Lessons for a Successful HR Review with a Development-Oriented Approach

  The HR fleet review—also known as a workforce review—is an important HR and management tool, for example, for team development, strategic workforce planning (SWP), or working toward sustainable employability. The key is to quickly and efficiently collect and consolidate the right data in order to conduct high-quality analyses. How do you do that?

What is an HR fleet review?

The term “fleet review” is a legacy of the Netherlands’ rich maritime history, during which the fleet of ships was inspected, often by (high-ranking) officials from shore. In the field of HRM today, it refers to a qualitative analysis at the team level. This is intended to identify the development opportunities for teams and the organization. The focus is primarily on the role and potential of employees within the overall development of the team and the organization. For the personnel review, a variety of information regarding employees’ performance, expected development potential, and-for example-their deployability is compiled. Analyzing this data can yield valuable insights into current and future teams or departments. By continuously monitoring staff development, plans, actions, and HR interventions can be implemented and adjusted in a targeted manner. For this reason, the HR workforce review is often used to support team development, sustainable employability, and strategic workforce planning (SPP)—as well as to ensure these priorities are firmly established on the organizational agenda.

Greater Insight Through a High-Quality Assessment Tool

The fleet review is essentially a methodical approach to accurately map out employees’ existing knowledge, talents, and competencies and align them with the desired knowledge, talents, and competencies within the organization and individual teams. The review is usually conducted by the management team, guided and supported by HR. This often takes the form of a discussion between the line manager and an HR advisor. During this discussion, the competencies, performance, and growth potential of all employees are reviewed-both individually and as a group. It is, therefore, first and foremost a qualitative assessment tool, based on the judgment of (usually) the manager. If necessary, additional measurements that are less dependent on individual judgment may also be conducted. After the assessment, employee results are categorized-for example, as “high potential,” “high performer,” or “low performer”—though this classification can also be more focused on existing and desired competencies or roles within a team. Presented in a matrix or on a modern HR dashboard, the results provide insight into the quality of a department, management team, or organization. They also reveal where gaps in the workforce currently exist or are likely to emerge. Such an HR review is often conducted once a year or every two years. It is usually aligned with the objectives of the HR review cycle.

And then what?

The results of the workforce assessment are valuable for the organization’s development plan and for providing targeted coaching or support to teams and individual employees in their development. They also help elevate employee reviews or evaluations to the higher level of a modern performance cycle. The structured overview provides quick insight into, for example, employee performance, development potential, or employability. This makes it a solid foundation for discussions about employees’ roles and development-and about what they can do, want to do, and are actually doing. Due to its evaluative nature, the personnel review is not an “absolute tool,” but its predictive nature makes it a valuable tool for guiding employees and conducting effective development discussions. It begins with managers’ assessments of employees and their room for growth, but over time, an increasingly reliable picture emerges-especially when considering past experiences, current competencies, and future potential.

Key Challenge: Collecting Data

To conduct a thorough assessment, a key challenge is efficiently gathering the desired characteristics needed for the intended analyses-such as employees’ and teams’ talents, pitfalls, and performance. Modern tools can help quickly integrate the required data from various sources. One example is the Analytics tool (from hrmforce), which was developed for this purpose and creates the desired overview based on questionnaires. Analyses or reports can then be generated quickly. The results can also be displayed on a dashboard, such as average scores, distribution across the organization, or performance evaluations. Many organizations use this tool to work toward the intended competencies within their workforce in a cost-effective manner and, of course, to support team development or SPP. Collecting data based on questionnaires is efficient and powerful because there is no “one-size-fits-all” format for conducting a workforce assessment. Of course, there are certain themes that almost always come up, but different organizations may want to emphasize different aspects. These might include themes related to job performance, existing knowledge, training, competencies, or desired potential. This can be done, for example, using the HR3P method for SPP. In addition to the topics necessary for organizational policy and team development, the review can also address issues that are current and relevant to a specific team or department.

Benefits of an HR Health Check

The insights provided by an HR fleet review can be valuable in various areas. These are key benefits that organizations often cite:

1. The ability to manage more effectively and strategically based on specific characteristics and development needs of the workforce.
2. Identifying factors that determine employee productivity and, based on that, implementing improvement initiatives.
3. Managers and HR gain (ongoing) insight into the performance and capabilities within the workforce to address them in a targeted manner.
4. Strengthening the appropriate deployment of employees by matching them to job profiles or demographic characteristics.
5. Gain new insights through data analysis. With greater visibility into what is happening within the workforce, the causes and areas for improvement can also be better identified.

 

Transforming the Workforce Assessment into a Development Approach

The impact and added value of the workforce review-in addition to providing greater insight-are strongly determined by the follow-up actions that result from it. This requires a development approach with concrete interventions following the review. This contributes to the growth of employees and teams. Various development strategies and HRM interventions are conceivable to align the corporate strategy with team goals and employees’ personal goals. In doing so, don’t focus primarily on the “top” or “bottom” of the workforce, but rather on the much larger middle segment. It is often within this “peloton” that the greatest gains can be made. Look for learning and development approaches that suit the employees in question, and when providing support, also take into account the various stages of team development. Educational psychologist Bruce Tuckman identified a five-stage development process that most teams follow to achieve better performance. The fleet review is valuable for supporting all phases of team development-from the initial orientation through the final Adjourning phase. The various TeamScans or the TeamView team development tool may be able to assist with this.