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Human Resource Department Problem Analysis

Individual Project Assignment 1

Dawn Kaiser

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

BUS300-0703B-08

Decision Making

By

Melissa Brunette-Wells

Colorado Springs, Colorado

August 2007

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyze the problems within the Human Resource department of "People, people who need people.com" in regards to their employee performance appraisal process. The goal of this paper is to utilize creative resources to uncover the problems and isolate them, determine possible solutions, as well as, offer innovative and alternative ways to alleviate the potential reoccurrence of the problems. The final step this paper is to assess ways to build up the Human Resource department as a whole.

Human Resource Department Problem Analysis

One of the very vital aspects to any company's survival is an Employee Appraisals program. This process is what determines who comes and goes within a company, who is doing well and who is creating problems that could cause negative issues within the company. If the process is put into place and used correctly, it can strongly stimulate the creativeness of any organization by outlining the goals and expectations the organization is hoping to achieve from their employees. The main key to accomplishing this is to have an Employee Appraisal process put into place that is fair and ethical process and is without biasness. The Employee Appraisal program can play a very significant function in bringing out the best in the personnel of the company.

It is very important when putting an Employee Appraisal program into place that incentives are also included into the program. People are greedy by nature and the idea of an incentive tends to jump-start them into better employees. Salary revisions would be a good example of a positive incentive. But on the flip side, negative consequences are also needed to balance out the process. Because of the rewards and consequences involved in the process it is extremely vital that the person or team performing the evaluation do so with extreme accuracy and without biasness, regardless of the situation or people involved.

No matter how hard a company strives to have accurate Employee Appraisals, it is inevitable that problems will occur. Some of these common problems are the inability to complete an appraisal without biasness, avoiding discrimination, getting emotionally involved and losing their objectivity and control, not reflectively listening or perhaps not pursuing any new information or suggestions that the employee in question may offer or discuss. There is also the problem of succumbing to the halo or central effect on ratings, which is the giving of a favorable overall rating based on one job aspect, opposed to a fair rating concluded based on all aspects of the employees performance. The final problem is the failure to close the Employee Appraisal review without an adequate summary. Thus not giving the employee a clear understanding of what needs to be corrected on the job and what they are doing right. Feedback, whether positive or negative, is always a must in the conclusion of any Employee Appraisal.

Avoiding Biasness

It is extremely essential, when conducting an Employee Appraisal, which the evaluator completing the evaluation is doing so fairly and accurately. The integrity of the evaluator and the company rests upon heavily upon this.

Unfortunately for many, personal biases, prejudices and personal idiosyncrasies come into play often times during the Employee Appraisal process. Granted, most of these occur on a subconscious level and are often unrecognized by the evaluator, but equally in turn can have severely negative effects on the Employee Appraisal process, the evaluator, the employee and the company (Legal Match 2007).

It is recommended that in order to avoid biasness to have a team of evaluators versus one evaluator. This will also strengthen the evaluation process, as it allows for more direct input into the system and hopefully offer a more solid foundation for the company to build its Employee Appraisal process on.

Avoiding Discrimination

Federal laws prohibit discrimination in employment based on certain protected classifications, including race, color, sex (including pregnancy), religion, national origin, age (40 or over) and disability (Entrepreneur.com 2007). Because of this law an employer is prohibited from terminating an employee if the basis of that termination is his or her membership in any of these protected classifications. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary discrimination is the act of making a difference in treatment or favor on the basis other than individual merit (2007). It is essential that all employees who are active in management be very careful to avoid discrimination of any type in the Employee Appraisal Process. Discrimination is one of the most common problems, combined with biasness, in Employee Appraisal reviews, thus causing many employee lawsuits, according to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

There is no single person that is incapable of discrimination and everyone has committed it at one time or another. Discrimination takes on many forms some may be more noticeable than others. A few examples of this would be, a man hiring a woman because he thought she was attractive even though she couldn't do the job or even someone is not promoted because the Evaluator does not care for the employee's new hair do. Discrimination, obviously, can take on many different forms and is not limited to gender, race or even religion.

Emotional Involvement Causing Misperceptions

Emotional involvement has no place in any organization. This is often why most companies will not hire family members. When a personal relationship is developed between co-workers, whether at the top or bottom of the corporate ladder, trouble is soon to follow. The emotional involvement can create a bond that causes the evaluator performing the Employee Appraisal to give an unfair evaluation. Emotional involvement can, and often does, cloud the objectives and goals that the Employee Appraisal program is trying to put into