Introduction
Managing people’s performance is an aspect that determines the prosperity of an organization. In this regard, management must be concerned about the allocation of roles among employees, determination of performance, and provision of solutions to problems of performance. This discussion will touch on the aspects that managers should consider when allocating duties, elaborate on the significance of developing KRAs and KPIs based on organizational objectives, and solve a case study facing an organization practically.
Aspects Considered during the Allocation of Work
Managers cannot randomly allocate work. When conducting this exercise, they must consider various critical aspects to get desirable results. In a nutshell, these aspects include organisational objectives, competence, operational needs, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and consultation. Essentially, these aspects are regarded as the main ones when it comes to drawing a work plan.
Organisational Objective
This is probably the most crucial consideration that managers and supervisors must consider. It is based on the premises that all undertakings of an organisation must be oriented to the goals of that organisation. This implies that all activities must contribute to a common objective as stipulated by the organisation (Keay 2011). In this regard, the allocation of work is not exempted from this requirement bearing in mind that it is a major organisational activity.
As a result, managers allocate work in accordance to what they want to achieve. In some cases, the organisations accomplish their objectives through projects. In this case, the allocation of work must be consistent with the goals of that project to attain the common organisational objective. Particularly, it helps the managers to determine how many people are required to complete the task and the ones who are relevant to the identified task.
This ensures that the quantity of the workforce is appropriately considered, and the quality of work is guaranteed. For example, if an organisation aspires to evaluate its historical performance, it could involve the stakeholders who have been in the company for a considerable time (Ngai and Pissarides 2011).
In this case, those people have the required history regarding company performance. Otherwise, involving stakeholders who have been in the company for a little time could lead to poor results since the players might not have substantial information.
Competence
Understandably, various people in an organisation have different levels of competencies according to their experience and academic level. This implies that their effectiveness varies according to their capabilities in terms of experience and professionalism. Also, people are competent in different areas of specialisation since they have diverse professional backgrounds. This means that each person could perform a task related to the area of specialisation in a better manner than others.
As a result, managers must consider people’s levels of competencies when they are allocating roles. This could ensure that each person is allocated the right role that s/he could execute effectively. The consequent effect is that the organisation does not waste any human resource leading to maximum output.
Operational Needs
Every project has processes as well as operations that should be undertaken to attain the goals of an organisation. Essentially, those processes require people with different skills to execute then effectively. Additionally, not all people could be involved in those projects since such skills are reserved by some employees only.
This implies that managers must consider the operational needs to select the right people for the given work. It is also clear that consideration of these needs is crucial when creating a work plan. This is based on the fact that a work plan requires managers to determine the operations, which will be involved, to allocate enough time to each activity and also choose people who could complete those chores within the required time.
Efficiency
Different organisational undertakings have set levels of efficiency needed during execution. Some activities need a high level of efficiency, while others could require moderate or low efficiency by the objectives stipulated. When allocating work and drawing a work-plan, managers could assign work, which requires high efficiency, to the extremely experienced employees.
On the other hand, work that requires low efficiency could be assigned to employees who do not have a lot of experience or academic skills. Also, when an organisation needs to maintain high efficiency, it could decide to set aside more time for that activity than the one allocated to undertakings that require low efficiency (Dupuy 2008).
Cost-Effectiveness
An organisation aims at maximising the income and reducing the cost. This implies that the allocation of work must be conducted in a manner that is sensitive to the cost of operation. In this case, the number of employees assigned to activity must be limited to the anticipated cost. Otherwise, the random allocation could raise the cost of operation due to increased wages. Also, the number of hours that are allotted to each activity must be regulated to ensure that the same cost is not beyond the income accruing from that work.
Consultation
In essence, consultation is one of the most important aspects of an organisation. Managers must consult the relevant arms of an organisation to make the right decisions when allocating work. In this regard, they have to consult related personnel, such as the head of human resources. This ensures that managers draw a work plan having full knowledge about the performance of those individuals.
As a result, the various roles are assigned to people with the required skills and experience. Otherwise, the lack of consultation could lead to the selection of people who have little effectiveness when it comes to executing the roles involved. Consultation is a fundamentally vital undertaking in managing people performance in an organisation.
Development of KRAs and KPIs that Meet Organisational Needs
Key Result Areas and Key Performance Indicators are tools used to assess the performance of an organisation. In this regard, these tools should be based on the needs of an organisation to maintain the focus of the company. Aligning the KRAs and KPIs to company needs has critical significance when managing people’s performance as elucidated below.
Develop and Implement Effective Performance Management Systems
As it was stated previously, all undertakings of a company must be oriented to the goals that have been stipulated. When KRAs and KPIs are oriented to the objectives of a company, it implies that performance could be measured alongside the goals stipulated by the organisation. As a result, employees’ performances are evaluated by those goals. This implies that the stipulated indicators do not assess performance on the basis that is not pertinent to the interest of that company.
Instead, it limits assessment to the interests of that organisation only. As a result, managing people becomes more effective since it is only interesting with the question of whether employees are meeting the needs of the company or not. Such a management system remains focused on the ideologies of the company rather than other aspects that are irrelevant to the organisation. The organisation thus attains a system that effectively manages people’s performance.
Code of Conduct for the Organisation
When the performance indicators and result areas are aligned to the needs of the company, they create a platform for developing a code of ethics and conduct. In this case, all employees understand that their performances will be determined by the degree to which they have satisfied the company’s needs. It also implies that employees’ relevance to the company is based on the needs of that company.
As a result, the indicators and result areas become pertinent tools that stipulate the conduct of employees in an organisation (Roberts 2009). This code of conduct does not only stipulate how employees should behave but also ensures that they work towards the objectives of the organisation. In another prospect, they ensure that the interests of all employees are harmonised such that people could be managed easily.
Monitoring and Evaluating the Work of Employees Regularly
Having chosen KRAs and KPIs that are consistent with organisational needs, it could be easy to evaluate people’s performance regularly since the indicators are within the key interests of the organisation. In this regard, the regular assessment could be enabled by the fact that KPIs and KRAs are time-phased if they have to coincide with the organisational needs.
The routine evaluation ensures that their performance and results are tracked in real-time. As a result, managers could determine whether the people involved are effective or not. Such determination can be used as the basis of making necessary changes during the work.
Effective Feedback and Reinforcement to Employees
The use of these tools also forms a platform for evaluation to give feedback on the performance at various points of operation. This feedback is then used to give reinforcement to employees where it is needed.
Also, it is used to acknowledge and compliment any recommendable progress that could be noted at the time of assessment. It could thus be concluded that these tools form the basis of determining the effectiveness of the players that are mandated to execute the work given (Shields 2007).
Manage Poor Performance
Use of KRAs and KPIs enables managers to identify and deal with poor performance. According to the results realised through the use of these two tools, managers could easily identify the people who are performing poorly in their work. This determination allows the organisation to rectify any afflictions that could be resulting in such performance. The rectification is based on the organisational needs that are not met by the employees in the process of executing their roles.
Understand the Organisation’s Termination Policy and Legislation
In essence, the use of the two key performance indicators helps managers to determine how employees are valid to their organisation. This also implies that they could be used to decide on whether an employee should continue working for the organisation or not. Also, an organisation could use the indicators to evaluate the economic validity of their existence in the market. This implies that the two tools form a platform for determining whether the company should remain in business or not.
Case Study
Problems
One of the most conspicuous problems identified in this case is unresponsiveness of the involved personnel. In this regard, it was reported that organisation X had reported poor delivery previously without improvement. However, this could also imply that the employee is incapable of solving the problem rather than reluctance.
In both cases, it means that the employee has poor communication skills since s/he has not reported any issues relating to the problem. In this case, the management has received a direct complaint from company x. This means that although it had been reported by that organisation, the management was not aware of the problem. This case has come to a point where the organisation threatens to withdraw the contract.
Additionally, if the employee is incapable of handling this role, it could imply that allocation of work has been done inappropriately, or proper training is lacking in the department. Lastly, the employee could be experiencing insufficient support from the departments that are involved in processing the orders.
Solutions
First, I could discuss with the person involved in the processing the orders. This could ensure that I get the root course of the problem to determine whether they are merely unresponsive or incapable. The second step could involve the identification of various courses of action and then choose the best. In this regard, if the employee is incapable of executing the assigned roles, more training would be carried out to add more skills to the person involved.
On the other hand, if the person has the right skills, but reluctant to the roles that have been assigned by the organisation’s management, a warning could be launched against the employee. If, in any case, the situation does not improve the employee reshuffling could be done in the department such that the person is moved to another section. In essence, this could even involve a demotion in severe cases or interdiction in case of extreme misconduct of the employee.
Conclusion
Various aspects should be considered when allocating work. These include factors such as competence, goals, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency, among others that have been discussed above. Also, the use of KRAs and KPIs helps in creating effective management systems and eliminating poor performance. Lastly, it has been elucidated that discussing with the tardy team member could be the most important step in light of providing the solution to the problems facing the organisation in the case study.
References
Dupuy, P 2008, NGOs in International Law: Efficiency in Flexibility, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK.
Keay, A 2011, The Corporate Objective, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, U.K.
Ngai, L & Pissarides, C 2011, Taxes, Social Subsidies and the Allocation of Work Time. Centre for Economic Policy Research, London.
Roberts, J 2009, Youth Work Ethics, Learning Matters, Exeter.
Shields, J 2007, Managing Employee Performance and Reward Concepts, Practices, Strategies, Cambridge University Press, Leiden.