Customers » Case Studies » The Office of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu - culture as a foundation for performance management
Case Study
Results:
On engaging the users
"We had some really cute reactions: people wanting to customize their gummis, change the colours and so on. It’s light-hearted, fun and it captures peoples’ imagination – they really enjoy interacting with it."
On greater control of the process
"We have much higher levels of review completion now: the ability to see at a glance who’s completed reviews and send out reminders from inside the system is a real time-saver."
On improvements over pen & paper
"Sonar6 has the real ‘wow’ factor. If you’ve only ever done pen and paper reviews, Sonar6 is a huge eye-opener. It’s really dynamic – you can see how your people rate, and see the effects of individual changes on your entire organisation."
On encouraging the performance conversation
"There’s much more thought going into the reviews now, rather than people just filling in a form and sending it off. Sonar6 is helping people become more organized and prepared for conversations around their performance."
On improved accountability
"With Sonar6, we can quickly see which managers and teams are performing well and which need more guidance – and we can take action before it costs us time and money. We can also track the performance of our learning and development initiatives and make sure we’re getting good results."
On a vision for the future
"We needed a system that would capture Ngāi Tahu’s vision of Mō tātou,ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei (for us and our children after us): one that could deliver the big picture of talent and inform strategies not just for the next 10 years, but well into the future. Sonar6 gives us the depth of information we need to develop for the next generation."
On living up to the hype
"Does Sonar6 deliver on its promises? It does everything you say in your brochures!"
The Office of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu - culture as a foundation for performance management
Throughout NZ’s South Island there are 18 local rūnanga (local councils) whose elected representatives make up Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. Established in 1996, this governing body is accountable to tribal members: servicing the tribe’s statutory rights and ensuring Settlement benefits grow for future generations.
The Office of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu manages administration and monitoring, and delivers social and cultural programmes on behalf of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. The values and principles of Ngāi Tahu are the pillars upon which the Office’s organisational culture are founded. And as such, they need to be ‘front and centre’ in all HR processes - especially performance management.
The existing pen and paper system wasn’t delivering the goods, and with the need to accommodate strong Ngāi Tahu values, it seemed an uphill battle to find a system that would meet the Office’s requirements. But Justine Whitaker, General Manager People and Performance, already had a solution in mind when she moved into the role: “I knew things were going to change. It was just a matter of when.”
Environmental Factors
The Office had a typical pen and paper system in place, with 6-monthly reviews creating mountains of paperwork and the usual complications. The process was inefficient and the information gathered not particularly helpful for management or employees. It was a cumbersome, slow, ‘unfun’ process with minimal engagement from staff.
And if the paperwork problems didn’t create enough work, the Office was also struggling to get staff engaged in the review process.
“One of the unique challenges we face is encouraging people to be forthcoming about their performance. Our organisation’s culture is quite humble and staff can find it really difficult to discuss their achievements. We needed a way to make the process a lot less daunting.”
The Office had a big task ahead; needing to find a performance management system that could deliver the goods while meeting the needs of a very unique group of users. First port of call was Implementation Consultant Suzie Valentine, whom Justine had previously met through Sonar6’s work with HR solution provider Sheffield Ltd.
“Suzie was key in the process” says Justine. “I requested her specifically; I knew we’d work well together and she’d actively debate our requirements with us. It wouldn’t just be a straight software implementation, more an iterative process with a lot of consultation.”
“I basically gave her a list of requirements and asked “Can Sonar6 deliver?” Even if there were things we wanted to do that weren’t in the system yet, Suzie was able to suggest changes that would make it work for us.”
So did the Office consider other performance management systems? The answer: an emphatic ‘no’.
“We didn’t need to” says Justine, “Sonar6 was it.”
Requirements
The basic list of requirements for the new performance management system seemed straight forward. It had to:
- Fit with Ngāi Tahu’s culture
- Be scalable
- Provide value for money
- Cover both performance against objectives and behaviours
- Allow a top-down view of rate of capacity building
- Give the Office the opportunity to appraise the ROI of training / development initiatives
- Show both the ‘what’ and ‘how’
Because the Office works on behalf of the wider community, it was extremely important that the new system give great return on investment.
“The more money that goes into the administration, the less we have available for the community. So we need to be able to account for every dollar, and make sure we’re getting measurable results from every initiative we implement.
Says Justine “I knew what could be done, having seen Sonar6 in action at Sheffield. So I called Suzie and we met to discuss requirements.”
Sonar6 Solution
The Office was going to be using Sonar6 in a unique way, as staff performance needed to be evaluated on observed behaviours rather than against objectives. So the first major undertaking was translating Ngāi Tahu values into behaviours that could be measured as part of a performance review.
“Not an easy task,” comments Justine. “take one of our values, Manaakitanga, which means supporting, taking care of each other, being hospitable: how do we make that into a measurable action?”
With such a heavily customized implementation, it’d be easy to concentrate solely on getting the technical aspects nailed down. But Sonar6 went above and beyond; delivering support around the system implementation that eased the transition for the Office
“We got a lot of advice on rolling the system out and managing that change for our people. It wasn’t just about the technology – we designed processes around introducing Sonar6 to staff, consultation, training. We’re really thrilled we got to benefit from Suzie’s implementation experience.
“Of course there were a few teething issues getting Sonar6 to work the way we wanted, but they were all resolved quickly and we ended up with a system that does everything we need it to.”
And the killer feature? Something really tiny, but with huge impact.
Says Justine, “We were delighted we could use macrons in v3. Sonar6 understood how important macrons are to Ngāi Tahu and they added this feature to the system really easily. The essence of our Iwi is transmitted through language, so omitting the macrons is is the same as spelling a word incorrectly. Sonar6 understood this: v2 didn’t have macrons, but we asked if it could be done and they delivered in v3.”
Summary
So far, so good for the Office of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. The first review round was a success and they’re now focused on the next, which will include the all-important 360 reviews. Results have been positive: they can now track how well each manager handles the review process, and give extra help where appropriate. It’s also much easier for management to see how graduates are progressing, and to gauge the impact of training initiatives – which in turn affects learning and development budgets.
“It’s really helped us get better oversight of our performance” says Justine, “We’ve increased accountability to the community, and we’re now collecting the information we need to inform our other programs.”
But it doesn’t stop with performance reviews: getting the right performance management system in place is just one part of the Office’s strategy for the future. There’s a lot more development work to come, and Justine sees Sonar6 fitting right in with those plans.