PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

ISSUES AT DIGITZ (PVT) LTD

By: Aimun Shahab
Date: 19 Dec 2013
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Digitz is a full service digital media marketing agency
The company has recently been partially bought by IAL
SAATCHI & SAATCHI (30% stakes).
Clients like P&G, Unilever, Engro Foods, Reckitt
Benkiser, LU, Tapal Tea, GSK and National Foods.
Provides web designing, social media marketing, mobile
marketing and interactive digital media marketing
services.
Digitz organizational goals are mainly threefold
1. To capture a larger market share of digital media
industry expand its client base
2. To be the top most ranking digital agency in Pakistan
3. To deliver cutting edge and innovative solutions to its
clients and retaining existing ones.


Digital marketing is gaining importance in Pakistan
since 2008
local and MNC firms leverage the power of social
media and mobile marketing to increase sales and
build their brands.
Key players in digital media marketing industry and
market shares
Creative
Chaos
29%
Lane 12
14%
Digital
Symmetry
24%
Digitz
24%
Others
9%
HR AT DIGITZ
There is no formal HR department at Digitz as yet.
The hiring decisions, training and performance &
compensation management decisions are taken by
the head of relevant departments, CEO and COO
Digitz is structured across teams of technical,
creative and client service executives over seen by
the Senior Account Manager having the
responsibility of managing existing clients.
Entire teams are rewarded with bonuses after the
yearly client satisfaction feedback survey
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AT DIGITZ
Department chose to study: Account management/client
services
No formal performance management system or process
in place
PM review meetings done between employee and
supervisor and top management on quarterly basis
without formal performance appraisal forms.
Annual performance reviews conducted to give out
bonuses and promotion to high performers.
Personal career development plans discussed in annual
reviews with only those employees who top
management deems as high performers.
Company wide recognition such as Employee of the
Year award given out to the top performer.



DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
DATA COLLECTION METHOD AND SAMPLE SIZE
Method of data collection: Questionnaire
administered to employees and interview with CEO
Sample size: 6 Account managers, 2 creative
executives, 2 graphics designers/IT support
employees
Questionnaire administered to:
1. Find the level of employee satisfaction with
current performance management system
2. Future turn over
IMPACT ON ORGANIZATION
Employee dissatisfaction stemming from
performance management process and lack of
clear goals
There is a lack of feeling of equity and fairness in
the meetings.
Possibility of high turnover in the near future.
Constant changes in Account managers make the
clients uneasy since they have to brief the new
account managers and get accustomed to them.
high turnover and lower employee productivity can
result in loss of clients/market share of Digitz which
can hurt its growth and profitability.

PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED
FISH BONE DIAGRAM ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
RECOMMENDATIONS
# 1: ESTABLISH PERFORMANCE GOALS AND
COMMUNICATE THEM TO THE EMPLOYEES FROM
THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR
Corporate goals should be used to establish Account Management
Department goals.
The Senior Account Managers should develop goals and KPIs for
account managers keeping in mind the job description and corporate
goals. The top management or Chief Operating Officer should review the
KPIs developed to ensure they are in line with corporate goals.
The performance goals need to be clear, concise and quantifiable where
possible. Competencies should also be measured and be made a part of
KPIs and performance goals. Weightage need to be assigned to each
performance dimension.
Develop a clear definition of high performers, average performers and
poor performers on the basis of the extent to which performance goals
are met and aggregate performance rating:
Aggregate rating of 125% and above High performers
125%- 75% - Average performers
Less than 75% - Underperformers
Communicate KPIs to employees at the start of their job and revised
goals need to be communicated and agreed upon periodically.
CORE PERFORMANCE GOALS AND WEIGHTINGS

GOAL Weightage
1. Use contacts to add 1 new client in 6 months to Digitz portfolio. 10%
2. Creating client pitches along-side Creative department and contributing 2 creative ideas on average to each
pitch
30%
3. Resolve client complaints in ongoing project within 24 hours 10%
4. Monitor project execution and prepare and send weekly status reports for all ongoing projects every Friday
before closure of business
20%
5. Research, outline, write, edit and proofread materials, specifically monthly content calendars at the beginning of
each month for Facebook and Twitter with zero grammatical and English errors.
20%
6. Presenting new campaign ideas and budget to the client and successfully convincing the client to execute the
campaigns 2 out of every 6 presentations made

10%
CORE BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES AND
DEFINITIONS


HIGH, AVERAGE AND LOW PERFORMERS DEFINED
Performance Goals High performers (rating = 3) Average performers (rating = 2) Low performers (rating = 1)
1. Use contacts to add 1 new client in
6 months to Digitz portfolio.
Adds 2 clients in Digitz portfolio in
6 months or less
Adds 1 clients in Digitz portfolio Makes no addition to clients
2. Creating client pitches along-side
Creative department and contributing 2
creative ideas on average to each pitch
Contributes more than 2 creative
ideas to 90% of the pitches made.
Proactively shares global case
studies with creative dept
Contributes more than 1-2 creative
ideas to 80% of the pitches made.
Shares global case studies with creative
dept when pitches are being made only
Contributes more than 1-2
creative ideas to less than 80% of
the pitches made. Shares global
case studies with creative dept
only when instructed to do so.
3. Resolve client complaints in
ongoing project within 24 hours
Complaints resolved within 24
hours 95% of the time.
Gets ratings of 3/3 on
problem/complaint resolution by
the client in client satisfaction
surveys.
Complaints resolved within 24 hours
80% of the time.
Gets ratings of 2/3 on
problem/complaint resolution by the
client in client satisfaction surveys.
Complaints resolved within 24-48
hours less than 80% of the time.
Gets ratings of 1/3 on
problem/complaint resolution by
the client in client satisfaction
surveys.
4. Monitor project execution and
prepare and send weekly status reports for
all ongoing projects every Friday before
closure of business
Prepares reports and send them on
time 90% of the time.
Less than 5% delays in sending
Errors in reporting less than 5% of
the time
Prepares reports and send them on time
80% of the time.
10-20% delays in sending
Errors in reporting 10% of the time
Prepares reports and send them
on time less than 80% of the time.
More than 20% delays
Errors in reporting more than
10% of the time
5. Research, outline, write, edit and
proofread materials, specifically monthly
content calendars at the beginning of each
month for Facebook and Twitter with
zero grammatical and English errors.
Prepares calenders and send them
for client approval on time 90% of
the time
Less than 5% delays in sending
Zero grammatical errors
Prepares calendars and send them for
client approval on time 80% of the time
Less than 10% delays in sending
1-5 grammatical errors
Prepares calenders and send them
for client approval less than 80%
of the time
More than 10% delays in sending
More than 5 grammatical errors
6. Presenting new campaign ideas and
budget to the client and successfully
convincing the client to execute the
campaigns 2 out of every 6 presentations
made
Successfully convinces clients
more than 50% of the time
Successfully convinces clients 30-33%
of the time
Successfully convinces clients
less than 30% of the time
# 2. NEW PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
CYCLE
Develop a
performance
agreement ,set
goals and
communicate it
to the employee
Employer and
employee sign it
off
Plan
Performance
review and
rating
discussions
between
employee and
employer
Periodic
revision of
goals
Quaterly
Review
End of year
performance
review
Rewards based
on performance
ratings
End of
Year
Final
Review
After EACH quarterly review meeting KPIs may be revised so
that the employee knows what is expected of them and where
they need to improve and what new targets they will be
assessed on in the next quarter.
Peer review should be made a part of the performance
management process to assess the ability of employees to
work in teams effectively and deliver client expectations.
Supervisors should document manually or digitally the
employee performance according to the defined goals on a
daily, weekly or an event-wise basis using a log book either
digitally or manually.
These performance logs should be used to rate the
employees performance in the appraisal form.
Periodic or daily coaching of employees needs to be done my
supervisor
End of year review should be a confidential, free from
personal attacks (use sandwich technique to highlight
weaknesses or gaps to employee) meetings where the
employee should be given performance ratings according to
the goals defined only. Training needs to be done of
supervisors in PM process


PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL FORM AT DIGITZ (Pvt) LTD.
Department Account Management
Employee Name
Supervisor Name

Rating Scale
Under
Performer
Average
Performer
High
Performer
1 2 3
Performance Goals Weightage
Supervisor
Rating Weighted rating
Behavioral
Competency
Superviser
Rating
1. Use contacts to add 1 new client in 6
months to Digitz portfolio.
10%
Continuous
Learning and
Improvement

2. Creating client pitches along-side
Creative department and contributing 2
creative ideas on average to each pitch
30%
Ability to mutli task

3. Resolve client complaints in ongoing
project within 24 hours
10%
Interpersonal skills
and strong written
and communication
skills

4. Monitor project execution and prepare
and send weekly status reports for all
ongoing projects every Friday before
closure of business
20%
Entrepreneurial and
creative spirit

5. Research, outline, write, edit and
proofread materials, specifically monthly
content calendars at the beginning of each
month for Facebook and Twitter with zero
grammatical and English errors.
20%
Problem Solving

6. Presenting new campaign ideas and
budget to the client and successfully
convincing the client to execute the
campaigns 2 out of every 6 presentations
made
10%
Nill Nill
Total Performance Goal Rating

Total Competency
Rating
50% 50%
Overall Performance Rating

Supervisor
Signature COO Signature
# 3: DESIGN A
FORMAL
PERFORMANCE
APPRAISAL FORM
ACTION PLAN

TASK
SCHEDULE RESPONSIBI
LITY
OUTCOME

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
1
Set and communicate
quantifiable SMART
performance goals to
Account managers

Top
management
and
Supervisors
Clarity of performance
criteria for employees
2
Periodically make changes
to the performance goals in
quarterly reviews

Periodic assessment of the
employee's KSAs and
career development
3
Conduct quarterly
performance review
meetings

Periodic assessment of the
employee's KSAs and
career development
4
Conduct final performance
appraisal meeting

Compensation and
promotion of employees
based on their final score
in performance appraisal
form
5
Superviser to make formal
and written note of
employee performance
according to defined KPIs
on a daily basis and coach
accordingly

Supervisor
Help justify performance
ratings given to employees
in review meetings
Employees feel that
supervisor is interested in
their performance and
career promotion; they feel
they are being treated
fairly and are happy with
the working conditions
THANK YOU!