Managing Performance and Participation - Assignment Example

?Question There are different sorts of issues reflected in the case study of Cirque de Soleil with regard to recruitment, management and motivationof the artists. In the following paragraphs, those issues are described and subsequently the appropriate course of action taken by Cirque is stated. Recruitment In case of recruiting the new artists, Cirque undergoes numerous issues. Since Cirque seeks artists from all over the world, therefore it becomes a tough task to find out the right kind of artists that Cirque requires. Generally, acrobat, gymnasts, clowns, and dancers are recruited by Cirque, which are then referred as performing artists. Following are some issues, which are especially related to recruiting the artists faced by Cirque: Increasing no. of artists Initially, Cirque required around 50 artists every year and their casting staff had to travel only those areas where they believe that their required artists will be sought out. In the recent years, as the number of shows started to increase as well as the increase in artist turnover at Cirque, the casting staff now currently has to recruit at least 100 artists in a year. In order to address this issue, Cirque spread out the auditions in around 20 countries across the globe. However, the cast division of Cirque found themselves out in a burnt out situation due to so much travelling. They have started feeling monotonic in conducting auditions, which may cause leaving out some potential artists from recruitment process because casters are not fresh enough to concentrate. Child Artists Another important concern for Cirque regarding the recruitment of artists is the inclusion of child artists in their artistic portfolio. Generally, the kids who live at the streets pose a problem for Cirque because of their growing up problems. For this issue, Cirque concentrated especially on recruiting those children who are supported and guarded by their parents. For those children who lack their family guardianship are less considered by Cirque. Individual artist out of the box At times, it happened that when conducting auditions especially in far off area like villages, only 1 or 2 artists are able to impress the casting teams. Since those artists is not educated and not aware of the cultural problems that he might have to face if he is recruited by Cirque as they cannot interact and mingle with other casts easily. It becomes a dilemma for Cirque as how to handle those artists. So in order to resolve this issue, the casting division made a strategy according to which a single artist from that village or area is not recruited rather several individuals with same talent are sought out and then the whole group is recruited because in the form of group, those artists can understand and help out each other. Management The management of those artists is still not a big problem for Cirque administration as appropriate coaching staff is recruited to enhance the skills and arts of the artists. Only the concerning issue is that as number of artists being recruited are increasing, the responsibilities and workload of coaching and training staff are increased but still they are under control not causing stress to them. Motivation Some of the artists blame Cirque as one of the place where artists are somewhat underemployed as they are only paid when the show is on. Fixed salaries are not paid to the artists, which stimulates a sense of being not equitable. However, according to some other artists working at Cirque, whatever the compensation is provided by Cirque is some double or triple from other industry participants. Apparently, it seems that management of Cirque has created a very flexible yet stable blend of providing rewards to its artists. As far as extrinsic rewards are concerned, triple times pay is something, which is more than enough to motivate the artists, as this much is extremely handsome for them even though their compensations are contingent upon the number of shows being conducted by Cirque. Conversely, Cirque believes highly upon providing the artists the intrinsic rewards. Those rewards include a high and respectable recognition from the fellow artists as well as from the administration, the learning and growth opportunities whenever they demand, helpful and attractive working conditions, creative environment, flexible conditions, powerful and rigorous rehearsals, and training sessions etc. These are some of the intrinsic rewards, which Cirque artists believe that they may not acquire elsewhere. In short, every artist at Cirque is highly motivated due to both the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards offered by Cirque. Question 2 Cirque has played a tremendous role not only motivating its artists but also its other employees and workers who assist the artists. Right from providing travelling services to providing food, Cirque has remained quite caring for its staff. Employees feel lethargic to go by their conveyance to work after heavy workload of the previous day; special shuttle service is provided to the employees in order to keep them lively and fresh. In order to provide quality food, special kitchen is developed by Cirque to take care of this need of the employees. In short, Cirque tries its level best to motivate its employees especially through providing greatest of the working conditions. The working conditions and the exposures that Cirque provides to its employees attract and motivate other employees as well such that they are willing to work for Cirque even on a lower than industry pay scale. Another important way with which Cirque try to motivate its employees is to allow them the opportunity of enjoying the touring life. Cirque conducts its shows all over the world, which provides its employees a chance not only to work in the circus around the globe but also on streets. This gives the exposure to the employees of Cirque to mingle around with the different ethnic groups as it gives the chance to interact, understand, and share the thoughts, feelings, and ideas to those who are culturally distinct. At the headquarters, Cirque trains the employees in order to bring cohesion as well as integration in their work activities. This behavior is reinforced by Cirque in such a manner that all the employees share assist the other employees in order to get the work done in the most efficient and timely manner. Those employees who assist the other employees receive a welcoming gesture from those who are burdened. The human resource opportunities provided by Cirque are quite interesting such that the overall environment allows the employees to leave the organization first and then reapply for a different post. This provides them a marvelous opportunity not only to increase in the pay scale as well as allows the employees the chances of being promoted. Even though this mechanism is not something official but the employees have sought it out as a mean to improve their overall compensations and benefits because Cirque values its old employees exceptionally and believes that they understand the organization and will bring better opportunities to work with their artists as well as the customers. Cirque keeps its employees at so much ease such that no official handbook of employees has been established in order to keep them at their comfort level. Other organizations like Walt Disney, official employee handbooks are established in which the proper code of conduct of the employees is established pretty well so that the employees should strictly follow the policies and procedures developed by their organizations. However, in Cirque, such rigid and monotonous rules and policies are applied to the employees in order to give them a rather easy way to manage their own work related activities. Another important aspect, which is mainly initiated by Cirque in order to improve the quality of integration and motivation among the employees, is the launch of its official newsletter. The newsletter is turned out to be quite effective because it allows the employees to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences exactly in the same manner in which they want. Even at times, the newsletters are published uncensored just because the Cirque wanted its employees to speak out what they feel from inside. Cirque also believes in providing the entertainment opportunities to employees in order to keep them fresh and exciting for their core jobs. The communities get-togethers, parties and other similar activities are carried quite frequently by Cirque where the employees dance around enjoy alcohols, and other delicious foodstuff. Not only this, even Cirque provides those employees enjoying the party, the travelling service in order to ensure their safe journey to their homes by avoiding the likelihood of meeting an accident while driving in a drunk state. Overall, it can be noted that Cirque provides those kind of opportunities to employees which may not be considered as something extremely vibrant or having good magnitude, but Cirque tries its best to allow the employees those opportunities which may be found as very light and small in nature. These small things keep the employees fresh and motivated so that they can engage and conduct their profession activities rather in decent manner. Question 3 Harrah’s Entertainment operates in the casino industry, which suffers the biggest problem of having the most employee turnover as compared to other industries. In case when the management is unable to maintain a low level of employee turnover, the organization cannot bring the quality customer care services which is a core element behind the financial success of the organization. Broadly, there are two types of customers engaged with any organization i.e. external and internal customers. External customers are the one that directly purchase the products and services of the organization whereas the internal customers are the employees of the organization as they are the ones who try to satisfy the external customers. Due to the utmost importance of the external customers of the organization, Harrah’s strongly believe that it is of vital importance that its customers should receive the best quality service from its employees so that they remain loyal to Harrah’s. In order to improve the customer satisfaction, Harrah’s pointed out the major concern associated with the employees is the increasing employee turnover. With the consistently changing faces in the employees, the quality standards cannot be met because especially those employees who directly serve the customers cannot provide them the most appropriate services because they find it hard to stay for a longer tenure in the organization. There are various costs that Harrah’s had to face due to such high employee turnover such as increasing cost of recruiting new employees, conducting their training sessions, taking time for the employees to bring efficiency in their customer service and lastly but most importantly, the varied level of customer service provided. The newly appointed HR manager of Harrah’s Entertainment noted that the importance and value of the customers are regarded at every channel by the management. However, the employees which are the actual contributors in providing customer services, are ignored everywhere. One of the major reasons behind such low turnover is the lack of management’s appreciation towards benefitting and compensating its employees adequately. In some of the properties, where bonuses are paid to the employees, the customer service has also been improved as well as the employee turnover is observed to be less than ever before. Pay has turned out to be the motivating factor for the employees and employees also cherished such incentive and increased their loyalty with the organization as they believe that they would be adequately compensated if their effort is recognized both in terms of pay and non-pay basis. Even though the incentive plan has brought in better customer service results, yet this incentive plan ignores the element of overall financial position and performance of the company. Currently the incentive plans are directly linked with the feedback received from the customers such that if the customer feels that he is satisfied, then that feedback will be used as trigger to the entitlement of incentives to employees. Since, the business is casino based where most the customers are on the losing track most of the times, therefore, in those cases it becomes very difficult to rely on the feedback provided by those customers, as they are not in a better position to judge their satisfaction. In that case, the employees would suffer because they are being paid on the feedback provided by those customers. In order to motivate the staff, Harrah’s management should not ignore its financial capability as well. It should link the incentive plan with the customer’s feedback as well as with the financial progress and performance of the company so that the management should not feel burdened in hard times when operating income of the organization is low. References Marchington, M. and Wilkinson, A. (2008). Human Resource Management at Work, London, CIPD Read More