Generic Maneuvering Evaluation: Emirates Airlines - Essay Example

Performance Appraisal: Emirates Airlines Name Institution Lecturer Course Date Performance Appraisal at the Emirates Airlines Recruiting and selection of employees is an expensive activity for most organizations but the inability to correctly and effectively assess employees clearly undermines any efforts undertaken in ensuring that an organization recruits the best candidates. There is therefore a need for performance appraisal, which involves the systematic evaluation and review of an individual’s job performance. It is a continuous process that should be conducted regularly and consistently. Performance appraisal mainly aims at improving employee performance and productivity, providing motivational support, and most importantly improving the bottom line performance (Taneja, Srivastava & Ravichandran, 2015). It is however important to state that putting a performance appraisal system in place is not enough for an organization to enjoy the benefits that results from the function. An organization must ensure that the system is effective and beneficial to both the organization and its employees (Dessler, 2002). Analyzing an actual company provides great insight on the importance of a performance appraisal system. The company of choice will be the Emirates Airlines. Brief Background about the Company Emirates Airlines is a Dubai-based company in the UAE and a subsidiary of the Emirates group. It is the largest carrier in Middle East and among the largest international carriers and airlines in terms of both revenues and passengers (Emirates airlines, 2016). Emirates Airlines is a nearly ideal choice for this study mainly because of the remarkable growth and success it has consistently shown over the years. It is also a service-based company whose success is partly attributed to excellent service and customer satisfaction and the underlying cause for these two factors is superior and highly motivated human resource. It is therefore relevant to this study. Emirates Airlines is one of the companies that have been able to properly use performance appraisal techniques to its advantage. For an airline, the flying staff plays extremely important roles in the organization; they are charged with the task of providing an enriching satisfying experience to the customer. Their ability to efficiently handle their tasks well directly reflects on the company’s image and clearly affects customer satisfaction and retention (Dessler, 2002). Performance appraisal for Emirates Airlines is therefore not only necessary but also crucial to maintaining a highly skilled and qualified workforce. The company conducts performance appraisals regularly with the intent to identifying personalities, assess skills and help train and develop its staff further. The appraisal also forms a basis of promotion, reassignment of tasks and increase in remuneration packages. Performance appraisal also helps in maintaining a highly motivated and productive workforce. The assessment is also inclusive of the ground staff who also play an important role in maintaining operational efficiency. Advantages and Disadvantages of Implementing Performance Appraisal Performance appraisal is of great importance to an organization. First, it serves as the platform on which all compensations matters are founded. Compensation schemes seek to reward an employee for their contribution and job performance (Dessler, 2002). Consequently, a performance appraisal system must be established if an employee is to receive justified wages. Other remuneration schemes that rely heavily on performance appraisal system include bonuses and overtime (Dessler, 2002). Performance appraisal systems also ensure that incentives put in place to motivate employees. Incentives such as targets and goals that serve to motivate an employee will have no merit if there is no accurate method of assessing the employee’s output or contribution. Incentives and performance appraisals therefore go hand in hand. Performance appraisals also provide an opportunity for employees and management to discuss expectations and goals and any other issue related to the job as well as give and receive feedback. They also serve as a basis for training and development of employees by accurately assessing their personalities, traits, and skills (Kuvaas, 2006). The performance appraisal information gathered will be of importance during promotion, transfers or downsizing. The ability to correctly assess an employee’s performance, highlight their strengths and weakness and most importantly provide feedback clearly shows the importance of performance appraisal systems in helping improve employees’ productivity, efficiency and morale. Performance appraisal systems are also not without their own shortcomings. Firstly, an appraisal system is only effective when deemed fair and accurate. The problem in this is that most employees will only regard an appraisal system to be accurate when it gives positive results (Taneja, Srivastava & Ravichandran, 2015). Consequently, an appraisal system may have a negative impact on factors such as job satisfaction if employees regard it to be unfair and biased. Another major challenge in implementing an appraisal system is determining the variables to be used in correctly assessing employees and defining performance standards as well. In most cases, performance appraisals are based on human assessments and they may therefore lack objectivity (Taneja, Srivastava & Ravichandran, 2015). If not done right, performance appraisals can result in a stressful environment where the employees feel pressured. Research has however shown most employees regard performance appraisal as ineffective. The ineffectiveness is actually not attributed to poor design of performance appraisal tools but rather the personal and threating nature of performance appraisal, reluctance of managers to give candid feedback and lack of skills on how to properly conduct a performance appraisal technique (Selvarajan, 2012). Emirates airlines, in its efforts to effectively assess the overall performance of the organization and ensure that the employees’ capabilities are utilized to the maximum, have incorporated key performance indicators, which are regarded to be more effective in perfomace appraisal. Implementation Strategy at Emirates Airlines Emirates Airlines has adopted an integrated performance management strategy. This strategy encompasses performance appraisal techniques and most importantly, it links the corporate objectives with key critical success factors and key performance indicators. Unlike most organizations that regard performance appraisal as an isolated role of the human resource department, Emirates Airlines recognize the importance of performance appraisal and have incorporated it its overall strategy. In the implementation, the company first sought total senior management support. The company then clearly identifies objectives and goals. It highlights the critical success factors before determining the key performance indicators The airline company also uses basic performance appraisal methods that serve as both evaluative and development tools. They serve the role of assessing employees, building competencies, and enhancing performance and as a merit based method of distributing awards. They include checklists, rankings, ratings, and critical incidents, online systems that continuously collect data and management by objectives. The company uses either of these methods or combines several methods depending on the nature of work of employees being assessed. It is also important to note the usefulness of any appraisal system also depends on the validity and reliability of the appraisal system. The basic performance appraisal methods used by Emirates Airline revolve around various variables, which include job satisfaction, skills, work performances, and commitment to the organization. The basis of appraisal includes traits, behavior’s and task outcomes mainly for evaluation purposes. Most companies in the UAE are particularly embracing the 360 degrees approach to performance appraisal while Emirates Airlines seems to steer away from it. Recommendations for Improvement Most performance appraisals are conducted periodically after several months. Technology has however changed the working environment enabling faster and improved communication channels. With technology support, performance appraisal should be conducted in real time where by employees are able to receive instant feedback on their daily performances instead of having to wait until year-end or quarterly to receive feedback. The company should automate performance appraisal system, which would support performance appraisal in real time. For example, the system should allow customers to rate a pilot based on their flight experience. The pilot should then receive report at the end of the journey so that he/she can make necessary adjustments to ensure that his next flight will lead to improved customer experience. The traditional methods of appraisal, which Emirates Airlines uses, mainly assess an individual performance against a company’s objective. They however fail to assess or acknowledge collaboration and teamwork among employees, which is also important in improving overall productivity. Performance appraisal methods for Emirates Airlines should also be able to assess teamwork and ability of employees to collaborate and work together. References Dessler, G. (2002). Human resource management (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Prentice Hall. Emirates Airline (2016). Emirates. Retrieved from http://www.emirates.com/ke/English/ Kuvaas, B. (2006). Performance appraisal satisfaction and employee outcomes: Mediating and moderating roles of work motivation. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17, 504-522. Selvarajan, T. (2012). Can performance appraisal motivate empoyees to improve performance? A Mexican study. International Journal of Human Resource, 3(15), 3063-3084. Taneja, S., Srivastava, R., & Ravichandran, N. (2015). Consequences of performance appraisal justice perception: A study of Indian banks. The IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior, XIV(3), 33-57. Read More