Improving Organisational and Employee Performance - Term Paper Example

IMPROVING ORGANISATIONAL AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE By Location Improving organisational and employee performance Introduction For a business organization with the aim of remaining competitive, there is always room for improvement in terms of organizational and employee performance. The need to improve productivity and performance has emerged to be one of the most essential things in the modern business environment. When employees are completely and creatively engaged in a business organization will have a superior performance in the market. The main challenge in improving organizational and employee performance is finding ways through which an organization maximizes engagement, retention, commitment, and overall satisfaction of their employees. Knowledge of employees’ abilities and strengths might prove to be an important factor in bringing out the best from an organization’s workforce. This paper aims at exploring and evaluating what strategies, practices, and models that can be implemented in effectively managing organizational and employee performance. Discussion One of the ways through which a company can enhance the performance of their employees is through recognition. This is very effective because it always makes employees feel appreciated. There is nothing as motivating as the feeling that an individual is part of a team and that they are appreciated members of the teams which they belong to. Research has proved that employees with satisfaction with the level to which they are appreciated by the organizations they work for can be up to four times more motivated as compared to those who are not appreciated at all (Van Knippenberg 2000, p. 366). Ways through which a company can show recognition of their employees include verbal gratitude, involvement in decision making, training, giving the time off, acknowledging birthdays, organizing celebrations, acknowledge individuals and teams at staff meetings (Crossman & Abou-Zaki 2003, p. 376). However, companies such as The Boston Consulting Group, whose competitiveness is based on their affordability, have always had a hard time motivating their employees. However, other businesses such as Audi supermarket have minimized their expenditure in motivation through using rewarding through on-job training by the more experienced staff. A company might also benefit by making working for them as exciting as possible. Statistics has it that many employees would prefer working in an environment that is challenging, fun, and interesting. In fact, some people will prefer such an environment over a company that pays more. Excitement can be contributed to the feeling that they have accomplished and that the time that they spend at the company is worthwhile (Paauwe & Boselie 2005, p. 77). It has been observed that employees are always more excited in an environment where they learn new things regularly and face new challenges on a regular basis. Another way through which a business organization can make sure that they enhance excitement among their employees is by making sure that their employees can work with autonomy. However, the main challenge associated to developing an exciting working environment is the extent to which a business organization should go in order to develop an exciting working environment (Fox 2006, p. 101). Some business cultures and strategies make it very hard for business organizations to make working interest. For instance, DPR Construction has a strategy that aim at maximizing its productivity through maximizing employee daily input. Job security is something that every employee always dreams of. It is of benefit for employees to have the feeling that they have a future at the organization they work for. It is through job security that an employee can give their maximum dedication and contribution to a business organization (Murray, Poole & Jones 2005, p. 123). There is a very close relationship between employee satisfaction and the level of trust that employees have to an organization’s management. Therefore, earning the trusts of employees should be one of the primary goals of a management team. When employees have the feeling that they will have their jobs, then, they would give all their attention to improving the organization that they work for (Houldsworth & Jirasinghe 2006, p. 111). Job security makes employees feel like a part of the organization, thus improving the organization would be like improving themselves. However, organizations should be careful not to have over assured employee since that might lead to lack of hunger for improvement and development.For instance, employees at Genentech were observed to do much better when they were told that their performances will be reviewed and the result would determine their future at the company given the sudden increase in production cost. There is nothing that motivates employees like fair compensation for their services. The key word in this case is fair. There is nothing as frustrating for an employee as the feeling that the complementation that one is given does not match their level of productivity. Many business organizations have gambled with compensation the main reason being that they want to minimize their production cost, thus increase their net income (Callaway 2007, p. 201). However, the effects of such activities are only short-term. One thing that should always be taken into consideration is the fact that employees are the people who interact with the customers of a company on an individual level. Therefore, it can be concluded that they are the face of the company. Happy employees will definitely lead to happy customers. When employees feel that they are not fairly compensated, they often tend to work with laxity and minimal commitment (Saiyadain 2003, p. 167). For the sake of long-term stability and performance, it is always prudent for a company to consider fairly compensating its employees. Everyone wants their careers to grow. One way through which employees can ensure that their careers develop is by developing their skills and abilities. Therefore, it will be beneficial for a businessorganization if they consider helping their employees in improving and developing their skills. Giving an employee a chance to develop their skills does not only benefit the employee and their career, but the organization too (Kangis, Gordon & Williams 2000, p. 534). When employees are equipped with better skills, they are able to be of many benefits to a business organization. With enhanced skills, employees are able to be of higher productivity levels. When employees are more productive, the organizations will also be more productive, thus more profitable. As employees will be developing their personal career, the company can also pride of having improved their human resources (Griffin, Neal & Parker 2007, p.333). Some of the training also enhances leadership qualities and teamwork abilities making such employees of high benefit to their colleagues once they are back fromtraining programs (Riketta 2008, p. 212). However, some companies usually have a hard time in deciding factors such as selection criteria and frequency of training. Given that Edward Jones works with a fixed number of employees with everyone being given specific responsibilities, they have always had a rough time when sending employees away since there would be overstraining by the remaining employees. Communication is something of high importance is a business organization. As a HR director, it is always important to make sure that employees in the organization are aware of the expectations that the organization has of them. It is also of importance for the employees to know that the organization expects high levels of accountability from them (Stiffler 2006, p. 109). Despite the fact that an organization should have a common goal, every employee should have an individual goal which entails, how they are supposed to contribution to the common goal. This can be achieved by ensuring that every team is given certain responsibility and that there is a healthy and conducive working relationship between the teams in the organization (Rettab, Brik & Mellahi 2009, p. 383). This is the only means through which anorganization can be able to attain maximum productivity from their human resource. Managing organizational and employee performance should not be entirely based on the employees. A human resource director should be able to monitor and evaluate the performance of employees within an organization. For instance, a company can consider using annual written appraisals to help employees in knowing areas where they have been doing well and those areas where they are supposed to improve in (Aquinas 2006, p. 212). Involving employees in self-evaluation processes can also serve the same purpose. Such activities can be used in identification of the employees who need and deserve to be taken through skill enhancement programs. The same activities can be beneficial in determining whether or not employees benefit from the skill enhancement programs (Rudman 2003, p. 171). A HR manager should also seek feedback from the employees on issues that they think that the business organization can improve. However, the main challenge in employee feedback is that some might be inaccurate and cannot be acted upon unless the business organization wants to alter their strategy. In the modern business environment, innovation has proved to be something of high importance. When employees are more engaged, they have a higher probability of becoming innovative. A business organization should strive to give their employees the freedom that is needed to practice their creativity. Through innovation, a business organization can be able to realize new methods of doing things (Kuvaas & Dysvik 2009, p. 109). Innovation also makes a business organization more competitive as they can be able to offer things that none of their competitors offer. However, in giving employees freedom, business organizations should be careful not to give their employees too much freedom. For instance, a company can make sure that they develop good communication channels between the management and the other employees so that the employees can communicate any innovative ideas that they might have (Bowles& Cooper 2009, p. 222). This will pave way for innovation, while at the same time limiting abuse of freedom as employees will have to get through the management for them to act on any of their innovative ideas. In modern businesses, teamwork usually goes a long way as compared to individual brilliance. A company might have a number of skilled and experienced. However, if a businessorganization does not have a way through which they can make individuals work as a single unit, then, they might not get the best from their employees. One of the main challenges of teamwork in workplaces is diversity. Due to the increase in globalization, business organizations usually find themselves in a scenario where they have to employ people with diverse cultures, beliefs, religions, capabilities, and shortcomings (Kaila 2006, p. 199). Diversity of this kind might make it hard for people to work together as a single unit. Given the changing nature of the labor market in the modern world it would be impractical for a business organization to expect to employ employees with the same cultures, beliefs, religions, capabilities, and shortcomings (Pace 2002, p. 163). Therefore, a human resource manager must make sure that they create a conducive environment that allows teamwork and accommodation of diverse employees. However, at companies suchasThe Boston Consulting Group individual brilliance might be more significant. Communication in a business organization should be a two-way thing. A business organization should develop a communication system that encourages communication in both directions. In most cases, employees are the people who are on the ground. Therefore, there might be a high possibility that they are likely to be the first people to notice when things are not right within the organization (Edgar & Geare 2005, p. 545). Therefore, a business organization should make sure that their employees feel that their feedback is valid. The best way through which a business organization can achieve such an environment is by acting on the feedback that they get from their employees. Before acting on such feedback, it is important for the management to communicate how they intend to respond to the feedback (Amos 2008, p. 154). This will mean that the employees will feel that they are actively involved in the decision-making process in the organization. This will lead to satisfaction and loyalty of employees. Collective problem-solving is something that has been ignored by many human resource managers. There is no way that a person can be able to solve the problems that affect employees in an organization without involving the employees. If in any case they are the ones who know exactly the problems that face them. In solving problems that involve many people with multiple perceptions, it is always not easy to find a solution with a single perception of the problem. The proposed solution might not be a lasting one (Griffin & Moorhead 2010, p. 107). Involvement of employees in problem-solving processes can also be used strategically to make the employees own the decisions that are made. When employees own such decisions, they will not blame their failure of the proposed solutions on the human resource manager. They will be willing to take collective responsibility of the failed solutions (Muthuveloo & Rose, 2005, p. 1078). Therefore, they will also be willing to go back to the drawing board for more lasting solutions. Conclusion It is clearly evident that effective management of organizational and employee performance is of high importance to business organizations. Human beings are resources that can only be of perfect benefit to business organizations if they are properly managed. As seen through this paper, there are various things that can be done to enhance organizational and employee performance. However, it is notable that all these strategies, practices, and models can only be effective if they are undertaken diligently with every detail being taken into consideration (Paauwe, Guest & Wright 2013, p. 472). It should also be noticed that different strategies, practices, and models that are discussed herein can only be beneficial if they are done harmoniously with each other.it should also be noted that organizational culture will be of high influence to strategies, practices, and models that are applicable to a business organizations (Purcell 2007, p. 106). Therefore, a thorough review of an organization’s culture should be done before settling for the models, practices, or strategies discussed herein. Bibliography Amos, T 2008, Human resource management, Juta, Wetton, Cape Town. Aquinas, PG 2006, Orgnisational behaviour: concepts realities applications and challenges, Excel Books, New Delhi. Bowles, D & Cooper, CL 2009, Employee morale driving performance in challenging times, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=474863. 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