“WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET TECHNOLOGY DRIVE THE PROCESS.”

Company manufactures and markets chemicals, fibers and plastics worldwide and is the world’s largest producer of PET polymers for packaging and a major supplier of cellulose acetate fibers. It developed its performance management process as a way to ensure growth in the face of competitive threats from China and other countries. The company was founded in 1920 and wanted its 11,000 employees to develop into high performers who would remain with the company and fuel its growth. In 2006, the company had sales of $7.5 billion.

Eastman’s performance management process has been a work in progress for a number of years. The company’s attempts to use off-the-shelf solutions from a variety of vendors met with failure because the processes did not fit the corporate culture and practices.
Eastman is now proceeding with a home-grown system that was conceptualized several years ago.

What is key for the company is the output of the process – performance improvement and an indicator of the employee’s performance. Software solutions were too far apart from Eastman’s process, though a lot was learned by piloting TEDS and looking at other systems, like SuccessFactors, before going to the company’s own system. Eastman’s system is simple and user-centric and avoids much of the HR-speak that managers find hard to deal with.

Conceptually, the integration of all the pieces that comprise talent management into one technology solution makes sense, and it is a goal for the future. But that isn’t standing in the way of creating a performance management process that makes a difference.

The Organization

Eastman’s Talent Management group (TM) which reports to the senior vice president of human resources, is concerned with the whole range of efforts involved in selecting, developing, rewarding and recognizing people throughout their careers. The Leadership and Business Skills Development group that is part of TM is responsible for performance management, leadership development & succession planning, and learning and development. This group also focuses on performance consulting, or taking a systems approach to performance improvement.

The Process

Defining performance management means defining performance first. At Eastman, performance equals the results plus the behaviors. Inputs to the performance management process include:

• Job expectations
• Current year goals
• Competencies and behaviors
• Development plan

The performance management process is in its third year. The process enables the company to evaluate employees and determine what they need to keep the company working as a high-performance organization. Managers are starting to see the value of the process, and it shows. Their yearly Gallup employee engagement survey indicates that the dialogue is getting better and more open, and managers are starting to understand what their people want and need.

The Future

Phase One was developing a Leadership Development System (LDS), of which performance management was a part. Phase Two will include integrating every process within the Leadership Development System and creating one technology solution. This will enable the entire process to be brought together and made simple so it can be placed into the work flow and not be disruptive. Nothing new is going to be introduced and the focus will be on better execution, understanding, and integration into the manager’s job. The ultimate vision of the LDS is to get the right people in the right jobs, with the right skills, working on the right things, within the right environment.

For more Performance Management-related information, visit performance.corpu.com.