Criteria 3: People
One of the most valuable assets of an organization is its people. They are the ones who cause the existence of an organization.
People resources are planned and managed and improved.
In practice, people in excellent organizations:
- Have a detailed job analysis for the people to be employed. The job analysis details the job description.
- Plan for manpower which involves forecasting human resources
- Match the human resource supply with the demand. Company future demand and internal supply, manager are able to know if they are predict any shortfall or overstaff.
- On recruitment of employees they are oriented to the organization. This is done through the induction process.
- Develop people on the technical and operational skills they need for the job.
- Maintain people through effective compensation, benefits and career planning.
Strengths
People’s knowledge and competencies are identified developed and sustained
In practice, excellent organizations
- Develop talent pools. This is achieved by organizing seasonal written and oral tests to identify areas of individual strength.
- They develop succession plans by grooming direct reports to take over from current managers this avoids there being gaps in case of retirement, transfer or staff leaving the organization
- Fund personal development programmes for employees for instance post graduate or doctorate courses.
People are involved and empowered
In practice, excellent organizations
- Democratize the decision-making processes. In so doing employees identify with goals and aspirations of the organization since they were involved in their development.
- They acknowledge and award staff contribution that has brought success to the organization
- Share in the profits of the organization during good years. In so doing employees feel part and parcel of the organization during times of losses and profits.
- Management is not by red tape. People are encouraged to be their own managers. This empowers them to make informed decisions and encourage innovation (Jackson 2001).
Strengths
Site visit
People and the organization have a dialogue
In practice, excellent organizations:
- Have developed employee engagement appraisals and take appropriate action to address concerns raised in their feedback.
- Have organize forums which provide a plat from for employees to discuss issues of concern with heads of various departments within the organization
- Have social events for the employees for example family fun days where employees can interact and few that they are part of the bigger family.
- Provide avenues within the organization through which employees can raise issues without fear of being reprimanded.
Strengths
Site Visits
People are rewarded, recognized and cared for
In practice, excellent organizations:
- Employees share in both successes and failures of the organization. Success of an organization is not credited to the top management only
- Hold annual event to recognize the efforts made by employees. Those who excel in various fields are awarded. This fosters the spirit of healthy competition.
- Provide cover for instance insurance or medical cover for its employees.
- Give incentives in the form of bonuses to its employees.
- Provide personal development programmes. The company subsidizes employees willing to advance their education.
Strengths
Areas of improvement
The organization should seek to align its goals with those of the employees. Goal congruence allows the organization to move in one direction. to this end employees should be incorporated in the decision making process of the organization (Stahr et al. 2000)
Criteria: 7 People Results
Perception measures
Perception is basically the opinion of an individual or group.
In practice, excellent organizations
- Have well laid out Perception measures for people results. These include job security, empowerment, opportunity to learn, recognition and work environment.
- Use these measures to develop people skills and improve on the organization.
Strengths
Areas of improvement
Review organizational policies to be more result oriented. This will put emphasis on time, accuracy and integrity of outcomes.
Performance indicators
Leading organizations:
- Ensure that they plan, prioritize and implement effective performance Measure regularly.
- Providing learning opportunities.
- Benchmark against the best in practice or best in class.
Strengths
Areas of improvement
Performance indicators with respect to people in the organization may include perfect competency mapping, involvement in improvement schemes, accident levels, absenteeism, and recognition of individuals and teams work. Comparison should not only be made on the best in practice but aim to set the highest level of performance
Assessment and methodology
To assess the company, we will focus on four areas of key concern. This involves the customer, internal processes, innovation, learning, and the financial aspect. We have to know what the existing and the new customers want from the firm. The target areas will cover cost quality, time, reliability, inspection and testing. The internal processes need to active the expected customer and financial requirements.
It may involve empowering employees and flexible decision making. The need for continuous improvement is key (Niven 2006). Any new technology should be harnessed to benefit the firm. This will aid in new product development to add value to the customers. The financial issue will be of concern mostly to stakeholders. The trends on growth and profitability have to be assessed in order to gauge the value that the company gets from this endeavor (Basque Health Service 2001).
Difficulties encountered during the assessment work
It may hard to establish the starting point in the assessment especially for someone who may find the assessing methodology complicated. This may slow down the initial assessment stage. Lack of commitment and enthusiasm by top management may lead to minimal effort assigned to give results. This may mean the results may not reflect in the future plans of the organization. The firm may lack an integrated management system leading to conflicting results.
Results (people satisfaction)
Strengths of the company
One of the key assets of an organization is people. Investing in training of employees gives them the motivation to work more. A delighted informed work force will give better output for the organization. The training should not be for top management only. The middle level managers and other staff should have access to development programs. Employees should be empowered at work in areas of decision making. This will ring out the innovative aspect in the organization. Authoritative leadership tends to hamper participation. Rewards can act as motivators for employees to work towards the set goals. This encourages competition. In so doing, job satisfaction is achieved. Promotions can serve to reward good performance. This will enable employees achieve their self-actualization needs in time.
Scoring Radar Template
Areas of assessment
Five aspects of performance will be assessed to understand the results. The trends that have been observed overtime. For instance, what is the employee turnover trends? In case they are positive, that is good for the organization. The second aspect is the targets. It will be good if the targets are exceeded. On comparison with other best in class the employees should be ranked the best. The assessment should cover all areas in the organization.
Difficulties encountered
On assessment one issue that may arise may be the cultural differences and dealing with a diverse workforce or people. At times people may have high expectations and rating them very low may cause changes in attitude. People may not see the need to document results which may make it had to obtain data for comparison. This may lead to the analysis being based on few aspects (Butler et al. 2000).
This may lead to bias or the halo effect. Everything is connected to everything else’. A precise portrayal of strategy execution has to be viewed in the full palette of perspectives. This involves developing a balanced scorecard as indicated about through the RADAR methodology. In essence, the customer, internal processes, employee learning and growth, and country economic condition have to be effectively factored in. The call for this inclusion calls for a level of complicatedness and requires expertise which may not be endowed by every assessor in context.
References
Basque Health Service (2001), Guide for the Assessment and Improvement of the People Satisfaction in Health Care Organizations, (Spanish and Basque). Vitoria: Basque Health Service.
Butler, A, Letza SR, & Neale BM, and Bourne, P 2000, Understanding the Balanced Scorecard in a Week, Hodder & Stoughton, UK, Olve.
Jackson S, 2001, Using the EFQM Excellence Model in Health Care: A Practical Guide to Success, United Kingdom: Kingsham Press.
Niven PR 2006, Balanced scorecard step by step: maximizing performance and maintaining results 2 edn. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, pp. 1-30.
Stahr H, Bulman B, & Stead M 2000, The Excellence Model in the Health Sector: Sharing Good Practice. United Kingdom: Kingsham Press.