Performance Assessment at City Courier Case study
City couriers limited is a capital-based mid-sized company that employs approximately 600 workers (Naji, 2014). It is among the fastest growing parcel collection and distribution businesses operating in Australia. The firm was established seven years ago and since then, it has operated successfully throughout the country (Naji, 2014). The different departments of the company include parcel collection, customer service, distribution service department, accounts, legal, vehicle maintenance and human resources (Salas, 2012). The company has most of its employees and their supervisors working in distribution centers, customer call centers, and in vehicle maintenance facilities, which are strategically located across the country. Being a cost-defender, employment of a mechanistic organizational structure and use of traditional management culture make up the company strategic policies (Crumpton, 2011).
The company’s human resources manager, Rob Johns has been proud of what the company has been able to achieve this far thanks to his input (Morsey, 2011). He has been able to implement human resources strategies that have had a direct impact on the performance of the employees as well as the overall company’s ability to achieve its goals. Rob initially served as a van driver but managed to rise through the ranks to the level of human resources manager. He does not believe in managers chasing degree certificates or even reading books to add anything to their knowledge (Morsey, 2011). Further, he sees training and development courses to the staff as a waste of time and resources to the organization. This points out to some of the human resource practice points of concern especially associated with performance assessment in the company which has prompted the research study. After his assessment procedure was questioned by three employees who he had poached from a competitor company, he sort the services of a consultant (Groen, 2015). From the above happenings, it is evident that the way the assessment process was done amounted to problems in the company. The management should thus consider reviewing the performance assessment process afresh or do away with rogue human resource practitioners like Rob.
Strategic Analysis
This study has focused on analyzing some of the external and the internal company features that have over the years impacted on the performance of City Courier and eventually influenced the performance assessment process. A look at the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) can help identify both the external and the internal environment of City Couriers (Lilien, 2002).
Strengths
The fact that the company has been able to operate successfully for a period of seven years and emerging as a force to reckon with in Australia points to some formidable internal strengths. At the core to these strengths is a skilled workforce (Sevkli, 2012). Going by the human resource policies of Rob, it would be evident that City Courier would have a skilled labor force. The fact that Rob never believed in the firm engaging in bringing up skilled laborers would only imply that he poached for already fully baked employees from other corporates. This strategy has got both positive and negative implications to the corporate performance both in the short term and long term.
On the positives, bringing in skilled laborers would mean that the company stands to benefit by saving the training cost used to induce new employees. In City Courier, new employees are already experienced in their areas of expertise and have been equipped with the necessary skills through training and development by the previous employer. Skilled employees are equally experienced and thus the company is at the verge of double benefit. In some cases, experience is much appreciated than the certification that people get from schooling. In Rob’s case, he valued experience more than the papers one has as it is shown by his discouragement to managers who liked spending time studying to get more degrees. On the other hand, in the long run, skilled and experienced workers tend to be old aged people who are not in a position to serve the company for long periods, which directly points out to the fact that labor turnover has to be high going forward.
Another factor that influences performance in City Courier is the limited competition in the industry. There are no many well- established courier providers in Australia of the caliber of City Couriers (Dysvik, 2008). It is a plus to the company as it does not have to invest heavily in marketing to remain relevant but on the other side, there is the threat of laxity since the consumers don’t have many alternatives to choose from.
Weaknesses
Besides the above mentioned strengths, the company has weaknesses too. Among the highly impactful ones is the poor management practices. The human resource director, Rob is a good example of the nature of management that he organization has. A human resources manager who does not support growth and development among the staff would definitely be a poor leader. He should instead be the one pushing to have the employees to upgrade their academic qualifications besides the company offering periodical upgrading programs through training workshops. However, Rob strongly opposes these strategies as just an example of how ineffective the management has been.
Threats
The company faces a huge threat of high staff turnover a factor that is detrimental to the performance of the company. This can be directly be traced to poor human resource practices in the company by Rob. A good example is the performance and reward assessment system he adopts in the company. It is not comprehensive besides leaving out some important factors of assessment thus implying it is not fair at all. Moreover, the manager uses the result from the faulty assessment procedure to send off some employees. The feeling of disgruntlement and the laying off of employees who do not meet Rob’s assessment criteria requirements have led to high staff turnover and generally impacted to the performance of the company.
Opportunities
Despite the above stated weaknesses, the company can still exploit the opportunities available at its disposal. Through a change of strategy, it can actually turn the weaknesses into exploitable opportunities. For example, it can begin training and development programs. This will not only motivate the employees and make them feel part of the company, but will also lead to increased overall company productivity and profitability (Lilien, 2002). Additionally, the company can result to implement good managerial practices eliminating the likes of Rob. Such a change can be good for the growth of the company and can equally help the company save a lot of resources. The final opportunity the company can tap is the use of technology in its operations. Technology is the way to go in that it increases efficiency, speed as well as reducing costs. The several benefits that would come with technological implementation within the organization shall result in overall company growth.
Discussion of Key Issues
In the case of City Courier Company, the human resource sector has been conducting the performance assessment process poorly led by the human resource director, Rob. Good performance assessments if adopted will encourage employee involvement in the process unlike what is seen at City Courier Company. Rob drafts and approves the usage of the one-page assessment form on his own (Cornell, C. A, 2006). He ends up ignoring so many important factors that should be involved in the assessment process out thus making the whole exercise faulty.
On the other hand, he takes giving a one-time off cash reward as the best way to appreciate good performance. This is a discouraged act in the field of human resources. Human resource experts argue that employees should be motivated to perform better by a sum of several factors related to their job and not just rewards (Speklé, 2014). Good working environment, competitive wages, involvement in decision making, and implementation are some of the mostly used methods to earn employee loyalty in the human resources field (Cornell, C. A, 2006). The end product of loyalty is increased productivity since it creates a sense of belonging. The only way in which cash should be used to motivate employees is through the company providing competitive remunerations.
Another issue that has been a thorn to the fairness in the performance assessment process is the fear the manger has instilled in the employees through firing those who fail to meet certain standards. It is obvious that all employees are required to deliver in any organization. However, should it happen they are not delivering as per the expectation, firing them is not the solution (Noe, R. A, 2006). In fact the cost that comes with firing them is far too much as compared to organizing a training workshops for them to be able to overcome the work related challenges they face. Sometimes, laying off is inevitable but how it is done also matters. In City Courier Company, an employee gets fired based on only parameter, performance. Other factors are not considered nor is there grace period for the employee to change.
Recommendations
A complete change in the management of the company should be done. Brown, (2016) asserts that everything rises and falls in leadership. It is therefore the management that is at greater fault for perpetrating poor leadership and management styles. The managers should be people who have the interest of the company at heart and not those acting to satisfy their ego and actualize their thoughts like Rob.
Equally, the company should initiate and implement an employee training program to help their staff to be up to date with the industrial changes. As per Butler (2009), the employees who perform poorly in the assessment process and eventually get laid off are not fully to blame for their poor performance. The company should have a training system to sharpen the skills of the employees. Further, it does not appear anywhere whether the company had a formal mechanism through which the employees could receive feedback regarding job performance and expectations. That leaves the employees disillusioned as far as their tasks are concerned.
The assessment process should further result to a documentation of the employees’ performance history (Brown, 2016). Maybe the employee who ranks the best in a certain period may be the one who ranks poorly in the following assessment period. It would be thus unfair to the company and the individual to lay such a person off. The documentation can help inform the future decisions by the human resources department of the company as far as employees are concerned.
Conclusion
Performance assessment is a vital exercise within any organization that wants to succeed. However, how it is conducted is of greater importance for it can make or break the organization as it is the case with City Courier Company. On the other hand, a company should not only be concerned with the performance assessment exercise since several other factors underlie employee performance. For example, training and development which Rob completely left out in his human resource practice is a key factor that heavily impacts on employee performance. A comprehensive approach therefore should be adopted to ensure the staff members are fed with the right resources and environment as well so as to facilitate a level ground for assessing their performance. It is therefore the role of the management to ensure the process is carried out fairly to avoid adverse effects like staff turnover.
References
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