HR Building Block #4: 5 Secrets To Realising The Full Potential Of Every Employee

Startup HR

Mar 15

How many times have you heard leaders say that people are their greatest assets? Across business categories, studies have shown that employees are the key drivers of success. Their daily performance has wide implications on product quality, customer satisfaction, and profit margins.

Yet, few start-ups really translate this maxim into an actionable strategy to optimize performance. In fact, in the initial stages, many focus so much on rapid expansion and product development that they neglect to invest in human capital.

“Even if you are a rapidly scaling start-up, don’t grow at all expense and shelve human resource issues till later.”

Joelle Pang, general manager of FastJobs Malaysia strongly warns against this. “Even if you are a rapidly scaling start-up, don’t grow at all expense and shelve human resource issues till later. I was previously in a start-up that grew super quickly but without structure, and it was the messiest and most toxic culture I have ever experienced,” she recalls.

From compensation to goal setting and performance appraisal, here are five tips to create a powerful work culture that retains talent, maximizes staff potential, and amplifies your brand power.

#1 Design A Salary Framework

“One of the problems start-ups face is, they just bring in people quickly but the compensation structure is an absolute mess. Some people are paid twice as much for the same job.”

Remuneration is central to any employment agreement. However, according to ConnectOne director, Joanna Yeoh, “One of the problems start-ups face is, they just bring in people quickly but the compensation structure is an absolute mess. Some people are paid twice as much for the same job.”

“It is important to do a market benchmark – how much are these people worth in the market – and have some form of compensation structure in place. This maintains fairness within the organization, and also ensures external competitiveness when attracting and retaining talent,” she stresses.

Joanna recommends having a minimum, maximum, and median salary range for each level of work - junior, middle and senior. Using that as a guardrail in your compensation discussion, you may then factor in the candidate’s qualifications, experience, and last drawn and expected salary before making an offer.

#2 Set Goals And Objectives

In addition to fair remuneration, the onus falls on leaders to keep the organization and employees focused with clear goals and objectives. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are one of the most fundamental ways to highlight strategic objectives, focus resources, and set measurable targets. To be effective, these should be clearly communicated, fair, and mutually agreed upon from the get-go. For instance, these could include specific sales revenue or customer conversion rates.

That said in times of great transformation and growth, companies need to go beyond KPIs and harness the power of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Put simply, OKRs function as a compass for the entire company.

This holistic strategic framework consists of a few short, ambitious and inspiring “Objectives (O)”, followed by two to five “Key Results (KR)” that measure progress towards each “Objective”, and provide transparent and regular feedback and updates. OKRs have been adopted by some of the most forward-thinking companies such as Google, Intel, Amazon, and Netflix to boost alignment, collaboration, synergy, and agility for phenomenal expansion.

#3 Create Career Development Opportunities

Many employees today also place great emphasis on personal growth. High-potential individuals in particular want a developmental career path that is aligned with their goals. This may include opportunities to grow their responsibilities, run new teams and projects, or build new products.

Indeed, Siew Yuen Tuck, founder, and CEO of Jirnexu believes that aligning the employee’s and business’s goals is what results in the best performance.

“Aligning motivation is one of the things I spend the most time on when interviewing senior-level hires.”

“Aligning motivation is one of the things I spend the most time on when interviewing senior-level hires. I try to understand what that person wants from their career in the initial and long term. As long as you align on this, they will be naturally intrinsically motivated to perform well in their role,” he says.

Joelle notes that since many junior staff may not have the same clarity of goals, it is important for leaders to take the time to find out what interests and energizes them and match them with company-wide projects that allow them to explore these areas of interest.

It is also worth setting aside a budget for relevant courses to equip staff with the skills and knowledge they need to harness industry and technological advancements and foster a company culture of lifelong learning. In a 2018 Workplace Learning Report on LinkedIn Learning, 94% of employees said they would stay at their job longer if they felt the organization truly invested in their career.

#4 Rethink Performance Appraisals

Though most companies conduct performance appraisals, only 14% of employees strongly agree that these performance reviews inspire them to improve, according to a Gallup study.

Some studies further suggest that many employees do not consider these appraisals fair. One way to address this is to set clear and fair KPIs, and involve employees in the initial goal-setting.

Appraisals should also be a two-way process. Jirnexu for instance adapts Google’s Manager Feedback Survey for employees so that they may flag problems with poorly performing managers.

Another key factor that diminishes the effectiveness of yearly or bi-annual reviews is that feedback is usually not delivered in a timely manner such that employees may act upon them.

“Yearly performance appraisals should not be an exercise where your staff gets a complete shock. There is nothing worse than going in thinking you have done extremely well only to be told you have been falling short for the entire year. Frequent touch-points are important,” says Joelle.

“Yearly performance appraisals should not be an exercise where your staff gets a complete shock. There is nothing worse than going in thinking you have done extremely well only to be told you have been falling short for the entire year. Frequent touch-points are important,” says Joelle.

When complemented with regular, informal check-ins, leaders may shift the emphasis to improving performance and grooming talent rather than simply holding individuals accountable for past behavior.

“My boss spends an hour every fortnight to coach and mentor me. I found it so effective that I went on to implement this for my direct reports in Malaysia. I hope that this virtual cycle continues where my managers do it for their reports as well,” shares Joelle.

Self-appraisals are also useful to turn yearly reviews into key coaching opportunities. “They encourage employees to think about their strength,” explains Joelle. “Instead of simply taking this as a paper exercise, leaders should take time to validate and empower employees, and put them on courses or projects that help them develop their strength and competence.”

#5 Give Recognition Where Due

Positive feedback is an extremely simple and powerful tool. It instills pride, strengthens morale, and is one of the most cost-effective ways to motivate individuals and boost performance.

A 10-year study found that 66% of employees found “appreciation” to be a significant motivator of performance, according to “Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance”. So make positive feedback a key part of your company culture, create a platform for peer recognition, and reward top performers with a small cash prize, gift card, or time-off.

Whether you are at the initial stages of company building or in the midst of exponential growth, creating a performance-optimizing structure is well worth the time investment. It can go a long way towards transforming poor performers into your best workers, grooming top performers into leaders, turning managers into coaches, and unlocking each employee’s true potential.