Report On Appraisals Of Red Square Industries Management Essay
Introduction
With the development of the Red Square Industries, a matter of
human resources has appeared recently. A forced ranking distribution (listed in
table 1) is used by Red Square Industries to assess employees, whose salary
increases are based on their "title". Employees, however, quickly
learn these different levels and what level others stand although the industry
does mean to be confidential. The situation is becoming increasingly terrible
because even the managers think it is difficult to continue to manage the
company. As time goes by, the performance appraisal program has become regarded
more as an HR exercise.
As a role of a HR professional, here comes out some analysis
about the current issues and give out some recommondations according to some
academic materials.
The performance appraisal
system of Red Square Industries
Employees in the industry
are labeled with different levels and titles
It is important and necessary for managers to have a particular
reward strategy to direct the organization to set up a programme which can make
sure that the employees with great outcomes and achievement will be rewarded. A
suitable rewarding system can motivate the employees and then create more
profit for the company, which should be based on an appropriate performance
appraisal system. (Michael Armstrong, 2002),
It is indeed a good choice to distribut the employees into
different levels according to their own knowledge, experience and ability,
because it is far easier for the managers to manage the company and arrange the
suitable workforce to different positions under this situation. However, a
forced ranking distribution will affect the later work arrangement and
performance because employee's performance may change after going on their own
duties and jobs. Some people who rated 1 (regarded as the superior
performancers) will try to slack off their jobs even though they are really
with a store of knowledge and rich experience; some people who rated 4 and 5
(regarded as unsatisfactory performancers) will not have enough opportunities
to perform well because the so called rated 1 or 2 employees who are regarded
as hotshots and will be asked to solve significant problems. The five different
"titles" are listed in table1 below:
Table1: the five-level performance appraisal system
Level
Bonus
Salary increase
Legally required increases
"titles"
1
Superiro performers
(Top 10%)
â-‹
â-‹
Stars
2
Good performers
(The next 25%)
â-‹
â-‹
Starlets
3
Acceptable performers
(The next 45%)
â-‹
Workhorses
4
Marginal performers
(The next 15%)
â-‹
dogs
5
Unsatisfactory performers
(The bottom 5%)
â-‹
Problems caused by this
appraisal system
First, non-cooperative attitude will arise in "level-1
group". People in level-1 group, called "stars", may consider
that one or some other star employees are incapable to stand in their goroup,
they may refuse to communicate and cooperate. So they may fail to finish
assignment and even strike, which results in an irreversible disaster to the
industries. The industries can not take the losses when the people regarded as
the top staff of the company can not do the job effectively.
Second, employees rated 3 will loss their motivation when they
learn that they are only average. What is more? At this time, employees rated 2
will try to quit the job because of the industry's attitude----let the hotshots
solve the problems. Those graded as "dogs", therefore, become the
major workforce of this industry. Employees who are rated 5 who belong to a
union are favourite by managers, inspite that the company denies, even the
people in this group are non-performing. This becomes a vicious circle and the
managers are reluctant to them.
Third, there also exists a major problem in the distinction of
employees rated 3 and 4. Although clarified in the appraisal record, the
boundary is not easy to mark. Some people rated 4 because they are new but they
have good learning ability, but some people rated 3 because they have been
trained but are still not capable for the job. So the coompany will loss many
forces in these two groups.
Causes of these problems
Firstly, when the industry recruites, they may ignore to test
the employee to check if they fit in this job. The industry should make sure
what kind of laborforce they need before introducing new people. If the company
does not do well in this field, and their decisions turn out to be wrong, the
candidates may be put in wrong position. The people who suppose to perform well
and outstanding but actually make little contribution to the industries may be
hired. However, others who are predicted to do limited work but actually can
have great achievement will be refused to be enrolled or only have a chance to
work as casual laborers. The loss will be disasterous and irreversible.
Therefore, employers should focus on some personalitier, such as loyalty,
communication ability and leadership. (Susan Jackson, et al., 2006),
Secondly, managers do not pay enough attention to the laws,
which will help to cement the employee-employer relationship as well as protect
employees. As many acts are designed and passed to protect employees, the
employment laws have force of law in various processes of recruitment and
relationships between employees and employers although the employment law is a
fragmented work in progress in some areas. It is no possible that the law will
cover every possible case in the industry, but it does not mean that the
managers can do what they want. What the employers can do is to learn the rules
of law and follow them even the employment law is changing occasionally.
Thirdly, who has right to decide whether to hire or lay off a
staff? The manager or the HR? As Purcell et al (2003) claimed, "There is a
need for HR policies to be designed for and focused on front line
managers", on the other words, the HR should have more responsibility for
implementing the policy, while the managers have priority and finally decide
about people. But the performance appraisal program will creat too much ill and
unfair over time, the HR department now should try to set up a new and complete
system to solve this problem. If the employees and employers can not cooperate
well, it is not easy to find suitable person to do the particular job.
Some recommendations to
Red Square Industries
After listing the problems faced by Red Square Industries and
analysing the problems, it is necessary to give out some affirmative measures
to solve these problems. In this case, many things should be improved, such as
the performance appraisal system, the recruitment principles and even the
design of the jobs.
HR resources should pay
more attention to the laws involving employees.
In the 1960s and 1970s, laws and statutes were passed to protect
the human resources management behaviours in the world. To some extend, the the
human resources management has changed due to change of circumstances. The dual
pressure of national policy and the advance of workplace trade unionism and
collective bargaining have vitally affected its evolution. (John Bratton,
1999). Recently, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling that involved in the
employment discrimination law, employees of different physical conditions,
ages, genders and races should be regarded equally, even though it is hard to
do this as a whole, the industry should obey this as much as possible. (Norma
Riccucci & Stephen Condrey, 2010),
HR managers should pay more attention to the laws and statutes
about the relationship between employee and employer. Before hiring a new
employee, the industry should make sure that this people can do well in this
position, or at least, after training, because the employers need a valid
reason for dismissal to demonstrate substantive. With the comparatively
improvement of legislation and standard system on the employment, and a
scepticism about the morality of leaders of industry, they may get caught in
trouble even have a contract.
In this case, the company gives the employees who are rated 4
and 5 only legally required increases. On the other words, employment laws at
least protest the right for these people, but once these people are hired, it
is hard to fire them even they are not capatable to finish the task of this
position. But there are some reasons for an organization to summary dismissal,
such as serious misconduct, physical abuse, bribery and incompetence. Why would
the company still hire them? It is possible that they ignore some important
details during employment which are listed following.
Giving candidates an
ability testings before hiring them.
In order to solve the problems arise in unsatisfactory caused in
different group, the HR department should take some affirmative measures. When
recruiting or training new employees, the industry should use some academic
approaches to reduce the troublesome in the future. For example, use the
Hackman & Oldham's Job Characteristics Model to identity the quality of
employees before giving them offer. This Job Characteristics Model can justify
the employees by using three different kinds of elements: firstly, skill
varity, task identity, task significance, through which they will learn the
meaningfulness of the work; secondly, autonomy will make them feel
responsibility to the outcomes; thirdly, feedback gives them knowledge of
results. Because people who have these characteristics are possible to do
better in their position. (Richard Daft & Dorothy Marcic, 2009).
In order to assess the quality of employees after a serious
training, industry can also consider some other important requirements, for the
reason that learning capacity is various among different people, such as
knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), and even some physical assessment.
(Robert Gatewood, et al., 2008) The design of the question and the evaluation
form should be pratical rather than too ideal, the question and method should
not be too difficult and complicated for ordinary people to answer, on the
generalization that respondent will try to guess the answers and result in
distortion of the profiling.
In this case, if the managers or the HR managers can distribute
the employees into appropriate positons, a number of matters can be deterred in
the following hiring. If the assessment system can be ideal and most people can
also their own interests as well through this system, the managers will also
allocate them into suitable fields. But this is not the only significant thing
the industries should do; also important is to redesign an effective
performance appraisal system to follow when the human resources management is
facing problems. (George Bohlander & Scott Snell, 2010).
Design an effective
performance appraisal system
Performance appraisal can not be kept intact all the time. It
should be regarded as a process, because the situation of the industries is
changing all the time. It is believed that there exists an ideal cycle and if
people followed, it will come out a superiro results. Where does the cycle
start? Some academic argument claim that it begins at the job instead of some
designed form. On the other words, first of all, the industry must ensure what
shoud be done and point out in what way it can be achieved. A typical
philosophy should be concerned when finding an effective appraisal system, that
is the Classic management by objectives (MBO)， which aims at the long-term
goals and strategic plans. All the projects are desinged to develop general
systematical targets.
According to (Dick Grote 1996), the cycle is consisted by a
five-phase process, which start with the company has set up its strategies and
general instructions. The five phases are listed below:
Performance Planning
At this stage, the appraiser and appraisee should reach an
agreement on the responsibility of the subordinate's task, some specific
objectives, standards of subordiantes' achievement, performance factors and the
development plan the employee should complete.
Performance Execution
After reaching an agreement in phase 1, the supervisor should
consider the feedback and fix the obsolescent plans as long as they meet a
mature agreement. Only in this way can the plan be completed well.
Performance Assessment
After finishing some plans, these two groups need assess the
accomplishments of plans, and decide what degree they achieve independently.
Not only the subordinate should submit the self-appraisal to the supervisor,
but they can also read others'.
Performance Review
When reviewing others' appraisal, they should focus on some
elements, such as final achievement, action effectiveness, general behaviour
evaluation and developing progress and so on. As metioned previous, people
should exchange the self-appraisal in addition submit to supervisor.
Performance Renewal and Recontracting
As time goes by, some outdate rules are not appropriate any
more. Industries should update and make sure that they will fit to the changing
environment. This phase comes back to phase 1 and complete an ideal circle.
Have a job analysis to
help HR managers to develop job descriptions
Job analysis is significant because it can obtain necessary
information about what is needed in a job, such as duties, tasks or some
special skills. A good job analysis can supply the HR managers to develop a job
description. In this case, if the managers can figure out some particular
elements in different positons, and summarize in written form, the HR managers
can recruit some more appropriate people, which will deter many troublesome
from the source. (R kleynhans, et al., 2006).
Job analysis should be updateed when some conditions changed,
such as a new job position is created and a job is changed significantly. The
orginal job analysis may not suit for current situation any more, so if the
industry wants to relate the ability of the employees to the compensation or
salary increase, they should try to update job analysis date to identify
employee specifications. (David Walsh, 2007),
The job advertisment should describe cleary what kind of person
they need; the job description should include but not limite to: job title, qualifications,
required experience, and the person the occupant reports to etc. The
organization can get the person with appropriate quality when they describe the
details clearly to the public.
Conclusion
A good performance appraisal system is a very important element
and process in the whole development of industry. Red Square Industries is
facing a common problem that many other industries, especially those trying to
expand its size. The industries should use academic and professional methods to
solve these problems; also important is that the employees and employers should
cooperate when they are applying these methods.
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