Factors Affecting the Performance of Employees - Research Paper Example

Factors Affecting the Performance of Employees There are several factors that influence the performance of employees in an organization. These factors depend on their impact on the roles assigned to employees. Human capital is a valuable asset for organizations. However, to enable these employees create value for the organization, the management needs to address all factors that may affect their performance. An effective worker is a combination of excellent skills, knowledge, and favorable work environment. The human resource policies and strategies of an organization are the key determinants of employees’ performance (Armstrong, 2006). For example, in my previous employment there were various incentives such as Christmas bonuses to employees, which aimed at motivating employees. Despite the human resource policies and strategies, the interrelationships of various departments of the organization, inter-organizational relations and demographic factors have an impact on employees’ performance. The paper will seek to identify, which factors affect the performance of employees in an organization. According to Armstrong (2006), human resources are valuable assets for an organization. Understanding the issues, which influence worker performance, may be key to enhancing employee’s productivity and morale. Organizations formulate strategies of providing excellent work environment in order to attract and retain the best employees. These strategies should address those factors that affect the performance of workers. These factors may be within or outside the company, including those factors emanating from the employee’s personal lives. The paper will discuss the following factors as determinants of employees’ performance. These factors include ability, knowledge and skills, feedback, environment, standards, and motivation. Motivation Motivation is the key of an effective organization to sustain the stability of the work in a strong way and help the survival of the organization. Motivation is discovering a requirement inside the workers and assisting to attain it. Motivation enables employees to widen their skills to meet the organizational objectives. Motivation drives human beings to achieve their objectives and company objectives through each challenge and limitation they experience in their workplace. The need of accomplishment leads in a desire to put extra effort to have something done better and the desire for success. There are three internal forces that influence an individual’s behavior; direction, intensity, and persistence. In terms of direction, motivation is directed by objectives while in terms of intensity, it is the amount of effort allotted. In terms of persistence, it is the time and effort applied. The following are the five main approaches of motivation; Maslow’s need hierarchy theory, Adams’ equity theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Herzberg’s two factor theory, and Skinner’s reinforcement theory (Herzberg, 1987). Maslow points out that there are five levels of employee needs; safety, physiological, ego, social, and self actualizing. Maslow observed that employees are motivated when their low level needs are satisfied first before the next high level needs. Herzberg’s study classified motivation into two factors; hygiene and motivators. Intrinsic or motivator factors, such as recognition and achievement lead to job satisfaction. Extrinsic or hygiene factors, such as level of remuneration and degree of job security generate job dissatisfaction. Vroom’s approach is based on the idea that worker effort will result to performance, which will result to rewards. The rewards can be either negative or positive. The more positive the prize the more probable the worker will be extremely motivated (Armstrong, 2006). On the contrary, the more negative the prize, the less probable the worker will be motivated. Adam’s approach states that workers strive for fairness among themselves and other employees. Equity is attained when the ratio of worker results over inputs is identical to other worker results over inputs. Skinner’s approach states that, those workers’ conducts that result to positive results will be repetitive, and conducts that result to negative results will not be repetitive. The management of the company should positively reinforce worker conducts that result to positive results. Also, the management should negatively reinforce worker conducts that result to negative results (Buhler, 2002). I previously worked in a medical centre in an accounts receivables department. While working in this medical facility, I observed this concept of motivation, where the health facility provided incentives to workers to motivate them. The management worked on ways of making the job interesting. In accounts receivable department, the management frequently offered rewards depending on the amount of money collected. These rewards motivated the employees in that department; we exerted more effort to ensure we collected more money so as to be rewarded. In order to achieve this goal, employees developed their own goals that they sought to achieve; this led to collection of a lot of money, which exceeded the expectations of the organization. Other motivational tools within the organization included preparation of birthday parties for workers or presentation of birthday gift cards. The company also offered bonuses to employees during the Christmas holidays. Knowledge and Skills Employees’ ability refers to the capacity to learn the required tasks and perform as per the expectations. Employees’ ability to perform various functions assigned to them depends heavily on their knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills refer to expertise and information required to perform a task. Knowledge and skills of employees depend on their qualifications and training. Skills and knowledge development is imperative to the strength of organizations. Nowadays, organizations are valued on the basis of physical resources they possess and the intellectual capital of the organization. Training is one of the key methods of sustaining and enhancing intellectual capital. This implies that the quality of a company’s training influences its value. The costs incurred in supporting poorly trained or untrained workers are significantly more than the cost incurred in supporting well trained workers. Training usually influences workers retention (Armstrong, 2006). Training is an effort by an organization, which aims at assisting workers to acquire skills needed for the efficient accomplishment of the roles assigned to them. Development deals with activities conducted to expose workers to the execution of additional tasks and assume influential positions in the hierarchy of the organization. Training and development are frequently initiated for a group of workers with an aim of the following; first; to remain in a competitive business environment. Second is to generate a pool of readily accessible and sufficient replacements for workers who may move up in the organization or leave the organization. Third is to improve the organization’s capability to adopt and exploit technological advances as a result of sufficiently knowledgeable workers. Fourth is to build a more effective, efficient and extremely motivated team that improves the competitiveness of the company and enhances workers morale (Buhler, 2002). Fifth is to ensure there is adequate human capital for expansion programs of the organization. According to Buhler (2002), the following are the benefits of training and development, which are realized to workers and organizations. Employees are assisted to focus, and priority is situated on employees’ empowerment. Employees’ productivity increases leading to a boost in the productivity of an organization. Workers confidence is created, maintaining and developing chief performers. This enables team growth and contributes to enhanced team morale. Workers are updated on the new job related information, which significantly contributes to excellent customer services. Also, workers are informed about new and improved skills, with a vision of aligning them with the business objectives. Training and development increases the degree of job satisfaction, workers’ motivation and morale; this reduces the rate of staff turnover. There are many methods adopted by organizations in the training and development employees. In my previous employment, I noted that employees are trained depending on their roles within the organization. When I joined the medical facility as a new employee, I was taken through training where I was informed about the culture of the organization. In addition, there are various procedures involved in billing of payments in accounts receivable department. In order to ensure I perform the tasks I was assigned, I was trained on the basic procedures in this department. The facility also encouraged on the job training, which ensured that new employees understand their roles out of the tasks assigned to them. This ensures employees have a practical experience of what is expected of him or her. Performance Appraisals A performance appraisal is a structured official interaction between a supervisor and subordinate. The work performance of the subordinate is periodically reviewed, studied, and discussed with an aim of identifying strengths and weaknesses and opportunities for enhancement and skill development. Performance appraisal is a process of assessing work conducts by measurement and comparison to predetermined standards, filing the outcomes, and communicating these outcomes back to workers. Employees’ attitudes are vital for a company since they result to preferred behaviors. There are two fundamental job related attitudes; job dissatisfaction and job satisfaction. A job related attitude is an individual’s feelings towards his or her job. A positive attitude implies that the employee is satisfied, whereas a negative attitude implies that the employee is dissatisfied (Jabeen, 2011). These attitudes emanate from the following factors; personal issues such as aspirations and needs, group issues that comprise manager and coworkers, and organizational issues such as remuneration, work itself, promotion opportunities, and working conditions. Commitment and involvement are other vital work related attitudes. Commitment is described as the individual’s sentiments of identification with and devotion to the organization. Involvement is the individual’s willingness as a company’s member to surpass the standard requirements of the work (Ambrose and Kulik, 1999). According to Jabeen (2011), appraising performance may result to a higher job satisfaction and reduced turnover rates and absenteeism. An effective staff assessment is an interactive procedure where the supervisor provides his or her input on the worker’s performance. Workers get the opportunity to present what they have learned during the review period. Managers develop a plan along with the worker for the next review period on how the worker may develop and enhance their performance. Comprehensive employee assessments are vital to the continuing performance of workers. Managers offer coaching sessions to their subordinates with an aim of improving their performance. Work Environment and Standards The environment that individuals are needed to work in may have a considerable impact on their capability to undertake the assignments assigned to them. This may influence productivity and employee well-being. These factors may be categorized into two; those arising from protocols, procedures, and management requirements and those arising from premises. Factors arising from management include working patterns, safety and health policies, and organization plans. Safety and health policies include the provision of training, establishment of secure working practices and sufficient supply of protective equipment and clothing. Organization plans include the allotment of duties at all levels of the organization, explanation of job descriptions, and the extent of access to the administrative support required to execute tasks (Armstrong, 2006). According to Armstrong (2006), standards refer to expectations employees are required to achieve and guidelines through which they will be achieved. Managerial standards may be a factor in de-motivating or motivating employees. These standards must be in relation with the job responsibilities delineated in the job description by human capital department. Employee’s background, including employees’ educational history is also delineated in a job description. Managers should maintain their anticipations in relation with the responsibilities allotted to the worker. By anticipating more from a worker than they were recruited for, or than their educational background has trained them for may diminish the performance of the worker. The work environment may also have an influence on the employee’s capability to work competently, safely and in conformity with operational recital targets. Work environment relates to work space availability, light intensity, weather or temperature, ventilation, noise, and premises hygiene or welfare facilities among others (Buhler, 2002). In accounts receivable department, we were required to conform to the billing policies of the insurance corporations. Frequently, insurance corporations adjusted their billing policies without informing the organization. The changes comprised of the changes of the billing codes or billing methods. The managers of the accounts receivable department claimed that they were not aware of these changes. This would affect staff performance since we would be forced to carry out functions according to the insurance companies’ policies. The facility has two offices, which are in different geographical locations. These two locations have entirely different demographics; one office is located in a low income region where we received more Medicare patients covered by Medicaid plans such as HealthPlus and Americaid. The other office was characterized by commercial insurance. These demographic differences affected staff performance and required delegation and division of duties. Exhibit I below shows an analysis of the factors that influences the job attitudes of workers. These factors were reported in twelve investigations. The investigations identified those factors leading to extreme satisfaction and extreme dissatisfaction. Motivators are the majority of the factors that contribute to job satisfaction, whereas hygiene factors are the majority of the factors that contribute to job dissatisfaction. Figure A below shows how motivators and hygiene factors influence job attitudes in six nations. This analysis shows that motivators contribute more to job satisfaction, whereas hygiene factors contribute to more job dissatisfaction in all the countries studied. Source: Harvard Business Review. Source: Harvard Business Review. Conclusion The above analysis shows that there are several factors that influence the performance of employees. Organizations formulate strategies aimed at improving worker’s productivity. These strategies incorporate the factors that affect employees’ performance. Performance appraisals, employees’ capability, employees’ knowledge and skills, work environment, standards, and motivation are the key factors that significantly affect the performance of workers. Among these factors, motivation plays the most significant role in influencing workers performance. Training and development programs within an organization, efficient performance appraisals and feedback, and improvement of the working environment and standards are aimed at motivating employees. Motivation influences the job attitudes; motivators lead to job satisfaction whereas hygiene factors lead to job dissatisfaction. References Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Ambrose, M.L. and Kulik, C.T. (1999). Old Friends, New Faces: Motivation Research in the 1990s. Journal of Management 25(3), 231-292. Buhler, P. (2002). Human Resources Management. Avon, MA: Adams Media. Herzberg, F. (1987). One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review 8 (2). Jabeen, M. (2011). Impact of Performance Appraisal on Employees Motivation. European Journal of Business and Management 3(4). Read More