executive director/founder had hired a direct report. The interview went well, and references checked out — that is, until this person started work. It seemed that as time went on, the new hire became disconnected from the executive.

Building a relationship

When the executive would schedule a meeting between the two, the direct report would just refuse to show up, saying that she had other things to do. When there were group meetings, she was very dismissive of her. It got to the point that she tried everything she could to just not have to communicate with her boss.

I thought of this scenario this week when I was part of an MBA course interview. Each student was asked to interview a corporate executive and get their insight on three questions. Collectively the questions centered on managing up. Specifically how do you build a relationship with your manager?

Besides being honored to be asked, I was impressed with the questions. For anyone that knows me, knows that I have an opinion on lots of things, however I keep it to myself only if asked.

I like questions that make me think and get away from the snap answers that I have given so many times. When you are asked the same questions over and over again, you tend to look at them as lobs.

I have served on so many panels during my career and very seldom am I asked a question that you really have to think about and formulate a response. However, these questions all gave me time to pause and think them through.

So my post this week is on the following four questions and my responses to each:

1. What do you think about managing up to your boss?

This is a subject that is not taught in college. This is a subject that in order for you to be successful, you must figure it out on the job. There is no manual, so you have to create the manual yourself.

In order for you and your manager to connect, you must be cognizant of managing the relationship. You want to be seen as a productive and valuable part of the team. For that reason, it is your best interest to figure out how to get this relationship on track. We have all probably experienced the “boss from hell,” but even in that case, until you find a way to get out, you have to find a way to connect.

Managing up is working with your boss to obtain the best possible results for you, your boss, and your organization. This has nothing to do with kissing up. Rather, it is a deliberate effort to build a relationship between two different individuals where one is in charge of the other.

2. How do you manage your boss?

First and foremost, you must be the best employee you can be. You should strive to build a relationship with him or her, and understand your role within the department. In order to manage your boss, your first order of business is to figure out their style.

Try and think of the value that you bring to your boss. To be successful, you have to be in sync with their work style and habits. Even though you have the job and have gone through the interviews, you must show value once you get inside the organization.

The value that was created at your previous company does not translate, for the most part. You can’t live off the superstar reputation that you previously had. You have to begin again the methodical process of building up your credibility in this new environment. The first step of this process is dealing with the manager that you report to.

Ask your new manager how you would like to interact. Ask them about what type communication they prefer: voice mail or face-to-face, detail or overview? What is their preferred method for sharing information? Concentrate on making their job easier. Get to know their style. Until you figure out their style, you are going nowhere.

3. How do your best subordinates manage you?

Now the table is turned — how have your subordinates managed you? Think of your best subordinate over the years (if you have managed people). My best were the ones that, whenever there was a problem, always mentioned it but also would say that they have given it thought and offered up a solution.

Our conversations were always about solutions. I do not like “problem” reports, the ones that can always spot and bring you a problem. I do, however, love the ones that think, have an opinion, and come up with a solution. That was my style — and they figured it out.

4. “It is not your actual performance that counts, but your manager’s perception of your performance.”

I have always loved the phrase “perception is reality.” What we perceive is usually what we believe, and it is based on what we see, hear, and think.

So based on that thinking, it is important that your manager hear the right things about you. This had to do with departmental feedback, peer feedback, etc.

If they see us struggling with deadlines, interactions, and contribution, that is how we are going to be perceived.

If we give them reason to think that we are not in sync, we are perpetuating this thought process.

So as I thought this week of the non-profit and the fit between the executive director and her report, I came away feeling that in order for this person to be successful in her next career role, (she was eventually fired), Job 1 is that she must learn from this mistake.

By Ron Thomas - Director, Talent and Human Resources Solutions at Buck Consultants (a Xerox Company). 

Why We Need to Change Performance Management to Talent Development

Performance management. Let’s think about that for a minute. When you Google the word “management,” here is what you get:

• The process of dealing with or controlling things or people;
• The responsibility for and control of a company or similar organization.

It’s all about control. A logical person might conclude that a process called performance management has at its core the intention to control performance. And they’d be right!

Why performance management doesn’t work today

Performance management was created to manage (i.e. control) the work of an industrialized workforce to maximize output. No thought was given to the development of the individual.

Fast-forward to today and the rise of the knowledge workforce, which is very different from an industrialized one.

• One right way –> Multiple right ways, best approach varies with the situation;
• Maximizing production output –> Creating competitive advantage through best use of talent.
• Creativity detracts from results –> Creativity is essential for results
• Command and control –> Collaboration and self-motivation.
• If-then rewards motivate –> Mastery, autonomy and purpose motivate.

It’s no surprise that a process created to control the output of a workforce where work was standardized and repeatable doesn’t work as a tool to develop a knowledge-based workforce. No matter how much you massage around the edges.

I won’t quote a bunch of survey statistics here because, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen them – over and over and over. So has your CEO. What you may not know is that it’s also expensive, rolling in at about $2,000/person.

Practical ideas that may help

What I haven’t seen in any of my research is data confirming that performance management is delivering on its objectives. Not. Once.

It’s time for us to change our lens from performance management to talent development. And I believe HR needs to lead the way. Your leaders are waiting for new ideas from you.

While surveys and research findings confirm the problem, not many address the solution. So I’ve provided some practical ideas to help you get started.

• Unbundle. Stop relying on one jumbo process; done once or twice a year, as the basis to drive all your talent-related actions. Take a close look at what you are trying to do with performance management and unbundle those activities.
• Cultural shift to continuous feedback. Begin building the foundation for a cultural shift to valuing and encouraging feedback. Change the notion that feedback only goes top-down. Encourage people to get and give feedback in any direction. Emphasize the idea of agility and feedback when needed. There are lots of good tools out there that can enable this. Two of my favorites: Rypple and Cleargears.
• Invest in improving feedback and coaching skills. Enable your workforce to both give and receive feedback effectively. For years, we’ve trained people to participate in a months-long process where the outcome is to give a grade. This does nothing to prepare them to effectively coach and develop each other. Helping people at all levels in the organization build this capability signals a shift in perspective from identifying weaknesses to capitalizing on strengths; reinforcing a cultural shift from judging and grading to coaching and development. And it’s a much better spend of your $2,000/head! Feedback and coaching support innovation and creativity much better than assessing and grading do. And, helps to shift responsibility for growth to the individual by empowering them to ask for feedback versus waiting for the scheduled time for it to be administered from above.
• Succession planning with a purpose. Make talent reviews and succession planning an ongoing dialogue with leaders. These discussions are critical to helping you understand where you have deep bench strength and where there are gaps that need to be closed. Follow-up on agreed actions and share insights with those being discussed, encouraging people to take an active role in the planning and execution of their development activities.

When HR professionals shift their focus to talent development and bring fresh, creative ideas to leadership, they get a seat at the table that is truly value-added. They become an advisor to the business around talent, driving value to the bottom line by linking an organization’s talent strategy to its business strategy.

BY Kristi Erickson - Partner at PeopleResults, a consultancy that guides organizations and individuals to “start the wave” of change.

Keeping Top Talent: How Leaders Can Manage Increasing Employee Turnover

A weak labor market associated with the economic downturn may have held down turnover rates in many organizations. But, it could be argued that we have been in the eye of a turnover storm.

Data from Hay Group’s employee opinion database, including responses from over 1.69 million U.S. employees working in 152 organizations, offer leading indicators of future turnover. And the trends indicate cause for concern.

The percentage of U.S. employees indicating an intention to remain with their current companies has declined 8 percentage points since 2009, with the result that 44 percent are now reporting plans to change employers in the next five years. Perhaps recognizing these shifts, fewer U.S. employees are confident about the ability of their companies to retain high quality employees, falling from 56 percent in 2009 to just 43 percent presently.

Where to focus to keep top talent

Those organizations that fail to identify and act on issues negatively affecting employee commitment during this break in the storm are likely to find employees exiting in increasing numbers as other opportunities become more plentiful. High performing and high potential employees, who can find alternative opportunities even in tough labor markets, are particularly likely to be turnover risks.

Where should leaders be focusing now to keep more of their top talent?

To provide insight, we conducted additional analyses on Hay Group’s employee opinion database. We isolated employees who indicated that they are committed to their companies for more than two years (the “stayers”) and compared them with employees reporting intentions to leave within the next two years (the “leavers”).

Five key retention factors

By examining the largest gaps in workplace perceptions between these two groups, we can identify key factors affecting employee retention.

• Playing for a winner. Employees are unlikely to bind their futures to organizations unless they view them as well led and headed in a positive direction. Some 60 percent of “stayers” report trust and confidence in company senior management, versus just 35 percent of the “leavers.” The “stayers” also report considerably more faith that the direction and goals of their companies are the right ones at the present time (73 percent versus 51 percent).
• Somewhere to go if I stay. Today’s employees have become increasingly aware that they are responsible for managing their own careers. As opportunities for career development are among the most consistent predictors of employee engagement, it should not be surprising that the “stayers” are much more optimistic about their ability to achieve their career objectives with their current employers (64 percent versus 31 [percent). Likewise, 67 percent of the “stayers” report that their supervisors provide ongoing coaching for development, as compared with 45 percent of the “leavers.”
• A fair exchange. If organizations want employees to do and deliver more, it’s essential that they have confidence that they are valued as people, that their extra efforts are recognized and appreciated, and that there is a reasonable balance between rewards (tangible and intangible) and contributions. The “stayers” rate the care and concern for employees displayed by their companies much higher than the “leavers” (62 percent versus 39 percent). And they also report greater levels of satisfaction with the fairness of their pay in relation to the work they do (53 percent versus 31 percent).
• Support for success. As many employees are being asked to do more with less, they need to feel that they are working “smart” as well as hard. Of particular concern are efficient work processes and collaborative support from co-workers to allow employees to perform at their best. The “stayers” give their companies higher marks for being effectively managed and well run (73 percent versus 51 percent) and are considerably more favorable regarding cross-work unit working relationships (63 percent versus 41 percent).
• A sense of control and influence. Critical to optimizing work processes, especially in dynamic environments where goals and objectives are frequently changing, is leveraging the ideas and input of employees at all levels. Some 73 percent of the “stayers” indicate that they have the authority necessary to do their jobs well, as compared with 51 percent of the “leavers.” The “stayers” are also more positive about the support their companies provide for employee creativity and innovation (70 percent versus 48 percent).

Implications for employees, too

Taken together, these findings provide organizations with a road map for managing increasing turnover risks in the months and years ahead.

Leaders who are successful in keeping their best people will need to foster a positive view of future company prospects and opportunities for individual growth and development, focus on structuring work environments to support employees’ success in their roles and leverage employee input to promote high levels of effectiveness, and reinforce the balance between what employees contribute and what they get back from the organization in return.

The findings also have implications for individual employees.

Research has generally suggested low correlations between the reasons employees cite for leaving in exit surveys and explanations given in follow-up surveys months later. While some employees may be less than candid with their employers at the time of exit, others may simply struggle to identify and pull together the sources of their dissatisfaction.

Are you feeling frustrated in your current job and thinking of quitting? If so, consider whether these turnover factors hit home for you. Your manager would likely appreciate discussing them now – as opposed to learning about them in a resignation letter.

By Mark Royal - senior principal in Hay Group. Contact him at mark.royal@haygroup.com.

Effective Pay-for-Performance Strategies

Regardless of the diverse composition of your workforce today, a solid understanding of what launches top-flight individual contributors will be essential to developing an effective pay-for-performance strategy.

Despite its familiarity in the workplace, the phrase ''pay for performance'' likely means different things to different people. This lack of clarity and understanding can keep employers from meeting short- and long-term goals and employees from deriving satisfaction in their roles and careers.

For top management, performance has most often been defined by metrics commonly reported to public-company shareholders or otherwise easily calculated, such as earnings per share or total shareholder return. This has afforded top management and shareholders a clear view of the linkage between pay and the final measure of performance.

But unfortunately, the means to achieving that end measure of performance were not typically included as performance measures. As for other employees, the metrics used for linking pay to performance were not always considered from a business-performance perspective.

In some companies, middle management and lower-level employees might have been incentivized based on overall company goals, without knowledge of how their role impacted the company as a whole.

In other cases, they were incentivized based on individual performance measures that had no direct linkage to company performance, and during years of poor company performance, incentive pay was reduced or eliminated -- even for high performers.

Balancing your organization's use of pay and other rewards with meaningful measures of individual performance helps create a talented, engaged workforce and an organization capable of creating long-term value. This applies to the entire organization, including top management.

A properly managed pay-for-performance program should reflect:

a) What fuels individual performance;
b) What links individual performance and organizational performance; and
c) How to effectively use performance goals to achieve short-term successes and long-term objectives while managing risk.

Fueling Individual Performance

With talent management identified as the No. 1 focus of CEOs around the globe, according to PwC's 14th Annual Global CEO Survey in 2011, it's critical that employers weighing workforce strategies understand and apply the behaviors that enable them to attract, reward and retain pivotal talent.

The retirement-savings hit inflicted by the economic downturn, combined with longer life expectancies, have kept many baby boomers in the workforce beyond traditional norms. These more deeply experienced workers now contribute side-by-side with recent college graduates and Generation X, which is establishing itself as the predominant workforce population.

Amid this diversity, no single approach is likely to enable your organization to achieve its talent-management objectives. Baby boomers may be more highly motivated by financial rewards, while millennials (also known as Generation Y) -- who entered the workforce during the 21st century -- are more likely to respond to career-advancement incentives.

In Managing Tomorrow's People: Millennials at Work, our 2009 survey finds that this latter group chose training and development as its first choice among benefits three-to-one over those who opted for cash bonuses.

When considering the most effective reward package for sparking individual performance, your organization should take into account the typical components of most reward programs: salary, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, benefits (including health insurance, retirement savings, and vacation pay); training and development, and recognition.

Many organizations have also been focusing on work/life balance and offering new benefits, such as flexible work schedules, telecommuting opportunities and sabbaticals. Although the ''pay'' in ''pay for performance'' can refer to any of the more traditional components of reward programs, your organization should look beyond its current forms of remuneration and consider whether additional approaches might work best in the long term.

Regardless of the diverse composition of your workforce today -- in experience levels, gender, location, work style, or any number of variables -- a solid understanding of what launches top-flight individual contributions will be essential to developing an effective pay-for-performance strategy.

Rewards that Resonate

Compensating an employee with the same amount of monetary value as that created by the employee for the organization is viewed by some as the ''holy grail'' of compensation strategies.

But it's rare that such value can be measured. And value can be tough to grasp, particularly when its creation is not a direct, easily quantified objective, as is the case, for example, with employees whose roles are to preserve the organization's value through public relations or customer service.

For top management, responsible as it is for the overall success of the organization, individual success can and should be measured by organizational success. Even so, determining the value created by top management is no easy task.

Because total shareholder return and other measures based on share price don't fully take into account the effect of the market in those measures, high-level managers can wind up under- or overcompensated. And, while measures of performance that can be controlled, such as reducing operating expenses, provide far superior linkage between individual and organizational success, they're still not perfect.

With the lines between individual-performance measures and organizational performance often dotted, the term ''pay for performance,'' while hardly alien, isn't always thoroughly understood or effectively applied.

To strike the right balance, leaders need to understand the behaviors of each employee group responsible for creating or preserving organizational value and use that knowledge to develop reward programs that encourage those behaviors.

Consider, for example, a payroll manager who's responsible for timely and accurate payroll submissions to ensure that employees are paid as expected. This manager's contribution prevents loss of productivity if employees discontinue work to determine why they weren't paid on time.

High performers in this role might, as a rule, effectively manage their time, use proper planning and efficiently apply technologies. As such, the payroll manager can be rewarded based on having achieved measurable objectives in these categories. If the payroll manager is a millennial, a company-sponsored trip to an annual payroll conference, which sweetens the package with millennial-minded training and recognition, can be a crucial ingredient in rendering a reward that resonates.

Your organization can fully assess its linkage between individual and organizational performance by conducting competency assessments and interviews with critical stakeholders, with the approval and support from appropriate organizational leaders.

Enhancing Performance while Reducing Risk

Once you have an organizational understanding of individual-performance boosters and the linkage between individual and organizational performance, individual goals should be established with consideration as to how they'll support organizational goals.

Choosing the right short-term and long-term goals without creating excessive risk for the organization presents the final challenge in the mission to balance the pay-for-performance equation.

Most organizations set short- and long-term goals as part of their business plan, providing the basis for individual goals and incentive-pay programs. Organizational goals, which often pertain strictly to financial performance, are used to set similar financial goals for the workforce.

But armed with the knowledge of how employee behaviors fuel organizational performance, you can determine individual goals that will encourage positive behaviors that will propel the enterprise toward its strategic objectives.

When setting short-term goals for employees, the focus should be trained on what's tangible and achievable. A goal of increasing earnings per share by a specific percentage for the year will be more effective and better support a high-performing culture when rewards reflect achievements that fall within their span of control.

Long-term employee goals should parallel and contribute to the organization's vision for sustainable financial success.

For example, since CEOs place talent management at the top of the corporate agenda, the successful implementation of a strategy to attract, reward and retain pivotal talent should be viewed as a long-term goal of top management.

Although this strategy might not provide staggering return in the short-term, it can position the right workforce and the enterprise to deliver on long-term goals. The success of this goal can be measured statistically using workforce metrics such as the turnover rate of priority talent and employee-engagement-survey feedback.

The goal-setting process should also take into account the importance of risks and rewards. On the one hand, risk management can help keep the process consistent with the company's risk profile and contain and reduce behaviors that might be deemed excessively risky. On the other hand, performance goals that languish without achievement-based rewards can quickly lose impact and relevance.

A performance-funded plan is an effective way to make sure that monies will be available to recognize employee achievement. This kind of funding mechanism can serve as an operational self-fulfilling prophecy by setting performance goals and payout levels based on formulas that depend on corporate success.

Keep It Simple

Many factors contribute to establishing and maintaining a meaningful and effective pay-for-performance program. But program management needn't be overly complicated. A successfully designed plan should be meaningful and simple.

It won't always be feasible or cost effective to set specific goals for every employee, or even every employee group. But if your organization understands and communicates the linkage between individual performance and organizational performance, you can create a sense of concrete continuity for employees, management and investors alike.

By Brandon Yerre -  director in the compensation practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers Human Resource Services.

How Starbucks Trains Customers to Behave

Yes, You Can Brainstorm Without Groupthink

In articles in both the New York Times and The New Yorker earlier this year, the concept of brainstorming as introduced in the 1940's by Alex Osborn has been attacked as ineffective and linked to the concept of "Groupthink."

In her NYT piece and in an HBR ideacast, Susan Cain points out that the popular view — "Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in." — conflicts with research that suggests "people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption." Some of the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverts who are more comfortable working alone. And inhis New Yorker article, Jonah Lehrer cites research indicating, "Brainstorming didn't unleash the potential of the group, but rather made each individual less creative."

We have no issue with the importance of the creative individual to generate focused and powerful ideas. Furthermore, we agree that, used improperly, Osborn's process of brainstorming can promote consensus, not collaboration. Suffice it to say, we dislike consensus-based "Groupthink" as much as the next person. Rather, our issue is with the way both articles have attacked Alex Osborn's concept of brainstorming as a powerful collaborative thinking tool. We are strong advocates of collaboration in innovation, and believe that the proper use of brainstorming techniques is a powerful tool in the collaborative approach. Over our many years of experience, we have seen managers effectively use three simple techniques for avoiding "Groupthink" during brainstorming. Here's our advice:

1. Assemble a Diverse Team

Build your team with people from different disciplines, cultures and age groups Be sure that some members have necessary and relevant expertise, but that some are naïve about the issue (we call them "WildCards"). We once ran a session for a client team composed of a range of scientists and technologists from Bell Labs where 25 new patent applications were filed — 20 of which came from the participation of a 70 year-old grandmother!

And when you are considering candidates, include different styles of participation and thinking: Explorers (extroverted, inquisitive, comfortable with ambiguity, free-thinking), Developers (creative problem-solvers, sometimes introverted, quieter, but love being given a problem or challenge to solve), and Commercializers (realists, business-minded, practical problem-solvers).

Encourage each type of thinker to play, bring introverts out of their shells and tone down the influence of the extroverts, and leverage their diversity to not only identify a range of possibilities, but to also find ways to make the newer ideas feasible.

2. Focus on Roles: The Client, the Facilitator, and Resources

Somebody has to own the effort. This is the client role. That individual may have a lieutenant, but clientship cannot rest with the full team or even a large subset. That is a sure way to generate "Groupthink." Instead, one person must make the decisions. The team should advise that person and advocate for their positions with passion, but ultimately, the client has to exercise leadership and decision-making — they must pick the final concepts to recommend or implement. This role cannot be delegated.

The client should not be in charge of running the meeting/dialogue. They must keep their heads in the content and not worry about or unduly influence the process. Rather someone else should be in the facilitator role and in charge of the process — facilitating the interaction, drawing out the range of perspectives, managing the brainstorming process non-judgmentally.

Everyone else is in the resource role. They focus on listening, learning, ideating, building on other offers, etc. Resources advocate, but do not decide! If everyone in the room has to agree, then the outcome will be the worst possible aspect of "Groupthink" — a decision in favor of the lowest common denominator, devoid of originality, risk or newness, and only what everyone can envision and agree to.

3. Encourage Passionate Champions

Many people understand and follow the first two rules of brainstorming well. But if they miss this next technique, they miss the real power of collaborative thinking: The power of one. Seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it? It's not. Collaboration helps individuals improve their own thinking and gives them ideas they may not have thought of by themselves. When this happens, brainstorming results in the best of both worlds.

This is where the Passionate Champion plays a key role. In our work, after the brainstorming process, we often open the session up to "Individual Champions." Anyone, alone or with other people if they need or want help, can pick any idea and develop it further. Even if the idea has already been developed in one direction, a Passionate Champion may see it very differently and develop it in a totally different manner. Or, they can pick an idea that was not advocated by the group or selected by the client, and develop it as they see fit.

In our work, we find that Passionate Champion ideas often account for 50% of those that make it through internal and external vetting, and 20-30% of the ideas that make it into final concepts. What's more, they are often the most breakthrough in terms of truly new, game-changing concepts.

Collaborative innovation involves the genius of the "and" versus the tyranny of the "or." It's not that brainstorming must always turn into "Groupthink" or that introverts or individuals have the best ideas. In good brainstorming, one feeds off the other and the end result is significantly more powerful than either approach alone.

By VIJAY GOVINDARAJAN AND JAY TERWILLIGER

10 Ways You Can Really Motivate Employees – Without Using Money

Here are 10 ideas from my recent podcast and webinar onMotivating Without Money:

Personal over financial

1. Get Personal. Money is the easiest and least personal way to motivate people (if you have money). If you don’t, you need to make the personal effort to get people to actually care about what they are working on.

2. Persuasion vs. Command. Money doesn’t buy loyalty, it only rents effort. We talked about how to persuade people to work for you, and build real loyalty and support.

Remove uncertainty

3. Create Clarity. The biggest demotivator you can have is when people don’t know exactly what to work on or why it matters. Your job as a leader is to create clarity for your team when it does not exist around you – we talked about how.

4. Deal with chaos from above. What about when management keeps changing direction? Or when your team doesn’t agree with, or is skeptical or angry about where management is heading. You still need to find or create points of certainty for your team. We discussed several approaches.

Communicate a lot

5. Communicate on a regular schedule. Clear consistent communication is a magical motivator that so many leaders miss. You get huge points for leadership and credibility when you communicate well.

6. Build Trust. People are always more motivated to work for people they trust, know and respect. People know you through your communications. Set up the right communication plan with the right content on the right schedule.

7. Don’t be Invisible. If you you fail to communicate regularly, you will appear to be checked out, even if you are not checked out. People need to hear from you.

Find out what matters

8. Don’t guess what people care about, ask them! Personally ask each person that works for you. You’ll be amazed at the answers, and how many things you can do without money that will make a material difference to them. I shared several surprising examples!

Say thank you

9. Recognize good work. Create a habit in your organization to recognize the contributions of people. This goes a long way to motivate not just select individuals, but everyone if you do it right.

10. Don’t over complicate it with processes, nominations, reviews, and spreadsheets. Just make it clear to your staff that you want to know when anyone in your organization does something remarkable, and then have one of the executives find a personal, direct way to say, “thank you.”

By Patty Azzarello - founder and CEO of Azzarello Group Azzarello Group

Five Proven Tips to Get Honest Feedback from Your Employees

We all need praise and confirmation. We love to hear: "Hats off! That's a hard act to follow!" It makes us feel like a million bucks. It reinforces our confidence. However: It should be used with the right touch. Too much praise can also be damaging. 

We all need criticism just as much as we need to have our egos buttered up. Anyone who wants to improve needs honest, constructive feedback from their environment. But getting feedback is easier said than done – especially as an executive leader.

Please criticize me, I need it! 

Only last week, I had this demonstrated to me during a coaching session with a successful Managing Director of a mid-sized company. He is enthusiastic, very involved, and demanding, but also empathetic and committed to his employees. His staff highly respect him. 

However, he was frustrated that he only received limited critical feedback from his employees. He told me that he had repeatedly encouraged his employees to openly and honestly criticize him and his decisions. Even so, they appeared to be unwilling to do so. He was wondering why, and what he could do to change it.

The dominant personality

To me, as an outsider, the cause was readily apparent. As a Managing Director, he had developed an intuitive feel for quickly analyzing complex situations, and continuously contrasting his strategies with the operation. He usually makes a host of decisions, and he makes these quickly to continue working efficiently. He has been on his game working like this, and he has been confirmed by his success! 

Here is the problem with this: Without wanting to do so, all these have prevented the criticism of his person that is so important. Employees with limited confidence simply had not the courage to criticize him openly. Most employees were not equipped to handle his direct nature and immediate response. To them, his mannerisms was dominating and intimidating - without this being his intent. 

These were the reasons why his employees were having such a difficult time to express a contrarian opinion during business discussions. To offer critical feedback regarding his behavior was an even more difficult thing to do. 

Feedback as a matter of trust

Employees will only express open criticism if they feel safe. On the other hand, if an employee feels threatened by negative, personal consequences – regardless of their nature – he will obviously not provide honest feedback. 

One bad experiences can be enough to squelch any criticism of your person – regardless of how justified it might be. Therefore, apply the following 5 tips to receive honest feedback from your employees:

1. Accept feedback without judgment!

Make sure that you clearly separate your employee's feedback from your own judgment. If your employee criticizes you, this is a sign of trust. Thank the person for the feedback, but do not immediately respond.

2. Sleep on it for one night!

Take time to think about it. Take a night to think it over. This is what your employee can rightfully expect of you. 

3. Avoid distorted feedback!

If you are given feedback, you should also avoid well meant positive responses, such as: "Thank you, Mr. Smith, that's a really good point." This is already a judgment as well, which you should avoid as a quick response. By doing this, at some point your employee will limit his feedback to what he believes might be useful to you. In the end, your employee does not want to say anything foolish or inappropriate. But the outcome of this is that you will only receive distorted feedback. 

4. Understand criticism as a sign of trust!

How do you respond to hardly relevant, incidental, or from your point of view, even inappropriate criticism? Here as well: It is essential that you avoid spontaneous rebuttals or even gruff answers - at least if the employee presented the criticism in a respectful manner. Otherwise, you will permanently damage the trust relationship. A sensitive employee will then think: "Next time I better won't say anything!"

5. Keep always in mind: “I hear you” does not mean “I agree with you”!

Listen to your employee's criticism without being judgmental. This does not mean that you are in agreement with what was said. Most employees are well aware that expressing feedback does not automatically result in the changes they desire. 


By Bernd Gerop -coach and consultant to CEO’s and entrepreneurs of European High-Tech companies