Performance Assessment at Workspace - Research Paper Example

ASSESSMENT AT WORK Executive Summary Since employee performance must be measured and administered by means of human surveillance and is subject to human opinion, performance assessment of employees essentially rather, invariably entails subjective ruling and therefore, is prone to human inaccuracy and unpredictability. Consistency is the fundamental prerequisite for the success of a performance assessment system in any organization. This paper on Assessment at Work looks into the diverse aspects of workplace assessment with respect to the Retailing industry in particular. For the purpose of this study, the British supermarket giant, ASDA is taken as a case study, and various aspects such as employee recruitment, activities undertaken for their development and promotion, as well as rewards and benefits afforded to them shall be reviewed. This will help in gaining a fair understanding of the inner workings of one of the best organizations to work for, in the U.K. and how its management manages its workforce, keeping its staff well motivated to retain its competitive standing in the highly cut throat industry such as the retailing sector. The key points reviewed in this paper, with respect to ASDA include brief description of the organization, its products and services, the organization structure, work environment, the graduate recruitment program, rewards and benefits offered to the employees, etc which are in turn studied with reference to the various psychological testing theories for a comprehensive understanding of the subject at hand. Contents Sr. # Topic Pg. # 1. Introduction: ASDA 3 1.1. Organization Structure 4 1.2. Products and Services 5 2. Work Environment 5 2.1. ASDA Graduate Recruitment 7 2.2. Rewards and Benefits 8 2.3. Personal Development and On the Job Learning 9 3. Psychological Testing Theories 10 References 12 Appendices 13 Table1 Incidence and Perceived Effectiveness of Performance Assessment Methods in the U.K 13 Table2 Performance Assessment at ASDA 14 List of Figures F1 The ASDA Virtuous Circle 5 1. Introduction Asda is a British supermarket chain headquartered in Leeds, England, and is a subsidiary of the renowned American supermarket chain1: Wal Mart. It became the subsidiary of the world’s largest supermarket chains in the year 19992 and currently enjoys the second position of the second largest retailer in UK preceded by the UK based supermarket giant, Tesco3 and followed closely by Sainsbury. It deals in retails, food, clothing, toys and general merchandise as well as financial services among others. It is Wal-Mart's largest non-U.S. subsidiary, accounting for nearly half of the company's international sales. Asda boasts of over 150,000 employees (including part time as well as full time), whom it refers to as "colleagues". The organization has been voted as the Best Companies to Work for, for the third consecutive year, making it one of the most desirable and ‘employee friendly’ supermarket chains in the UK. ASDA: Company Information4 Type of Organization Subsidiary Parent Wal-Mart Founded Leeds, West Yorkshire, England (1965) Headquarters Leeds, West Yorkshire, England Key people Andy Bond, Chief Executive Industry Retail Products Grocery, General merchandise, financial services Employees 143,126 1.1. Organization Structure During the initial years of its establishment, the organizational structure of ASDA was highly rigid and uncooperative, dominated by multiple layers of management, narrow functional attitudes, and a bureaucratic head office culture which prevented establishment of a healthy work environment and discouraged teamwork. However, it was eventually restructured to form a more open, and decentralized management structure which had clearly set values and goals and set a clear direction for its workforce. The new corporate structure enabled better and faster communication across all levels of the management hierarchy. This was achieved by removing all the closed office spaces which prevented communication amongst the employees and a new "open plan" approach was adopted, which is in existence even today. The emphasis today, is on self motivation, whereby the employees are rewarded aptly for their performances and initiatives towards achieving the organizational goals of higher customer satisfaction5. Figure 1: The ASDA Virtuous Circle6 1.2. Products and Services ASDA offers a wide range of products and services including groceries, electrical goods, entertainment, furniture, flowers, gift cards, mobile phones, opticians, pharmacy, as well as financial services such as insurance, credit cards, loans, etc. 2. Work Environment The work culture / environment at ASDA is extremely friendly and open with free flowing communication among all its employees across all levels of the organization. At Asda the employees are referred to as colleagues. In order to encourage the productivity and motivation among its workforce, the Asda House, organizes frequent get together popularly known as "Early Brunch" where all the employees are offered an opportunity / or a common platform to share their work experience or grievances and keep them posted on the current happenings in the organization. The executive management also participates in such get together and express their views or gratitude or concerns with their "colleagues". In addition, the organization offers several additional benefits such as extra family time, whereby any employee having children below six years of age or under 18 with a disability, are allowed extra time off, to look after their family members, often allowing up to four weeks of unpaid leaves in case of family emergencies. Such an atmosphere helps in developing a sense of responsibility and sincerety towards work among the employees and in turn helps in their active participation in the firm's pursuit of achieving its desired goals. ASDA is known as one of the best organizations to work for in the UK. This is apparent from the fact that they have been listed as one of Britain's top ten employers, for the third consecutive year7. ASDA is not only one of the best organizations to work for, but also one of the fastest-growing retailer chain in the country with over 300 stores and more than 13 million customers per week thronging its stores across the country all year round. It is a well established fact that workforce which enjoys a high level of job satisfaction are relatively more productive and sincere in their contribution towards attainment of organizational goals and such organizations enjoy a high profitability status and a competitive position in the industry. Job satisfaction is dependent on three crucial aspects namely, job clarity, role conflict and job tension. Role clarity refers to a concept whereby every employee is fully aware of his / her job roles and job context within the organization which enable them to perform their duties in an uninterrupted manner. Clear job roles play a significant role in eliminating or reducing conflicts, confusion and chaos among the employees or between the employees and employers and avert the feeling of desperation and despair thus keeping the employees highly motivated. At ASDA all the employees have a clearly defined job role right from the day of their recruitment. Top level management, and in this particular case, Retail managers, must take adequate measures to ensure that the employees receive clear instructions and guidelines regarding the nature, context and scope of their duties and responsibilities so as to avoid such confusion and confrontations, which ultimately lead to lower job satisfaction and reduces employee morale and will to contribute towards the organizational objectives8. 2.1. The Graduate Recruitment Program Candidates applying for managerial jobs at ASDA usually need to have a minimum of two years of relevant work experience. An archetypal ASDA store normally hires up to 30 managers and over 300 staff in overall. The organization boasts of outstanding Graduate Recruitment and MBA programs whereby graduates, with the “right kind of attitude”, from any discipline are hired for various positions in the store. Employment opportunities are regularly featured on the ASDA website under the category of 'Hot Jobs' where the prospective candidates / applicants are offered an opportunity to access information about newly available vacancies. ASDA accepts job applications from all parts of the community, irrespective of their age, gender, religion, or orientation, provided they have the criteria that matches the relevant job, for instance approximately 15% of the Asda workforce is over the age of 50 years, with some employees well above 65. Thus the only criterion for selection at ASDA is the right attitude and skills set. The graduate retail management career with ASDA offers a comprehensible well thought-out path9. 2.2. Rewards and Benefits The employees at ASDA are offered a wide range of rewards and benefits such as the colleague discount card which is issued after 12 weeks of continuous employment; attractive discounts for shopping at any of the Wal Mart stores; and other special offers such as holidays, transportation as well as private medical cover etc. Other benefits include instant recognition and instant recognition and discretionary bonus schemes, where colleagues’ hard work and good ideas are instantly awarded. Furthermore, on the completion of six months of continuous service the employees are offered an opportunity to participate in the share plans and become a Wal Mart shareholder. It also offers contributory pension as a part of retirement benefit plan, annual bonus schemes, discounted airport parking, free eye tests at ASDA Opticians, childcare vouchers, discounted travel insurance etc. In addition to the above listed benefits the graduate employees, are offered unpaid holiday of two weeks as well as timely career breaks10. 2.3. Personal Development and On the Job Learning The employees at ASDA are constantly encouraged to hone their skills and takes initiatives in this front by offering adequate opportunities to them such as participating in extra projects which are of interest to the individual employee which help them in gaining adequate exposure to various aspects of the business and learn about team building and working in teams. It offers an opportunity to the graduate employees to chart out their very own personal development plan with adequate assistance from the line managers and / or mentors. ASDA provides a highly competitive and yet at the same time, an extremely friendly atmosphere for its workforce to grow and develop their respective skills. To constantly keep the employees updated regarding their progress, they are provided with timely reviews which help them in assessing their individual strengths and weaknesses and offers guidance on better performance. 3. Psychological Testing Theories Reviewing assessment practices adopted by organizations for screening of employees entails a detailed understanding of the various assessment processes and techniques related to management of work behavior, the various strengths and weaknesses as well as common problems associated with such behavioral methods. Behavioral assessment is defined as: “an approach to performance management that focuses primarily (although not necessarily exclusively) on observing, recording and measuring, appraising or assessing the work behavior of individual employees over a designated period (typically annually, six monthly, or quarterly)”11 According to Psychological theories, the psychometric characteristics of mental tests or cognitive abilities of the candidates are usually derived from either one or both of the two leading theoretical approaches to test construction i.e., the classical test theory and item response theory. Both these tests have been subjected to wide spread criticism from scholars such as Embretson & Hershberger, however, certain contemporary test developers continue to adopt various elements from both approaches in a complimentary manner. The Classical Test Theory This theory was propounded by Galton, Spearman, and E. L. Thorndike, and has played a significant role in shaping the contemporary assessment procedures adopted by organizations worldwide. In its very basic form, the theory is based on the assumption that the test score obtained is a result of both the true score of the applicant as well as the error score i.e., the test scores derived can be represented as: Observed score = True Score + Error Score Several of the critical constituents from modern psychometrics may be resulting from this core postulation. For instance, internal uniformity dependability is a psychometric function of arbitrary measurement miscalculation, equivalent to the proportion of the factual score difference to the practical score difference. By contrast legitimacy relies on the degree of nonrandom assessment inaccuracy. The Classical test theory places more stress on test score attributes rather than on item parameters. According to Gulliksen (1950) the vital item data are the percentage of people replying to each item accurately, the point bi serial correlation between item and total score multiplied by the item standard deviation and the point bi serial correlation between item criterion score multiplied by the item standard deviation12. References: Global powers of retail report - wal mart remains world's largest global retailer - Deloitte & Touche". www.deloitte.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-07 Wal-Mart buys Asda in UK retail shock". Eurofood. 17 June 1999 Co-op buys Somerfield for £1.57bn". BBC News Online. BBC. Accessed: June 25, 2009 John Shields, (2007). Managing Employee Performance and Reward, Cambridge University Press, Pp. 142 Irving B. Weiner, Donald K. Freedheim, John R. Graham, John A. Schinka, Jack A. Naglieri, Wayne F. Velicer, (2003). Handbook of Psychology: Assessment Psychology, John Wiley and Sons ASDA (2009). About the Company, Accessed: June 25, 2009, from: www.asda.co.uk Andrew Seth, Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, Geoffrey Randall, (1999). The Grocers, Kogan Page, Pp. 89 – 90 ASDA, (2009). Accessed: June 24, 2009 from www.asda.co.uk Andrew Newman, Peter Cullen, (2002). Retailing, Cengage Learning, Pp. 399 ASDA Jobs, accessed: June 25, 2009 from: http://www.asda.jobs/graduates/graduate_opportunities/retail_management.html Benefits and Rewards, accessed: June 25, 2009, from: http://www.asda.jobs/graduates/the_programme/benefits_rewards.html Appendices: Table 1: Incidence and Perceived Effectiveness of Performance Assessment Methods in the U.K. Source: John Shields, (2007). Managing Employee Performance and Reward, Cambridge University Press, Pp.144 Table 2: Performance Assessment at ASDA: Retail Managers (In line employees) Objective Performance indicator Measured Value Targeted Value To provide growth opportunities to front line employees Number of frontline employees promoted in house Number of front line employees who attended corporate training programs Number of employees having formal career development plans. To provide good, safe, healthy and flexible working conditions Employee turnover Percentage of articles in media about working conditions writing favorably about the company Result of mystery shopper survey about general working conditions and motivation of front line employees. Number of ethnic minorities represented in the staff. Number of minor accidents Number of major accidents Number of employees availing sickness, maternity and paternity allowances. Participation in social activities in the company Work is well organized and employees know what they are supposed to do (through surveys and feedback). Initiatives taken to address issues related to employees. To provide motivational working environment Number of employees recognized for their excellent work. Funds spend on employees’ social activities. Funds spent on employees’ reward and bonus. Customers’ feedback on the services provided by the front line staff. Read More