Proved ways to measure and improve performance in HR (Human Relationship) management

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Description: This case study explores how a balanced score card approach can prove successful in measuring and holistically improving human resource management in organization.

ABPS – Invigorating the HR processes with the Balanced Scorecard Approach.

ABPS Inc has been dealing in the manufacturing of car/four-wheeler accessories for last five decades and this Boise, Ohio based American company boasts of a number of popular auto accessories in its product range. Overall the years it has built up a number of subsidiaries and few years back the management started thinking on carrying out a consolidation act of merging with its largest subsidiary which today boasts of impressive revenues to improve synergies in its operations. Post the weighing of pros and cons of this decision and dedicating enough time to this act, it eventually amalgamated with the subsidiary two years back. The merger went successfully and business grew which in turn mandated going on a ‘hiring spree’ for recruiting a large capable workforce. However, the urgent need to create an able taskforce sent HR managers settling for people who did not completely confirmed to the pre-set criteria. Consequently, soon the flaws started surfacing due to failure to incorporate the ‘supposed’ corporate culture in the selected people. After a number of brainstorming sessions the management decided to opt for performance management for HR and recruitment process and the Balanced Scorecard Designer was opted to meet this end.

This case study on ABPS Inc can broadly be divided into following sections::

• The Client need
• Processes and Best Practices followed
• Challenges Experienced
• Outcomes
The Client need Key areas where the ABPS Inc was looking immediate assistance from the Balanced Scorecard approach were :
• Streamlining the recruitment setup
• Improving the normal HR functions and bridging communication gaps in the organization
• Reducing the attrition rate and improving the overall productivity of the employees.

The company management after basic research and brainstorming session opted for the Balanced Scorecard(BSC) approach because of its proved ability as a method to ‘decide for’ and ‘judge’ a course of action by way of both qualitative and quantitative inputs. The ingredients of a Balanced Scorecards are the ‘KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that are decided after paying sufficient attention to the field being studied; ‘Human Relationship Management’ being the subject in this case.

The task of constructing this scorecard has to be performed by people who are sufficiently in the know of process. ABPS Inc decided to look for the benefits offered by this strategy and found that several of the industry leaders had voted in favor of this tool and even employed it for a better re-structuring of the operations. It went into studying the factors involved in HR field and brought those together in the form of indicators to be followed at later stages. For instance, the managers figured out that ‘re-shaping’ of training modules and arranging for ‘training sessions’ in timely manner was necessary to reinforce the values that were divulged in the first interaction. Also, constant updates were to be provided to employees to make them aware about the present industrial trends and fads. All these needs were expressed in terms of measurable phrases such as ‘number of training sessions organized in one year’; ‘rise in expenditure on HR training’; ‘motivating meetings’ etc.

Challenges Experienced

There were several unique challenges the Balanced Scorecard developers at ABPS Inc experienced and these included considering specific issues that were prevalent amongst employees after the merger. This included resentment to change and overall confusion in reporting and organizational structure. Another issue confronted was that of excessive pre-conceived notions which different teams and workgroups had of one another. People would not take initiatives of talking to each other just because everybody wanted the other person to take the first move. This was thought to be an outcome of ‘lack of proper orientation programs’ post getting over with the hiring process. Moving on, teams seem to be falling apart due to lack of tolerance among the members for each other’s opinions and thoughts. All the mentioned instances boiled down to ‘increase in lay-off number’. This is to say that the organization had to suffer the loss of opportunities owing to this ‘absence’ of talent pool despite its very presence in the company. This in turn increased the costs further as huge amounts went to impart training and prepare a capable workforce to shoulder the responsibilities entrusted on them. But because of the absence of ‘gelling factor’, people decided to turn for other firms leaving ABPS Inc in a tizzy.

Outcomes

With the help of the Balanced Scorecard Designer software, ABPS Inc was able to design an effective performance management program for its HR and recruitment functions. It clearly defined set parameters that need to be achieved and by following the values of these parameters in timely manner and ensuring that numbers do not oscillate significantly beyond the range ABPS Inc was able bring the attrition rate under control. With this scorecard in hand, ABPS Inc could effectively explore specific issues in a precise manner to know the actual flaw that are prevalent in a process and undertake suitable training programs to rectify the same. This can be done by arranging scorecards in a ‘cascade’ form that allows entering a more detailed field from a ‘less detailed’ one. The various levels at which these can be arranged can be ‘organizational’, ‘divisional’, ‘individual’. By looking at the instances when the assignments were completed on schedule, appraisal became much simpler as tracking was made possible with the scorecard. On the whole, users could eliminate the chances of ‘problem becoming too big to be corrected’. The Balanced Scorecard approach was also able reduce issues related to organizational communication by structuring transparent ways through which the message of management could reach the all the employees without being distorted. Last but not the least, ABPS was also able to build a feedback mechanism through which employees grievances could be heard and redressed in a timely manner.

The ABPS case study offers several key insights into how a balanced scorecard can work wonders in improving the overall efficiency of HR processes in an organization. Some of these include:

• Building transparency into the HR processes which at times are largely qualitative by setting measurable goals
• Predefined on a BSC can offer HR managers with reference points from where they can start customize their continuous improvement initiatives.
• A BSC can also serve as a great feedback tool for top management to check whether their HR goals are being successfully being met.