Team Improvement

Individual and team improvement is a a major goal for all organizations. Businesses are always looking for ways to improve their human capital, and ultimately improve the success of the organization as whole. Organizations have to be able to utilize tools such as workforce scorecards and dashboard to evaluate where their organization as a whole stands, but also where each department or team stands. Workforce Scorecards are tools that help evaluate where the skills are being used most effectively, and what areas need to be developed more (Cokins, 2009). This tool can be utilized by executives to help strategically plan the direction the organization is going to go.  Dashboards are visual representations of the performance measures the organization has developed (Cokins, 2009).  Effective performance measures must be developed that align with the strategic initiative of the organization (Rothwell, 2013). The dashboard is a way to visually show employees and investors where the organization stands, such measures could be the total revenue for the day, or the amount of products sold for the month. These are used to see which areas departments and teams need to develop their skills. Scorecards can be used as a “why” something is happening a certain way, and the dashboard gives you the visual representation of that data (Cokins, 2009). Although these are create tools to utilize, Person explains the importance of making these tools clear, concise, and easy to understand (Person, 2009). If employees and investors are not able to understand the tools properly, they will not be used effectively.

            To promote team improvement tools such as this must be used in the business world. Companies have to be willing to put in the time to develop the skills of their human capital. Organizations that are willing to utilize tools such as these, show their employees and investors that they are willing to put in the time necessary to fix their shortcomings. Not only must the organization be willing to research to determine where their organization is at, they must be willing to put in the funding and time needed for the development of their human capital. Implementing a strong and effective training and development program can aid in this. Organizations have to be willing to focus on the individual growth of their employees.

            If an organization sees, for example, that a team within their sales department is not meeting their quotas they have to develop a plan of attack. This plan should involve individual evaluations. These evaluations can be used to determine if it is the entire team that is struggling or if it is just a few individuals. During this evaluation, it will also be easy for the organization to determine what specific area needs development (i.e. product knowledge, sales knowledge, etc.). At which point the organization can develop their “plan of attack”. A training schedule, as well as expected outcomes must be clearly defined and communicated. There must also be steps put into place if certain individuals do not reach those goals. Ultimately to promote team improvement, before, during and after must be thought about. What expectations are not being met currently, what needs to happen for those expectations to be met, and how can we evaluate and monitor those expectations in the future. Once all those questions can be answered then the plan for team improvement can be addressed and implemented.

Below are some steps explained by Person on how to effectively build a balanced scorecard.

Cokins, G. (2009). Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics [VitalSouce bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781118798607/id/a9780470449981c06-sec1-0002

Person, R. (2009). Balanced Scorecards and Operational Dashboards with Microsoft Excel. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Technology Pub.

Rothwell, W. (2013). Performance Consulting: Applying Performance Improvement in Human Resource Development [VitalSouce bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781118923214/outline/13.