Productivity Improvement
Management Planning and Control Systems
Step 3. Evaluate results, give feedback and coach
The third step is most effective when steering controls are selected. With these controls, forecasters of the results can also be used for early warning that specific actions may be required.
For example, high morale is a popular goal but one that is difficult to measure. Forecasters such as number of accidents, absenteeism, and employee turnover may be evaluated together and serve as a surrogate measure for increasing or declining morale.
However, careful evaluation must be used. If the accident rate increases rapidly in the production area, it would suggest declining morale when a significant increase is caused by employee carelessness. However, if the cause is related to equipment that suddenly wears out, then there probably is not a relationship between accident rate and low morale.
It is essential that managers carefully evaluate deviations before taking action. It is also important that they remember that deviations can be positive as well as negative and that they reward employees for positive deviations. Unfortunately, this step is often omitted and only the negative aspects of deviation receive attention.
Who should receive feedback from this evaluation and how often should it be offered?
- The person who is accountable for accomplishing the standard should receive the information first.
- The employee's boss, or whoever is in a position to reward the employee should receive the information at about the same time or a little later.
- Then peers, staff people, subordinates. and other line people can receive the information. At this time, the boss ought to have some suggestions about how to get back on course if the employee needs help.
The boss's most important job is coaching subordinates. and a good planning control system provides an excellent framework for such coaching.
Feedback must be reliable, relatively frequent, and prompt. The feedback has to be reliable for the employees to be able to change the behavior or plan in order to get on course. Frequency of information has to do with the interval for which data are received.
If, for instance, costs would not normally get out of control in a short period, then monthly reports might be adequate. On the other hand, a delay of six months might allow the situation to get so far out of control that it would be too late to take corrective action.
Sometimes prompt feedback can create problems. Today's computer-based control systems can provide feedback on a real time basis, but such speed can be harmful from a behavioral standpoint. This kind of speed causes undue pressure because there is no time for the manager to use discretion and make changes.
A company director recently described his company's "outstanding" planning-control system. He proudly explained a feedback system that provided information on a continuous basis to every employee concerning his or her progress toward a numbers goal. 'When numbers weren't being made, more pressure was applied.'
Employees were confused because there was no plan to change, and consequently, standards and objectives were not changed. The company had a standards-control system based on numbers: but objectives, plans, evaluation, and coaching did not exist. It is this sort of system that causes low morale and unethical and illegal behavior - all in the name of control.
