Think HBR

Workforce improvement system

Skildare August 2015
Skildare has developed a powerful, cloud-based workforce improvement system that can transform individual and workplace performance without the administrative burden normally associated with the tasks.
 
Called deBa, the system is designed to ensure that:
• Every employee knows precisely what is expected from them in terms of behaviour and performance;
• Jobs are carried out in a standardised way following a ‘best practice’ process, honed over time and through experience;
• Team leaders talk to their team members in a positive manner every day about their behaviours and performance to reinforce good work habits and provide subtle adjustments where required;
• Employees develop good relationships with their team leaders and feel comfortable questioning or seeking clarification on any aspect of their work;
• A focus on continuous improvement and a culture of engaged employees is highly valued; and
• Simplified tracking of performance data, removing the burden of writing time consuming and often ineffective performance appraisals.
 
deBa’s foundation is built on clarity, communication and simplicity. Clarity is achieved by ensuring all position descriptions (PDs) within an organisation are short, accurate and specific.
To ensure consistency across the workforce, the position descriptions reference and are shaped by the organisation’s values.
The position descriptions are kept short by a reliance on ‘best practice’ procedures clearly articulated in policy and procedure manuals.
Regular, meaningful and honest two way communication between leaders and direct reports is essential to success. deBa facilitates positive, regular and behaviour-focussed conversations.
These conversations encourage questions and clarification and include coaching, mentoring and encouragement whenever required.
 
The deBa workforce improvement system is easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to implement. deBa is quickly customised to each individual workplace by Skildare.
The application contains each employee’s simplified PD and individual performance plan, updatable at the touch of a button.
Performance observations can be made by the team leader live and on the go, via mobile devices, and then recalled as needed.
The observations and conversations are all managed, ensuring that the valuable data is collected, stored and available in any customisable format required.
 
The data stored within deBa can also be used by senior management as a powerful analytical tool, representing the live heartbeat of the organisation.
Linked to organisational values, the data will be a leading indicator for a range of collective performance measures.