Human Resource Management

Performance Appraisals

Performance appraisal is a process by which organizations are able to continually assess work of individual employees (Neely, 2002). It is crucial for every organization in order to be able determine the direction in terms of meeting the expected performance. In an organization, managers are responsible to make sure that the set goals are met, however, they do not operate separately from all other spheres of a company. This implies that they should take upon themselves to control all the activities of an organization. There is a lot of motivation that comes together with job responsibility; in fact, assigning more responsibilities is one of the best ways to make a person work better. For most supervisors, the feeling that they are in control makes them produce the best results. A manager, being at the top of the organization, still cannot be able to have all the information on what is happening. A person, who is very well acquitted with the information on the ground, is the supervisor and, thus, he/she is the best person to handle situations.

Personal Experience

I once worked as an intern in an international organization, where our performance was reviewed at the end of every week by our supervisors. The importance of the process was that one was able to continually improve his/her performance. It would also enable the supervisor to know what one needed to be trained on, in order to perform his/her duties in accordance with the set standards. The other important factor was that one was be able to explain to the supervisor where at times machines needed to be rectified.

Importance of Measuring Performance

Measuring performance goes hand in hand with organization’s development and employees, at the same time. It helps employees to know whether there exists a performance gap and how they can improve it (Neely, 2002). It also ensures that the organization is able to establish why there is a shortfall in the level of expected performance. At times the shortfall might have been caused by factors within the organization, such as machine failures, system failures or other factors. The organization is, thus, able to put into place corrective measures to improve the organization’s performance. Organization is also able to establish the training needs for the employees in order to develop their skills.

Performance Measurement

Actions that Can be Taken in Case of a Power Black Out

In the scenario of a power blackout, the first and most important thing is to ensure that the alternative power source is working. In fact, for most organizations, the alternative power source should be set in a way that it automatically switches on, as soon as there is a power blackout. The second thing is to ensure that the alternative power source is intact and it can run for a longer period of time. In case of a generator, one needs to ensure that it has enough fuel and also there is a reserve to sustain it for some time. The other thing is to enquire on what was the source of the blackout, in order to take the necessary actions. In case the source of the blackout was an electrical failure, one should work to make sure that the concerned power supplier can restore the problem.

Pros and Cons of Having Several Measures of Performance

Some organizations will have several ways to evaluate how their employees perform (Houldsworth & Jirasinghe, 2006). In other organizations, the employees are assessed based on single yardstick. The advantage of having several measures of performance is that it provides a broad scope in evaluation of performance. This will imply that the results arrived and are more accurate and reliable, since it is backed up by a lot of material facts. The shortcoming of this would, however, be the fact that it might end up to be a very expensive process. At times, the results of these several measures can be confusing, since a single employee could yield differing results in each and every measure taken. The advantage of a single measure of performance is that it is able to remain objective to the subject matter. The focus on a single factor can, however, lead to incomplete feedback which would mean that the reliability of the results would be questionable.

An Opinion on the Best Measure of Performance

In my opinion, a combination of question of quality and quantity of the work done could be the best way of assessing performance. The focus on the results only might neglect the process itself and could lead to biasness (Houldsworth & Jirasinghe, 2006). The quantity and quality could go hand in hand to help in identifying and improving the machines and the used system. Again, it can be instrumental in coming up with the training requirements for the organization’s employees.

Training Effectiveness

The Southwest mode of training is not badly off, since it attempts to improve the organization performance. Focusing on improving organization performance also goes hand in hand with improving the skills of employees. The employees are the heart of an organization, since without them the organization cannot function. The machines themselves cannot function without the human input. The principle rule should be that the focus of training should focus on employees who will lead to better performance of the organization.

A Comparison of Different Training Methods

Presentations: This is a method of training, whereby an expert takes the employees through the training, using the training requirements manual (Neely, 2002). The trainer is mostly an expert who uses the skills possessed to inculcate the relevant training needs through presentations to the employee. Most of the trainers will use PowerPoint presentation to give illustrations on the training needs.

Case studies: Here the main focus of training is to provide real examples on the best ways to achieve better performance. The focus would be to merge the training requirements with the relevant available case studies for similar organizations or situations.