With more than 300,000 employees across the globe and 150 years of doing business in Africa, GE is no stranger to introducing innovative new technologies to the market. GE has proven that not only does it inspire innovation in the products and services it offers, but also encourages innovation in the management and evolution of its employees across the globe.
Susan Peters, GE Global Senior Vice President of Human Resources, addressed HR professionals from leading innovation companies in South Africa, at the GE Africa Innovation Centre in Johannesburg. Her message was clear: GE has totally overhauled the way it conducts performance management for its employees by introducing an innovative new app, PD@GE.
Gone are the days of strenuous annual performance reviews, tedious employee ratings and time-consuming feedback sessions. Now, management and employees at every level of the company can quickly and effectively provide feedback on performance by phone, tablet or laptop.
PD@GE provides a contemporary, powerful way to accelerate employee growth and development in real time.
“PD@GE provides a contemporary, powerful way to accelerate employee growth and development in real time. Innovation moves at an incredible pace. If we want to stay at the forefront of innovation, we need to build a workforce that is simpler, faster and better,” said Peters.
With the new system, managers still engage with employees at the end of year. The difference is that they are now able to act as coaches and mentors who continuously guide employees in the right direction to achieve their goals.
One of the reasons for the app’s success is the provision of consistent feedback on the employees’ performance development goals throughout the year. The app allows each person the opportunity to provide insights and considerations across various projects and tasks within the company to generate a rich set of data related to the employee’s unique contributions and impact throughout the year.
The new application also encourages engagement between managers and employees, and drives participation aligned with the company’s goals. The new system is more motivating, encouraging and still drives managers to make informed employee management decisions.
The result is that people are working across multiple directions without sacrificing the employee, manager relationship. You start the year with specific goals and priorities, but these priorities can change throughout the year.
It is clear from the positive feedback provided from employees across different divisions in the company that the PD@GE app is working. GE’s global workforce has embraced the new performance management platform.
“These tools are part of what we call our leadership philosophy. We believe that every individual in our company is a leader. Every leader has the responsibility to get better all the time. Now, we can monitor their progress as it happens. The power of the collective getting better is what it is all about,” said Peters.
