The first step is to use a single method, throughout Arjowiggins, to describe and evaluate management jobs. The benefits are numerous, but the basic aim is to assess the contribution each job, properly carried out, makes towards meeting the organisation's overall objectives.

The job description defines a position's permanent objectives, laying the foundation for performance management. Arjowiggins believes employees have the right to know what's expected of them and get regular feedback on how they're doing. The annual interview is a key performance management "event" in our annual calendars, but it is Arjowiggins' intent to develop the notion of ongoing feedback on performance.

Over the past few years, to develop common policies, processes and guidelines, as well as tools to help individuals pilot their own progress, Arjowiggins has adopted a layered approach, in which each layer has set the essential foundation for the next. To find out more about these "building blocks," read on...

Measuring and rewarding performance are part of Arjowiggins' HR philosophy; and performance-related pay is more and more a part of managers' and job candidates' expectations. This is why we are developing individual, performance-related pay and looking for ways to offer more kinds of variable compensation. Our annual salary review is a key event in determining pay for performance.

Our aim, at Arjowiggins, is to provide processes and tools to help each individual manager to take ownership of his or her development. For example, our dictionary of competencies is supplemented by an online self-help system on intranet and internal vacancies are published in print and on the intranet.

In 2002, Arjowiggins launched a new corporate training programme, including a core management curriculum, starting with induction and continuing in stages explicitly related to the competencies reviewed during annual interviews, and "Transverse" modules aimed at developing a broader understanding of the business (e.g. Finance for Non-Finance Managers, Manufacturing for Non-Manufacturing Managers, etc).