Performance Management Plan Essay

A performance management system allows a business to maximize its efficiency through the sum of all its parts. Controlling employee’s behavior, maximizing employee efforts, and minimizing unproductive down town, is at the heart of a performance management system. In fact, according to Clardy (2013), â€Å"†¦a performance management system is the total complex of factors that trigger, channel, and maintain productive task performance.† (pg.1, para.2) Making sure employees are doing their job is no longer an efficient method of performance management. According to Cascio (2013), performance management can be thought of as a compass (pg. 332, para. 3). A compass will indicate current location and be a guide towards a desired direction. Thus, performance management helps businesses understand the current state of an employee’s performance and the desired outcome and direction in which to monitor and measure. Ensuring that an employee’s efforts are having a positive effect on business strategy becomes a key component of performance management. Moreover, human capital and performance management involves understanding how to align human capital management efforts to business strategies. Therefore, understanding how to align limo driver behaviors towards business strategy will be an indicator of the effectiveness of Landslide’s Limo performance management system. To facilitate the effort of recommending a performance management plan several issues will be addressed. First, how to align performance management to business strategy will be examined. Second, the philosophy of the organization performance will be explained. Third, a job analysis process will be conducted to identify the skills needed by employees and methods for measuring those skills will be detailed. Next, the process or processes for addressing skill gaps will be explained and lastly, the approach for delivering effective performance feedback will be determined. Aligning Performance Management to Business Strategy What becomes apparent, in maximizing employee efforts, is how human resources aligns human capital and performance management with business strategy. However, according to Schiemann (2007), â€Å"It’s a tough challenge when you consider that, on average, fewer than 20 percent of employees know their organization’s business strategy.† Therefore, what becomes a key issue is ensuring that employees have a clear understanding of the organizations business strategy. Fortunately, Landslide Limousine has a straightforward approach when it comes to business strategy, however, a few recommendations for further growth will also be included in this assessment and how to align performance management with the recommendations. Landslide Limousine has a business strategy of being comparable to other limousine services in the Austin area, hiring 25 employees, ensuring world class customer service, and achieving five percent revenue growth over the next two years. In addition, we would recommend furthering growth opportunities within a specialty limousine market, offering non-traditional fleet options for non-traditional customers. The performance management system should be clear and concise and the recommendation would be for a simple but effective performance management system. The first recommendation would be to clearly communicate the business strategy to all employees and ensure understanding through a survey of acknowledgement. It is important that all employees, especially limo drivers, understand the importance of how excellent customer service will effect business strategy and secondary benefits like pay. Second, setting smart targets for service and sales, monitoring and evaluating how employees achieve smart targets and sales. From initial contact and during limo service, upselling services and upgrades on every customer interaction, are important smart targets. Like McDonald’s, when an order is placed, employees will ask if the customer wants fries or a drink with their order, the same can be done with smart targets. When a customer orders limo service, asking if they would prefer a larger or more exotic limo would help align smart targets with strategy. Furthermore, monitoring smart targets could be completed using costumer surveys. Ensuring employees are properly supported throughout the process; evaluating performance and finally, further support through training and development. After a customer has completed their limousine service, managers will evaluate customer surveys  and offer any performance evaluation if necessary and any further training to ensure employees are attempting to upsell customers on services. Following this framework is essential in aligning performance management with business strategy and maximizing employee efforts towards business goals. Organizational performance philosophy Performance management is essential in creating an organization that is high performing and supporting employee development (Yale.edu, 2010). Therefore the organizational performance philosophy should align performance management processes towards the goals of performance planning, review, coaching, and development. First, employees are responsible for communicating about performance and ensuring that they are successful towards the development and continually striving for customer service excellence in support of organizational strategy. Next, management is responsible for ensuring that employees understand their performance goals and fully supported during and after development and assisted through performance reviews to ensure that goals are being obtained and that employees have all support and support resources. Ultimately, it will be the responsibility for the organization to provide an effective and impartial performance management system that encourages excellent performance, communication, and proper conveyance of a properly managed performance management infrastructure (Berkley.edu, 2014). Job Analysis and Necessary Employee Skills A job analysis allows an organization to clearly understand a position and the necessary skills employees must possess in order to functionally manage the position. In fact according to hrcouncil.ca (2014) Job analysis is a process for systematically collecting information to help you fully understand and describe the duties and responsibilities of a position as well as the knowledge, skills and abilities required to do the job. The aim is to have a complete picture of the position – what is actually done and how. With the knowledge and understanding of the expectations of a position, surmising the skillset necessary to competently fulfill positions becomes critical. Having a clear picture of the skills needed will be the frontline in aligning performance management with business strategy. First we must  define and identify necessary positions for Landslide Limousines. The necessary positions will be limousine drivers, customer service agents or office administration, fleet vehicle detailers or individuals who will be responsible for stocking limousines and detailing vehicles before and after customer use. Lastly, job analysis for supervisor and management positions must be ascertained for future purposes and to clarify the skill set necessary to help initiate the organizations performance management. Each position will require a broad spectrum of specific skills necessary, however, in general a job analysis will consist of: Summary of duties Details of most common duties Supervisory responsibilities Educational requirements Special qualification Experience Equipment/tools used Frequency of supervision Others the incumbent must be in contact with Authority for decision making Responsibility for records/reports/files Working conditions Physical demand of the job Mental demands of the job To identify the skills necessary for a limousine driver a few position details must be examined. First, drivers will be required to have the ability to drive limousine type vehicles such as stretch limousines and all over-sized limousines. Drivers must also be able to safely drive vehicles that can transport over fifteen people and have their Texas commercial driver’s license to accompany. Having the ability to clarify job duties as a driver will help ascertain the skills necessary to be a driver for Landslide. Support and administration positions must have the ability to communicate effectively and have attention to detail. Clarifying how support and administration positions will work in tangent with drivers will also be essential in understanding the skills necessary for both positions. Lastly, clearly defining management and supervisory so it becomes incumbent to have  a full understanding of how the entertainment and transportation industry works so that the individual can identify performance management aspects and how to properly align them to organizational strategy. Methods of Measuring Employees Skills and Addressing Skills Gap Having the ability to measure employee skills at initial hire and during employment can help in development and training and allocated support. Furthermore, understanding how to address any preexisting skills gap and any skills gap after training, can be critical for further employee development and maximizing human capital efforts. One method of measuring employee skills is to benchmark skills against a numerical formula that can translate skills into a measureable system. This measurable system can be done at initial hire or during an employee’s tenure. A team skills metric can be developed with the goal of benchmarking overall skills. A chart can be implemented with the Y axis and different job codes or specific work instructions across the top of the chart. A measurement of each can be labeled from A through C. The letter A would equal to being an expert and assigned negative three points, B would be classified as good, or trained in job and can work independently with minimum supervision and be assigned negative two points, finally, C would be classified as good or trained but needs moderate supervision (new) and assigned one point. From this numerical system score, each employee would have an average from all their skills and an assessment would be ascertained. Moreover, employees who were cross-trained or who possessed higher skills raised the score, therefore helping identify each employees overall score in relation to their skill set. Another method for measuring employee skills is to use a skills inventory management system. The skills inventory system can be deployed at initial hire or during employment. The skills inventory system would be an online assessment. According to brainbench (2002), A skills inventory begins with a skills measurement system that enables employees to access online skills assessments through the company intranet. When a company implements a new technology, for example, managers may have their employees take a test for skills related to that new technology. Furthermore, once the online test is taken the results are gathered and a numerical score system is assessed in which management can assess whether or  not further training is necessary and what skill gaps are still or continuously lingering. Both methods of measuring employees skills can be measured against a skills benchmark and addressing skills gap can begin. Addressing skill gaps can be addressed by training, development, and peer-mentoring. Further training to address driving issues can be done using defensive driving courses and customer service skills gaps can be addressed with more training as well. However, understanding how to develop better training to hinder further skill gaps is critical for further development. Development of skills should be addressed References Clardy, A. (2013). A General Framework for Performance Management Systems: Structure, Design, and Analysis. Performance Improvement, 52(2), 5-15. doi:10.1002/pfi.21324 Schiemann, W. A. (2007). Aligning people. Leadership Excellence, 24(8), 20. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204619577?accountid=458 University of Berkley. (2014). Berkley HR. Retrieved from http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/about/philosophy/performance-management Yale.edu. (2010, July). Yale University’s Performance Management System. Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/hronline/focus/documents/2010JulyYALEPERFMGMNTGUIDERev6-7-10final.pdf