Performance evaluation is an essential practice in any organization. Performance evaluation helps an organization to know where it is, why, and what it needs to do to reach where it wanted based on its objectives. The approach to be followed in performance feedback session with James is essential in enhancing positive relationships besides ensuring that James is contended with the evaluation.
Because the method of performance evaluation is new, as a supervisor, I will have to structure my communication appropriately to ensure that I address every component at the right time employing professionalism. First, I would reiterate the importance of ensuring that there is balance between the corporate strategy and the personal goals of employees.
I will address the importance of providing the required deliverables to the employees, which will set the stage of our communication. There is the need to balance between the intention or the objectives of the business with the needs and interests of the customers (Case Study, 1999).
As the area supervisor, I will explain to James the reasons and the motives behind the introduction of customer satisfaction portion as one of the scorecards in the performance evaluation plan.
To foster our relationships and communication, the importance and the intention of rolling out this plan will be brought to the attention of James. For instance, the aim was to ensure that the organization is able to withstand the various possible challenges to ensure business sustainability in the long-term. A customer is a non-financial concern that companies are investing in to ensure that they retain a wider customer base.
Working in a competitive environment requires customers to be well treated and provided with high-class services to ensure that they remain loyal to the organization. After introducing and briefing him on the reasons for the implementation of customer satisfaction scorecard, I will then congratulate James on his hard work and achievements.
He has exemplified the qualities of a good manager by performing above par in almost all areas of finance and management to maintain position one in the area. His managerial skills are actually meticulous. He, despite working in the most difficult branch, managed to beat all ordeals of other managers in other branches, a sign of a person who is dedicated and hardworking. I will complement James on this performance.
After this, I will then discuss with him to find out what can be done to improve rating on customer satisfaction to move from ‘below par’ to ‘above par’. In discussing the issues, I will listen to him and acknowledge various issues that may have contributed to the low score. For instance, other factors such as technical problems with ATM machines and delays caused by system failure could have resulted to the low score.
Other reasons for the low rating could have included staying for long in queues. However, because James had performed well in the other quarters of years, I will focus on that area and relate it with his present performance. In the discussion, I will provide James with various strategies that he can use to ensure that customers’ ratings improve.
The fact that he has performed well to even ranked position one in the previous ratings demonstrates that he has the capability and potential of performing better in the area nonfinancial. Therefore, based on the previous performance, I will challenge him to put more efforts besides employing new strategies to record a high score.
After this, I will inform James that he falls in the par rating according to the requirements of the corporate strategy and criteria, as it exists currently. This information may appear harsh to James because he has always been rated above par always feeling good to be at the position. Therefore, to ensure that he does not view this as unfairness, I will acknowledge it and reiterate that the rating will have to remain.
The changing environment of contacting businesses is changing. For the organization to remain competitive in the end, customer relationship management has to be checked. Customers are the most important people in the organization who require a good treatment.
After recording a below par, the initiative that James introduced in his branch of assigning an employee to greet customers and welcome them in the bank and changing some of his employees was helpful in triggering positive change in customer services. Therefore, he should build this to come up with new strategies to enable the branch to record an improvement in its services.
The discussion will make James realize that, indeed, he needs to work extra hard in the non-financial area to record a positive performance besides achieving self-satisfaction in his duties. In summing up our conversation/discussion, as a supervisor, I will acknowledge the fact that organizations vary from one to another because they operate in different environments or situations.
For instance, the type of clientele may not be similar in all the branches. The level of competition and skills of employees may also differ. Therefore, it is imperative for these issues to be considered in the performance evaluation of managers in different locations to come up with a mechanism that will be fair to all managers. Some managers operate in difficult situations or circumstances (Kerr, 2009).
For instance, they handle customers with low levels of income, or may be working in an environment that is marred with a lot of competition from other rival organizations that offer the same services.
Therefore, I will draw to James’ attention that, for the coming years, I will propose other methods such as weighted scale that can be used to rate managers in different locations. This method may help to enhance fairness since some of the locations have unique elements that may give advantage or be of advantageous to other managers.
Assume that, because of your extraordinary performance in this course, Citibank California has employed you as a consultant to improve its performance evaluation system. Discuss what changes in their processes and procedures you would recommend.
As a new Citibank California consultant, I will institute various changes in the performance evaluation systems of the bank. The first change or area to change will be ensuring that managers and employees are rated fairly. To achieve this, I will change the rating method and adapt to weighting.
Weighting is an effective method to rate the level of performance of employers because it factors in various issues that characterize the working environment of an organization. Various branches operate in different situations and environments.
Therefore, they deal with different kinds of customers and clients. The needs and interests of these clients are different. Therefore, the managers experience different situations. Thus, regardless of any path that the branches will decide to follow, a customer relationship management should be inclusive. Customers from all the branches must be served well because they are the major contributors to the success of Citibank.
In the rating processes, the various circumstances that these managers face or are exposed to vary. Therefore, these will be considered in the whole process. For instance, some of the branch managers may have few customers and employees working under them. Their locations too may not be facing stiff competition. All these variables will be of great assistance to the process of rating.
There is no way a manager can be rated in accord with another manager working in a bank that has many client bases in a competitive climateenvironment. The two managers are exposed to different situations. Therefore, they apply different strategies to ensure that they succeed in their endeavors.
Even though they have different needs, the weighting will be based on such attributes to ensure that all managers and employees in the branches have equal measuring or evaluation standards. Another thing that I will do is to retain the independent survey process of customers by an outside investigator. The step is aimed at ensuring that the process is fair and achieves the best results.
Furthermore, it will avoid cases where managers and employees blame one another or the people who carried the survey because they will ensure that it is fair and free. The strategy of carrying out this evaluation will be different. The scores will be averaged for the whole years as opposed to quarterly, as it is done currently.
The reason behind this approach of evaluating performance is to ensure that those elements that are beyond the control of the banks are factored. In the course of the year, various issues that may happen in one month or quarter may have negative impacts on the ratings of the managers.
Therefore, by conducting evaluations on a yearly basis, it will ensure that the process is fair and just because such issues that could have derailed the process will be checked. Secondly, it will give managers enough time to implement their policies besides assessing whether they are working in line with their objectives and aims.
Therefore, the managers will have an opportunity to devise appropriate measures to handle different circumstances that may affect their smooth operations. Thirdly, yearly evaluations will enable customers to rate their customer services of banks appropriately. For instance, in a year, there are some occasions whereby the interest rates may go down for some time and recover after a while.
In such circumstances, many customers will not be happy with the bank’s services. Therefore, they will rate the services of the bank poorly. They will not consider or put in mind fluctuations in interest rates because of the economic situations. Rather, they will rush to such conclusions. Therefore, managers and employees may not be rated on fair grounds because such issues or factors are beyond their scope and control.
Therefore, to avoid such issues from occurring, evaluations should be done on a yearly basis since enough time is provided. Customers’ responses will be fair upon factoring in such issues because of the changes in interest rates. Finally, I will engage branch managers in the kind of surveys they should employ or use in performing their evaluations.
I will guide them on the various aspects the survey should contain, as well as the kind of representative questions that they should ask their customers. The questions may be scheduled for customers on their day-to-day experiences with the bank concerning how they felt about the bank operations. One important area that much attention will be given is on the customer relationship.
Managers will be trained on the significance or importance of customers and strategies that they should use to retain them. Therefore, many questions that they should include in their surveys should focus on the level of satisfaction of customers (Welch & Byrne, 2003). This will enable managers to know whether the customers are satisfied with the services they provide, and if they are wiling to come back and invest with the bank.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as a consultant of Citibank California, I will ensure these strategies work by working closely with various managers and giving them one-on-one advice and consultation services. The strategies in place concerning the way organizations need to relate with their customers matter a lot in the process of retaining them in the organizations.
There is the need for any organization to invest much in devising these strategies because, without a strong customer base, they are doomed to fail. As such, establishing a positive relationship is one of the key things that will enable this relationship to thrive.
In addition, communication has proved a working method of persuading the customers in an organization. Therefore, as a consultant, I will also invest in establishing positive relationships with various managers of various branches through effective communication.
Reference List
Case Study. (1999). Citibank: Performance Evaluation. Harvard: Harvard Business School.
Kerr, S. (2009).Reward systems. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Welch, J., & Byrne, J. (2003). Jack: Straight from the gut. New York: Business Plus.