By Ruchi Challu
09/10/2009
Circa 2008
Often non performers, especially in large teams, piggy-back on performers and earn rewards. This could be for various reasons but mainly because of managerial oversight, incorrect rewards programme and ineffective performance monitoring measures. In such situations, the appraisal process ends up becoming a mere ritual and often done in perfunctory manner. The performance system here, lacks clarity and even the key performance indicators aren’t too well defined. 2008 brought dramatic changes that affected not just the various industries but also every business function including HR and more importantly the team structures.
Year 2009
Recent trends in team structure and performance systems, promise to bring significant changes. Today, there is a greater emphasis on formal and informal performance assessments. Along with stretch goals and targets, employees are now provided with greater clarity about their roles, responsibilities and job expectations.
Mohinish Sinha, Managing Director, iDiscovery, a Delhi based social enterprise catering to school education, enterprise leadership and outdoor education and part of the i-Discovery group succinctly elucidates this new trend, "Organizations are looking very closely at the team composition and weeding out poor performers primarily from the perspective of technical skills."
Jagat M. Sarkar, Head – HR, eRevMax Technologies, a US based Technology company having its development centre in Kolkata states,” Often techniques like shuffling and restructuring and at times downsizing the team, is required to arrive at the best mix of people to deliver results efficiently."
The Changes
To thrive in these difficult times, undoubtedly HR managers will have to get their acts together in consolidating and creating more efficient teams. "The focus has shifted to employee productivity and performance. Employers are taking a proactive approach vis-à-vis reactive approach as was seen earlier," notes Ashok Reddy, Managing Director- TeamLease Services, a Bangalore based staffing and manpower solutions company.
Apparently, one of the positive outcomes of this recession has been the increased emphasis on employee and team performance. "During the expansion times, the ramp-up at any cost approach; conveniently overlooked mistakes, cost overruns, duplication of work, productivity, discipline issues etc." notes Viswanathan N. R., Head - Employee Management, Odyssey, a Chennai-based retail firm. He states, "One also sees employers paying more attention in clarifying roles of each member and setting expectations of how employees need to work together." Eventually, this results in clearly defined performance criteria and rewards programme- an area of concern for many employees.
Viswanathan N.R. further explains "At Odyssey, we've merged store planning with projects, supply chain with operations, merchandising with sourcing etc. These teams were created and functioned independently during the ramp-up stage ( boom time) , as focus was required on each of these to a great extent."
Most, employers have started to conduct team reviews more frequently. Viswanathan shares the new practices implemented in his organization, "Now every team is reviewed for its Cost V/s Value-add; for e.g. in Odyssey, the sourcing and merchandising team has its own P&L. Every non-revenue generating functions are tracked as cost center and their value add in terms of service creation and service delivery are closely monitored. Performance monitoring of the teams is now almost monthly, leading to the annual performance review to help isolate or identify issues more closely.”
Sudheesh Venkatesh, Head HR - Tesco HSC, a Bangalore-based global services arm of Tesco, The world’s third largest retailer, shares some of the recent changes adopted by his organization in structuring teams. "Matrix reporting, global teams, increased spans of managers, valuing specialists as much as generalists are the big trends, we have seen within our Tesco team in Bangalore."
Traditionally managers are used to having team members around them for longer period of time. But the concept of ‘Virtual Teams’ is quickly gaining momentum and this will have a significant influence on Team Structure. "Loosely structured teams with resources, jumping in to do their bit and stepping off (to go back to their primary role) as soon as their bit is done, works well when you do not have the luxury of having dedicated teams for every project," explains Malathi Rai, Head HR, Lionbridge, India, a software solutions company, headquartered in US. Malathi Rai further states, "Reporting relationships can also pose a challenge in such ‘virtual teams’ and it takes a fair amount of managerial maturity to handle these new structures." Apparently it will take some time for managers to get used to virtual teams.
Since Last year, reduction in manpower, integration and merger of teams has become another important trend in team structuring. "There's a definite trend of merging businesses and resources leading to quicker integration," opines E Balaji, CEO and Director, Ma Foi Management Consultants, a Chennai-based HR services provider.
Teams with similar or complimentary skill sets are fast getting merged and as a result, the team size becomes lean and there is a reduction in manpower. Firms are also using unconventional methods to track and evaluate employee performances. Mohinish Sinha says, "Successful teams are also engaging in assessing through seeking feedback on how well the team is functioning - the way it converses, it solves problems, the behavior demonstrated so on and so forth."
The Striking Trend
Today, leaner teams with added responsibilities are perhaps the most striking and popular trend. According to Viswanathan, "Re-sizing teams has become a much more urgent cause. Previously, people reactions were taken into account. However, now it's a survival issue since businesses are at stake." Even Rai states, that "Tough times have compelled organizations to focus on lean structures. The key to success is for individuals and organizations to demonstrate an agility to adapt to changes: in team size, structure, roles and responsibilities."
The trends in changing team structures are distinctly visible, as Balaji points out, "Recruiters are now hiring those with multi-disciplinary background and doing so through competency based assessments." For instance, ‘eRevMax’, has enabled its employees to widen their job role and take additional responsibilities through regular shuffling of employees between different teams. "We however ensure that the process is undertaken such that it does not affect an ongoing project," informs Jagat Sarkar. Jagat Sarkar further adds, "Another critical area is communication. Generally it is not given its due attention, but when restructuring is done, it is important that members communicate effectively as there are lots of project related details that needs to be shared to ensure continued progress."
The Challenges
While the trends witnessed in team structuring look positive, they also pose various challenges to employers. Balaji succinctly clarifies, "What's happened in most firms, in their focus to reduce manpower, they've cut at the bottom level, their foot soldiers but not managers. Consequently, there's an imbalance and in many cases the performance of the managers is being overlooked. Managers too need to demonstrate what value they are adding to the business and justify their existence."
Another challenge that many HR heads and line managers are likely to face is lack of trust within teams. "Building trust amongst team members is pivotal so that everyone is highly engaged and committed to the results of the team," notes Mohinish Sinha. He further explains, "Each team member should feel supported and cared for, so that, they are willing to take risks for betterment of the organization. Moreover employees should have the confidence that even if one of their ideas fails, they won’t be reprimanded by the team leaders."
Experts believe that as business again jumpstart on earlly signs of an economic revival, HR heads will be hoping to build a lean and efficient teams.
The author is a freelance journalist.
