Did you know that at Achievant we don’t just have a technology solution, but we do a great deal of consulting as well on a wide variety of topics? 

Over my next few blogs, I will talk about what some of these topics are.  One of the things we are often engaged to consult on are human resources vulnerability assessments.  

What is an HR Vulnerability Assessment?

HR vulnerability assessments are designed to assess company policies and practices, identify areas of non-compliance or weakness, uncover issues, and determine how to strategically align HR practices with business objectives. 

According to Watson Wyatt's landmark Human Capital Index research study, "companies that adopt and combine superior HR practices can increase shareholder value by up to 47 percent".  HR and its related practices should therefore be a key strategic factor in a company's plan for success and growth.

Objectives of an HR Vulnerability Assessment

• Keep the HR department’s mission and goals in sync with the organization’s needs and business strategy.

• Ensure legal compliance (which should decrease settlement expenses and legal fees).

• Identify and prioritize opportunities for improvement, as well as areas of potential future risk.

• Improve efficiency and productivity so that the department can better serve employees and customers.

• Identify “root” problem areas and fix them before they become more widespread.

• Find cost reduction opportunities.

• Improve employee communications and morale and establish better credibility.

• Implement and stay current with world-class practices by comparing results with other businesses.

• Measure and improve performance across the organization.

• Identify and correct any gaps between what is intended and what is actually being delivered.

• Increase the commitment of professionals within the HR department to seek change and focus on continuous improvement in all aspects of their work.

Types of Assessments Offered

HR General —These audits focus on an assessment of the general areas of  the HR function  with  an eye toward court decisions that are being used to determine law or administrative systems that reduce errors and omissions, such as hiring and termination processes, training and development of employees, performance evaluation processes, sexual harassment policies, compensation practices, disciplinary process and documentation, and litigation or investigation issues.

Strategic—These types of audits focus on strengths and weaknesses of systems and processes to determine whether or not they are in line with the strategic plan of the HR department and/or the company as a whole (e.g., diversity, employee turnover, length of time to fill an open position, number of employee complaints to assess the employee relations climate, communication with employees, etc.).

Affirmative Action —These types of audits focus on the OFCCP regulations requiring specific recordkeeping of job jackets, review of affirmative action plan and statistics, notifications and exhibits.  

If you are interested in this type of assessment, please contact me. 

The HR department is working frantically to finish all of the various requirements to close out 2007 and piled on top of those tasks are items that need to be initiated for 2008.   Already the department starts out in the hole or behind.  Analyzing or identifying trends from 2007 is always a want or goal but as usual it now becomes a distant wish or priority as the basic tactical day to day demands are all consuming.  Sorting through the various piles that are coming in from multiple departments from previous year need to be checked and rechecked then submitted for final report and formatted to fit the homegrown excel report.  If one could look across the department as a whole, you see this process repeated again and again.  Regardless of the project; W-2’s for the year, Open Enrollment, Merit/Salary Increases, Vacation Plans, Performance Reviews, Succession Management, Applicant Tracking etc, etc, the list seems endless and the process is antiquated.

This same HR department swore that this year would be different.  In those brief moments, last year when they had a chance to breathe, to see beyond the task at hand, they saw and discussed how much better things could be.  The group talked about getting out in front, becoming proactive, earning a seat at the leadership table.  For the HR group, as it is for so many others it is not about working harder it’s about working smarter.  But for now to them it feels like the movie “Ground Hog Day,” same thing over and over and over again.   

Joe Barrett
Vice President Sales
Achievant

There are two phrases I hear a lot that I just don’t really like: The Customer Comes First and Controlling Customer Expectations.  Call me a rebel, but I think neither of those is a good thing.

The Customer Comes First

This sounds great and is a wonderful platitude.  It looks good on a marketing slick.  But it isn’t true.  In software what has to come first is the right people who with the right training and processes use technology and relationships to deliver the right product to the customer.  The customer comes second.  Not because we don’t value the customer above all else and not because we don’t want to provide the greatest customer service possible.  We do.  But before that can happen we have to have done the following:

·         Recruited the right people both for talent and personality

·         Motivated those people to achieve the level of service our clients expect

·         Trained those people so that they are as well equipped to do their jobs as possible and understand exactly what those jobs and associated goals are

·         Put in the processes that allow those people to work effectively and efficiently

·         Built the relationship among staff, vendors and clients to ensure open and honest communication

Once you have the who, what, how and why in place you can start to deliver to the client.  If you don’t do that upfront prep-work you won’t be putting the client first in any way because you won’t have the means to serve the client.  The product and the service have to exist before the client in order for the client to truly be served by the product.

It may seem obvious, but I have seen plenty of software vendors who want to build the features and functionality after they have the client base.  These same vendors generally talk liberally about controlling client expectations.

Controlling Customer Expectations

To me, it means you’ve gotten yourself into a place where the customer’s expectations and your reality don’t match.  If so, that means you’ve done something wrong.

My biggest brush with setting the wrong customer expectation came when I was working as a consultant for one of (what was at that time) the big five consulting firms.  Reporting for the first day at a new consulting gig I joined the client contact and his larger team in a meeting room.  During the meet and greet phase I was introduced by the client contact as having credentials I didn’t have.  During a break I called our technical sales rep and asked what was going on.  He’d made the consulting sale by flat out lying about my experience with a specific technology, years of experience and just about everything else.  I came clean with the client, explained what my real background was and offered to make the deal right in any way I could. 

In the many years since I have come to value a few axioms of technology sales:

Don’t’ sell what you don’t have.  If your software simply can’t do what the client needs be honest and tell them that.  Back out gracefully.  You might make the initial sale by lying, but you’ll find yourself between a real rock and a hard place when you can’t deliver.  You’ll alienate that client, all the potential clients they know and chances are you’ll alienate your staff as well.  Nothing is worse than getting handed an implementation that is destined to fail.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.  Maybe you and the client have agreed to a software enhancement in order to close the sale. It’s a common thing and your larger client base generally benefits from the new functionality and you generally get paid to add a feature you needed to add anyway.  Just make sure the timeline you offer up is one you can stand behind.  I can’t tell you how many times the sales guy (or gal) has pulled me aside after the sale and asked “is this doable?”.  Find out beforehand.  Client service isn’t just saying yes.  It’s saying yes knowing beforehand you can deliver and then delivering.  Don’t throw the greater organization under the proverbial cross-town bus by making a promise you (and ultimately they) can’t deliver on.

Don’t pretend to be what you’re not.  If you sell green widgets and your prospective sale needs orange widgets and you just can’t make orange widgets don’t pretend green is the new orange.  I’ve seen software companies completely distort who they are and what their product can do in order to make a sale.  Unhappy clients are not the way to fortune and fame.

Instead of “controlling customer expectations” I prefer “setting customer expectations”.  Go into the deal setting the right groundwork.

Yesterday Eli Lilly and Co. announced that CEO, Sidney Taurel, will step down as chairman next year and be replaced by John Lechleiter.  This is just one more step in a succession plan that has been in the works for year.  Does your organization have a succession plan in place?

Succession planning is a process whereby a company identifies and prepares employees to replace key players throughout the organization.  The preparation is typically a combination of:

§  recruiting top-notch employees,

§  mentoring them over a period of time, and

§  providing training/education to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and preparing them for advancement or promotion into ever more challenging roles often through job rotation. 

Succession planning emphasizes the importance of specific, individualized development plans for each employee.   An additional benefit of succession planning is its effect on retention……employees appreciate the time, attention, and development that you are investing in them. 

Best-practice organizations make succession planning an integral corporate process by exhibiting a link between succession planning and their overall business strategy. This link gives succession planning the opportunity to affect the corporation's long-term goals and objectives. The real key in succession management is to create a match between the organization's future needs and the career goals of individuals. The only way to keep talented people is to provide them with growth opportunities that keep them stretching and finding more promising opportunities within the organization than they might find outside the organization.  

Succession management is a cyclical continuous process that should be reviewed annually.  It requires an ongoing commitment by top executives, human resources staff, and often times outside consultants.  Succession planning is not a project that will have a completion date.  Probably your first attempt at a succession plan will not be perfect, but will provide some directional insight.  You will need to continually adjust your HRIS systems as you receive feedback from executives (such as through 360 degree feedback), monitor developments in technology, and learn from other leading organizations.

Best-practice organizations use a core set of leadership and succession management competencies to establish a standard of comparison for talent assessment. Many organizations use a subset of leadership competencies that are aligned with the core set.  All use these competencies as a basis for performance management and four out five use these for identification of high-potential employees.  The use of technology in succession management varies widely, although Web-based systems offer great potential for access and integration of data.

There are a couple metrics by which succession systems are commonly evaluated:

§  the percentage of openings filled from within the firm, and

§  the hit rate of the succession plan (i.e., the person elected for an open position was on the list of potential successors). 

For many firms, the first step in realizing these benefits will be to place succession management on the strategic radar.  Is it on yours?

Ok, I readily admit that I am not a very big fan of baseball.  It’s not that I have anything against this American pastime; it’s just a little slow for me. 

As a Hoosier, I’m a bigger supporter of basketball (although not currently supporting the Pacers for some of the same issues I’ll discuss below), but love Colts football. 

The baseball scandal last week made me stop and think about the “life lessons” in this that are applicable to other businesses and the need for all companies to include ethical grounding in their performance management processes.  We have seen it repeatedly in the news recently from the lead paint in toys to the dumping of chemicals in our waterways. 

Lessons Learned:

1.  If you cheat to win, then you didn’t really win
   All performance reviews should include some component of “acts with integrity”.  It should assess the extent to which the individual demonstrates principled leadership and sound business ethics.  Do they demonstrate consistency among principles, values and behavior?  This should include building trust with others through their own authenticity and follow through on commitments.
2. “How” you get your work done is as important as “what” you get done
   Stepping on others as you climb the ladder of success is not acceptable.  A measure of an individual’s ability to build relationships and relate to others in an open, friendly, accepting manner is imperative.  Do you play nice with others?
3. Walks the talk
   Are your actions consistent with the words we hear you speaking?
4. Leads courageously
   Having the strength to say that doing it right, is the right way to do it.  Someone who steps forward to address difficult issues, putting themselves on the line to deal with important problems.  Someone who is strong enough to stand firm when necessary. 

Included in performance managements systems should be a measure of how numbers were achieved with an eye focused on the greater good.  One of my favorite quotes from a Harry Potter movie is when Neville does the right thing and tries to stop Harry, Ron and Hermione when he believes they are doing something wrong.  For his efforts, the Gryffindor house wins extra points as Dumbledore points out that “it takes someone very brave to stand up to your enemies, but someone even braver to stand up to your friends”.   For many adults, employer could be substituted for friends. 

With over 22 years in the software solution market I have seen a number of very well intentioned buyers (including myself) make some very poor decisions.  We are all under a level of pressure and stress that seems higher than any point in recent memory.  The fact that we are all immediately accessible with our state of the art treoberrycentro cell/email/contact device attached neatly to our hip doesn’t help.  It’s no wonder that when it comes time to make important software solution decisions that we can fall down on occasion.  So, with holiday spirit in mind I have written my own top 10 list.  I hope the Late Show can forgive me.

The top 10 things to keep in mind when making a software solution decision.

10)  Don’t let cost drive the decision.  It’s important but it’s also more expensive to make a switch after a poor decision.

9) Do compare to at least 2 others.  Doesn’t have to be a full blown RFP but make sure you know the market.

8) Don’t choose the “cool” application.  Make a substance based decision not one based on a killer demo.

7) Invest in the implementation budget.  You can’t do it yourself.  Don’t kid yourself – you have a day job.

6) Properly evaluate each company’s leadership team and talent pool.  Look for industry experience and success.  When you struggle, and you will, you need a team behind you that will ensure a positive project.

5) Don’t always make the safe choice – nobody ever gets fired for picking the industry leader, right?  They do if it doesn’t go well.

4) Talk to references.  If a company can’t find one or two organizations for you to talk to about their experience then beware.

3) Be realistic in your timelines. 

2) Prioritize your needs.  Make sure they align with your choice.  You’re only going to use 20-40% of whatever application you implement (think Word, Excel, your cell phone, etc…).  Make sure your choice aligns directly with your prioritized needs.

1) Character, integrity and track record matter.  There is nothing wrong with taking a chance but do it with the right company.

Yesterday I found myself doing one of the Top 10 Most Hated HR Tasks, writing job descriptions.  For HR people, that ranks right up there with filing your 5500 and counseling an employee on body odor complaints by their coworkers.  A necessary task, but unpleasant nonetheless.  But even in this age of cutting edge technology, the good old fashioned job description has its place. 

·        Provide expectations and responsibilities

As an IT guy I see a lot of different applications of the idea of performance management: I manage the performance of the network, of the application, of the database and as a manager myself I am responsible for the performance management of staff.  I’ve always found that last type of performance management to be the most important. 

Having spent several years as the CIO of a very successful performance assessment HR automation company I am deeply familiar with performance management and performance management software.  I am a big fan of 360 degree feedback and 360 degree feedback software.  Getting the input of superiors, peers and subordinates is a great way to measure how you’re doing.

In short the HR application of performance management can be defined as establishing the definition, communication and measurement of predetermined individual and collective goals that further the greater corporate goals as set forth by a business.  Giving appropriate attention to this kind of performance management has allowed me as an IT leader to achieve the performance management of those IT related metrics because my staff is aware of our objectives, how we’re tracking against those objectives and how their individual goals fit into the bigger picture.

There are a wide variety of performance management tools.  Below are some of the steps I have found useful in my career as an IT manager to help keep staff aware of goals and the progress against those goals:

·         Informal, frequent and clear communication of objectives and progress.

o   In projects were immediacy is paramount (especially if there are a lot of moving parts) I have (sometimes daily) 15 minute standup meetings were a leader from each stakeholder discusses their progress against very specific project related goals.  We also discuss roadblocks, needs and successes that are either preventing us from getting where we need to go or that have helped us get there.  This has helped keep us all on track and moving as a single entity toward a well defined goal.

·         Informal, semi-frequent performance reviews.

o   On a less frequent basis I will meet with each employee and go over broader short term goals and how those goals are progressing.  I do this in a generally informal setting and use the opportunity to ensure clear understanding of goals and status.   During these meetings I make sure there is a “meeting of the minds” on the metrics that will be used to measure goal progress and a clear understanding of the goals themselves and their associated deadlines.

·         Formal, scheduled review of objectives and goals and overall performance.

o   These I have traditionally held twice yearly and involve (at least for me) 360 degree feedback.  During these performance reviews I take the opportunity to more formally recognize progress (or sometimes lack of progress) against objectives and involve at least some members of the larger organization.  I make sure that in the 360 degree feedback the widest range of (as appropriate) business units and people are involved.  During this semi-annual reviews I’ll also cover non-goal related performance such as attitude, effort, etc.

In order for a group to achieve any goal that group has to understand what the goal is, how it is going to be achieved and who within the group is responsible for what.  I am a huge fan of getting everyone on the same page, creating clear task assignments and then measuring our progress against those tasks.  Having a well draw map and knowing where you are on that map will generally allow you to get wherever you want to go.

There is a reason that sports teams generally have better records for home games versus away games.  During home games the team generates immediate success reinforcement, which is the fifth and last step in effective performance management.  Success is rewarded with applause or cheering, to which human beings respond favorably and, as such, exert effort to achieve more applause and cheering.  When the home fans provide success reinforcement through their applause and cheering the cycle continues until the last buzzer sounds or until the concession stand stops selling beer.    The team within your organization require the same success reinforcement and when provided will respond as do the home team athletes. 

Here’s the breakthrough - This is not all about monetary reinforcement.  Humans value reinforcement of their self worth above monetary value.  And not all team members desire the same form of reinforcement.  Modern HRIS systems can help you track those measures you want to celebrate.  Well integrated HRIS systems even allow for the vehicle to deliver the communication of success to you team or organization.  But it’s your job as a leader to provide for your team those top elements of Maslow’s Hierarchy.   Science and the art of leadership merge when the systems used to provide monetary reinforcement are utilized by leaders to find each team member’s successes and constantly reinforce those successes in whatever way is most effective with each team member.  The reinforcement elevates task clarity, motivates the team member to further achieve, and improves the group’s performance.  

First, what exactly do we mean PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT?  In the simplest sense, PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT encompasses those activities within an organization which align the talent and knowledge of the organization with task clarity to accomplish the desired results.  The premise is that a thoughtfully selected group, operating in an environment of task clarity, produces results which are superior to a group operating in the absence of task clarity.  Thus, for those expected to produce results, operating with task clarity is more effective than without.  The greater the task clarity the better…up to the point where involvement in the process of performance management distracts from executing on the required tasks.
Here’s the breakthrough - Effective financial institution managers have found tools which increase their group’s level of task clarity without approaching the point of distraction.  These tools, incorporated into practice within a group and executed as a repeating series of cycles over a predetermined period, will create a muscle memory for the group which will improve performance.  These cycles are comprised of five component parts.  They are: ASSESSMENT TESTING, KNOWLEDGE ENHANCEMENT, PERFORMANCE PLANS, RESULTS TRACKING, and SUCCESS REINFORCEMENT.  Effective HRIS systems include elements which enable and automate many of these steps, such as the critical activities of PERFORMANCE PLANNING and RESULTS TRACKING. I'll provide more input into the five steps of effective performance management in a later post.
 

 So why do I get the privilege of blogging about HR systems or Human Capital Management?  I guess it's one of the advantages/disadvantages that comes with being around for awhile.  Allow me to explain by way of my background.  For the past 15 years I have worked for two fortune 100 companies, Abbott Laboratories and Eli Lilly & Company in a variety of areas; Sales, HR, Recruiting, Training, Operations and Leadership.  Regardless of the company, or the area of focus the goal was always the same.  Improve process by streamlining and/or connecting activities.  Regardless of whether you were focused on Sales, Communication, Performance and yes HR systems the goal was/is always to simplify, connect, be overt.  The reality is that too often the outcome is anything but.  

Focusing on Human Capital Management I will be discussing these same goals in areas such as; Recruiting, Applicant Tracking, Onboarding, Performance Management,  and Training.  As we all know there is learning in every situation.  Sharing best practices will include successes as well as those failures that we have all had but more importantly we hope not to duplicate.

In my overall experience on the "needs improvement" side of HR systems, making decisions based on "pain" at a given point in time seems to be the area I see most often repeated.  On the positive side starting with the "end in mind" is a best practice I have seen and we will celebrate and communicate those as well.  Too often I have seen both sides of the equaiton and it continues to amuse me.  When something goes right I see leaders run and get as close to it as they can saying "see what I did."  Conversely when organizations are looking for the root cause of failure these same leaders run as far away as they can screaming, "I had nothing to do with it."

Interestingly I think a lot of these professional decisions and discussions also play out in our personal lives as well.  For me being a husband and a father I can look and find these same mistakes and successes. The only exception I see from the personal side of this analogy is as a parent you can't run and hide.  You have to take both the good and bad.

Joe Barrett

VP Sales

Achievant   

Yesterday we talked about turnover as a necessary evil.  Organizations needs some churn, but not too much – a perfect balance.  So what can you do to build loyalty and satisfaction within the company?

Here are the Top 10 reasons I believe employees quit their jobs:

1.      Management doesn’t take time to show employees that the company cares about them, wants them to advance in their careers and will help them satisfy their need for personal growth.2.      Management demands that one person do the jobs of two or more people, resulting in longer days and weekend work.3.      Management puts a freeze on raises and promotions, when an employee can easily find a job earning 20-30 percent more somewhere else.4.      Management doesn't allow the rank and file to make decisions or allow them pride of ownership. There is no corporate emphasis on employee learning, development and growth.5.      Management doesn't have or take the time to clarify goals and decisions. Therefore, it rejects work after it was completed, damaging the morale and esteem of those who prepared it.  Management fails to communicate the corporate strategy and ensure that it is applied consistently throughout the organization, including making the rewards system consistent with strategic goals.6.      Management constantly reorganizes, shuffles people around, and changes direction constantly.7.      Management fails to provide training broaden employee experiences and provides development opportunities.8.      Management fails to weed out poor managers.  Many employees leave their jobs because they are unhappy with their bosses - remember the adage that "people don't leave their jobs, they leave their managers."  It is even worse when management promotes someone who lacks training and/or necessary experience to supervisor, alienating staff and driving away good employees.9.      Management fails to provide effective and regular performance evaluations, both formally and informally.10.    Management shows favoritism and creates a rigid structure encouraging departments to compete against each other while at the same time preaching teamwork and cooperation.Interesting, isn't it, that all ten factors begin with the phrase "Management…."  Interesting, too, is just how many of these high-turnover factors are preventable. Companies need to express and act on a commitment to develop employees' career objectives by introducing initiatives that make employees believe that their current job is the best path to achieving their career goals. For example,

• Include opportunities for personal growth and invest heavily in the professional development of the best people in the organization.
• Provide employees with well-defined career paths (including a succession plan), mentors and continuing education.   
• Train employees, even if it makes them more attractive to the competition. Without seeing an opportunity on the horizon, few high potential employees will stay with a company and allow themselves to grow stagnant.
• Acknowledge non-work priorities by recognizing and responding to employees' needs for greater balance in their lives.  Since employees will develop loyalty for organizations that respect them as individuals, not just as workers.

OK.  I am going to be honest about this one.  In my first blog I commented on the fact that some of my posts would be technical, some not-so-technical and some would be shameless plugs.  Today’s post falls more squarely on shameless plug than technical and not-so-technical.  Well, at least kind of.

Tomorrow is my 41st birthday.  Forty didn’t bother me so much.  It’s a major milestone and I approached it with the curiosity of a tourist arriving at a foreign port: I wanted to take a look around, see what it had to offer, get the lay of land.  Now that 41 is less than 24 hours away I can feel the smooth flatness of the top of the hill tipping softly downhill as I begin the declination of life into decrepitude.

So last night as I sweated like the hog at a hog roast as I tried to stave off old age on my elliptical while watching the Stealers and Bengals on Sunday Night Football, I mentally surveyed the rest of the Achievant senior staff and realized that I am actually the youngest of the executive team.  Together the five of us have more than 115 years of experience at our respective trades.

Anyone who works with performance management, succession planning or other HR field knows that longevity can be a key component to a strong workforce.  Having a staff with 20+ year’s experience each in your core business brings a skill set and other fringe benefits that are often hard to quantify.

One of the biggest benefits of such longevity is the “been there, done that” life experience of a mature workforce.  Deep and broad on-the-job experience brings problem solving skills, business knowledge, historical perspective, best practice awareness and other skills that are impossible to learn via any means other than life experience.

At Achievant, being a new company is sometimes a knock against us as we call on clients.  Last night, as I wiped sweat off of a head that had not seen hair in several years, I realized that the lack of “time-on-the-job” for our corporate self was a non-issue.  Though young as a corporate entity we are tried and true as a team.  One hundred years of collective experience is a force multiplier that more than offsets the newness of the corporate brand.

As a team we’ve felt the pain our clients are feeling when they layout time and attendance, performance management, 360 Degree feedback or other HR automation.   Chances are in our 115 years of collective experience we’ve not only faced, but solved the same issues, challenges and other hurdles our clients are facing. 

Sometimes, I realized, “old-age” is a good thing.  So tomorrow when I blow out enough candles to light a small town I’ll focus less on years and more on the experience that makes the coming years so rich.

So today hasn’t been the best day ever.   I guess that happens sometimes.

A few fires popped up early morning, but were extinguished quickly.   Then sales, marketing, professional services and consulting all had questions and needed some IT love.  Before I knew it my 101 things to do had become 127 things to do. By late afternoon I’d managed to work my list back down to the original 101 and was settling down to finally start the task I’d thought I’d have started first thing this morning when our office’s file server decided to give up the ghost and crashed.

Yikes! 

Fortunately, the “yikes” was more of a mild groan than an exclamation of unhinged terror.  An OS blip caused us to experience the dreaded blue screen of death, but even if the worst had happened and the box was dead I knew we’d be fine.  We’d planned ahead.  I was more upset that I was back up to 102 things to do than anything else. 

Fortunately, less than 10 minutes later the server was back-up, the root cause identified and corrective action being taken.  Our office server plays a minor role and is not tied to our production environment in any way.  But the experience spurred a thought.  Do we have enough pro-active health checks in production?  In the past I’ve had as many as 234 active checks running on prod.

Our clients count on us to provide uninterrupted services for time and attendance, employee training, employee performance management and other HR automation.   I did a quick check to review what checks we had in place and see what others I could implement.  Some of the things we do include that you can do with ease and no real cost are:

1.       Accessing a web page (or pages) every few minutes that calls through all tiers of the application and reports back success or failure.  There are no end of services that will do this from one location, 10 locations, 100 locations from anywhere in the world.

2.       Monitoring CPU utilization, disk utilization and memory utilization for all devices including the servers, routers, firewalls and load balancers.

3.       Monitor number of connection attempts to the servers and to IIS.  A drop to zero may presage an issue while a jump to an inordinately high number may signal and denial of service attack or other penetration attempt.

4.       Check trends for all metrics at least once a week to look for oddities that may signal nascent issues that may become real problems if not addressed.

5.       Measure PING response times to get a general sense of network health and server reacheablility.

6.       Monitor page load times and watch trends for sudden changes.

7.       Monitor basic database stats to look for anomalies that may be harbingers of issues to come.

There are really an almost endless number of health checks you can perform.  The important thing is that you’re doing enough to help ensure an early-warning of problems as much as possible.  Some IT catastrophes just happen (like an earthquake does in natural disasters) and some build up over time and can be prevented (such as a tsunami).

In the end these kinds of checks are all about risk management.  You can’t eliminate all risk, but you can mitigate some risk and help ensure your clients have an experience that is as trouble free as possible.