Characteristics of Natural Knibbles Orientation Program - Assignment Example

Identify the key characteristics of Natural Knibbles’ orientation program and how it supports the goals of organization Orientation program is “the formal process of familiarising (or “orienting”) new employees with the organisation, their job and the work unit” (Nankervis, Compton & Baird 2010, p.294). According to the case study, the characteristics of Natural Knibbles’ orientation program consisted of a systematic introduction of organisation, job and co-workers. This is important as it allows the new employees to understand the values, culture and norms of organisation and how work processes are carried out. This orientation is important as it may be reflected in the training, socialization and attitude of the new employee affecting the performance of the organisation. The goal of Natural Knibbles is to create a company that provides attractive place to work, helps employees to fully utilise their potential and offer secure, long-term employment (Stone, 2008, p.375). The orientation program helps in portraying this image of the company. First, the orientation program provides a complete description of the environment and culture at Natural Knibbles. Second, important information related to the job such as responsibilities and duties is explained providing on-the-job training to the new employees under a process called ‘buddy system with experienced employees. Thus, the orientation program allows the new employees to explore their skills and abilities in a new environment which adds to the value and growth of the employees. What forms of training and development do you believe would have been beneficial to (a) Kane (b) Lisa following their initial experiences at Natural Knibbles? According to Nankervis et al. (2011), the aim of training is to provide or maintain effective job level performance to achieve goals of organisation as well as personal. Given that Lisa and Kane were new entrants in the organisation, on-the-job training was a good decision but the way it was carried out was not at all progressive to them or the organisation. Continuous changing the roles was not beneficial for them as they could not adjust and fully understand any role or position. Since Lisa had TAFE training, she had a better understanding of the organisation’s processes which allowed her to excel in on-the-job training making it the best training and development option for her. On-the-job training as argued by Nankervis et al. (2011) develops practical work experiences and helps in building relations with the peers if the employee is a new entrant. In case of Kane, he did not possess any TAFE qualifications and worked in large company did not have any experience in working with a small family oriented company. Off-the-job training would have been a better option for him, which could have consisted of e-learning, simulation training or conference or classroom training (Nankervis et al. 2011). On-the-job training created confusion for him causing the peers to provide negative comments on his performance. What are the advantages and disadvantages of peer evaluation, and why would Natural Knibbles choose this approach as part of its performance management process? The performance management process needs to begin by taking in to consideration the strategic plan of organisation and penetrate every level of organisation to reach every employee (Nankervis et al. 2011). One such performance management process is peer evaluation. Peer evaluation has many advantages foremost being that the peers can relate well with the employee who is being evaluated. Peers, because work together, have the ability to evaluate the person whether he/she is doing well in the activity as others. Peers reviews can improve the quality of the work and performance of the employees as they can learn from each other. Because of the peer evaluation, company can also improve the performance management process if it seems that this performance measure is not providing a complete evaluation of the employee’s performance. The reason for using this approach is to focus on employee consultation since it has a family oriented culture. It is a belief that performance becomes better when employees work with their co-workers and help each other. The major disadvantage of peer evaluation is that it can include the bias factor from peers. For instance, according to Nankervis et al. (2011), if the peer being evaluated is a friend of peer who is evaluating might present subjective judgment. What HR strategies could Natural Knibbles use to develop effective career planning processes? HR strategies play a significant role in the career planning processes of any company (Nankervis et al. 2011). Since mentioned in the case study that the company has a family atmosphere, the strategies should be designed in a way that enhances this environment while motivating the employees that company takes keen interest in the career progression of the employees. Evident from the training of Lisa and Kane, continuous enhancement of skills, abilities and knowledge of the employees should be the key HR strategy. On-the-job rotation should not be opted as it has a tendency not to develop new skills since an employee cannot gain enough understanding of the processes in a given time frame. The best HR strategy that Natural Knibbles can follow for effective career planning process is to allow the employees to explore their potential in one area and provide training and development in that area so that the performance of the employee and in that area can be improved allowing the employees to gain more information and understanding of the processes. After gaining a complete understanding of one area, the employee can be promoted to another level of process which will increase his motivational level and advancement in career. Do you believe that Cherrie should have hired an HRD consultant to design and deliver the programs needed at Natural Knibbles? Why or why not? According to Nankervis et al. (2011), HRM designs and programs usually fail because the management does not know how to measure, are difficult, and time consuming. Cherrie when designing and delivering the HR training programs focused on the training program those were necessary for adjusting to the change. HRD consultant is not required as the company has a small family type environment to which Cherrie is well accustomed to. The present situation of the company is well-understood by Cherrie which if an HRD consultant is hired, would take time to understand. HRD consultant should be hired when the organisation has time and money to invest in proper evaluation of the organisation’s culture and working environment, current HR strategies and practices. Since Cherrie is the founder of this small company and knows each and every employee well, the designing and deliverance of programs can be carried out perfectly according to the needs of the current situation. HR training programs designed are based on the changes made to the company so that the employees can adopt and easily work with the changes without any hindrance in their performance. References Nankervis, A, Compton, R, Baird, M, Coffey, J (2011). Human Resource Management Strategy and Practice (7th Edition). Australia: Cengage Learning. Read More