The client
Our client on this assignment was a leading insurance company employing over two hundred people.
Situation
Though the client's employees were largely performing as required, it was felt that beyond the company’s clarity of financial performance targets most other areas were not getting much attention. This, the business felt, was gradually compromising sustainability.
This was a matter that the client had tried to address in various ways for some time. After several years of conducting management, technical and other training for its staff, it was felt that the company’s skills development initiatives were not having as great an impact on the company’s operations as it may have been desired they do
The reason was simple, though not immediately discernible: in most cases, employees did not have performance targets relating to service quality, process improvement, or people management, and therefore only focused on their clearly spelt out financial targets. This was beginning to hurt the business especially because as competition increased, so did the singular focus on financial performance, sometimes at the expense of other important areas in the business.
Client requirements
Through the Managing Director’s office, the business sought to re-define the company’s strategic performance framework so that it articulated the company’s performance expectations in all areas in terms that all staff could understand, interpret and deliver against in their day-to-day work.
The client felt that implementing the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) would address the issue at hand, and went out looking for a competent advisory partner with whom to work on implementation of the Balanced Scorecard in the business. Needless to say, they did not get it right first time.
Our approach
Our involvement on this assignment started with the development of the company’s corporate strategy, which entailed our engagement with the company’s board and senior management. It was this plan that any scorecard in the company was subsequently supposed to demonstrate performance against.
Next, we translated the corporate balanced scorecard into functional performance plans and balanced scorecards, and thereafter the functional performance plans and balanced scorecards into role performance plans and balanced scorecards for each role in the business.
The entire process was an interactive, participatory process, which apart from engaging all employees, and therefore obtaining their buy-in, also significantly increased their capacity for strategic thinking and performance management.
Significant outcomes
The client fully adopted the balanced scorecard performance management process and has since been using the related management tools for performance planning, performance review and performance evaluation at corporate, functional and individual role levels.
CLIENT later went ahead and integrated the company’s reward management policy with the balanced scorecard performance management process.
ARTEMIS Transition Partners
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