People Management & Performance in Contemporary Organisations - Essay Example

People Management & Performance in Contemporary Organisations The prime intent of this essay is to suggest a revised graduate selection process including time scale and estimated costs for Pearl and Mutual Benefit Insurance Company (PMIC) with the aim of lessening high attrition rate of graduate trainees. Thus, the company should adopt a proper selection procedure that will select the right candidates for the job and the recruitment managers must also be well trained to make use of their general mental ability while interviewing the candidates. Moreover, an effective performance appraisal system should also be implemented that will rate the employees according to their performance. Thus, adopting all these measures, the company can reduce its high attrition rate of graduate trainees and continue the normal organisational activities with greater productivity. Table of Contents People Management & Performance in Contemporary Organisations 1 Abstract 2 The prime intent of this essay is to suggest a revised graduate selection process including time scale and estimated costs for Pearl and Mutual Benefit Insurance Company (PMIC) with the aim of lessening high attrition rate of graduate trainees. Thus, the company should adopt a proper selection procedure that will select the right candidates for the job and the recruitment managers must also be well trained to make use of their general mental ability while interviewing the candidates. Moreover, an effective performance appraisal system should also be implemented that will rate the employees according to their performance. Thus, adopting all these measures, the company can reduce its high attrition rate of graduate trainees and continue the normal organisational activities with greater productivity. 2 Table of Contents 3 Discussion 5 Findings 5 Recommendations for a Revised Graduate Selection Process 5 5 Timescale 7 Estimated Costs 7 Need for Employee Motivation 8 Employee Performance Appraisal 9 Application of McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y 10 Organisational Examples 11 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction Based on the case study provided, it can be found that Pearl and Mutual Benefit Insurance Company (PMIC) is a financial service based organisation wherein higher rate of attrition of the employees has been witnessed. This can be justified with reference to the data produced at the end of the year 2014 revealing that 60% of the recruited graduate trainees have left the company for varied purposes such as change in career settings by shifting from one sector to other. One of the reasons behind this disturbing fact can be deemed as the persistence of inefficiency in the procedure of recruiting and selecting the trainees. It will be vital to mention in this similar concern that the recruitment procedure of PMIC must be structured in a strategic manner in order to select the potential graduates who would deemed fit with the company’s sales and hard driving oriented culture. In accordance with the provided data on the case study, it can be ascertained that several graduate trainees who have been expensively recruited as well as trained have not obtained high ratings for their respective performance during annual appraisals (Explorehr.org, 2014). Thus, a proper performance appraisal system should be developed that will rate the employees according to their performance and appraise them accordingly. Moreover, a proper method should also be adopted by PMIC for the initial screening of candidates by utilising the general mental abilities of the recruiters. According to the scores of the initial screening, the best graduate trainees should be interviewed by the senior line managers for the final selection. These managers should be trained in such a way so that they can make better use of a competency framework in the interview process, rating six behavioural and motivational competencies of the candidates like interpersonal skills, organizational skills, selling skills, drive to achieve, decisiveness and stress management (Edmonton Police Service, 2014). It can be affirmed that the company already incurred huge expenses in providing effective training to the graduate trainees and thus their attrition is deemed to be a huge loss. In order to solve this problem, adopting the proper methods of selection and a proper appraisal system for the employees may prove to be highly beneficial for the company (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2014; Hearst Newspapers, LLC, 2014; NHS, 2014). Discussion Findings With regards to the scenario depicted in the case study, it can be affirmed that the high attrition rate of the graduate trainees within PMIC is mainly because of ineffective recruitment along with selection process adopted by the company and the design of improper performance appraisal system, which failed to rate the employees’ performance based on their annual appraisals. Thus, for retaining such graduate trainees and lessen excessive training costs, it is quite necessary for developing a revised graduate selection procedure with the inclusion of relevant time scale and estimated costs (InTouch Sales Recruitment, 2014). Recommendations for a Revised Graduate Selection Process A proper and effective selection as well as recruitment procedure is required to be adopted by PMIC, which will end up with the selection of such candidates who can develop the company’s brand image and most vitally increase customer base with selling huge amount of products to them. There lay certain steps that should be followed in order to ensure effectiveness in the revised process of graduate selection. Initially, the candidates should be sourced by the recruiter himself/herself in the form of utilising his/her own knowledge, skills, creativity and professional contacts, which would aid in understanding the potentiality of the candidates towards fulfilling the above stated objectives of the company. In this regard, the candidates may be sourced from various career seminars, recruiting agencies, job portals and colleges or institutions. The second step can be screening the candidates by utilising the general mental abilities of the recruiter. It will be vital to mention in this context that a recruiter possessing higher general metal abilities holds more knowledge regarding a job and also acquires an improved hiring decision and staff retention ability. Thirdly, a preliminary telephonic interview should be conducted wherein the candidates will be asked various questions regarding their job experience, work history and verify the information that has been provided in the resume. On the basis of the preliminary interview, the interviewer or the recruiter can obtain a rough idea about the skills and knowledge of the candidates and finally decides whether the selected ones will be called for the final interview or not. The last stage would be to line up the candidates for the final interview. The final interview will be a face-to-face interview and the senior line managers will be involved in conducting the same (Hearst Newspapers, LLC, 2014). However, the line managers who will remain engaged in performing this process effectively will be provided with adequate training to use a competency framework, which would assist in determining various behavioural and motivational potentialities of the candidates. These potentialities can measured in the form interpersonal, management, marketing, change promoter, decision-making and stress along with time management skills. Specially mentioning, there should be two rounds of final interview in order to obtain detailed perspective about the candidates. Based on the performance of the candidates in the final interview, selection will be made on priority basis (Performance Group International Ltd, 2007). Timescale The timescale for the revised graduate selection process on behalf of PMIC has been attached in the following: Source: (National University of Ireland, 2006) Estimated Costs The estimated costs for the revised recruitment process of PMIC can be $10,000 that will be spending in varied areas. These may include advertisement, equipment used for resume as well as candidate screening, interview preparation along with set up and paper work among others. Need for Employee Motivation In accordance with the case study provided, it has been previously mentioned that the company PMIC faced massive loss in the form of rising graduate trainees’ attrition rate. This clearly depicts that such graduate trainees have been demotivated on one way or the other for which they had to left the company and also shift the sector to other segments. By considering this scenario, it can be affirmed that the graduate trainees recruit by the company should be motivated for retaining them for a longer time and attain predetermined organisational goals within specific timeframe. In order to establish a motivational strategy for such graduate trainees, initially, the required motivational factors such as the deliverance of quality training need to be considered. Thus, motivating them through the incorporation of such factors will certainly drive their performance to the peak and moreover help the organization to retain those trainees for an extended period (Americas Job Exchange, 2014). It is therefore necessary to focus on a list of key motivating factors like monetary incentives, appreciation and recognition, interesting workplace, increased job responsibility, augmented job security and facilitating the graduate trainees to create a better work-life balance. The employees should feel comfortable to perform their tasks with pleasure and joy. Moreover, increasing the job responsibility of the employees may also help to motivate them (Monster Worldwide, 2014). Thus, it is the responsibility of the organisations to arrange training for the employees so that they can be equipped with necessary tools and skills required for their career development. Increase in the job security may also prove to be an important motivational factor for the employees (Chapman, 2014). Apart from focusing only on the amount of profit earned by the company and the quantity of work delivered by the employees, the company should also remember that the employees have their personal life, which should also be considered. The company should try to solve any issue related with the employee’s personal life that is affecting their performance (Management Study Guide, 2013). Thus, it is projected that by applying all the above discussed motivational factors, PMIC can lessen the increased level of attrition rate of the graduate trainees and retains them for a longer time. Employee Performance Appraisal In relation to the case study provided, it can be inferred that several graduate trainees of PMIC who were previously recruited have not received high ratings for their respective performance on annual appraisals. This might be duly considered one of the main reasons behind the high attrition rate of the graduate trainees of the company. Thus, an effective performance appraisal system is required to be adopted by the company, which will ensure proper and effective rating of the employees according to their respective performance. Theoretically, the notion of performance appraisal may be referred to as a process, which is performed systematically for assessing the performance of an employee as well as his/her productivity based on certain criteria (Education Portal, 2014). Thus, based on performance appraisal, the human resource (HR) official of the company will then decide the areas of improvement of such graduate trainees and determine the type of training that will be needed by them. It is worth mentioning that various decisions regarding promotion, demotion or retrenchment of the employees are also made based on performance appraisal. However, there are various types of performance appraisal techniques that may be followed by the HR official of PMIC. These techniques mainly encompass ‘general appraisal’, ‘360 degree appraisal’, ‘technological performance appraisal’, ‘manager performance appraisal’, ‘employee self-assessment’ and ‘sales performance appraisal’ (Corporate Renaissance Group, 2014). Thus, implementing the proper performance appraisal technique will certainly help the company to retain its already recruited graduate trainees and make effective control towards lessening the rising training costs. Application of McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor invented the Theory X and Y based on employee motivation in the year 1960. The Theory X is also known as authoritarian management style and the Theory Y is regarded as participative management style. The Theory X assumes that the average person do not like to work and try to avoid the same as much as possible. In order to make them perform and deliver the works as per the desired levels, they are often forced or even threatened to conduct the same. Moreover, this theory also assumes that the employees try to avoid responsibilities and are less ambitious (Chapman, 2014). On the other hand, Theory Y assumes that the people love to work and are creative as well as self motivated. The employees become highly motivated as they love to take responsibilities. Thus, the employees take high responsibility and are self motivated to achieve the organisational objectives. These types of employees do not need to be controlled or directed by others. Thus, based on the above discussed theories, it can be asserted that these can influence the revised selection process of the graduate trainees by PMIC in the form of varied ways. One of these ways mainly comprise the role play by favouritism during the application of the above discussed two theories, which might make the stated process to get collapse in one way or the other (Stewart, 2010). Organisational Examples Notably, varied organisations belonging to this modern organisations are witnessed to adopt dynamic recruitment and selection procedure based on which they fulfil their desired business or operational targets. In this regard, one of such organisations i.e. HSBC Bank plc conduct the stated procedure in filling up online CV through online. Apart from this, the organisation is also viewed to incorporate the approach of International Talent Management for recruiting potential candidates and motivating them (Linkedln Corporation, 2014). On the other hand, the recruitment and selection procedure of another world renowned financial service company named Barclays is noted to be based on the conduct of two particular interviews that entail Competency Interview and Biographical Interview (Barclays, 2012). Conclusion Based on the above analysis and discussion, it can be ascertained that the major problem faced by PMIC is the high attrition rate of the employees, which affected the financial performance of the company. The main reason behind the high attrition rate was seemed to be the inefficiency in the selection procedure of the candidates adopted by the company as well as improper performance appraisal system that was ineffectively in rating the employees according to their performance. Thus, in order to overcome this problem, the company may adopt a proper recruitment and selection system, which will show its effectiveness from proper sourcing of the candidates and end up with selecting the right candidates. The managers taking interview should also be trained properly so they can make the best use of their general mental ability to select the candidates. Moreover, the graduate trainees in the form of employees should be properly motivated considering different motivational factors that will influence them to love their work and increase productivity. A proper appraisal system should also be adopted by the company that will rate the employees properly and effectively according to their performance. There are various types of performance appraisal systems, amongst which the adoption of a best suitable appraisal system will certainly motivate the employees and improve their performance, resulting in lessening the attrition rate by a considerable extent. Thus, in conclusion, it can be affirmed that following the aforesaid factors, the company can overcome the present problem of high attrition of graduate trainees and facilitate them towards attaining organisational goals in future. 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