Southern Company Performance Management Strategy - Case Study Example

? Southern Company Case Study Task Southern Company Case Study Introduction Southern Company is an entity that administers its personnel in an exemplary manner. In particular, it has leaders who embrace strategies that increase performance. Moreover, the strategies in Southern Company ensure that there is desirable management of employee talent. However, there are numerous alternative ways to achieve effective results in this company. This is because the existing strategies pose numerous disadvantages. Therefore, they fail to achieve desirable management of talent in the organization. Finally, the Southern Company has functional expertise, which increases the chances of the company identifying appropriate human resources for its electric utility activities. “Evaluate the effectiveness of the roles that the strategic leaders played in the formation of the performance management strategy”. There was a deliberate improvement in the entire leadership of the company. The improvement was strategic because it enabled the corporation achieve better achievement. Consequently, the effectiveness of this step to empower leaders concentrated on the suggestions in management books. “The Leadership Pipeline”, is a book that encouraged Southern Company leaders to diversify their strategies. The leaders also determined the respective results that they needed to achieve in order to improve performance (Kandula, 2006). Indeed, this strategy was effective because it enabled the strategic leaders to form desirable and applicable strategies in managing their respective talents. In addition, the strategic leaders ensured there was an implementation of a plan that would increase their performance. For example, the plan entailed the formation of certain guidelines. Consequently, the guidelines focused on how to improve the performance of management. The effectiveness of this strategy was the creation of order in the delivery of managerial responsibilities. For example, the guidelines would reduce any confusion from lack of sufficient preparing (Goldsmith, Marshall, Carter, Louis, & B.P.I, 2009). Other efficiencies of the roles played by the strategic leaders include preparing for future talents by identifying potential successors. This strategy enabled the management of Southern Company to determine the nature of talent they had during operational periods. This is because the strategic leaders encouraged willing human resources to agree to certain leadership positions in the future. Additionally, there was enhancement of performance because of the requirement to state the time that an individual was ready to perform diverse tasks. Moreover, the human resources of Southern Company work hard to achieve the required experience for promotions in the organization. This is effective because the strategy forces employees to increase their respective competencies. In particular, the management of Southern Company used its leaders in diverse departments to increase the performance of the entire company (Armstrong, 2011). “Develop a five (5) point criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the talent management strategy and how the data could be collected” 1. Talent management focuses on diverse programs and cultures in the respective organization. These programs and cultures retain all the available talent in organizations like Southern Company. 2. Additional programs that are part of the strategy for managing talents in organizations include the rotation of duties (Armstrong, 2011). 3. Research into emerging processes of talent management is equally crucial. 4. The managers can alter their respective duty rosters in order to determine the best department for each employee. This will also ensure that employees perfect their diverse talents hence being effective in whatever department (Goldsmith, Marshall, Carter, Louis, & B.P.I, 2009). 5. In addition, the management of talent also includes retaining talent for lengthy periods in order to create loyalty. This is because loyalty increases performance in several departments of an organization. Further, this strategy enables managers to administer their talents because of frequent monitoring of human resources (Goldsmith, Marshall, Carter, Louis, & B.P.I, 2009). Consequently, there are also several manners of collecting relevant data for managing talent. First, managers can reward human resources who display admirable talent. These rewards could be in paid trips that employees take to world destinations in order to encourage other employees to be creative. Moreover, the collection of relevant data on managing diverse talents in organizations includes frequent interviews. The administration of these interviews facilitates better understanding of the human resources by the respective managements (Silzer, & Dowell, 2010). “Critique the components of your talent management strategy and suggest alternative ways to achieve effective results”. Evidently, the above strategy is not perfect because it has certain disadvantages. For instance, exclusion of employees in some programs was disadvantageous. The strategy that trained leaders is indeed discriminatory because it isolates other employees. Consequently, the management strategy that involved interviewing and rewarding the human resources of the organization is also limiting. This is because it is difficult for management to determine employees who qualify for the interview. Further, management could fail in selecting the most appropriate rewards for their respective employees. For instance, there could employees who do not enjoy traveling and would rather spend that time with their respective families. Therefore, management fails to reward them when they offer these paid trips as a form of motivation for their respective talents in the organization (Carpenter, 2011). Indeed, there are several alternative methods of achieving proficient results. For example, the management of talent could be the role of departments in organizations to increase the effectiveness of the programs. This is because the departments will have sufficient time to scrutinize all the talents in their organizations. Therefore, they will create the most appropriate programs that are devoid of mistakes while managing their human resources talents. Consequently, the achievement of effective results in managing talents depends on the interaction of management and their respective human resources. For example, management needs to have regular meetings with their human resources. This is because the regular meetings will facilitate better understanding of talent by the respective human resources. Moreover, there will be free interaction between managers and their human resources. The interaction will also promote working relations since workers will express complaints they have to the relevant departments (Kandula, 2006). “Outline the functional expertise component of this strategy and how it optimizes the company’s ability to identify highly qualified individuals”. Functional expertise involves the manner in which human resources display their skills in a tactful way. The strategy used in managing talent is characterized by functional expertise. For example, the strategy to rotate duties among the available human resources is functional. This is because management identifies the talents of each of their human resources. Indeed, these talents enable human resources of diverse organizations to increase their profit levels. Consequently, this strategy optimizes the ability of the company to identify talent in the following manners. First, the strategy ensures that all the human resources have equal opportunities to display their respective talents. Moreover, the strategy encourages both management and other human resources to appreciate talent among their colleagues. In addition, the rotation of duties also enables the company to avoid certain loses. These loses would arise when there is the assignment of complicated tasks to less talented employees (Armstrong, 2011). Further, the functional expertise of these talent management strategies involves increasing employee competency. For example, this strategy rewards employees encouraging them to produce quality services to the organization. Additionally, there is optimization of of talent by the company because rewards force workers to deliver. Since the rewards are attractive, almost every worker will want to execute his/her duties perfectly. Therefore, the management of the company identifies the hardest working employees who aim for the most rewards in the programs (Silzer, & Dowell, 2010). Conclusion Talent management is a significant component of organizations. This is because it ensures that organizations have human resources that can deliver quality services. Additionally, the concept of talent management enables companies to prepare for its future operations. For example, the company will always have relevant talent if it decides to expand. However, the management of respective companies needs to have suitable talent management strategies. This will facilitate a continuous increase of company profits because of availability of talent. Finally, management should also encourage other human resources to use their talents in the most appropriate of manners. References Armstrong, M. (2011). Armstrong's handbook of strategic human resource management. London [u.a.: Kogan Page Carpenter, M. A. (2011). The handbook of research on top management teams. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Goldsmith, Marshall, Carter, Louis, & Best Practice Institute. (2009). Best Practices in Talent Management: How the World's Leading Corporations Manage, Develop, and Retain Top Talent, Epub Edition. Pfeiffer & Co. Kandula, S. R. (2006). Performance management: Strategies, interventions, drivers. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Silzer, R. F., & Dowell, B. E. (2010). Strategy driven talent management: A leadership imperative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Read More