Developing High Performance Working - Essay Example

Developing High Performance Working Today's organisations face a range of people management challenges. Critically examine the challenges and choices HR Managers now face in regard to ‘Developing high performance working’ Introduction: One of the most important aspects for any business is the Human Resource Management. This mainly deals with all the factors related to the people within the organisation. Performance of employees is very important for every business. This report aims at understanding the various problems faced by the organisations in relation to developing high performance working. The first section deals with the role of managing performance, and the link of human resource management and performance. Also the role of appraisal systems in the management of performance will also be discussed. Also important aspects like the performance appraisals and the issues faced for performance appraisal will also be discussed. Issues like poor performance will be discussed and possible modes to deal with poor performance will be discussed. Finally the high performance practice in the UK will be discussed. HRM and Performance: The performance of a company and its relationship with the HRM has been a topic of high debate over the last decade. The HRM policies of a company affect the performance of the company directly. Performance here is in terms of two mains aspects, a) the employee performance and b) the company performance. These are inter related in a way that the better the employee performance the better will be the company performance. Human Resource Management mainly aims at ensuring that all aspects of employees from recruitment to retention are taken care of. The HR team would take all necessary steps to ensure that the employee performance is better. The HR has a very clear and very big affect on the performance of the company and the employees (Boselie, Paauwe and Jansen, 2000). The HR has a direct influence on the performance of the company. Since the HR is responsible for recruitment and selection of the employees, it is completely dependent on the HR teams to select employees who would perform. This is mainly because employee performance is directly related to the performance of the organisation. Hence the first step which is selection of employees is handled by the HR team, and is the basis of the entire performance of the organisation (Becker, et.al., 2001). Management of performance: Appraisal Systems Performance appraisal is a very essential part of employment. There are several reasons for performance appraisals to be conducted. To understand performance appraisal better it is essential to focus on the elements that are taken care of by performing appraisals. Conducting performance appraisals on a regular basis helps the employer provide the employee with feedback and advice on how to improve in areas that require correction. This is the best way to communicate any strength the employees have and also to discuss the weaknesses and provide possible solutions. Since most of the performance appraisals are very open and it allows employees to rate their supervisors as well. This allows a better understanding and better relationship among the employer and employee (Archer North, 2006). Apart from the feedback, performance appraisals help keep track of the developments in the employees’ career. Since performance appraisals are open discussion, it is possible for employees to discuss their career objectives and make strategic decisions to maximise their career potentials. Also it allows the employers to recognise the contributions of the employees to the job and allow them to decide if the employees deserve to be promoted. Since these meeting acts as a refresher to the employee’s performance history a lot of personnel decisions like compensation decision making, promotions etc. can be made during these sessions. Performance appraisals allow the employers to explain to employees the standards and define the performance expectations. This makes it easier and more beneficial for both the employer and employee and allows both to work towards achieving the standards and expectations. It also allows the employers to view the performance of employees in a broader sense in the context of the organisational goals. Performance appraisals are very beneficial since they allow a lot of appropriate decisions to be made in aspects of profits to the company and also in terms of the employee’s career decision (Gilley, et.al., 2001). Performance appraisal sessions can also be excellent opportunity to provide support and motivation to employees. It allows the employees and employers to address any issues that are being faced within the organisation and possible solutions to improve the situation can be thought out. Also managers are able to make these sessions meaningful and valuable both for the company as well as the employee, by trying to motivate the employees to do a better job and giver higher levels of performance. Appraisals generally focus on a few factors which are the basis on which employees are rated. Employers generally have rating systems to rate employees during performance appraisals. The factors are normally directly related to the performance of the employee which influences the profitability of the company. A few of the factors that are considered are quality of work i.e. the accuracy of the work and the attention to detail shown by the employee to the job. Also the knowledge of the employee in terms of the job, how well the responsibilities are understood, the ability to apply job knowledge to unique situations and the understanding of the employee as to how the job contributes to institutional operations and objectives (Grote, 1996). Also how effectively and efficiently an employee does the job is analysed. Other factors are dependability, initiatives, adaptability, cooperation with other employees, judgement, safety, attendance, communication, planning etc. All these factors and a lot of other factors are discussed which allows both the employee and employer to improve the productivity of the employee which in turn improves the efficiency and profitability of the business. Challenges of Performance Appraisals: Studies have shown that rewards like performance related pay helps to motivate employees however the motivation is for a limited period of time. It is essential that this is considered by the management while tying to motivate employees by giving them performance related pays. To do so, it is essential that management use motivational systems where they provide employees with non monetary rewards, which might include career development plans, goal setting, two way communication, etc. Some of the performance appraisal systems that are used are inappropriate for the objectives of the appraisal system, and do not match the objectives of the reward system. Also it is possible that the rewards systems that are designed do not meet the objectives meant to be achieved, e.g. retaining good and capable staff members, change organisational culture etc. Employers also face problems when employee efforts go unrecognised. This causes employees to be de-motivated especially in cases where the employee has contributed to profits e.g. management decisions, recessions, etc. These efforts can go unnoticed due to lack of periodic evaluation systems. Also the mix of the intrinsic rewards and extrinsic rewards is not proportionate making the employees unsatisfied. In a few cases where the performance of the employee very good and the contribution to the company is high, the employees loose interest since the amount of pay rewarded is much lower than deserved for the contribution. The problems of unfair ratings for employees is taken very seriously and it is essential that managers are well trained, if not they would find it very difficult to give motivational feedbacks. Also an important problem of performance appraisals is that the appraisal is based on subjectivity and the appraisal techniques are less reliable and valid in some cases. A few of the problems are the external environmental factors and uncontrollable internal factors. Management emphasizes on the punishment of employees more than the possible development for the employees, thud de motivating the employee further. There is no systematic procedure for the rating of employee potential. Thus the ratings might not always be appropriate and correct. The potential of the employee could be undermined or in some cases it could be over rated. It is also noted that appraisers complete the reports within a few minutes not giving enough thought to the possible strengths and weaknesses of the employees and in some cases over looking the employees’ contribution to the company. Also as discussed earlier managers who are not well trained for the process sometimes lack offering constructive suggestions to the employees thus making the sessions very uncomfortable and de motivating for employees. However there have been a few improvements after the introduction of appraisals through computers. It has been noted that the communication is much simpler for people who need to express their emotional needs. Also communicating through computers has helped overcome the communication barrier between the employer and employees. This system has helped the employees express their views after the appraisal is completed and allows a good two way communication. Also computer appraisal has helped in removing the issue of incorrect and unclear guidelines for appraisals and helps provide more accurate assessments which in turn also helps improving the performance of the employee and in turn the performance of the company. Poor Performance: As already discussed performance appraisals is a method to measure the performance of the employees. When an employees’ is found to performing poorly, the HR is required to take immediate action. The first step to be noted by the HR is to understand and make a check on the possible reasons for the poor performance. The reasons could vary from low motivation, low knowledge of the process, or unsatisfied workers (Great Systems, 2008). Hence to deal with this it is essential that the HR managers take steps like involving the employees in training programs which will help them understand the areas which cause the issues for the overall performance. Also the HR could have a one on one meeting with the employee to understand what the employee requires to improve the performance, based on which the HR could reach an understanding on what the company can provide the employee with. This is the most effective mode of improving employee performance. High Performance Practice in the UK: High Performance Workplace is a concept which deals with managing people in a way that helps employees maximise the potential in the interest of themselves as well as the organisation’s performance. This focuses on understanding a range of employment related issues that surround high employee performance at workplaces (Jones, et.al., 1999). As Sutcliffe has rightly said “People no longer see it as desirable to spend all their working lives in one company, or even one career. They want to be able to balance work commitments with their lives and responsibilities outside work as parents or carers. They want to make full use of their skills in rewarding careers that stretch and develop them” (BERR, 2005). It is to be noted that every business is competing to get the best people within the organization to ensure better performance of the business on the whole. With the increasing and fiercely competition on a global basis performance is becoming a very important aspect of every business. High performance work practices has been proved to be very useful for the employers and employees as it contributes to better results in business, with better and higher turnovers and high profit margins and also it provides the employees with more involvement in the business and better and more skill development (Jones, and Beyerlein, 1999). The main aim of the high performance practice is to raise the standards within the workplace. This will include a number of aspects like the quality of work, innovative thinking within the organization, and also employee involvement in the business. Also other aspects of the human resource management like promotion of equality etc. Conclusion: Employee performance as already discussed plays a very important role in the performance of the company. The problems that have been faced by the HR teams and the performance of the company are mainly in the performance appraisals of the employees. From the above discussions the issues faced by the HR managers is very evident. The discussion has highlighted the main reasons and areas of issues for the managers in regards with the development of high performance working. Personal Development Introduction: This section is to highlight the improvements of skills and knowledge that has been gained from the above paper. Both the skills as well as knowledge play a very important role in understanding different concepts of management. This section is sub divided into three main topics: a) Skills, b) Knowledge and c) Behavior. This will provide a clear picture of the learning that has been gained from this paper. Skills: This paper has helped me understand the link between human resource management and developing performance. It has allowed a better and clearer understanding of how the performance of employees can affect the business. Also this has been very interesting as it has helped analyze the issues and the challenges that is faced by the organizations for performance appraisal. Also it has allowed a clear study of how the poor performance of employees can be treated. This paper has helped improve the research skills. Also it has helped me improve my soft skills. The paper has helped present the relevant data in a clear and orderly fashion, highlighting all the important aspects of the subject. Also due to the vast research that has been conducted for this paper, it has helped improve my skills and has enlightened me with a number of different aspects of human resource management. Knowledge: As important as skills are for any assignment, so is the knowledge about the subject. The two of them complement one another. My knowledge about the limitations of performance appraisal was very limited. With this paper it has helped improve my knowledge to a great extent. It has also helped improve my overall knowledge about performance appraisal and understanding the importance of developing improved performance. Behaviors: This paper as mentioned earlier has helped improve my knowledge. This in turn has helped understand the importance of recruiting the right type of people for organizations and how every employee in the group affects the performance of the company. With the combined knowledge and skills that has been gained from the paper, I have been able to build up a clearer picture of how to improve the performance within an organization. Conclusion: This paper has been very interesting to work on as it has helped me improve on my skills and knowledge to a great extent and the research that has been conducted has allowed for an in – depth of the concepts. Overall from the entire project I have been able to gather a lot of knowledge and have improved my skills in various ways and my knowledge has improved a lot in the field. Bibliography Archer North, 2006, 'Introduction: Performance Appraisal', Accessed on 30 December 2008, Retrieved from http://www.performance-appraisal.com/intro.htm Becker, B.E., Huselid, M.A., and Ulrich, D., 2001, 'The Hr Scorecard: Linking people, Strategy and Performance', March 2001, 1 edition, Harvard Business School Press BERR, 2005, 'High Performance Workplaces - Because people mean business', 15 September 2005, Accessed on 30 December 2008, Retrieved from http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/europe-dti/high-performance/page26171.html Boselie, P., Paauwe, J., and Jansen, P., 2000, 'Human Resource Management and Performance', October 2000, Accessed on 30 December 2008, Retrieved from http://publishing.eur.nl/ir/repub/asset/52/erimrs20001030163917.pdf Gilley, J., Quatro, S., Hoekstra, E., Whittle, D., Maycunich, A., Gilley, J.W., Quatro, S.A., and Whittle, D.D, 2001, 'The Manager as Change Agent: A pratical Guide to Developing High Performance People and Organisations', 2 July 2001, Basic Books Grote, D., 1996, 'The complete guide to Performance Appraisal', 20 December 1996, 1 edition, AMACOM Great Systems, 2008, 'How to Develop a high Performance Work Culture', 24 March 2008, Accessed on 30 December 2008, retrieved from http://www.greatsystems.com/hpculturebook.htm Jones, S.D., Beyerlein, M.M., and Philips, J.J., 1999, 'Developing High Performance Work Teams', American Society for Training and Development Jones, S.D., and Beyerlein, M.M., 1999, 'In action: Developing High Performance Work Teams', Volume 2, 1 June 1999, ASTD Read More