Human resources essay help: Performance Management and communication – Beer & Ruh

Introduction

Performance is an art of performing at the workplace. Beer & Ruh used it first time in 1976. Today every organization desires to perform better than others to mark their global presence. Organization wants to increase their intellectual Capital by delivering better results. It is a process of defining performance parameters required for an organization. Communication between all the employees, managers, supervisor’s takes place by developing the performance of an individual’s, teams in an organization on a continuous basis. Performance Management System will help to serve the various purposes such as solving the employees problems related to their Job, increasing their pay of employees for their better performance, training to the employees, counseling, planning promotions, assessing employee’s potential level. It will also motivate the employees, helps in identification of training needs, creating better working relationships, helping employees to achieve their goals, performing work effectively. Decisions like transfer, layoffs, and terminations, can be taken easily. Performance Management will assist in long term planning, validating ethical hiring standards, and mitigating managerial decisions (European Business Journal   2004). It is an equal footing from the employers and the employee’s side in an Organization.

Background

The drivers of better performance in an organization are change management, Learning, New development, Leadership, Competition, Technology, and customers satisfaction (Five Star Development  2012). The importance’s of performance management system are it provides transparent feedback for the employee’s performance at their job. A linkage is created between performance, compensation and reward system. Opportunities are created for the career growth of the employees. Fair and equitable distribution of rewards and incentives is there at workplace. It helps is retention of employees and increases loyalty towards their employers. Conflicts are resolved and productivity is enhanced by superior performance. It helps in minimization of the wastages and promotion of the employees. Organizations create a competitive edge by implementing a successful performance Management system (Managementstudyguide.com     2012).

Outcome

Before Performance Appraisal is done a proper performance management system should be implemented by the Human Resource Professional, so that it will help in evaluating and reviewing the performance of their employees. It will also use the different methods of performance assessment such as the scales used, interviews to be conducted and a proper feedback system which will help in motivating the employees and they will contribute in the growth of an organization.

    (Appraisal Smart Pty Ltd    2012)

What is Performance Planning: Performance Planning is the first stage to develop PMS system for any organization. Proper Planning will help to decide in advance what is to be done and how it is to be done. It will indicate mutual coordination between Human Resource Professionals and its employees of various departments. Planning will help to take decisions regarding transfer, promotions and layoff of their employees. It will help to identify who will be promoted for the next level. It will also help to do Job analysis of the employees at different department. It will help in planning related to quality, quantity, cost and time. The Behavior, competencies and development plan can be identified by matching the employee’s goals with the organizational goals. Proper performance planning will help to clarify the objectives, formulate effective strategies, align organizational structure and operational plans, attach meaning to effective performance measures,&  reporting and monitoring the performance.  Planning will help to identify the goals in SMART process.

(Business Decisions Inc   2009)

S= Goals should be specific, distinct, and clear to the marketing Employees.

M= It must be standard, exact and assessed from time to time.

A= It must be assessable and feasible as per the standards.

R= It should create linkage between Organizational Goals the personal goals

T= Time Frame will help to Employees complete their work in appropriate time

What is Performance Execution: Performance Execution helps in successful implementation of the Performance system. It involves the commitment from the top management and should be communicated to everyone in an organization by the Human Resource Professional.  A proper team should be formed because Performance Management System is a time consuming process. Employees must be clearly explained what they need to perform (Adrek   2012). It will ensure commitment for the achievement of the goals. Requests can be made for the coaching and feedback by implementing proper communication channel. It will explain how to collect and share the performance data. It will help in preparation of the performance reviews. The Human Resource manager’s duty during execution is to observe, document, update, provide feedback, and reinforce it during difficult situations.

What is Performance Assessment: Performance assessment must be linked with the standards of an organization. It requires various techniques to measure the performance. Appraisal of the employees is linked with the assessment process. It will assist manager to assess the performance of all the employees. Individual employers can also assess their employees on a continuous basis. There are various methods of Performance Assessment.

The various methods identified for the performance assessment are as explained in this paragraph (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill    2005).

• 360⁰ Feedback is a process of assessment by many people. They are employees themselves, team members, Peer groups, Trainer, Managers & customers. It is a difficult process to implement because it requires time and money. It helps to increase awareness, knowledge, and provides motivation to change the behavior of the employees. Before implementing this process employees must be made aware of the working process of this method. Certain scales are used to rate the performance of the employees. The company’s Goals must be identified and linked with the employees goals. Proper set of Questionnaire should be designed. It is not a biased rating system of judging the employees. It is linked with the KRA (Key Result Areas) of Employees which provides direction for their Performance in an Organization (About.Com      2012).

• Management by Objective (MBO) is used in knowledge based companies where employees are quite knowledgeable of what they have been doing. It describes about the goals but often fails to explain how to one should achieve those goals. It is a poor biased rating system. There is no clarity about the employee’s role and responsibilities (Mind Tools Ltd   2012). It is only successful if there is involvement of HOD (Head of the department, Direct Reporting authority and   the Supervisors). It is a SMART Method to explain that goals must be specific, Achievable, Measurable, Realistic and Time Bound. KRA is missing in this method(Key Result Areas).
• Balanced Scorecard (BSC) method provides to clarity for the impact on corporate strategy. BSC is an approach that has been used for of making effective business decisions. BSC four factors can be directly linked with the performance of employees and the Management in an Organization. They are financial/Objectives, customer, internal-business processes/strategy, learning (Balanced Scorecard Institute   2012). In this method the learning is related with the internal business process (IBP). The IBP is linked with the customers who will help to contribute in the financial factors by increasing the revenue and the market share.
• Narrative Essay Method is a more time consuming approach of performance appraisal. Narrative Essay Method takes time to prepare, draft document & review for making an effective written performance assessment of employees. For implementing it supervisor’s & employees require time to complete self assessment feedback forms in an essay format. It gives feedback on every factor of employees at their Job (Hearst Communications Inc    2012).
• Graphical Rating Scale System is a method where one does not consider statements or explanation as a final result of performance review. One can put the same comments in Quantity form or represent it in a numerical method with the help of a systematic Graph. It is like an explanatory method applied in the performance management system.
• Behavioral Anchor Rating System (BARS) are linked to the employee’s behavior towards their jobs. It will relate to the success and failure of the Job. It is basically an individual’s response towards their job. Scale indicates the series of behavior which differs from more effective basis to less effective basis. BARS assist in relating the abilities, benchmarking, and observation, for their employees on different scales. Observation skills are required more.
• Halo Effect is a process completely based on perception. The more positively an employee’s perform his work he is given better positive rating by the boss. A solo quality will indicate the performance of the employee at his work place (Changing Minds    2012). It also includes reviewing by various methods to appraise the performance of employees in past and present.
  • Assessment Centers are used to conduct different types of test such as mental exercises for the employees. It is held under in one particular building. Assessment test are conducted by the consultants who work as Professionals. These centers are highly controlled in their designing process. It helps to create awareness about the abilities, skills and compatibility with the organization’s culture. Different Assessment Centers conduct exercises such as in-tray exercise, panel discussion, role plays and psychometric tests and etc. They charge the fees from the companies on behalf of their employees.

What is Performance Review: Proper Performance review mechanism will help in reaching the goals, identifying the training needs, ascertaining the increase in pay of the employee’s, identifying the promotions, and career development of their employee’s. The guidelines for reviewing the performance of the employees are specific behaviors of the employees, making feedback process a goal oriented, considering the time factor, having proper understanding and ensuring proper control. There are various steps for conducting proper performance review such as identifying what employee has done well and poorly, explain the importance of changes in behavior, and framing a proper action plan. Human Resource Professionals tend to focus on things that can create performance appraisal as an optimistic force in the organizations. They are correct evaluation of performance through the development and demand of measurement systems like rating scales & training managers of different departments to successfully use the performance appraisal interview, so that constructive feedback can be generated which will reinforce and focus on performance of the employees. The KRA (Key Result Areas) of the employees can be linked with the employee’s performance and gaps can be found and minimized by training process. This will also include process of filling up the questionnaires, and conducting interviews of employees on their job. The Questionnaire can be developed and mailed to the employees whose performance is to be measured by email or asking the employees to fill up in their respective departments manually.

Types of Questionnaires, Interview & Scales Used to measure the Performance

The questionnaire can be of different types.

• Closed ended questions are those that include multiple answers.
• Open ended questions are that where the interviewee has got more than one answer.
• Forced choiced questions are those which require particular answers.
• Likert questions explain how strongly the respondent supports the answers.
• Dichotomous question helps to answer in yes or no format (Flatworld Solutions Pvt. Ltd.    2012).

To measure the performance of employee’s likert, balanced, ordinal, and semantic scales can be used in an organization.

• Likert scales are used to measure the answers of Psychological questions on a continuum of strongly agree to strongly disagree basis.
• Balanced scale is based on same number of positive and negative factors.
• Ranking method of the data is known as ordinal scale.
• Semantic scale is used to measure the meaning of concepts and things (Demand Media Inc   2012).

The interviews can be conducted by the respective department heads and Human Resource Professional to know the knowledge, skills and abilities of the employees (KSAs). There can be different types of interview that can be held for the employees.

• Task oriented interview can be used to know about the analytical skills required for the job.
• Stress Interview can be conducted to know about whether the employees can handle the pressure situation. This is done to check how employees react in a stressful environment.
• Behaviouraial Interview is used to check the past performance and relate it with the future performance. This can be done by assigning the teamwork, giving case studies to solve within groups, and assessing their creativity, flexibility, and communication skills.
• Panel interview will be held to judge an employee by multiple numbers of interviewers.
• Exit interviews can also be conducted if the employees are unable to meet the expectations of the organizations and lack the motivation at their Job.

Performance Appraisal will motivate and reinforce the employees. If we use 360 feedback then an employee can be raised by the customer, supplier, hr manager, department head, team members and peer groups by filling a single document form.

Sample of Performance Appraisal Form 

(Alan Chapman    2012)

Employees can be motivated by a proper appraisal system by linking their performance with the compensation and benefits programs. Three types of Compensation can be planned by such as Base, Variable and supplementary Compensation. Base Compensation is referred as the basic salary given to the employees. Variable compensation is given on the nature of the quality work. Supplementary Compensation depends upon the wish of the employer. The employer has the authority to give and deduct the wages. The benefits can be given to the employees to motivate employees for better performance and their development by offering medical insurance benefits, paid vacation, retirement plans, educational loans for the employees, wellness programs, stock options plans, flexible working hours, and gifts (Money-Zine.com     2012).

What is performance Renewal and Recontracting: Performance Renewal and Re-contracting is the final stage where the result prepared is being communicated by Human Resource Professional as a feedback. It will help to identify and judge the behavior of the employees before and after the performance review.

• It can be done by interview method, mailing the questionnaire and asking them to fill up that questionnaire, and by directly discussing with the employees.
• The company involves time and cost therefore it is must and mandatory to give the feedback to those employees whose performance has been reviewed.
• It is a cycle which will carry on every year.
• If employees are unable to minimize the gap which hinders their performance, then in such cases certain decisions are taken.
• It includes transfer, promotions, increasing their pays, rewards and recognition.
• Formal Appraisal should be made every year for the employees in an organization.
• If employee’s Performance feedback is negative in such case either they should be trained by various methods.
• It should be communicated to all the employees and their respective department Heads.
• To improve the performance organization can arrange the training sessions for their employees.
• In house and out house training can be given. The different training methods are on job training, case study, business game, in tray exercise, team based games, Transactional Analysis, discussion method, and Lecture method.
• It will also increase the motivational level of the employees towards their job which related to the organizational growth by ensuring employees stability.

Conclusion

Thus Companies can become leader in Market by implementing proper performance management system for their employees. It is the duty of top management to plan strategically the performance management system for the employees. The future of any organization depends upon the employee’s superior performance. Employee’s goals should be aligned by the HR manager with the organizational goals. It is a strategic process which requires support and commitment from the employees and the employers. It will ensure in deciding properly to handle the activities and reach to the organizational goals. Planning is done by the management to amend changes like appropriate decision making, budgeting the activities, organizing it in a chain format. Performance of the employees should be tracked on a continuous basis and reviewed in every six month or annually by the HR Department (Rausch Peter    2011). Whenever the feedback is collected it should be documented in the employees file properly. Performance of the employees should be linked with rewards and recognition programs so that they get motivated. It is also used to resolve the problems like absenteeism and employees turnover. Though there are different methods of appraisal system it depends upon the management to implement that particular system. The performance of the employees must be linked with the mission and vision of an Organization. The better performance of the employees will always provide an edge over the competitors. It maintains transparency among different organizations. It is a systematic process which is holistic in nature and requires time to be implemented successfully (Fenwick Marilyn    2001). Leaders of the organization must drive the performance of their employees for planning their future and achieving the organizational goals. 

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