Catalog

Optimizing Staff Performance
ADB Review [ June 2005 ]

ADB’s new Human Resources Strategy is designed to gain, train, and retain the staff needed to manage for results

By Eric Van Zant, (evanzant@adb.org)
Consultant Writer

Under an ambitious new Human Resources Strategy approved in October 2004, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is overhauling the way it manages staff, reorienting its human resources toward managing for results.

Among a host of initiatives, ADB is establishing a performance management system that will better assess staff work. It is running innovative leadership training programs, pushing forward programs to improve gender equality, and devising better advancement paths for technical staff.

“Our aim is to ensure we recruit, train, and retain staff with the skills required to do the work needed to achieve our mission,” says Susan Kerr, head of the Policy and Recruitment Planning Unit.

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A Better Measure of Performance

As the performance management system is rolled out, staff will have a clearer description of what they are expected to do, a framework within which they can judge their work against the organization’s goals, better training systems to reach their own goals, and an assessment system that recognizes distinctions in their performance.

Staff members who deliver results will be rewarded for their good work, while for those who consistently fail to meet expected standards within a specific time frame, termination will be an option.

Some 2,400 employees completed work plans and agreed with their supervisors on specific tasks, expected outputs, and performance criteria by the end of March, says Human Resource Specialist Sally Pedersen.

By the end of April, staff completed the first Performance and Development Plan PDP), the core of the performance management system. It will be updated annually and provide a results assessment of an employee’s work and a behavioral assessment. Staff will be rated using four rankings of performance.

“The (old) system did not make distinctions on performance—everyone but a few met or exceeded expectations. It did not support a culture of excellence, and we need to change that,” says Ms. Pedersen.

This new system, which provides a clear and consistent link between the assessment and salary increases, uses a simple form to help managers and staff develop a learning plan to help them meet ADB’s goals.

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Getting More from Senior Staff

Managers will also have to improve. As part of the consultations for the strategy, employees identified the need to enhance the quality of leadership across the organization as a main theme.

To help managers, the Human Resources Division (BPHR) has been working for about 18 months on developing a suite of programs, even though the new strategy was only formally approved late last year, says BPHR Training Specialist Kate Gomm.

Among them, BPHR has been running the Leader as Coach Program to give management coaching skills. “We knew as an organization that this was an area where we had to increase engagement,” says Ms. Gomm.

Before attending a 2-day program, participants complete a questionnaire about their management perceptions. Feedback is also collected from their peers, supervisors, and their staff. Facilitators debrief the participants, discuss the results, and the 2-day program begins. It teaches managers coaching methods and effective questioning techniques, introduces case studies, and so on.

But what is particularly important is that 1 and 2 months after the course, participants undergo a refresher session in which they can discuss their successes and failures. As Ms. Gomm stresses, the program is not a band-aid: it is designed to provide practical ideas for managers as well as provide ongoing support to make sure that the skills stick.

Cecile Gregory, Director in the Office of Administrative Services, says the original 2-day course reinforced many of her own ideas about managing people. But she found the follow-up sessions particularly useful. “I was able to go to someone and say these are the kinds of issues that I’m facing. They brought in an objective view, made suggestions for solving the problems, but provided no recipe solutions.”

The follow-up sessions, she says, allowed her to have relevant discussions with other managers, and the program was flexible enough to allow her additional one-on-one time with coaches in the program, which proved invaluable to solving real managerial issues.

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New Career Paths

NEW PERSPECTIVE Under the new strategy, staff members who deliver results will be rewarded for their good work

Among the many other actions in effect under the new Human Resources Strategy, ADB will, later this year, provide technical staff an alternative path for career advancement. In the past, technical staff seeking promotion would have had little option but to try to move into management positions for which they may not have been suited. Under the new system, ADB is creating a senior role for technical staff that will better use their skills.

ADB is also improving its approach to human resource management in its resident missions in developing member countries. The new performance management system is already being implemented in the resident missions and ADB is providing those employees with more training opportunities, such as e-learning and video communication programs.

In addition, a pilot program for rotating resident mission staff to other resident missions is under way, with the first rotations expected to take place in the third quarter of 2005.

ADB is also pushing efforts to advance gender equality, a goal the organization has only partly achieved: for example, few women hold senior management positions.

The new strategy will continue implementing the Gender Action Program II through 2005 and BPHR has held several programs to help with women’s career development. These include Understanding and Fulfilling Personal Potential in the Workplace, and the Women’s Education Network program, which offers lunchtime sessions on relevant topics.

The new Human Resources Strategy aims to instill a staff mind-set that is focused on getting development results. The new measures will take time to implement, and the full impact will not happen overnight. However, the changes are real and are already having an impact on ADB operations.

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