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Top Companies Stay Aligned with an "Annual Health Check"
Top
companies are taking an "annual health
check" to stay aligned with company
goals and customer needs. For many, implementing
Persona's Organizational Alignment Survey
(OAS) every year has become a competitive
imperative.
The OAS assesses employee perceptions across
12 customer-focused dimensions and provides
recommendations for aligning the organization
and improving performance. "I am using
the OAS with virtually every new client,"
says Jim Earl, President of Persona affiliate
Personal Management International.
"Leading companies are using the OAS
on an annual basis," Earl explains.
"They may implement the OAS the first
time because they are going through a merger
or buyout, when a new management team is
taking over, or to check how they measure
up internally and against world-class companies.
They continue to use the OAS because it's
the best way to stay aligned and on track
to becoming a world-class organization."
Measurable Improvement
Earl recently completed a third OAS for
the Asia Division of $11 billion global
pharmaceutical manufacturer SmithKline Beecham.
The division conducted its first OAS three
years ago as part of its "Simply Better"
performance improvement initiative.
Based on OAS results, managers gave more
attention to a few customer-focused dimensions
that needed work. "We just completed
a third OAS for SmithKline's Asia Division
and found that the organization had improved
13 percent on average over the prior year.
We believe it's because the division focused
on the specific areas uncovered by the
OAS," Earl says. The company intends
to use the OAS on an annual basis.
"We
found that the organization had improved
13 percent on average over the prior year."
Organization-Wide
Consistency
"It's also important that we are able
to offer the OAS in a variety of languages,
such as Japanese, Mandarin, and Thai,"
says Earl. Because of this, global companies
such as SmithKline Beecham can use the OAS
to create consistency and alignment across
a variety of geographies and cultures.
Tool
for New Management
Earl also helped Tokyo Disney implement
its first OAS when an incoming general
manager wanted to get to know his new
organization and obtain a true picture
of Disney performance. The company is
preparing to implement the OAS for a second
year.
"The OAS is a tool to help organizations
find out how they're doing," says
Earl. "When an annual OAS shows improvement,
that's useful information. If it shows
no improvement, that information is just
as useful. We know that when organizations
have the 12 dimensions working effectively,
they produce better results. By conducting
the OAS annually, companies are able to
focus on spe-cific dimensions to achieve
overall improvement."
"When
an annual OAS shows improvement, that's
useful information. If it shows no improvement,
that information is just as useful."
Competitive Benchmarking
An increasingly competitive marketplace
first brought General Casualty Insurance
Company to the OAS. This major U.S. insurance
organization wanted to know how its eight
locations were performing compared to the
industry's best.
Leo Bartlett of Persona affiliate The Bartlett
Group, Inc. explains, "The OAS is one
of the few ways that companies can obtain
truly accurate benchmarking data. For General
Casualty, we went into our international
database and compared their results to those
of world-class companies."
Based on OAS benchmarking, the company is
working on management practices and has
restructured the human resources department
to be more responsive to internal customers.
The benchmarks will also help corporate
and branch task forces measure improvement.
General Casualty plans to conduct their
next OAS in 18 to 24 months.
When corporations discover the "annual
health check" that the OAS delivers,
they also discover ways to create world-class
performance that can be sustained year after
year.
WHAT THE OAS MEASURES
The OAS assesses performance in 12 areas.
When these dimensions are working effectively,
organizations are aligned, more productive,
and more profitable:
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