Managing other people is one of the hardest things we can be asked to do. Ask any manager and they will tell you it is the hardest part of their job. Even the most clever people I know struggle through it, and in many organisations the HR process offers little to help.

I've been a manager and felt how lonely it is to lead other people, manage competing interests, and deal with the frustrations when the HR process just becomes another thing to do, rather than it being a legitimate support for me to be a better leader of people.

There is a difference between a process for HR administration and a process for leading people's discretionary contribution. That does not mean that these two requirements are mutually exclusive from each other, because instilling a process that supports the hard part of managing actually gives a bigger return on the costs of HR administration.

Organisations have an obligation to provide those tasked with the difficult job of leading others with a workable process that is not only about complying with the law, but is genuinely about nurturing effective relationships and bringing out the best from people. That is where The H Factor comes from, and why we focus on the performance side of the employment relationship.

On the other side, our friends over at Outsourced Payroll are there to help with the transactional requirements (eg rostering, payroll, and superannuation) of employing people.

From a performance perspective, the trust, respect, and care that a team has for their manager is known to be one of the biggest influences on overall team performance and a driver of employee turnover. Systems and processes that genuinely support managers in their role therefore have a direct impact on the success of the organisation.
 
One of the most effective ways to support the role of managers is the intentional development of interdependence, rather than independence. Highly effective teams thrive on interdependence, where members build upon each other's strengths, rather than performance being dependent on the whim of a few independent super-heroes.

Interdependence was a key consideration in creating the deliverables review process in The H Factor. That process encourages people to think about their contribution to business outcomes, and provides a mechanism for ongoing communication and feedback. It is far more powerful than the traditional task assessment process that is so typically used as a performance review. It is a supportive tool for leader's to empower rather than direct, and fosters collaboration, open communication, and a shared sense of purpose.

Another consideration in supporting those being asked to lead others is a process for driving activity in the present moment, through having effective performance indicators.

Think about these two questions, and pay attention to your reference point from which you contemplate your answer:

• Are you successful?
• Is your team successful?

When contemplating those questions, were you thinking about the past, present, or future? We often think about success like it's something that will happen or has happened, rather than something that is happening here and now. The questions were asked in the present tense, but many people answer them from a perspective of the past or the future.

This matters, because if we think success is in the past, then we may think we don't need to change the present. If we think success is something that will happen in the future, then we may be tempted to wait and see what happens. We might defer our effort and overlook the effort or practices we can do now. 

A common trap to fall into when setting a key performance indicator is to set the result - the target or goal that we want to achieve in the future. So we don't see ourselves as successful until that goal is achieved - which most of the time turns out to be untrue. Often that future result is not entirely within our control, whether that be due to the state of the economy, the decisions of other parties, unforeseen business situations, or other external influences or circumstances.

So often I've looked back on something that didn't work out as I had initially hoped, and been able to appreciate that my energy and efforts were worthwhile. The target was helpful but achievement of it was not the only measure of success. 

The problem with tying our success only to achieving a future goal, and therefore to setting key performance indicators, is that we make it hard to discuss progress ahead of time. I can be putting in enormous effort, but not being effective, but I won't realise that until a future time, or I under appreciate the value of resilience in applying my work because I sense the achievement of the goal is so far away. Then I might miss the opportunity to make the little adjustments to my effort, or my approach, that could be the difference in my effectiveness.

As a leader, by focusing on the result, I may not notice the need to give the helpful intervention that makes my team's effort, or their approach, more effective.

So a better way to set key performance indicators, or whatever other name you want to give them, is to step back from the goal and focus on the effective activities that will most likely help you, your colleague, or your team achieve the goal. If we identify those activities, and think about how can we monitor the energy being put into them, and the effect we are achieving from that effort, then we create the opportunity for effective timely intervention.

Frequency of the review is important then because when the focus is on the activity rather than the result, then we are no longer just adopting a 'wait and see', or an 'over to you' approach to achieving the goal. We are in it together, and the role of the review process is mutually recognised and appreciated, and therefore is valued time and energy for all parties. 

Putting all of this another way, if you managed a football team, would you employ a coach whose approach to achieving success was to wait for the result of the season before they set a plan for each player? It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

So, for example, you may want to change the KPI for your sales team so that it isn't their monthly budget, and instead enables more effective present and honest assessment of their energy in the activities that will help them achieve connection, generate leads, show your business capabilities, and convert sales.

You might also reconsider applying an annual review process, and look for a system that supports managers to give frequent feedback and helpful intervention.

When we bring our perception of success into the present, then we can focus those we lead on their current activity and practices, and guide and support their conscious decisions about their current discretionary effort.

The H Factor's 'My Deliverables' review process is designed to facilitate this approach. It is designed to support managers in leading performance across an organisation. When combined with the built-in tools for training, policies and procedures, career development planning, and team's activity management, it provides a powerful resource. It helps organisations achieve an interdependence culture that powers working together confidently and effectively.

Consistently applying a review process that is frequent, founded on business outcomes, and based on supporting everyone's capacity for contribution across an entire organisation has a compounding impact. It is a defining characteristic of the most successful teams. 

Get a cup of tea and a biscuit, settle in, and contemplate the world or work for a few minutes.

The current professional landscape often feels like a rigid machine, demanding conformity and increased specialisation. It leaves little place for those with curiosity and the desire for exploration - which are fundamental traits of the human condition.

But what if the key to unlocking joy, productivity, and resilience lies in embracing the opposite?
Enter the philosophy of the "Wonderful Wave" - a management methodology that celebrates quirks, encourages the pursuit of diverse knowledge, and empowers people to be a unique asset in the professional world.

Organisation's that surf the Wonderful Wave are those that innovate and build resilience, through giving people a safe place to explore - and demonstrate - their potential. This might seem at odds with the prevailing sentiment that values laser focus on specialised expertise, and excessively focuses on the risks of difference but hides away from the results of stagnation and wasted potential.

My good friend Vee came to visit me in the office yesterday. We go back many years, as our careers crossed paths across the various roles we explored. We came from different academic disciplines, but have had many shared experiences , working in the same company, and afterwards as we built our own businesses. Over all those years we have established a close and trusted confidence.

Our conversation turned to an interesting observation. Those many years of crossing paths show up on our career odometer. We've travelled the distance through small businesses to corporate roles, to owning our own businesses, and for Vee, a planned strategic business exit so that she now finds herself joyously free to pursue whatever takes her interest. In that pursuit, she happened to find herself in a casual conversation with a recruiting consultant.

The Pigeon
This is where the pigeon comes in. She was taken aback when, despite her significant experience and expertise, the consultant told her that he would struggle to find a fit for her in a recruitment process. He told her something about square pegs and round holes, but he really meant that he didn't know how to put her skills and experience into a nicely packaged pigeon hole.

So that ended their conversation, and so when she came over for a cuppa and a debrief, she was a little bewildered at how apparently in just a few short weeks she had somehow gone from a very successful professional to somebody that would be a perceived risk to an employer. I observed that I have seen this in my work and it seems that increasingly jobs are pigeon holes in organisations, where cross disciplined skills, experience across industries and sectors, and good old curiosity are seen as a potential distraction rather than a strength.

The Fish
Vee talked about how some of the best people we've ever worked with are quirky and don't quite fit into their job titles. They are typically engaging and bring a different perspective, are resilient, and bring a curiosity about the world. It used to be described as juggling fish; a characteristic where a person can be quirky, often knowledgeable, and may be a bit frightening to manage.

In truth, we all have some of those characteristics, and the best managers bring out the best in us. They encourage us to be who we are, and embrace the possibilities that arise.

Why the Fish? Fish symbolise creativity and adaptability. They navigate their environment with grace, and just flow with the unexpected. Juggling, on the other hand, represents the art of keeping multiple tasks afloat. It's a perfect metaphor for the juggling act we all perform at work – deadlines, meetings, emails, and creative problem-solving.

Riding The Wonderful Wave

The Pigeon and the fish are both, paradoxically, essential to healthy workplaces. As employers increasingly embrace diversity, the opportunity is to find the wonderfully weird that can thrive in uncertain times and find strength in the very aspects that might be downplayed in old school workplaces. It recognises the strength in:

Quirky Personalities: Your unique approach to problems and ability to think outside the box can be a game-changer.

Cross-Disciplinary Skills: The ability to draw on knowledge from various industries fosters innovation and allows you to tackle challenges from fresh perspectives.

Good Old Curiosity: A thirst for knowledge keeps you adaptable, engaged, and constantly learning - invaluable traits in a dynamic world.

Never Giving Up: Those that nurture persistence in problem solving, accepting setbacks, and exploring new work-arounds and creating resilience, are those that thrive. This resilience prevents creating change for the sake of change, because issues are understood, and challenges are expected, and one solution is seen merely as a pathway to the next, better, one.
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Imagine a world where the most creative solutions come from those tasked with delivering them. This is the power of the Wonderful Wave. It's about leveraging the unique blend of human experience in your team to become a powerhouse of productivity and joy in your work.

So, how do managers find the Wonderful Wave amid the realities of the workplace?
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1. Job Description - Focus less on tasks, and more on skills and outcomes
The Job Description outlines the (a) job details, (b) job deliverables and outcomes, and (c) skills. The process of creating job descriptions is highly valuable in itself. It creates clarity for managers about the reporting structure in the team, and how activities are divided up amongst the team. They make it easier to identify the best talent for the business and reduce recruitment costs, and provide the foundation for an ongoing productive employment relationship.

​2. Performance Reviews that encourage curiosity, exploration, and negotiation
When you re-focus the job description it enables a different conversation about performance. Talking about ratings against tasks has been demonstrated to be ineffective in encouraging innovation and solutions. 

​A performance review that encourages negotiation about accomplishing things is way more enjoyable for everyone, and is more effective in driving engagement and contribution.
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Conversations about performance ideally lead to decisions, because a person must decide to change where required to improve.

3. Codebook
The Codebook serves as a centralised hub to access the Policies, Procedures, and Training Manual. 

Policies establish the overarching guidelines and principles that govern an organisation's operations. They provide a clear understanding of the organisation's purpose and values, and the rules for action, interaction, engagement, governance, and decisions.
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​Procedures outline the step-by-step processes for carrying out specific tasks or activities within the organisation. They provide relevant instructions to perform tasks efficiently, safely, and in compliance with established policies. Procedures can include checklists, forms, audio, and videos that help somebody work through the task or activity.

4. Induction
Induction, the process of onboarding new hires, can be a powerful tool for employers to bridge the gap between the "Wonderful Weird" philosophy and the realities of the workplace.
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An Induction activity can be anything that you want the employee to know or do during their onboarding to the business. It can be linked to The Codebook so that there is one source of the truth., or be independent of it. Induction activities can also include pdf attachments, videos, and images.

​A New Payroll Solution

Payroll from just $11 per employee.

It used to be a bookkeeping process, but these days payroll requires detailed knowledge of Awards, employment standards, and Fair Work legislation.
​
Outsourced Payroll is our sister company with solutions for employee rostering, payroll, salary compliance, employee entitlements, and time and attendance.

Most HR software is a tool for policing compliance; with laws and regulations, or with tasks and KPIs. The issue with that is that the key to success isn't merely compliance - it's contribution.

We wanted to create a platform for people to contribute to business objectives. We wanted to create a system that encourages people to connect and engage with business objectives and find their way of contributing to them.

Modern workplaces are complex - there's many different ways people work together, as well as rigid laws that add business risks.

The challenge is in nurturing a performance culture - where the right things happen, at the right time, to the right standards.

Organisations that embrace delegation and decentralised, empowered teams typically perform better than those which operate under centralised command and control. They tend to be more innovative, responsive, have happier clients and employees, and have stronger financial results. 

We designed The H Factor around these objectives. 

We made it with the tools for compliance with Fair Work in a way that builds individual initiative, creates accountability, and creates a hub for your performance culture.

From the job offer onwards the system is designed to give everyone the tools they need to succeed. For managers, it enables a comfortable reliance on team, process, and skill.
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Lets take compliance off the table, so that the critical business conversations can be about contribution.

Employment Offer and Contracts:  
In the H Factor, you can create a pre-defined and legally compliant offer letter templates with placeholders for specific information like salary, position details, start date, and benefits. This saves time and ensures consistency across offers.

​Employee Induction:
Induction activities set up by managers provide new employees with a more detailed understanding of their department's policies, procedures, and expectations. It can also include job training where new employees learn the specific skills and knowledge they will need to achieve their job deliverables.

Structured Performance Review: 
In The H Factor system, the two types of conversation are treated separately:

(1) My Deliverables is the structured review of the job deliverables, with self assessment by the employee and review of that assessment by the manager, which we recommend is held every 6 to 12 weeks, depending on the nature of the work, experience of the employee, and time the employee has held the position.
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(2) My Plan is the higher level structured review of the employees aspirations and opportunities, which we recommend is held every 6 or 12 months, depending on the career stage of the employee.

Empower and Engage
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Delegate tasks using Teams:
Delegating tasks effectively can be a powerful tool for managers and leaders to improve productivity, empower employees, and achieve better results. This fosters trust and ownership.
Teams encourage collaboration for a project or tasks assigned to employee/s. It can be used for tracking all the activities and progress for a project or task that was assigned to employees. 

Every team member can see what others are working on, fostering collaboration and keeping everyone informed. It also helps to ensure that the team is constantly learning and improving. By reviewing progress regularly, the team can identify areas where they can improve their processes and make changes as needed.

Invest in training and development using The Codebook:
Equip employees with the skills and knowledge they need to perform their roles efficiently. This can include training on company policies, HR processes, and new technologies. Your policies, procedures and training manual can be created in The Codebook. 

Promote open communication using Culture Survey: 
​Encourage regular communication between management and employees. The Culture survey is a tool for higher level leaders, where they can see how employees perceive the culture being fostered by those who manage them. This gives insights into the management behaviours that can be nurtured to achieve a productive and psychologically safe workplace culture.
Employees can only complete the survey once in any 3 month period. The answers to the questions are kept anonymous. They cannot be seen by managers and are only used in summary form for business reporting. This information helps management to better understand how things are going in the business - from employees perspective.

Data-Driven Decisions

Performance management:
The H Factor system tracks progress and identifies opportunities for skill development. This helps employees understand expectations and improve their performance.

Start the performance review process on the right foot by ensuring everyone understands their role and what's expected of them.

Prior the performance review conversation, employees are required to update their job deliverables and indicate how they are progressing and the status. They will engage in a collaborative discussion with their manager to review their performance against established goals, identify areas for improvement, and develop a plan to achieve success.

Leverage data analytics using Insights: 
You can use Insights to gain insights into your workforce, this includes (1)Actions Summary, (2) Outcome Deliverables current status, (3) Summary by business area of the status of outcomes deliverables, and (4) Management Culture Assessment.

Unlocking the power of delegation
Every leader relies on the performance of others, and just like a sports coach, they can't be everywhere on the field playing the game. It's so much easier if there is a process for managing people that recognises and channels their talent and capability.

​Check Our Free Knowledge Base

The H Factor knowledge base is a useful free resource for understanding employment best practice.

Access it from our website​.
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We'll be continually reviewing, updating, and adding to it.

A New Payroll Solution

Payroll from just $11 per employee.

It used to be a bookkeeping process, but these days payroll requires detailed knowledge of Awards, employment standards, and Fair Work legislation.
​
Outsourced Payroll is our sister company with solutions for employee rostering, payroll, salary compliance, employee entitlements, and time and attendance.

In this edition of Change Agent, we want to bring you up to date with our changes.
​This is what we've been working on, and why we think it's important.

In our business we've entered a new era, but it's still all about effective empowerment.

Employee empowerment as a concept is not new. Many organisations talk about empowering their people, but their HR processes often get in the way. For true employee empowerment, managers need a better tool for delegation. 

We are excited to introduce the updated The H Factor system, designed to encourage thriving working relationships.

We want to change work. We want workplaces to get out of the win/lose framework and transform them to being places of self- accountability, learning, growth and the shared human desire for accomplishment.
The H Factor goes beyond traditional HR processes, focusing on putting employees in command of the business deliverables, to empower both employees and employers. It encourages an entrepreneurial mindset, and that is especially good for growing businesses.

Benefits of a self-service system
In this context, self service means employees taking ownership of their job deliverables, through a simple negotiation process that the software facilitates, within the parameters of defined business objectives.

Job ownership
Employees can easily demonstrate their contribution and accomplishments. They can update their goal progress in real-time enabling them to monitor their progress and adjust their efforts as needed.
Employees can view their goals, tasks, performance metrics, and development plans, giving them ownership over their career paths.

Leveraging autonomy
The H Factor enables employees to define and manage their job deliverables within the system, granting them control over their workload and schedules.
Employees communicate their own key performance metrics and keep their managers updated on the barriers, allowing the mutual identification of areas for improvement, and ways to adjust their approach. It creates a culture of no surprises, more effective collaboration, and a safe level of autonomy that is aligned to the employee's experience and knowledge.
Using The H Factor enables the trust necessary to expand employee autonomy as their managers don't lose visibility, influence, or oversight.

Greater understanding of, and commitment to, roles and accountabilities
Leadership can step in as micro-managing steps out.
Employees and their managers share a common view of the job deliverables. Everyone knows why they are there. With clear roles and accountabilities, employees have a better understanding of the context and impact of their decisions - and managers can more easily guide them on business priorities.
It acknowledges the role of managers so that delegation becomes easier.
And by understanding how their role contributes to the bigger picture, employees align their work directly with business goals.
Everyone can see their place in the organisation chart, and how they fit in with the work of others.
Transparency around roles and expectations empowers individuals to identify and pursue opportunities for growth and development within the organisation, rather than feeling the need to look elsewhere.

Structured review processes
There are two types of employee review in the system; one is a review of their performance of the job tasks and activities (a deliverables review), and the other is a higher level conversation about their career direction, aspirations, and workplace needs (a career development discussion). 
Giving a place for setting goals and tracking progress creates a structure t