Focal

Aiiii, I'm tired and SIEN liow. Been busy with many work requests lately ...everyone rushing for deadlines within this 3 weeks radar. I'm curious if my Mat Salleh customers also need to take long Chinese New Year holidays or what ?

Just completed a few peer review reports, I'm so blurred to continue working on my lovely databases ....prefer blogging :P

This is the stress moment for all managers in my company. We call it yearly focal, or rather performance review. There are many processes involved in my company, and this is extremely formal, to me, it is wasting way too much resources and time ...close to 2 months of managers' time. Mind you, this is repeated yearly .... I knew of some managers seeking professional therapy after going thru this focal thingy .... so kesian !
( then again, I can say this because I'm not a manager, not in their shoe :P ....)

So, what are the processes :
First, employee prepare and submit self assessement report.

Second, manager review, feedback with employee, then both OK, submit final version.

Third, manager represent the employee in the Role and Ranking session ( each employee must be assigned to a ranking group close to his/her job role and grade or seniority). The ranking can be across all regions. It is in this session, the managers will fight for a place for the employee, eg an employee from India is position 1, then emp from Egypt is position 2 based on their accomplishment, of course. This is a lengthy long long long ranking session.

Forth, ranking done, management decide on the focal budget allocation, then enter the information into the computerised system, the system will automatically calculate the increment, stock entitlement etc. Of course, at this point, the manager can debate and change the allocations, with strong justification to higher management. My company pre-set percentage of people to be grouped under 'not performing', 'perform', 'perform well', 'exceed expectation'. The stressed part should be putting people into the fixed 5% 'not performing' group....If a manager has 10 employees, then 1 out of 10 must be 'not performing', full stop. Every year, it is this time, employee moral issues increased.

Sixth, a formal letter will be generated from focal system, during the allocated weeks, manager must have 1:1 meeting with employee, deliver the letter to employee, discuss. If OK, sign and commit, yey. If not happy, employee can object and exercise Open Door Initiative (ODI), it is like a mini CSI - an investigation done by third party, to protect the interest of all, be neutral, then followed by interviews and mini court cases ....

Seventh, those who agree and commit, the hardcopy is submited to HR centralized database, kept forever ! Employee also get notified when it is deposited. To me, it is like 'safe-deposit' box ....

So, worth the effort to go though this lengthy processes ? I guess my company cares for employees, and willing to invest time and effort to focus on their career path, as well as recognizing their contribution or vice versa. It is a merit system. But human judgement is everywhere, don't know it is fair or not... I do recognize the good intention of this lengthy processes. Nevertheless, I wish I get a good focal for 2004. Better still, a promotion .... hahaha..BIG DREAM !!!