Human Resource Management and Performance Management - Assignment Example

umаn Rеsоurсе Маnаgеmеnt (Реrfоrmаnсе Маnаgеmеnt) Author name Institutional affiliation Tutor Date (2476 words) Question 1 Performance management is a holistic process of managing people and the environment they operate in order to realize the shared goals as well as the strategic objectives of an organization (Philips, 2007, p.31). Every business has targets which are pursued making the process of performance management integral in the operations of a business. Strategically, the process of performance management entails setting out goals and coming up with competency and capacity to achieve the set goals. Since these goals cannot be achieved by an organization’s potential, there are people who should be responsible for the realization of the goals (Bohlander & Snell, 2009, p.44). Since performance management is a process that entails managing many factors, it should be guided by the following key elements. Planning and target setting Performance is dynamic and can be of any magnitude ranging from poor to excellent. It is thus important for an organization to determine when performance can be termed as poor, average, good and excellent. This is particularly important when an organization seeks to compare the performance of one group or an individual with another. When determining the level of performance expected, an organization is said to be setting targets. Therefore, a target can be defined as the criteria set to determine whether performance reaches an acceptable particular standard based on characteristic (Philips, 2007, p.33). For instance, if a company’s objective is to increase the number of customers; the target can be achieving measurable growth in key account spending since it is not possible to come up with an exact number of customers (Sahoo & Mishra, 2012, p.3). When setting targets, it is realistic to first assess what a process is currently achieving, focus on variation and then set the target at 80 percent basis level that the process can deliver. A key element when setting targets is to set a target that is challenging but achievable against realistic performance indicators (Prowse & Prowse, 2010, p.147). Achieving such targets ensures that an organization continues to improve its services in line with its goals and objectives. Human resource (HR) managers play a crucial role in determining how the individual employees participate in achieving the targets. It is the role of HR managers to measure the quantity and the quality of the work of the employees implying that all the employees who are hired have the potential to deliver towards achieving the targets of the organization (Goel, 2008, p.161). Monitoring Monitoring refers to the continued assessment of the project and consistently providing feedback to the employees or the work groups about the progress towards achieving the set target (Philips, 2007, p.34). In so doing, the performance of individual employees is compared against their standards. The purpose of the continued monitoring is to assess how the predetermined standards are met in order to make changes to problems that may arise in the course of progress (Goel, 2008, p.162). For instance, an electronic company targeting to grow its customers may be forced to address arising concerns when its starts losing customers instead of growing. Monitoring entails assessing the continued performance of the employees in the marketing team; issues like lack of effective marketing tools may be perceived as the cause of the rising worries and may be addressed timely instead of waiting until the time when the summary rating levels are assigned (Sahoo & Mishra, 2012, p.4). Development and improvement After monitoring the employees over a period of time, further improvement and development should be encouraged in order to improve competence. If an employee meets his or her targets, the HR manager should focus on training that will help to increase the employees’ performance through the introduction of new skills (Sims, 2002, p.83). The aim of such developmental opportunities is to encourage good performance, strengthen skills and competencies including the introducing the employees to new technologies. When the HR department is conducting a performance management exercise, developmental needs are easily identified. Whenever planning and monitoring are being carried out, gaps in the performance are identified and can be timely addressed (Guerra-Lopez, 2012, p.35). For instance, training the employees about a new software application on risk management will help to improve the employees’ skills as well as reduces risky chances. Rating Periodic assessment of the performance of the employees is vital. This element seeks focuses on comparison of the employees’ performance against other employees. Rating deals with evaluating the performance of the employees against predetermined elements or standards as prescribed in the performance plan and then assigning a summary rating of such a record. Rating helps to determine whether the employees are on track in meeting the targets (Sims, 2002, p.85). Reward and compensation Rewarding starts from acknowledging the contribution of the employees or groups towards meeting an organization’s goals. If an organization needs an employee’s to continue achieving good results, the organization has to first appreciate and recognize such contributions (Philips, 2007, p.36). There are many ways in which employees can be compensated. For instance, an employee may be promoted or have a salary increase based on successful performance. For a fair performance management system, an employee should be rewarded for meeting targets as well as when everything possible was done but the targets were not met (Guerra-Lopez, 2012, p.39). Importance of well-designed performance management system A well designed performance management system is meant to ensure that the overall performance of an organization improves by managing the performance of the employees in order to meet the overall goals of the organizations. An organization benefits from the process because the employees are made aware to understand the importance of their role in achieving the organizational goals and objectives (Landy, 2009, p.77). Secondly, when the employees are aware of their role; the system can help to determine whether such employees possess the right skills and competencies to perform what is expected of them. Thirdly, an organization benefits from the process since the objectives of the organization are aligned within the process and communication is made effective through the entire organization. The organization also benefit from the harmonious relationship created between the employees and their managers by the process for the purpose of achieving its goals (Sims, 2002, p.88). A well designed performance management system is set to improve job satisfaction and the loyalty of the employees in a couple of ways. The system ensures that the employees are provided with regular job feedbacks in a transparent manner thus making them feel more satisfied and appreciated. The system ensures that compensation is based on performance thus the employees can feel the need for their hard work in achieving the set targets (Philips, 2007, p.38). The system also ensures that the employees are continually equipped with competency skills through training and development opportunities set out in the system. The system also ensures that rewards and incentives are equitably distributed without bias since the system encourages performance evaluation. The employees’ voice gets to be heard since the system encourages free and joint dialogue when the performance objectives are being discussed; this allows the employees a chance to share what they feel or think (Tseng, 2010, p.188). The entire system thus ensures that the employees are rewarded and they are well trained in order to meet the organizational needs thereby increasing their satisfaction. Question 2 Performance evaluation methods plus their pros and cons The main purpose for performance evaluation for employees is to get a feedback of the work, record the performance in order to give rewards and identify gaps in career that can be filled by further development (Philips, 2007, p.39). Below are some four methods that are used. Self evaluation Self-evaluation is based on self-confidence where an employee is requested to judge his or her performance. The method can be formally administered by the employee filling a form that has multiple choices or the employee can also provide essay-format answers, a combination of the two may also be employed (Koziolek, 2010, p.635). For instance, teachers in a school have a major responsibility in bringing change to the society. Self-evaluation can be essential in evaluating their performance; teachers should ask themselves whether their ideas are relevant in bringing change to their student. By challenging their own ideas, teachers get to learn new ways and practices that will help them in doing things better. This method has several advantages. The main benefit is that the HR manager can compare his or her performance appraisal with the self evaluation and be in a position to identify gaps in the process of determining employees’ performances (Bohlander & Snell, 2009, p15). Such scenario provides an opportunity for the manager and the employee to dialogue and identify solutions that can aid in improving the employee’s performance. In addition, this approach if employed before the formal review meetings help to save time in that the manager is readily provided with the strengths and weaknesses of the employees (Koziolek, 2010, p.637). Another advantage is that this method if conducted all the time allows the employees to monitor their job, and self-correct themselves making the process of performance evaluation look like a teamwork process and not the work of the manager (Philips, 2007, p.39). This implies that the manager is spared some time that would be spent in micro-managing individual employees. However, the method has several drawbacks like when some employees overstate their performance over others in order to seek more attention. Likewise, confident employees would not want to be over-confident so as not to appear boastful over colleagues. Another drawback with this method is that it can promote weakness among employee’s capability; some employees would understate their potential in order to be trained (Guerra-Lopez, 2012, p.27). 360 Evaluation This method seeks to evaluate an employee within his or her department guided by their job description and also the employee is evaluated based on his or her performance in the rest of the company (Guerra-Lopez, 2012, p.29). The method is based on the fact that an employee’s growth is based on the contribution to his or her department as well as the interaction with the other departments of the organization. The evaluation is thus based on the input from other departments that an employee works with regularly within the organization (Koziolek, 2010, p.641). For instance, a marketer in a five star hotel works in the marketing department but also relates with the catering, HR and finance department. When being evaluated, the performance of the employee will be based on the input of the managers from all these other departments. The method has its own advantages for instance: employees are able to determine whether there is consistency in the way they perform since their performance is judged by many managers who interact with them (Guerra-Lopez, 2012, p.31). Such an evaluation helps the employees to understand how they are perceived by other managers; this may help identify gaps that are noted by their own managers and may aid growth of the employee. In addition, an evaluation of this type appears to be more varied since the feedback is collected from more varied sources (Koziolek, 2010, p.642). Another fact is that this method enhances awareness within the organization since the employees are being focus from all the departments; this helps to increase competence (Bohlander & Snell, 2009, p.48). There are also drawbacks with this method. The main disadvantage is that there is the possibility of dishonest feedbacks being raised. Particularly, employees may not give honest information about their supervisors. Elsewhere, if there is no anonymity, employees may not willingly talk about their supervisor in fear of victimization (Prowse & Prowse, 2010, p.151). This method also has lot of bureaucracy in that each employee interacts with fellow employee in different way; thus there can never be a consistent interpretation of the different behaviors observed by the employees (Tseng, 2010, p.183). Critical incident This method entails the manager recording the bad and good things of an employee performance throughout and uses them later to judge the employee at the time of performance evaluation. Proactive managers commonly use this approach by keeping an ongoing log to record necessary information (Tseng, 2010, p.184). For instance, a hotel HR can have a log containing such variables as respect to the superiors, how the employee follows the instructions, attitude towards customers, and frequency in making mistakes among others. The manager keeps on updating the log throughout the year and when the time for performance evaluation comes, the manager can refer to it in making crucial decisions of the employees’ performance (Landy, 2009. p.59). The method is advantageous in that the information is collected directly from the employees’ performance. The method is appropriate in the sense that the employee is not engaged in a defined framework that may interrupt his or her schedule making the method to be also flexible in recording such information (Goel, 2008, p.29). The method is different from other methods since it records rare occasions other than those recorded in everyday performances (Tseng, 2010, p.185). However, the method has its own drawbacks. Firstly, the method tends to rely on critical incidences over the everyday events which are more important in judging performance. In addition, the method relies on such critical incidences which depend on memory; if they are not remembered then evaluation becomes difficult (Goel, 2008, p.30). Also, when collecting information, respondents may hide some incidents which pose as bad reflections thereby challenging the recorder to have critical analytical skills of distinguishing bad and good incidences (Philips, 2007, p.43). Checklists A checklist comprises a series of performance questions which are either answered yes or no. when the negative answers are many; the need for developmental training is identified. The approach aids in easily identifying those employees who have deficiencies in many performances (Goel, 2008, p.35). For instance, a checklist for managing restaurant employees can have questions as does the employee has a good attitude towards customers? Does the employee respond to the customer request promptly? Is the employee properly dressed at work? These questions are answered by yes or no; many negative answer calls for the employee to be trained further. The main advantage with this method is that it is an easy way of evaluating the performance of the employee. Also, since the same criterion is followed when evaluating the employees, the manager gets rid of discriminating the employees (Goel, 2008, p.37). The method ensures that employees show trait that are perceived good by the managers thus making them to improve (Bohlander & Snell, 2009, p.55). However, the method is expensive and a lot of time is needed to administer the checklist. Also, the method may be biased when the person administering the checklist fails to distinguish between positive and negative questions. Further, the manager is faced with a difficult task of evaluating and analyzing the questions in order to determine the exact issues to be addressed (Prowse & Prowse, 2010, p.156). References Bohlander, G. & Snell, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources with Infotrac. New York: Cengage Learning. Goel, D. (2008). Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management: A Modern Approach. New York: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Guerra-Lopez, I. (2012). Performance Evaluation: Proven Approaches for Improving Program and Organizational Performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Koziolek, H. (2010). Performance evaluation of component-based software systems: A survey. Performance Evaluation, 67(8): 634–658. Landy, F. (2009). Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Philips. J. (2007). Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. New York: Routledge. Prowse, P. & Prowse, J. (2010). Whatever happened to human resource management performance? International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 59 (2): 145 – 162. Sahoo, C. & Mishra, S. (2012). Performance management benefits organizations and their employees. Human Resource Management International Digest, 20 (6): 3 – 5. Sims, (2002). Organizational success through effective human resources management. Melbourne: Greenwood Publishing Group. Tseng, M. (2010). Implementation and performance evaluation using the fuzzy network balanced scorecard. Computers & Education, 55(1): 188–201. Read More