EDP on paper is probably not the future

At Musskema.dk we talk to dialogue seeking top executives, management groups and HR personnel on a daily basis, because they want to optimise the returns on the many hours spent by the organisation on the EDP process. EDP can be very effective, but there are several issues that can get in the way for making the most of it:

• In a lot of places, too little emphasis is put on the preparation, so the actual interview is characterised by impulsive thoughts
• Many people forget to do the importantfollow-upwork once the action plan has been filed in the staff records.  
• And some lack a guiding light throughout the interviews – or an explicit connection to the strategic needs and skills requirements of the organisation.
• The practical handling of the process can also be heavy in places, and it can disrupt an HR department entirely for several weeks.
• And finally, you will often encounter managerial groups who sit back after the process is completed without any real overview or understanding of how the process actually worked… Did things really move in the right direction?

There is where a lot of people say something like the headline of this post: ”EDP on paper is probably not the future”. When people are unhappy with EDP in general, it is almost always because of one of the five issues mentioned above.

But EDP is an amazing management tool, if the five issues can be avoided! And several of them can be avoided just by doing things more systematically. BUT reality tells us that is might be too ambitious to believe, that managers and employees can solve all this just by being more focused and systematic! It just won't happen! Not because managers and employees don't want to prepare and follow-up on all the agreements – but because most managers and employees are busy enough during an average workday, and so all the good thoughts from the EDP interview basically fades away because you're busy doing other things.

The solution is, quite simply, to digitise the EDP processes. Not just by making a printable template which may be printed – and scanned back in for digital storage. But by digitising the entire process, preparation, follow-up minutes, reminders by e-mail, graphic overviews of agreements, competences, progress etc.

The close to 500 organisations who are using Musskema.dk just now all get:

• Assurance that their employees have prepared in good time before the interview.
• All agreements made during an EDP interview are supplied with a specific deadline – and the system sends out automatic remindersto managers and employees.
• With a competence web, the managers can achieve a common focus on the strategic competence needs of the entire department or the organisation in order to ensure a guiding light throughout all the EDP interviews. You can read about how UNICEF raised the bar by using this approach.
• The role of the HR departments changes from handling stacks of paper to doing the more strategic work of ensuring, that the competence agreements are in accordance with the future needs of the organisation.
• After the process the management can compare departments and units on charts which are automatically generated by the system. In this way a common awareness of the results of the annual EDP process can be created – as well as an awareness of where there is still a need for managerial focus and action.

It sounds simple. And it is.