Supporting Good Practice in Performance and Reward Management - Essay Example

Name Tutor Course Date Supporting Good Practice in Performance and Reward Management Activity A (700 words) Performance management deals with the monitoring and stimulation of critical performance areas and indicators in pursuit of strategic goals and requires that we have an increasingly dynamic and competitive business environment and holistic measurement systems, which helps the company with different aspects influencing its results. This gives the company commitment to quality and prompts it to develop strategic plans which determines how it will deliver quality products and services to consumers. Employees are required to be creative by executing duties efficiently and should always ensure they perform all activities as per schedule and use materials efficiently; this is to guarantee quality products for customers. Strategic plans are the starting point for each organization to establish top-level agency goals and objectives as well as annual program goals that define how it intends to achieve those goals and demonstrate how it will measure agency and program performance in achieving goals and communicating these strategic plans to employees who are required to help execute them positively so as to enable the organization achieve overall goals. In pursuit of performance management, all employees and management must be result oriented by defining individual clear missions and desired outcomes and peg this to the organization mission and goals, always measure individual performance to gauge progress as stipulated by the organization structure and use the performance information from the measure attained as a basis for decision making. Three components of performance management are: 1. Communication- there should be proper channels of communication within the organization, which helps to pass across the common message for attaining good performance, rewarding the good performance, and communicating ways of ensuring commitment and consistency in the good results. 2. Accountability for measures- This will ensure that all employees are held accountable for their duties and are required to perform according to or exceed the expectations and this will give consumers standardized and quality products at all times. 3. Employee involvement- This is an important element since employees are the ones who directly contribute to the input, output, outcome, performance, process and every other aspect of the organizational operation, as such employee involvement creates ownership, increases loyalty and commitment which increases accountability. Main motivators includes having a good reward system (Salary), responsibility, training and recognition which are influenced by having a clear job description, supervision, continuous education and performance appraisal. There is motivation to be in the job and motivation to perform and both of these are important and managers need to understand the impact of these activities as explained by Hertzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation at the work place. It distinguishes satisfiers, which are the main causes for job satisfaction (motivation to perform), from dissatisfiers, which are the main causes for job dissatisfaction (demotivation to remain on the job) when absent. Hertzberg defines motivators as factors associated with employee wellbeing and include achievement on assigned tasks, recognition, salary increase, good relationship with colleagues and supportive administrative supervision. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory gives five hierarchic classes which shows the complexity of human requirements. The basic requirements like food and shelter must be settled followed by need for security and these are the needs to remain satisfied in the future. Security needs are determinants of if one will remain working at the current work place or look for a better satisfying job. After this, the motivation shift to the social sphere then psychological requirements follow and finally we have self-realization at the top level. According to Maslow, human beings have wants and desires that influence behavior only if unsatisfied and so the organization has the obligation to motivate employees by giving them good salaries, recognition and better working conditions (Government of USA 1). Three factors that help to manage performance are: The company should have a policy for managing poor performance where management should give employees a chance to explain reasons for repeated poor performance and management can see what should be done to help improve performance. Encourage teamwork among employees, reward creativity and innovations at work handsomely and help employees know how to prioritize issues. Have good employee development programs in place, proper and customized training to enhance experience and expertise to complete tasks and have people skills that helps one to relate well with others. Activity B (670 words) Explains at least two purposes of reward within a performance management system A good reward system creates highly motivated employees and this will result in good performance and high employee retention since motivated employees always create a sense of ownership; they work smart and hard and are unlikely to waste company time by running private errands. A good reward system includes recognition and thereafter motivation, with recognition encouraging employees to try to be on top at all times so as to get the benefits coming along with recognition like being in good terms with superiors and these leads to promotions. A good recognition process includes handwritten certificates coming from the CEO and supervisors and this will help to make working fun. -A good reward system ensures there is teamwork, co-ordination and consultation at work place and this ensures there are concerted efforts to promote positive working environments, working together as a group which will help pass on some quality skills to new employees and help maintain commendable levels of productivity while retaining the top achievers and performers at the work place. Three components of a reward system besides cash benefits that motivates and retains experienced employees at the company are. Providing employees with intangibles such as a pleasant work environment where employees will be very willing to work in and identify with. Flexible time scheduling which allows employees to manage their time while ensuring their performance adheres to the company policies. Employees are more likely to stay late or come over the weekends to finish on any pressing work as long as they work in a pleasant environment. A happy worker is a hard worker and will always keep his current job and this promotes good relations and friendship with co-workers and the boss, also, it is a lot easier to develop team spirit among people who enjoy each others’ company. Rewarding employees with promotions for good performance as opposed to hiring from outside the company. Employees always want to be involved in the company’s growth and they want to see themselves moving up in the company structure and they will leave if they don’t fit in or stagnate at one level for long when their input is high, performance is exceptional but rewarding mechanism is not efficient and this could lead to dissatisfied employees. A total reward system ensures there is no favoritism at work where some employees are treated better than others and that promotion is as per the set goals and rules where performance is the key determinant. Describes at least two sources of data (1 of which should be external to the organization) required by individuals involved in performance and reward management processes. Performance management relies heavily on positive and negative feedback from all the concerned parties, the most important being management employee provides information on actual results to supervisor, who completes actual results and assigns ratings accompanied by comments which shows the competencies and if the set targets were achieved as assigned. This enables the supervisor to complete the development plan then completes overall performance summary and assigns ratings. After this, the management employee and supervisor meet to discuss and finalize the performance appraisal, and this is the outcome of the assessment of the employee performance based on targets from the previous period. Customer feedback is influential in performance management more especially in the service sector where the customer interacts with the employee directly, and in such a case, the customer gives feedback on the quality of service, attention given, how the employee handled the customer issue/complaint, level of expertise which was involved and level of warmth and how grateful the employee was as a result of serving the customer. This feedback is collected by calling the customer back and get information on the customer experience, this feedback will be crucial when determining employee retention and promotion or recommendation for further training. Internal performance appraisal as well can be done by hiring external observers who will come and study how various operations and tasks are handled within the organization, and they will provide a comprehensive report regarding the level of professionalism employed. The company should carry out interdepartmental meetings and job rotations among its different centers where employees get to exchange views and this can be the best forum to know good and bad performers and reward them accordingly. Q3 Performance appraisal will help link employee performance measures to organization goals by establishing a clear measurable and accountable performance goals and defining a common set of behavioral expectations to drive performance excellence. Also, performance appraisal helps to provide competitive compensation that accurately reflects the value of positions and rewards superior performance. From our discussions, it is advisable for all employers to carry out performance appraisals regularly, with a purpose of giving employees recognition when work is well done and point out any issues that need attention. A good review should be carried out after some regular time intervals and employees should be conversant with this duration, it could be monthly, quarterly or bi-annually. Consistency in carrying out these reviews helps he employee to plan how to meet individual targets and thereafter meet the overall organizational goals. We further found out that there is need for a grace period after an initial performance review for the employer to see results/ improvements from the employee. This grace period is aimed at giving the employee time to adjust their ways of carrying out tasks and offer better services. Improvement periods should be addressed and should be from one to two months depending on the industry but can be shorter in service industry like in customer care areas where it can be pegged on one week after training. From our discussion, the performance management process starts with planning- here we carry out the executive reviews of the organization goals that executive and departmental managers set together, the goals are communicated down by the managers to employees who have to draft individual goals and expected results. The supervisor helps the employee understand expectations through discussions. The supervisor carries out coaching by tracking individual performance, and then gives feedback to the employee on performance. The employee provides feedback to the supervisor on areas which needs more coaching then supervisor completes the actual ratings and assigns the overall performance rating which will determine the salary increment the employee is entitled. The supervisor thereafter shares the draft form with the reviewing officer, management employee and supervisor meets to discuss performance appraisal. After this process, the employee is rewarded depending on merit and some teams are recognized for special performance awards. As we reflected on performance review meetings, we found out that performance outcome = what work is done x how the work is done. ‘What’ looks at the results which incorporates core performance results and job specific performance results and how looks at the core competencies and job specific competencies. One has to understand the core performance results, list job specific performance results, understand system core competencies required to fulfill duties assigned, design development plans and finally set performance expectations. Core performance areas includes revenues, productivity, costs, proper asset utilization, budgetary flexibility and financial audits, taking care of customer and stakeholders interests like market share and retention of clients and above all ensuring continuous improvement. To attain all these, goals have to be set and they need to be as specific as possible, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based. So to be the best in performance evaluation, one has to distinguish oneself as an outstanding employee and not an average one, while bearing in mind core competencies values like continuous improvement, customer service orientation, valuing diversity, teamwork and collaboration and being results oriented. To drive individual performance (CPD records) there are behaviors that drive effective performance of which I have and they include analytical thinking for assigned tasks, change leadership aimed at being the best performer, conceptual thinking before action, developing self and others within the organization, being flexible and can easily adapt to various working situations, creating impact and influence, and having good initiatives, I have interpersonal understandings, I conduct organizational awareness trainings, relationship building, self confidence, I carry out proper system thinking and above all, I fair on well in team leadership. This will help me to compare actual performance with expectations, identify trends in performance, pinpoint individual development needs and goals and above all encourage team discussions to challenge obstacles in giving my best at the work place. Works cited Government of USA. “Establishing an Integrated Performance Measurement System.” Performance-Based Special Interest Group (PBM SIG). 2001. web. 10 May 2011. Read More