Effective Management of Staff Performance - Essay Example

Effective Management of Staff Performance Human resource is a managerial function that is designed to optimize the performance of the employees and help meet organizational objectives. It revolves around the management of employees within an organization (Dickens, 2012). The personnel department needs to ensure that staff performance is effectively monitored. Managing the staff performance is not done once but is a continuous process that involves frequent reviews and a rigorous process. For effective management of staff performance, every employee needs to understand their role and know what is expected of them (Armstrong 2013). Effective management of staff performance is very important to any organisation if it is to achieve its goals. The first step in ensuring managing employee performance is recruiting qualified personnel. Key competencies expected of new employees need be outlined in advance before the recruitment process begins (Dickens, 2012). Having a qualified workforce will ensure that tasks are performed effectively, and organizational goals are met (Storey 2007). Accomplishments and Contributions that employees perform give the human resources possibility to appraise the most notable employees and give feedback to their work and thus discover new resources for ideas and innovation (Thompson, 2012). My model organisation will be the Swiss company, “Nestlé”. It is the world’s number one Food Business with its long record of creating the best food for people. The company states that its main assets are not the numerous office buildings or factories, but the nationalities, religions and ethnic groups who consume Nestlé’s products and services. Unity and among employees enable the company to operate harmoniously in all its activities creating a single corporate culture (Revill, 2013). The company has developed a program that ensures Nestlé attracts the most talented people/staff. The company is also making efforts to ensure good employees are retained (Revill, 2013). The company contributes actively to the quality of HRM by proposing policies and by constantly applying and implementing them to members of Nestlé community. HRM assists in the execution of planning and creating awareness towards the required adaptability to unexpected situations. The expectations of the workers are to be clearly set and clarified by the management. There is need for an all-inclusive process between the management and the staff that helps to set what is expected of the employees and continuously spell out their functions. Every staff is from time to time updated on their job descriptions, which include their responsibilities. These are to be aligned to the objectives of the organization (Armstrong, 2013). At Nestlé Company, the management ensures that every employee is informed about the key deliverables expected from them. Employees are to be informed of the skills they are required to have to perform the tasks they have been given (Ivancevich, 2004). The company’s employees are often informed or reminded of the codes of behaviour, values and policies of the organisation. All the new staff in the company are always taken through reviews both prescribed and reviews that are not prescribed. Gilmore, (2009) notes that if this is not done, the staff may be left with much uncertainty and ambiguity in what is expected of them making them perform their tasks poorly even if they were able to do them better.  The Human Resource has to be committed to monitoring employee performance. Such an evaluation help the management to know the employees who fail to meet exceed their performance expectations. At Nestlé Company, a two-way feedback was developed. Here the management team in collaboration with the employees continuously monitor the performance progress. The progress is then measured against the goals given to the employees (Dickens, 2012). The employees are then given a chance to discuss their work with their managers from time to time. The administration in return is expected gives constant feedback on the performance of the employees (Lussier & Hendon, 2013).  All employees are in essence given a chance to communicate back to the management using the available channels of communication. Employees who are be subjected to closer monitoring include those who are newly employed, those employees whose conditions have changed and those employees with new responsibilities. They however, should, get recognition and rewards for their participation towards the success of the organisation. The management of Nestlé has been actively involved in planning and reviewing. The aim is to ensure effective management of staff performance (Cook, 2008).  The management and the employees of Nestlé always work as a team to plan for duties that are in line with the organization’s goals. There are continuous reviews on the advancement, made towards accomplishing the corporate goals of Nestlé. Every year, each employee is to have an annual performance agreement with its line managers. Personal performance is to be in line with the aims of the organisation. Employees are given the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in line with the roles assigned to them. All employees’ holding executive roles have binding financial accountability performance requirement (Armstrong, 2013). Employees holding managerial roles should have clear performance objectives. All workers in the organisation are subjected to an annual assessment of performance. Salary increments, upward career advancement or additional responsibilities given to the employees are pegged on performance reviews. After planning, there are conferences organized to plot a way of achieving the objectives. In strategizing how the objectives are to be achieved, there is the management looks at the abilities of the employees and identify the areas where they need help (Mondy & Noe, 2005).  To develop employee performance effectively, employees need to be given a chance to develop their skills and abilities. There should be a joint system of identifying and developing the knowledge of employees using evaluation of progress and continuous review (Armstrong, 2013). Employees should be given a chance for upward career progression based on employee performance. Opportunities for furthering studies, attending professional seminars should be given to enhance the skills of employees and hence improve their performance. In developing the skills of the employees, managers should from time to time delegate some of their duties to the employees (Lusthaus, 1999). Programs should be organized where employees can share their expertise with their co-workers. Employees should also be given a chance to participate in programs where they can add value to the organisation and improve their skills. Training of employees is an effective way of improving employee performance, increasing job satisfaction, cutover satisfaction and improving on quality. Every training session should be recorded on the employees log and the jobs to which the training will be applied. Training is important from time to time because of the ever-changing business environment (Revill, 2013). Training ensures that staffs are up to date with the current business practices. A cheap way of organizing training is by developing the skills that are already available in the organisation. Training should be in line with the development plans of the organisation and the professional plans of the staff. There is often need for professionals to be outsourced if the required skills cannot be got from within the organisation. As a form of motivation, employees who show exemplary performance should be rewarded. Rewards act as an incentive to the employees. Rewards can be in form of prizes, recognition, holiday trips among other incentives (Cook 2008). The guidelines for recognition should be impartial so that every employee gets a fair chance of being rewarded. Recognition of employee performance is a valuable way of encouraging positive actions from employees. Employees whose efforts are recognized are more motivated and have job satisfaction. When the efforts of an employee are recognized, they develop a feeling of importance and value to the organization (Martin 2009). Credit should be given by the administration to the excelling employees. Recognitions that come in quick succession may often lose meaning and loose its effectiveness. Delayed recognition may have little or no impact on motivation the employees (Millmore, 2007). Recognition of employees’ performance is in essence a way of managing their performance. The current way of managing staff performance is the use of performance software. The software has saved the managers the trouble of evaluating the performance of all employees on a manual basis (Mondy & Mondy, 2014). At Nestlé, it has helped correct the common human-related errors. The software gives exact results on employee performance that satisfies all employees. At Nestlé, the software has also helped in making better the organizational value. The software has a unique capability that helps employees know their important role in organizational development (Mondy & Mondy, 2014). It helps employees understand what is expected of them and the role they play in helping the overall organizational objectives. With the use of this software, managers can track employee work history, educational qualifications, key skills and abilities. The management of Nestlé Company should utilize the software to set goals that are realistic. It will help them in creating a feedback kind of communication between different levels of management within the organization (Mondy & Mondy, 2014). Considering that an organisation that does not manage well the performance of its staff is unlikely to meet its objectives, it is important that Nestlé installs this software to help in the management of staff performance. The final step in effectively managing staff performance is resolving poor performance. Poor performance can be as a result of several factors including; expectations that are not clear, bad recruitment practices, supervision problems, poor communication, organizational culture, lack of motivation among others (Armstrong, 2013). The line managers of Nestlé work with the employees to identify possible causes of flaws in performance and find possible solutions. Managers closely monitor the duties of the employees and offer advice where appropriate. A step by step approach towards managing employee underperformance is being adopted. The first step is getting to know the problem. The management then needs to do examination of the problem (Foot & Hook, 2011). The administration should then plan a conference with the affected personnel and discuss the problem. Joint solution agreed on by both parties should be arrived at after which the performance of the employee should be monitored. In extreme cases where the employee cannot improve on performance, disciplinary action may be sought. Possible disciplinary actions may include demotion and retrenchment (Sistare, 2009). All these measures need to be taken to ensure that there is improvement in employee performance and that the organisation meets its objectives. In conclusion, a good performance management system is important for a business to achieve its goals and objectives. For good performance management, the visions and goals of the organisation have to be realistic and achievable. All staff needs to know the vision and understand work priorities to ensure the objectives are met. The management system needs to outline clearly the responsibilities of every staff and their specific targets. Workers have to be empowered and given required assistance to meet their targets. Proper performance management ensures that communication within the organisation improves, employees learn and develop on the Job, and organizational goals are achieved. The management of Nestle Company needs to undergo further training so that they can understand their employees better and at the same time maintain good managerial behaviour. Bibliography Armstrong, M. (2013). How to manage people (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page. Cook, S. (2008). The essential guide to employee engagement better business performance through staff satisfaction. London: Kogan Page. Dickens, L. 2012, Making Employment Rights Effective: Issues of Enforcement and Compliance, Bloomsbury Publishing Edwards, J. (2003). The human resources program-evaluation handbook. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Foot, M. and Hook, C. 2011, Introducing Human Resource Management, 6th Edition. Harlow: FT/Prentice Hall Gilmore, S. (2009). Human resource management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ivancevich, J. (2004). Human resource management (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Lussier, R., & Hendon, J. (2013). Human resource management: Functions, applications, skill development. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Lusthaus, C. (1999). Enhancing organizational performance a toolbox for self-assessment. Ottawa, Ont.: International Development Research Centre Martin, J. (2009). Human resource management. 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