In this interview with authority Magazine, Rachel Kline interviews Exemplary Performance President Jaime Torchiana , where they dive deep into the 5 essential elements for creating a successful employee onboarding experience. As President of Exemplary Performance, Jaime helps client organizations drive business results by benchmarking their star performers and architecting high-performance systems that replicates their results. Read the full article here on medium!

Exemplary Performance’s Jaime Torchiana Featured in LTEN Focus on Training Magazine

High performing managers see hiring AND successfully on-boarding new hires as one of the most critical things they do to add value to the organization. We did extensive case-based analysis of high performing leaders in a large, high tech company and identified six key accomplishments that were critical to their success. “Qualified new employees, with shortened time-to-competence” was the third key accomplishment we identified that clearly drove greater business results for our client. ( Click here to read the first two.) We found total alignment of all components of the Exemplary Performance System (EPS) were extremely necessary to produce this accomplishment. Let’s look at our model: Capacity and Job Fit: Clearly new hires need to have the capability to succeed in role. The talent acquisition process needs to clearly determine that a candidate has the requisite talent. Motivation and Preferences: The talent acquisition process also needs to ascertain that a candidate has an inclination or motivation to perform the type of work required by the role. Skills and Knowledge: A structured system needs to be in place to measure the new hire’s current skill level and provide role-specific training to close any gaps. Expectations and Feedback: Role expectations need to be accomplishment-based; not simply behaviorally based. New hires need to know what they must produce, not simply what tasks they need to perform. Rewards, Recognition and Consequences: These sub-systems need to align with results, not just activity. Environments, Systems and Resources: The culture, work processes and so forth need to provide direct support to the new hire, enabling that individual to succeed without struggling to identify and obtain the right resources and tools. The Exemplary Performance System

Recently Exemplary Performance (EP) studied high performers from a pool of over 12,000 managers in a major high technology company. We helped this company identify the managers whose teams consistently produced exemplary results. EP then interviewed these managers to capture how they were able to generate and sustain high performance. Based on these interviews, we produced a Profile of Management Excellence (PoME) which included the key accomplishments, excellence indicators, critical tasks and other data*. The PoME data served as the design specifications, allowing us to architect a management performance system that had measurable impact on key metrics such as revenue, cost of sales, employee retention, employee engagement and customer satisfaction. The managers that we interviewed crossed all functional areas of the company – sales, product development, procurement, legal, and so forth. EP was able to identify six major accomplishments that these high performing managers produced to drive greater business results. These accomplishments were: Accurate and appropriate measurement and tracking of individual and team performance. A team performance system where direct reports are supported in doing their best work. Qualified new employees with shortened time-to-competence. Consistent progress of direct reports toward career aspirations and development plans. Well-developed and highly competent direct reports and team. Group and team operational direction, excellence, and continuity. Let’s look at the first accomplishment. The high performing managers in this company demonstrated that it was critical to accurately and appropriately measure and track individual and team performance. They used the following Excellence Indicators to judge how well they were doing: Over time, the manager’s internal employee satisfaction results improved or remained at high levels. Direct reports demonstrated consistent growth in compensation and were given appropriate promotions. Reviews resulted in a fair and objective assessments for each direct report. Yearly goals for each direct report aligned to organization and corporate priorities and included stretch goals. Here are some of the Key Tasks that the high performing managers used to produce that first accomplishment: Review and analyze employee survey results, management feedback, and ad hoc survey/scores to develop an appropriate team action plan. Guide direct reports through discussions to define annual commitments. Manage underperforming direct reports to ensure business results are not compromised. Discuss group performance and health in regular team meetings. Given the data captured in the profile, EP then worked with the client to systematically architect several components of the overall management performance system such as hiring (job descriptions and hiring guides), skills and knowledge (on-boarding, performance support and continuous up-skilling), recognition and rewards (compensation, circle of management excellence, etc.) and leadership (precision coaching tools). All system components were architected and aligned to mutually support the results defined in the Profile of Management Excellence. This is an example of one major accomplishment that high performing managers in this company had in common. EP will focus on the other five accomplishments in the upcoming months. Meanwhile, as you look at your management practices, make sure your leaders have established and are implementing a system for tracking their team’s performance. Reach out to EP to help as you architect a high performance management approach for your team, department or enterprise. info@exemplaryperformance.com.

Bet you thought ‘talent’ equals ‘high performance’. Whoops! That’s a flawed assumption…but you’re not alone in such thinking. When we encounter true talent – the musical prodigy, the athletic wunderkind, the business genius – we are awed. How do they do it? We think to ourselves, “If only I had been born with those gifts, I would be a star too.” We all labor under the assumption that there is a defined and limited supply of talent (innate ability) and that only a few individuals have what it takes to become true stars in their professions. While this assumption may hold some validity for Olympic-level athletes and top tier entertainers, the flaws of applying such a broad assumption to the workplace are easy to identify. For example, most of us still buy into the assumption that our success (the organization’s and our own) is wholly dependent on how many high performing stars we are able to hire and retain. We search frantically for these extraordinary individuals (we even call this search the ‘war for talent’) and then rely on this limited number of star performers to drive the success of the entire team. How about stepping back from this assumption long enough to test EP’s researched alternative. Let’s test the assumption that an organization’s talent curve does not predetermine its performance curve. In other words, our experience across multiple clients in disparate industries shows that it is possible to replicate the results of your stars without replicating their innate talent and ability. Geoff Colvin, in his book entitled Talent is Overrated (Geoff Colvin, New York: Portfolio, 2008)) makes the following points based on his synthesis of years of research: Talent [innate ability] does NOT account for the variance in performance seen in music, athletics, or business Intelligence and memory do NOT account for it either The single largest contributor to exemplary performance is deliberate practice. Perhaps you’re saying, “Timeout! Are you telling me that I can succeed in my business with people who are not talented?” Not at all. What I’m saying is this: the exceptional results that are consistently produced by your exemplary performers are not dependent on talent alone! Talent explains some of the results by these high performing individuals, but it is not the whole story. Let’s fill in the significant gaps in the old talent-centric narrative and create a new narrative that leads to a much higher portion of the workforce producing exceptional results.