Making Future Leaders | Numan Aly

Can organization afford to leave future leadership to chance?

The biggest quality of any true leader is to create other leaders. It is indeed a fact and feels very nice and professional to narrate it but critical question to ask is when it comes to doing it, are people doing it in reality?

Future of any organization is based on the actions performed in present to ensure leadership & business continuity. Developing & implementing a leadership development program to strengthen the skills of the current “to-be-leaders” & ensure a stable pipeline of future leaders is what needs to be done.

Change is the only constant and it is happening fast, and many companies don’t have multiple layers of management expertise to deal with such issues as compare to emerging competition, digitization, globalization, technological advances and continuously developing business models.

According to the DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2018, when the top leadership was asked to name their biggest challenges, 64 percent executives said, “developing next generation leaders.” 

Numan Aly (www.numanaly.com) is a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) who has conducted multiple talks on this topic. You can check out his LinkedIn profile. Numan Aly has also uploaded multiple useful motivational and informational videos at his YouTube Channel.  He is the HR pro who translates organizational vision into HR initiatives that improve performance, productivity, growth by enabling, engaging and empowering people and organizations. You can also follow Numan Aly at Twitter & Facebook 

Organizations must improve the mechanism of selection & developing future leaders. Due to intensive changing nature of today’s work & environment, the past behavior of someone is not good indication of future expectations. Different tools that are used to get insights into a leader’s present behavior i.e. feedback tools, discussions, interviews etc. needs to be updated or changed entirely when it comes down to gauge the ability to deal with problems. Organizations needs to adapt futuristic approach to get better prediction about leadership qualities e.g. putting next line of leadership into different simulations related to different business cases. New technology demands new ways of learning. It is becoming very critical that organizations ensure personalized but relevant learning opportunities with pure focus on business context are made available to employees. Only an effective leadership development program can help an organization achieve its business goals and financial success.

Review of “Performance Review Systems”

The Performance appraisals and reviews are an essential and imperative part of work. With ongoing learning process, it is learnt that traditional performance appraisals are not that successful in positively influencing employee behavior. A study conducted in 1996 on behalf of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) found that over 90% of appraisals were judged to be ineffective. In an old-style performance review, the manager typically meets with an employee once a year and in under an hour attempts to get through the necessary review forms with focus on the employees’ recent job performance & not the previous 12 months work. As a result, an overall dissatisfaction with such system by both the employer and the employee is mirrored reasons being the appraisals/reviews are too infrequent resulting in demotivation.

Is Performance Review Needed?
Regardless of issues with system and critic by people, there are several valid reasons to reflect the need of performance appraisal/review system. Such process focuses on staff job performance in relevance to agree upon objectives or goals. It identifies the employees’ contributions toward organizational goals, shows areas of improvements, personal developments need etc. Such review systems help in making decisions about promotions, training and staffing needs. On top of that there could be several legal reasons for a good appraisal program.

Real-Time / Continuous Performance Feedback:
Speaking about the current fast-paced work environment, organizations know that employees want an environment that inspires a continuous discussion between employer and employee. Staff need continuous performance feedback. They want to be recognized and rewarded for their achievements and want feedback about performance, so they can make changes as suitable, if needed.

My Two Cents:
Real-Time & continuous helpful communication from supervisors is a main stimulus. Make staff realizes that they are important part of organization, let them take ownership and keep them motivated. The performance review process must be updated with time and meet today’s dynamic work environment requirement. It must be participative, fair, mutually discussed and agreed upon & identify areas of improvement.

Numan Aly (www.numanaly.com) is a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) who has conducted multiple talks on this topic. You can check out his LinkedIn profile. Numan Aly has also uploaded multiple useful motivational and informational videos at his YouTube Channel.  He is the HR pro who translates organizational vision into HR initiatives that improve performance, productivity, growth by enabling, engaging and empowering people and organizations. You can also follow Numan Aly at Twitter & Facebook

Providing employees with continuous feedback in a timely and supportive manner is at the is the answer. In my view, traditional performance appraisals/reviews are good to go with but with addition of frequent communication & feedback throughout the year and most probably with quarterly review of objectives aligned with overall organizational objectives. Inspiration taken from : www.bestpracticeinstitute.org

HR & Blockchain

Blockchain …? What is it Anyway?

The blockchain is a peer-to-peer network of ledgers that encrypts and stores blocks of data and digital history and can be viewed and verified by anyone in the network. Every time new data is added it extends the ledger’s chain of blocks.
The public nature of blockchain is what makes the technology unique, said Tim Griffiths, chief technology leader of Xref, an automated reference checking company in Sydney, Australia.
“Every time you add data to a block it is confirmed by the network,” he said. For example, a university might verify completion of a degree, or an employer could confirm dates of employment. Once data is added to a ledger, it is updated across the network. Ledgers can be added to but not altered, ensuring information remains safe and uncompromised — if someone tries to alter a ledger, everyone else on the network is able to see it, Griffiths explained. “It guarantees the data is certified and can’t be manipulated.”
Ref: (www.workforce.com)

HR & Blockchain

Blockchain technology is soon going to change the manner in which HR professionals deal with all sensitive data.
That has big implications for HR, said Jeff Mike, vice president and HR research leader for Bersin by Deloitte. “The reason it is relevant is that blockchain creates the potential for personal data to be owned by the individual rather than the organization,” he said.
This refers to the fact that every employee could potentially keep control over his/her entire academic and work identity, including where they went to school, their grades and degrees, and their work history and training. “It would be more secure and more portable, moving with the individual instead of getting stuck inside the organization,” he said.

As a cross-industry disruptor, blockchain technology has the potential to reshape the HR technology landscape
(Deloitte)

Blockchain’s decentralized network of computers authenticates and automates the flow of information. That makes it a reliable system that stores data while cutting out the middleman. This is the reason that it could completely disrupt the way HR professionals work.
If we fully utilize blockchain’s capabilities, the technology will create more accurate and effective approaches to just about everything in HR. From big-picture areas like hiring and taxes to smaller scale tasks like payroll, there are so many important human resources applications that blockchain will change.

Numan Aly is a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) who has conducted multiple talks on this topic. You can check out his LinkedIn profile. Numan Aly has also uploaded multiple useful motivational and informational videos at his YouTube Channel.  He is the HR pro who translates organizational vision into HR initiatives that improve performance, productivity, growth by enabling, engaging and empowering people and organizations. You can also follow Numan Aly at Twitter & Facebook

Possible usages of blockchain

• Verifying and assessing the education, skills and performance of potential recruits – enabling those recruits to be allocated to the most appropriate roles.
• In turn, giving people a comprehensive, trustworthy blockchain-based record of their education, skills, training and workplace performance.
• Managing cross-border payments and employee mobility, including international expenses and tax liabilities, with the potential for organisations to create their own corporate currencies.
• Boosting productivity, such as by automating and reducing the burden of routine, data-heavy processes like VAT administration and payroll.
• Enhancing fraud prevention and cyber security in HR, including both employees and contractors.

Blockchain could shake up the world of work. On one level it could revolutionise HR processes, but it could also transform workforces - the skills needed, secure value transfer and transparency to name a few
(www.pwc.co.uk)

References taken from:
·    www.pwc.co.uk
·    www.workforce.com
·    Deloitte