Getting Ahead: Integrating Learning and Performance for Mid-Market Business Growth

Cornerstone has been focusing a lot this year on serving the specific needs of mid-market organizations trying to move forward in the face of momentum-depleting macroeconomic conditions.  Everyone defines the “mid-market” a little differently, but for us it means companies with about 250 to 3,000 internal employees. That’s still quite a range and the challenges faced by organizations at either end of that spectrum can vary widely.

Despite these variances, we still hear a constant stream of chatter and some pretty consistent issues and themes from our mid-market clients and other companies we talk to everyday.

The CEO’s challenges are clear these days – How do I simultaneously grow the business, keep costs down, and spur innovation? There are lots of different ways to try to crack this tricky nut and each organization is looking for the right balance of expanded investment and financial risk that will allow them to traverse today’s turbulent economy.  These challenges are especially difficult for small and medium sized business leaders, where every investment must be weighed carefully against the survival of the organization. 

In this context, we all-too-often hear business leaders talking about how talent is a critical factor for the future success of the organization, yet still fail to invest in processes and tools to manage and grow that talent effectively. Will the companies that actually walk the walk be the ones who surge ahead on the back of well-managed and aligned talent as a competitive advantage?

How to Get There from Here

In a recent webinar we conducted with the Brandon Hall Group, Stacey Harris outlined the steps HR Leaders must consider when building a business case to convince decision makers that spending company resources on talent management processes will provide greater value than any number of other competing internal priorities.

Stacey addresses the crushing pressures business leaders are under to drive growth at almost any cost. Organizational talent can (and must) absolutely be leveraged as a driver of this growth and there are many ways to approach this:

• Improving performance

• Expanding talent capabilities

• Creating a flexible workforce

• Engaging your workforce

• Creating ownership and drive

Attending to your performance management strategy cannot be considered a “nice-to-have” HR process buried in the background somewhere. Josh Bersin’s 2009 Talent Management Factbook points out that “organizations with such processes have experienced less downsizing, have lower turnover among high performers and have nearly twice the revenue per employee as organizations with no formal or consistent performance management practices.”

Twice the revenue per employee?  That sounds like a kernel of knowledge that an HR leader could rightly bring to the CEO to make a compelling business case.

Learning and Performance Management for the Mid-Market

Performance management technology solutions aren’t just for large organizations; these tools can also help mid-market companies with:

• Improving efficiency and compliance: Automation helps managers to provide constructive feedback to employees on a more frequent basis, in less time. Manual processes are error prone, and errors could lead to serious compliance issues.

• Making performance reviews relevant: Technology can transform performance management from a once-a-year event into an ongoing process that also includes development plans and learning opportunities.

• Maximizing productivity and paying for performance: Top-performing employees are valuable assets. Technology solutions can nurture better performance, focus individual efforts on key business strategies, and make it easier to recognize and reward superior performance.

We think you also need to take it one step further.  Cornerstone sees integrated employee learning and performance at the center any successful initiative to feeding business growth and achieving the type of aggressive organizational goals outlined above.

Learning drives performance at every turn in Cornerstone because business alignment alone and performance appraisal in isolation is not good enough. Training and development make performance appraisal actionable, succession planning meaningful and career pathing functional.

In other words, measuring employee performance is only the first step. Employees need a way to develop knowledge and skills that allow average performers to become top performers and drive that doubled revenue per employee that the Bersin research indicates.

Growing Your Mid-Market Organization (Even in Tough Times)

The Brandon Hall Group webinar taught is that growth is possible even in difficult economic times and that this growth must be focus on value creation, global shifts, innovation efforts, and knowing your customer.

One of the best places to start leveraging talent as a source of competitive advantage and future growth is in the area of integrated learning and performance management.  This is the core where employee behavior, motivation, alignment, and support all come together.  The right process boosted by the right technology will make a difference that goes to the bottom line.