Cloudriven Challenges Management Conceptions in Slush – “Forget the Stick. There’s a New Carrot in Town”
Most of the Finnish companies are managing performance from the past instead of looking into the future, claims Cloudriven’s CEO Jukka Koskenkanto. He says that companies should react to changes faster and invest more in employee engagement and motivation. Meaningful work and agility are not the sole privilege of growth companies.
Performance management is described in business literature as a process that aims to improve the performance of an organization, group or single employee systematically and purposefully. Traditionally the most important elements of the process have been performance appraisals, development discussions and daily management practices.
“The mere idea of being able to manage performance apart from the employees themselves is absurd. Success is built in our daily actions. In order to succeed, we need motivated and engaged doers, that is the right people, and the right actions”, says Jukka Koskenkanto.
Money and rewards can motivate the employees to a certain point, but the best motivator is the experience of meaningful work. In order for the work to be meaningful, employee has to commit to the values and strategic goals of the organization and understand the relevance of his own work in achieving the organizational goals.
Management model based on annual or semiannual performance reviews reacts too slowly to changes, and it doesn’t encourage and lead employees to take the right actions at the right time. The idea of development discussions is to get and give feedback, but feedback should be received instantly, not after six months. Instant feedback is the only efficient way of developing your actions, and you should also be able to get work-related feedback from your colleagues, not just your manager.
”Companies have focused on digging the past instead of learning from their own actions and adapting their operations accordingly. What should be done, is to lead the future actions, not just state the past mistakes when it’s already too late to change the course”, tells Business Director Antero Törhönen.
Antero and Jukka will be introducing Cloudriven’s new Habit for Performance Management product in Slush on Tuesday 18th November. Habit makes performance management agile and social and part of every employees’ daily work.
”Agility is not the sole privilege of growth companies. Even enterprises should be able react quickly to changes and inspire their employees for better performance. This was the starting point for the development of Habit”, Jukka tells.
Additional information:
Jukka Koskenkanto, CEO, +358 50 560 4607, jukka.koskenkanto@cloudriven.fi, @koskenkanto
Antero Törhönen, Business Director, +358 50 528 1678, antero.torhonen@cloudriven.fi, @TorhonenA