Mark Morrell Intranet Pioneer

How an engaged newbie can become a top performer

I have been answering the question “How do I engage employees and improve collaboration?” in my post Make a newbie welcome and more engaged which covered how day 1 can be the right start for a newbie joining a business and how you can accelerate engagement over the first few weeks in my post ‘Make a newbie welcome and more engaged’.

I now want to pick up as the first year for the newbie shows they have become a top performer.  Let’s give this person a name (rather than ‘newbie’ or ’top performer’) from now on of Leslie.

Leslie is now a fully integrated, high performing employee at their organisation.  This hasn’t happened by chance or luck.  This is because of the way the organisation has provided the right environment to encourage a committed, engaged, productive performance.

Let us cover how Leslie has become a top performer:

Performance management

Leslie’s performance is measured on outcomes.  There are clear, agreed, measurable, objectives with a time line, budget and quality standard to be achieved.  They are challenging but not impossible to achieve all or most of.  The objectives are regularly reviewed with Leslie’s manager.  Progress is recorded and actions agreed to be reviewed at the next formal review or anytime in between if needed.  This approach is very successful because it gives Leslie the freedom to innovate.  It encourages decision making and is supportive when they don’t always work out.  (No decision is the worst decision to make?)

Collaboration tools

Having the right collaboration tools in place with a good governance framework in place has helped Leslie to use:

• discussion forums: Leslie has shown a real flair for sharing knowledge with other communities of interest and created a strong reputation across the business
• MyProfile: Leslie has used SharePoint 2010′s features to good advantage with Leslie’s skills, experience and current activities showcasing these to help other colleagues
• micro blogging: Leslie follows key people with similar interests and has cultivated a growing number of followers across other business functions with similar interests
• wikis: Leslie has learnt from the knowledge shared and increasingly contributed his views and experience which other people are valuing more and more
• blogs: Leslie’s blog is regularly viewed, frequently updated with new posts and has an increasing number of comments that add to the topic posted
• communities of interest: Leslie has joined groups with similar interests and contributed to the webinars, and online Q&As

Digital workplace

Leslie, Leslie’s manager and business colleagues all work from different locations, in fact some in different time zones and sometimes from more than one location each day.  Leslie is comfortable not going to a phyical workplace.  A digital workplace where Leslie is connected virtually has proved a great success.  Leslie has the tools to connect from a hub, home or while on the move.  Leslie is pleased this saves unproductive time, being able to keep in touch with everyone though the laptop, tablet and smartphone given by Leslie’s organisation.  Leslie knows the performance management system measures what Leslie’s output is while Leslie’s manager is contactable whenever needed.

My next post will cover how Leslie uses the digital workplace and collaboration tools for future career opportunities.