Company Background
Discuss about the Employee Engagement And Their Impact On Employee Performance.
Every organisation undergoes certain issues that deal with the managerial perspective and the cooperation of the employees. This includes identifying the issues that lead to the poor performance of the employees. Hence, certain methods needed to be adopted that provides a solution to mitigate these issues. Solutions such as providing training and development to the employees and conducting appraisal on a regular basis need to be adopted by organisations. The purpose of the report is to identify performance problems that are faced by an organisation and the manner in which it can affect the company. The method of providing training and development to the employees are analysed in the report by keeping in mind the factors that affect such issues. For the purpose of the report, Foodstuff has been chosen so that a better application of the issues can be made.
Foodstuff Ltd is a group that comprises of two companies of New Zealand. These include a liquor and grocery store situated in the country (Foodstuffs.co.nz, 2018). The company was initially introduced in Auckland and since then have developed itself in areas across Wellington and the Southern Islands of the country. Foodstuff controls an estimate of about 52% of the NewZealand market. It also owns certain other retail franchise such as the Four Square, New World and Pak n Shave.
Foodstuff is a retail industry set up in 1922 in three parts of New Zealand. This includes stores in Auckland, Wellington and in the South Island. Currently, the company have over 1700 employees in the country (Foodstuffs.co.nz, 2018). It serves retail food products as well as services for the welfare of the people in New Zealand. The three stress in New Zealand work in a cooperative manner for serving food to the people.
The vision of Foodstuff is to become the best brand of retail food supplier in New Zealand. The company works hard for attaining this vision as this can help in the growth and create opportunities to develop the employees.
The mission of Foodstuff is to improve the health of the people by introducing widely available fresh products (Foodstuffs.co.nz, 2018). This can help the company to continue its production using variety of products so that the customers can be satisfied.
Foodstuff follows a hierarchical organisational framework that helps in maintaining the communication with the HR department. The HR department of the company dictates the decisions taken regarding maintaining effective performance in the organisation (Foodstuffs.co.nz, 2018). Thereby every decision taken by the manager are aligned with the interest of the company.
Nature of the Business
Foodstuff not only serves products to the common people but also provides services that include maintaining coordination with the people and national activities. As such, the target market of the company includes the common people residing in New Zealand (Foodstuffs.co.nz, 2018). The fact that the company sells items that are required for daily life of the people contributes to the opportunity of becoming the best retail food chain in New Zealand.
Employee performance problem is one of the major things that exist in the companies. In most of the times, it is seen that due to the poor performance of the employees, organisations cannot maintain proper productivity (Shields et al., 2015). This can cause huge loss for the organisations in the quest for maintaining quality and performance in the organisations. At the same time, it becomes the duty of the managers to ensure that the quality of the employees is enhanced by undertaking certain policies. In this regard, it can be said that three such performance problems of employees can be analysed that may affect the progress of Foodstuff. These include:
Lack of knowledge about the job: According to Anitha (2014), some employees in the organisation do not have any knowledge about the job that they are doing in the organisation. This includes failure to understand the proper job role assigned to them. Such problems may occur in any of the departments of an organisation. In the case of Foodstuff, the company the lack of knowledge about the job occurs because the managers fail to communicate the strategies with the employees. As stated by Cascio (2018) managers need to set standards so that the employees can have a clear idea about the type of work that is expected from them. In Foodstuff, the employees remain confused about the position in which they have to report and in the branch, they have to visit. This may cause problems for the employees, as it remains unclear about the job role and the expectations of the company. Thus, this is considered as one of the major challenges that are faced by Foodstuff.
Overconfidence of the people: The employees working for an organisation often feel that they are the best in the business. According to Jenter and Kanaan (2015), such overconfidence may be because of the amount of appreciation received by the employees and the manner in which they imply themselves in the organisations. Overconfidence may often be the downfall of individuals and organisations. The other triggering factor for this type of behaviour is the fact that new recruits look up to the senior people for guidance. This increases the overconfidence among the people and they end up becoming more overconfident. In the case of Foodstuff, the company possess such people that lack proper motivation to remain humble in the organisation. The employees feel that they are above the rest and this is one factor that is considered as a negative attitude with respect to the culture of the company. Goleman (2017) stated that leadership of the management could help in mitigating the particular issue that exists in Foodstuff.
Organizational Culture
Lack of reward: As stated by Hodge (2018) motivation is one of the biggest factors that ensure that employees remain loyal to an organisation. Motivation helps employees to feel rewarded for the effort that they have put in the company. Thus, this is an important aspect of the progress of an organisation as rewarding good performances triggers satisfaction among the employees. However, rewarding of employees that do not perform well may cause de-motivation to the people that work (Othman et al., 2018). In the case of Foodstuff, the manager rewards all the employees that are involved with the organisation. However, this creates a conflict situation as the reward is obtained for performing as well as underperforming. Thus, the employees with a good performance feel de-motivated, as technically the performance gets unnoticed (Armstrong et al., 2015). This is considered as another example of the performance problem that is faced by the managers of Foodstuff. The analysis shows that the employee performance problem lies in the sales department of the organisation, as the performance of the employees is evaluated keeping in mind the number of sales made by the employees. Mone and London (2018) stated that the best manner in which these issues can be solved is by conducting a performance appraisal after a gap of 3 months.
Performance appraisal is done in order to document the job of the employees and evaluate it based on the performance of the employees. Performance appraisal can be done by using a wide range of methods that act as evaluation tools, for the managing the performance. Some of the most common methods of performance appraisal include critical incident technique, management by Objectives, Pairwise comparison and 360-degree feedback (Huang et al., 2016). In the case of Foodstuff, the company can use the management by Objective method to ensure that the performance of the employees is evaluated in a proper manner. According to Albrecht et al. (2015), Management by Objective (MBO), is a process that was formulated by Peter Drucker. MBO helps managers evaluate the performance of the employees based on the results that they have obtained after working for a limited period. This is considered as a systematic process that allows employers to evaluate the performance of the employees based on the objectives that were provided to them. In this process, managers provide objectives to employees and provided full freedom to achieve it rather than directing them about ways to achieve the objectives (Mone and London 2018).
Organizational Structure
To conduct an effective performance appraisal it is necessary that the managers of Foodstuff undertake certain steps. Performance appraisal needs to be conducted after establishing performance expectations and standards, providing regular feedback, measuring the actual performance and comparing actual performance with standards. After all these, a corrective measure can be framed so that the managers can motivate the employees and ensure that they provide productive work for the company (Breevaart et al., 2014). Hence, the data that is needed to be collected for conducting a performance appraisal is the record of the employees of both its past performance and its current performance.
In the case of Foodstuff, the company can conduct a performance appraisal following the management by Objectives method after a three-month interval basis. This can help the managers analyse the work of the employees after a short time in the organisation. As monthly targets are set, it can be easy for the managers to conduct the performance appraisal based on completing objectives can help the employees achieve their personal as well as organisational goals (Armstrong et al., 2015).
The performance appraisal of the employees can help in motivating them and ensure that work performance is improved. However, as stated by Saks and Gruman (2014) the performance appraisal of the employees are done after an employee is made permanent in the organisation and have worked for at least six months. In order to ensure that the work performance of the employees is conducted in a proper manner training of the employees is required. During the training, it is needed that the employees be given a proper briefing on the type of job that they need to conduct along with the job description. This can help in reducing the first issue that has been identified in the report for the employees of Foodstuff. As stated by Bell et al. (2017) training can be provided either while the job is being performed or before the job. Either way, employees can be provided with the knowledge about the manner in which jobs need to be done in the organisation.
Hence, to ensure that the employees of Foodstuff enhance the performance of work, it is needed that the managers of the company formulate a training method that is comprehensive and help employees to enhance their performance in the organisation. The steps involved in the training programme include:
Perform a training needs assessment: To ensure that the need for training is assessed, it is necessary for the managers of Foodstuff to ensure that a clear business goal is set. In this case, the mission and vision of the company can act as the goal of the company. Hence, the training needs can be analysed by understanding the organisational requirement and the requirement of the employees.
Products and Target Market
Determine the tasks needed to be performed: Pollock, Jefferson and Wick (2015) stated that the task that is to be conducted by the employees need to be determined so that training can be provided based on that particular task. The task needs to be determined based on the skills of the employees and the manner in which they can apply it to the goodwill of the organisation. In the case of Foodstuff, the company need to ensure that the training is provided on the method of selling the products and the manner in which customers are to be treated.
Determine the activities to be conducted: The training activities need to be conducted based on the requirement of the employees. Foodstuff needs to analyse the weakness of the employees and ensure that the training session is focused on the weakness identified. In this case, the major weakness of the employees is the fact that they are not aware of the job role assigned to them. Hence, the training activity that is needed to be conducted needed to include the induction of the job of the employees.
Determine the personality and the characteristics of the employees: As stated by Ford (2014) the characteristic of an individual plays a vital role in allocating workload on the person. Managers need to determine the character of an employee so that they can allocate the correct job that is needed to for the post. This includes the personality of the employees and the workload that can be provided to the people. In the case of Foodstuff, the managers need to analyse the characteristic of the employees so that they do not get the wrong task. This can help in addressing the attitude shown by the employees after doing good work.
Develop learning objectives: According to Ayeleke et al. (2016), learning objectives need to be developed in a manner so that the employees have an idea about the things that are needed to be done by them. This includes the expectations of the employees and the manner in which they can execute the work by focusing on it in an objective manner. According to Wilson (2014), the learning objectives can be considered as an end-all and be-all of the training program formulated by the managers. For Foodstuff, the learning objective is important so that the employees can set up objectives while conducting the task in a proper manner.
Design and develop the training methods: As observed by Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2015) the development of the training design is based on the resources of an organisation and the financial capability it possesses for the development of the training process. In the case of Foodstuff, the training design and development need to be done in a way that highlights the effectiveness with which the employees can conduct the work. The development of the training method needs to focus on the skills required to be enhanced in an employee. For example, training method in terms of handling the grievances of the customers is a necessity for Foodstuff.
Explaining Three Major Employee Performance Problems
Thus, it can be said that after understanding the need for the training of the employee, it needs to be seen that the training method addresses the organisational goals. Hence, an organisational analysis needs to be conducted so that it meets the needs of the organisation. Wilson (2014) pointed out the fact that task analysis and person analysis need to be done during the various stages that are involved with the training of the employees. In the case of Foodstuff, the mission of the company need to be analysed and the task of the employees working in sales department needs to be addressed so that the training can be provided in an effective manner. The person analysis can help the organisation; understand the characteristic of the employees. Clarke and Higgs (2016) stated that the three analyses required for providing training are important for the organisations and the manner in which the employees can apply the skills in the organisations.
Fitzgerald (2014) is of the opinion that training is generally provided to the employee that is newly appointed in the organisation or to the employees that are underperforming. In the case of Foodstuff, both types of employees exist hence, the training need to be provided to both the type of employees. Thus, the target trainees for Foodstuff can be determined by conducting a performance appraisal of the company. In this regard, the resources required for conducting the training and the arrangements for conducting the training need to be formulated. For Foodstuff, the training can be provided on the job so that every employee understand the practical implication of the method that is being provided to them. It can help in reducing the cost of the training and thereby provide employees with an opportunity to gain experience. The delivery of the training needs to be done by experienced workers and a separate training officer so that effective training can be conducted in the organisation.
The training provided to the employees of Foodstuff can be done within the premises of the company. The training can be provided during a holiday so that productivity of the company is not lost. The objective of the training is to ensure that every member of the organisation is equally aware of the duties that they need to perform and the roles that are assigned to them. During the training programme, the managers can provide a detailed analysis of the scenario that is expected from the employees and the manner in which they can achieve it.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that organisations need to keep in mind about the effective manner in which performance can be managed in a workplace. The development of training method needs to be done based on the work performed by the employees and the performance of the organisation as a whole. Hence, it can be said that an evaluation is required to access the effectiveness of the training methods. The effectiveness of the training methods needs to be done by keeping in mind the improvement of the employees. This can be done by monitoring the work of the employees after the completion of the training methodology. In the case of Foodstuff, such training is required so that the company can expand in the international markets. The training method needs to be designed and developed so that it can help the employees as well as the employers.
The three issues identified by the company in the case of the employees provide an overview of the manner in which the performance of the company can be improved. The stakeholders involved for the company such as the customers, employees and shareholders need to be involved in conducting the performance appraisal for the company. This can help the company to develop a proper monitoring system of the employees so that the performances can be enhanced. Managing the sales department can be critical as the objective need to be set in a manner that highlights the goals of the organisations as well. Therefore, for a company like Foodstuff it is essential that the sales department of the organisation be evaluated properly to ensure that the company does not face complications in the department.
Hence, it can be recommended that to manage solutions need to be developed by the managers of Foodstuff so that it can help in addressing the problems associated with the employees. For example, the managers need to provide a proper description of the work that is expected from the employees and the manner in which it needs to be done. This can help the employees to understand the exact roles that are expected from them and likewise they can plan ways to achieve the objectives. Policies can be written down that highlights the organisational goals and the job roles of each employee in the departments. The ethical policies regarding bullying or shirking of work can be written down so that employees can be aware of the punishments that they may receive for violating the code. The experienced employees can be given a bigger role so that they can be kept under a monitor. This can prevent the employees from being too overconfident about their position in the organisation and in the department. It can also help the experienced employees gain a good appraisal that can enhance their opportunities to become leaders in the organisation after a certain time. At the same time, it is also essential to ensure that the managers motivate the employees so that effective performance can be obtained from them.
Reference
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