|
|
About iOps
iOps
is a newsletter for BPO professionals in India. Its mission is to
enhance the operational capabilities of the Indian BPO Industry through
dissemination of
knowledge and sharing of best practices.
|
|
|
|
Last Issue
The last issue
of iOps was on The Grind of Performance Appraisals.
This article discussed about the challenges of performance appraisals.
Further, it explores some of the practices that would make performance
appraisals a productive activity.
|
|
An iOps Tip
"Some goals are so worthy its glorious even to fail."
|
|
|
Forced Ranking
Maximizing Chances of Success
We
received feedback from many of our readers on our last article that
dealt with Performance
Appraisals. A recurring theme of some of these feedbacks was on forced
ranking. This takes place after appraisals at some companies in order
to promote people.
Readers asked questions on how to deal with team members who got high
ratings in their performance appraisals, but yet got axed during the
forced ranking process.
Here’s how the process works. Managers get into a room to
“discuss” who should get promoted. Every manager has a
couple of people in his span that he thinks should get the slot. There
is a long drawn out discussion in the room, which could sometimes get
unpleasant. The process goes on for a while and finally, a consensus is
reached on the right candidate(s) for the position. The results are
always surprising, especially to those who don’t get promoted.
Managers have a tough time explaining to their reportee why he did not
get the position. This situation has a demoralizing effect on the
reportee. His performance could drop or he may end up quitting thinking
that the company or his manager is unfair or unduly political.
The
whole concept of forced ranking, like any other method of
selection/rejection, has its benefits and disadvantages. Given that
this system exists in the company, the idea is to find out how can one
maximize their chances of promotion. Here are some points to think
about.
- Many
people think that they deserve a promotion because they performed well.
By performing well, employees get positive messages from people around
them (from their managers, co workers etc.), This may give rise to a
false sense of security that a promotion is now guaranteed. The truth
is that good performance is merely a prerequisite for a promotion. It
is not a guarantee for promotion.
Promotions
depend on numerous other factors including the possibility that someone
else is performing even better in another team, the employee’s
strengths are not exactly matching the requirements of the new
position, influencing ability of the employee’s manager etc.
- Many
people like the word “guarantee”. E.g. “If I work
hard, I have a guarantee of success”. However, as someone wise
said, there are only two things guaranteed in life i.e. death and taxes
(One will pay tax and one will die). Everything else is about chance.
If
promotions are a matter of chance, then all one has to do, is to
improve the chances of success. These happen not merely by
working hard, but by taking a much more comprehensive approach. This
means, one has to identify all the elements that can influence
promotions and actively work on them. One can liken this to any sport.
For example, a good football player knows that he needs to take the
ball many times to the opponent’s goalpost before he can score
once. He maximizes his chances of scoring by getting the ball to the
goalpost as many times as possible. If he gets disappointed because he
did not score and hence stops performing, he will never score again.
Lets
look at the forced ranking system. One critical activity in this system
is that managers need to discuss all the proposed names. If an employee
wants to have the highest chance of getting promoted, then he could do
the following in the preceding months before this meeting:
- While
the employee’s own manager knows him, the employee should get
himself known to other managers. This can be done in many different
ways. One method is for the employee to volunteer his free personal
time (off time) to other managers. This could be for different types of
activities (data analysis, training, documentation, research
etc.). By doing this, the employee not just gets himself in the
other managers’ radar screen, he also demonstrates his abilities
to them. This way, the employee also strengthens his own
manager’s ability to fight for him in the forced
ranking meetings. He also reduces the other managers’ apprehensions
because he is now a known person.
- Another
way to increase chances is to move to a different department, where
one’s current skills are valued. For example, team leaders could
move laterally to the training department or to the quality function.
If the team leader decides this, then he can start working on adding
value to the training team right upfront. When the time comes, he would
have the highest chance of moving to this department.
- A
third way is to invent a position. We have seen examples of employees
“packaging” their skills in a way such that a new service
can be launched within the company to other managers or to external
clients. For instance, a team leader picked up knowledge on statistics
and developed excellent analytical skills along with some IT skills
related to manipulating data in excel, access and other databases. He
was able to create insightful reports for a few managers. Over time, he
became a leader of a separate unit that provides these kinds of reports
to internal managers and external clients. In this method, the employee
completely bypassed the forced ranking system.
Forced
ranking is just another system that needs to be understood. From the
company’s perspective, it works out just fine because the system
ensures that the fittest survive. To be the fittest, employees need to
perform (as a basic requirement) and then strategize on getting ahead.
OnTrac Internal Staff
|
|
|
ONTRAC IS RECRUITING:
Calling all BPO Operations Managers with a passion for teaching/training. Contact us right away.
join@iamontrac.com or at 080-51261274/5
How Ajay (a BPO Ops manager), found his calling in life at OnTrac)
Ajay was an
Operations Manager at a reputed BPO company. He worked very hard for 5
long years. He managed multiple teams, worked in multiple processes and
even managed to get a management degree inbetween. While he did many
things, what he enjoyed most was training his team members for success.
He started to seriously think about his real “calling in
life” and that is when he met some people from OnTrac.
The more he learnt about
OnTrac, the more excited he became. He found that OnTrac had an
interesting team whose goal was to make people successful in their
careers. They did this through training programs that they delivered to
their top-notch clients in the BPO industry. Best of all, their values
matched his. Well, one thing led to another; he joined OnTrac as a
trainer and today, he has made many people successful. Needless to say,
his job satisfaction is at an all time high.
If you can empathize with Ajay, call OnTrac at
080-51261274 / 75 or email them at join@IAmOnTrac.com.
|
|
V&A Trainers
OnTrac is recruiting for its StartSmart program. Apply only if you (still) think you can change the world.
|
|
To
unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-iops-newsletter@iamontrac.com
iOps is a
newsletter created for Operations Professionals in the BPO and Call
Center Industries in India. This newsletter is published by OnTrac, a
unique provider of Operations and Management training for Call Centers
and BPO companies.
We welcome
contributions to this newsletter. Please contact us at the phone number
or email address given.
Our Contact
Information:
Address:
OnTrac
582, Indira Nagar, 1st Stage,
Bangalore - 560038, India
Phone:
+91-80-41261274
Fax:
+91-80-41261275
email:
info@IAmOnTrac.com
Web:
www.IAmOnTrac.com
|