How do you evaluate your people management model?

1 Define your model

Evaluating your people management model begins with defining what it is and what it seeks to accomplish. Your model should reflect your leadership style, organizational culture, and business objectives, as well as be clear, consistent, and communicated to your team and stakeholders. Generally speaking, a people management model includes your vision and mission, values and principles, roles and responsibilities, processes and tools, and feedback and recognition. Your vision and mission should explain the purpose of your team and how it contributes to the organization's goals. Your values and principles should define the core beliefs and behaviors that guide your team. Roles and responsibilities should outline the expectations of each team member. Processes and tools should describe the methods used to plan, execute, monitor, and evaluate work performance. Lastly, feedback and recognition should detail how you provide constructive feedback to your team as well as how you reward their achievements.

2 Measure your outcomes

The second step to evaluate your people management model is to measure the outcomes that it produces. Outcomes are the results and impacts that your team delivers to your organization and customers, which can be quantitative or qualitative depending on your indicators and metrics. For instance, productivity and efficiency can be measured by how well and how fast your team completes tasks and projects. Quality and innovation can be judged by the quality of solutions and products delivered, while customer satisfaction and loyalty can be evaluated by how happy customers are with the services provided. Team engagement and retention can be assessed by how motivated and committed your team members are to their work. Finally, leadership development and succession can be determined by how much you are preparing team members for future roles and challenges.

3 Analyze your gaps

The third step to evaluate your people management model is to analyze the gaps between your model and your outcomes. Gaps are the discrepancies and shortcomings that prevent your team from achieving their full potential and meeting their expectations. These can be internal or external, depending on the sources and causes of the problems. For example, skill and knowledge gaps can arise if team members don’t have the necessary abilities, while communication and collaboration gaps could be caused by ineffective communication between team members and other teams or stakeholders. Alignment and engagement gaps can occur if team members don’t understand or share the vision, values, and goals of the team or organization. Additionally, feedback and recognition gaps might arise if team members don’t receive or give enough feedback and recognition to improve their performance and morale. Finally, leadership and culture gaps can occur when leaders don’t demonstrate or promote the values or behaviors they expect from their team or organization.

4 Implement your improvements

The fourth step to evaluate your people management model is to implement the improvements that you identify from your gap analysis. These improvements are the actions and changes that you take to enhance your team's performance and satisfaction, and can range from incremental to radical, depending on the urgency and scope of the issues. To improve your people management model, consider training and coaching opportunities for team members, more communication and collaboration channels, reinforcing or revising the organization's vision, values, and goals, introducing feedback and recognition mechanisms, as well as changing leadership style and behavior to better suit the team and organization's culture.

5 Evaluate your progress

The fifth step to evaluate your people management model is to evaluate the progress that you make from your improvements. Progress is the extent and speed that your team improves their outcomes and closes their gaps, which can be measured by comparing baseline data with current data, using the same indicators and metrics. To do this, you should consider surveys and interviews to collect feedback from team members, customers, and stakeholders; reviews and audits to ensure quality, efficiency, and effectiveness; reports and dashboards to track progress and achievements; and meetings and workshops to review progress, celebrate successes, and identify challenges.

6 Adapt your model

The sixth and final step to evaluate your people management model is to adapt it to the changing needs and expectations of your team, organization, and customers. This means updating, modifying, or replacing some or all of its elements to better suit the current and future situations and scenarios. You may need to consider how you can accommodate and leverage the diversity, dynamics, and development of your team members, how you can align and support the strategy, structure, and culture of your organization, how you can anticipate and respond to the needs, preferences, and feedback of your customers, and how you can adapt and thrive in a competitive, regulatory, and technological environment.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?