Human Resource Management

Assessment 3

Manage performance management systems

PART A

Explain what a "performance gap" is.

Performance gap basically represents a current or anticipated performance problem to be solved, or it could be an opportunity for performance improvement.

Provide an example of a hypothetical scenario were performance gaps can occur.

A hypothetical scenario could be for instance lets just say that a Recruitment company is looking to adopt a new way to store and be more efficient with clients records, the solution to their problems could all be by integrating a new software in the computer system. Software such as a database where all the client details will be stored and registered dates and availability dates will be displayed in order to keep track of available candidates or clients. This type of new change might have a bit of impact on employees and in this case most employees will need training development by a training manager in order to learn the new software or the risk of causing performance gap may occur.

How are HR processes evaluated?

HR Processes are evaluated by numerous ways such as knowledge and skills, communication, interpersonal, management, personal traits, career development, impact, and decision making.

What is the purpose of HR evaluation in your own words?

I would say that it gives employers a chance to give workers feedback on their performance, commending their strengths and pointing out areas where they could use improvement.

6.How would you provide feedback on under-achievement and poor performance? I think that before you can fix poor performance, you have to understand its cause. Does it come from lack of ability or low motivation? Depending on what the problem is then you will act upon it to fix it. For example if the employee has lack of ability then the following steps need to be implemented:

Resupply, Retrain, Refit, Reassign, Release.

But if the problem relies in motivation When this is the case, you need to work closely with the employee to create a motivating environment in which to work. There are three key interventions that may improve people's motivation:

Setting of performance goals.

Provision of performance assistance.

Provision of performance feedback.

Goal setting is an aspect of performance improvement. Employees must understand what's expected of them and agree on what they need to do to improve.

People need feedback on their efforts. They need to know where they stand in terms of current performance and long-term expectations. When providing feedback, keep in mind the importance of the following:

Timeliness - Provide feedback as soon as possible. This could possibly relate the behavior with the evaluation.

Openness and Honesty - Make sure the feedback is accurate. Avoid mixed messages or talking about the person rather than the performance. That said, provide both positive and negative feedback so that employees can begin to truly understand their strengths and weaknesses.

Personalized Rewards - A large part of feedback involves rewards and recognition. Make sure that your company has a system that acknowledges the successes of employees, this motivates employees and makes them want to improve more with their tasks.

Find 2 real examples in the media using the internet about: resistance to change within the workplace. Include links to your findings. Summarise each finding in your own words (200 words each).

A major international food corporation appointed a new Regional President for their Pan-Pacific area. He was Irish, young (16 years younger than the man he was replacing) and had a reputation for innovation and tangible results. The newly-appointed Regional President arrived in his headquarters, and went straight into 1-on-1 meetings with his direct reports. He quickly got a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of the company in the region. He then went on a fact-finding trip, visiting each of the countries in his territory and receiving presentations from the country managers and their heads of function.

He asked lots of questions, looked at lots of research and listened to the people on the ground as they told him of the obstacles they were encountering to growth. He went away and sat brainstorming with a handful of close advisors. Then he pulled the country managers and heads of function in to head office one at a time and teased out more detail on their local issues.

Finally, he called all the country managers into HQ and he made a presentation to them. Before he began, he placed a small card face down in front of each of them but he made no reference to the cards during his presentation.

His ideas were strong, his research impeccable and his conclusions were that the company had to significantly 're-invent' itself if it was ever to be a player in the region. He remained standing for Q&A and then sat down and asked for feedback and reaction.

There was a long and uncomfortable silence.

Eventually, the first country manager spoke. He liked the strategy. He could see how it was going to make a tremendous difference across the region. However, he had some concerns as to how it could be applied in his country ...

All the country managers spoke. There are only so many ways you can say the same thing, but these were skilled, educated people. They spoke eloquently and well and defended their positions, their current approaches and the local cultural subtleties and differences upon which this new strategy would impinge.

Then he spoke. "So let me get this straight gentlemen. You all think the strategy is a good one. You all think the ideas and energy behind it are going to transform the region. From what I can glean, all 13 of you think this. You each especially think that it will be good for the other 12 countries in the region, but for some unaccountable reason, none of you think that the strategy that myself, the headquarters team and the other 12 country managers in region think will be good for your country will work ... is that about right?

Hmmm, let's see. Either I'm wrong, the HQ team are wrong and all 12 of each of your colleagues are dead wrong or ... for some reason, each of you