Performance Assessment at City Couriers - Case Study Example

Executive summary

The case study which described the situation involving City Couriers presents a wide range of issues dealing with performance assessment. It is obvious that the key factors that influence the organisation in include the size of the staff, the fact that they mostly communicate indirectly as well as the expectations that are vested into the organisation by the consumers. There are several options that can be identified while dealing with those issues, but the most suitable ones are investing into in-house training, engaging technology to assess the employees, and conduct assessment more frequently. Implementation of these options directly addresses the situation; they are reliable since they lead to controlled consequences; they are fair since no interest is hurt, and they are cost effective since they allow the company to retain the best employees for further productive performance.

Introduction

It is often suggested that the most valuable asset that a company may have is its people. That is why it is generally expected that companies would focus on the development of a proper relationship with the employees since the latter represent the driving force of the organisation. The case of City Couriers shows that sometimes it is possible to minimise the investment as well as involvement of the managers in the relationship with the staff and the company will still be successful; nevertheless, it is also inevitable that such approach will make some employees angry and this will call for re-evaluation of the entire system. This paper will analyse the case of City Couriers, identify issues with performance as well as reward management and provide solutions for them.

Performance and reward management issues

To begin with, it may be particularly important to outline the internal as well as external factors that influence the organisation and determine its performance requirement. First of all, it is obvious that while the size of the staff that the company employs is moderate, the nature of their communication has a significant impact on their interaction. Thus, line employees and supervisors are mostly engaged in call centres and other parts of the company are placed strategically across the country which means that there is little face-to-face interaction between them. Despite that, the public relies on the service and does not want to see this as an obstacle on the way of delivering quality service (Nicolini 2012). Therefore, this is the framework that (Nicolini 2012) is expected to operate in. Therefore, key performance requirement is largely shaped by it. On the one hand, the service in question is supposed to be reliable which means that it should produce work that exactly as was planned by the customer and no deviations are accepted. In other words, if an employee is able to perform the responsibilities correctly, then one will become a valuable contribution to the company. Another point that should be mentioned is the role that communication plays in it. Thus, Mumby (2013) notes that in teams where the members are not able to be engaged in many face-to-face interactions, the ability to pass a message correctly without any disturbances and received it timely should be regarded as an extremely important one. Therefore, an employee of City Couriers should also have well-developed communication skills.

There are several issues that can be identified in the company in question. First of all, it is obvious that today in-house training is largely perceived as an irreplaceable prerequisite of a successful company; therefore, the fact that it is not performed in the organisation in question should be regarded as a big issue. Rauner and Maclean (2008) notes that the leaders of the market, for example, Siemens, invest a considerable amount of money in order to make sure that they are able to train and develop the best staff possible. The idea which was expressed by Jones that "in-house training and development is just a waste of everybody's time – and the firm's money" should be rejected since it will lead the company to a dead end which it may have already reached.

The second issue is the lack of proper assessment procedure. It is obvious that Jones can hardly be called an irresponsible manager; quite the opposite: he did his best to make sure that the form of evaluation is as short as possible and that there is no unnecessary paperwork that needs to be done. However, Coovert and Thompson (2013) insist that this may not be the best way to reduce the size of paperwork since it also has a negative impact on the quality of assessment; therefore, the company should engage technology in order make the computers process the information and let managers interpret it. This is the case in many well-known companies, for example, Coca-Cola. Therefore, the desire to optimise work should not cast a shadow on the quality of it.

Finally, there is one last issue that should be mentioned and it deals with the frequency of assessment. It was mentioned in the case that Jones performs the assessment only once a year. MacLeod and Brady (2008) would argue that this can hardly be regarded as a positive practice since in the majority of the cases companies perform assessment many times more frequently. For example, one of the most widely used practices is a quarterly assessment, but some companies make it even more frequently: every month or even every two weeks. By any measure, the fact that City Couriers assesses the performance of its employees only once a year seems to be counter-productive since the management is not able to gain any adequate measurement of the progress.

All this leads to the situation when the following general problems may be identified in the management of performance and reward. On the one hand, the organisational culture which was build in the company is question seems to be too simple: the managers are not involved in the relationship with the employees frequently and the appraisal is performed using one sheet of paper only. On the other hand, the reward that is offered to the staff seems to be unbalanced because the top 20 percent get a significant financial incentive while the bottom 10 percent is dismissed. Therefore, two-thirds of the people are not motivated properly. It seems that the company tries to influence the staff using the extremes: it is whether dismissal or a large sum of money.

Recommendations to resolve the problems

It is quite understandable that the company in question can make a use of several options to deal with the issues mentioned above. First of all, as it was mentioned in the case, Jones might dismiss the complaints and carry out business as usual. This means that no in-house training and development will be performed. The advantage of it is that such practice will not require any additional investments; however, the disadvantage is that it will not contribute to the progress either. Nevertheless, the company may set up in-house training programs and they will be able to enjoy the staff that will possess valuable tacit knowledge (Kraiger 2014). It is obvious, though, that this will also require investment since creation of such programs and the subsequent training can be quite costly. With all this in mind, one should note that the option that will suit the organisation the best is the second one since it will allow it to achieve its strategic goals and make sure that it does not fail the customers. Moreover, this option is quite valid since it will reinforce the part of the organisation that was overlooked. It is reliable because the training of the staff sooner or later will result in the increase of quality of performance and that will have a positive impact on the entire organisation. One would make no mistake that implementation of this option is fair since every employee will have an equal opportunity to participate in this kind of program. Finally, this approach is cost effective since the investment that is made in the training programs will result in a better staff and higher productivity of it.

Speaking of the second issue, one should note that there are also several options available for the company. First of all, the organisation in question might utilise a longer, more detailed format of assessment. On the positive side, it will also the managers gather more data and make sure that the assessment is more accurate; however, on the negative side, the amount of time needed for the processing of the material will be increased. Bohlander and Snell (2010) point out that nowadays technology may be used to help people perform tasks that are time-consuming. Therefore, it would be better to use the second option, namely, use technology to have the employees submit information electronically. On the one hand, it will also to cover the same amount of information as it is the computer that will calculate the outcome. On the other hand, the assessment should not rely solely on the result of a machine. The second option is significantly better since it allows the company to improve the communication within it. Therefore, this option is valid since it not only deals with the issue, but it also improves the manner in which information is processed. It is reliable since the level of technology today allows to design algorithms that can be fully trusted. It would be fair to implement this option since there will be no exceptions and the performance of every person will be evaluated against a particular set of criteria. Lastly, the cost effectiveness of this obvious is beyond any doubt since it will save time and manpower to process all the information.

Finally, there is one last issue that should be addressed. Seven successful years of City Couriers proved that it is possible to conduct the assessment only once a year and since run a prosperous company. So, if nothing is changed that there are no additional investments that need to be made to implement more assessments. However, it will also mean that the managers will not get the adequate information about the development of the staff. That is why the other option seems to be quite more positive: City Couriers should introduce quarterly assessments. Daft and Marcic (2008) believe that this may be the best frequency since it is detailed enough to track the development and is broad enough to let the managers focus on something other than appraisal. One would make no mistake that this option falls in line with the strategy of the company that is willing to improve its performance and deliver the best service for the customers. This option if valid since it is supported by the numerous studies that area available on the topic. It is also reliable since increasing the frequency of assessment in four times will allow the company to improve the performance of the staff and decrease the possibility of any conflict. It would be fair to implement this option since the entire staff will benefit from it. As for cost effectiveness, it is obvious that assessment that is carried out four times a year instead of once a year will require additional fund, but these expenditures will be covered by the income produced by the more productive staff.

Conclusion

Having examined all the points which were mentioned in the paragraphs above, one is able to come to the following conclusion: the case of City Couriers should that proper management of performance and reward is likely to lead to positive results and decrease the possibility of conflict between the staff and the management. It also shows that while a company might seem to be successful while implementing practices that can be largely seen as negative by the scholars, sooner or later the critical mass of the dissatisfaction will build up and the organisation will have to implement changes. Therefore, it may be beneficial utilise options that fall in line with the overall strategy of the company and are valid, reliable, fair, and cost-effective since they will ensure the best outcome.