Strategic Human Resource Management for Performance- MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Human Resource Management for Performance. Answer: Introduction Employee performance is essential in determining organizations productivity level. Given the important role that organizational workers play in driving the various activities towards achieving the stipulated business goals, organizations are keen to monitor as well as evaluate the level of contributions that their employee makes in the firm(Micheli Manzoni, 2010). In the drive to optimize their performance and employee engagement, many organizations often use annual performance reviews which involve formal discussion on the workers' ongoing development as well as performance. The process entails planning the actions to be taken in the next period while reviewing the activities and achievement in the last period (Armstrong Taylor, 2014). However, in the recent past, the popularity of this performance management approach has declined as many business firms are ditching this method in preference to other strategies that are rather informal in nature. Many companies are abandoning annual reviews because they are complicated and expensive in terms of time and resource utilization yet with no significant improvement in performance. It is against this background that the present paper reviews the case study on Accenture and why it is ditching annual performance review to adopt regular feedback. The paper critically explores whether abandoning performance reviews was beneficial or costly to the organization in terms of operational expenses as well as employee performance. In the end, the paper provides some recommendations for other alternative approaches that Accenture could use to monitor and evaluate their workers' performance effectively. Accenture Abandoning the Formal Performance Reviews Noting from the case study, it is quite evident that it is a prudent move for Accenture to abandon the formal performance reviews totally. Formal performance review is regarded to have numerous drawbacks on the overall organization performance as it makes most employees uncomfortable operating under undue pressure. Carrying out a formal performance review is very crucial to the progress of every organization; however, this process is often challenging for many organizations. As noted by (Guest, 2011), a large percentage of employees are often concerned with how the management under which they work, perceive their level of competency. In most instances, workers try to resist and dislike the fact that they are being informed of the errors they have committed or that they are incompetent in certain aspects of the organization (Daley, 2012). This process of formal performance review thus results in mixed reactions in firms which make managers to highly disregard its use and adopt more fluid evaluation systems where workers get frequent reviews from their supervisors to their performance levels. Based on the case study, Accenture has decided to abandon the formal performance review since it did not manage to attain its primary objective which was to promote the performance of the firms staff. It is stated from the Accenture case study that only a minimal percentage (2%) of companies believes that conducting a formal performance review contributes positively to the general performance of the firms(Nankervis, Baird, Coffey, Shields, 2017). A greater percentage of companies thus have the perception that having formal performance reviews on their workers is very ineffective in enhancing performance. In most cases, as noted by Accenture, the process of annual appraisals consumes a lot of the organizations time, money, and effort which could be used to carry out other business operations to enhance profitability. (Wright McMahan, 2011) provide that the process of the annual performance review is highly flawed as an appraisal method and the author sites various possible outcomes of using such a process. This kind of review usually makes the workers in an organization to be nervous, and further, a single annual review meeting does not help build consistent feedback nor help coach the employees in the process so that they could enhance their skills and knowledge (Chuang Liao, 2010). Additionally, it is noted that this process often becomes a data dump in most cases for the inexperienced managers and is also regarded as a subjective act that does not provide an explicit explanation of organizations success, future anticipations and the available growth opportunities (Boselie, 2010). In essence, therefore, it was a good idea for Accenture to abandon the use of formal performance reviews totally. Based on its ineffectiveness in enhancing organization performance and employees, Accenture has decided to conduct a personal evaluation of its employees based on their individual responsibilities and performance levels and not a wholesome appraisal which is done annually. On this basis, therefore, it is recommended that the organization incorporate performance management in their appraisals having a more flexible system. This move is noted to result in limited employee disagreements, limited negative feelings from the workers and higher benefits (Guest, 2011). Possible Problems that could arise from abandoning Performance Management Reviews Emerging evidence suggest that while many business firms are in the run to ditch formal performance management procedures, employee ratings is essential for internal management of its pay and promotion systems. To (Dane Brummel, 2014) performance is simply the value of contribution that each employee brings to an organization over time and therefore, they are paid depending on their value to the business operations. Thus, without proper guidelines on how the workers value is measured against the stipulated standards, the firms overall performance and productivity might be compromised. (Bacal, 2011) observes that whereas informal performance tools such as regularly feedback conversations provide the organizational management the benefits of flexibility and sense of timeliness which enhances employee performance, they lack proper documentation or no paper trail to be referred to on a later date. Therefore, for Accenture which has 330,000 employees relying on personal conversations without having suitable structures and performance management systems, the company might lose track of its performance reviews. In agreement, (Aguinis, Joo, Gottfredson, 2011) notes that regular feedback option is often effective only in a small organization with a minimal number of employees to be managed and thus with a huge number of people like the case of Accenture, the adoption of this performance management methods might lead to a massive financial loss. Besides, without appraisal data which is often useful in determining the progress of an organization especially when the present status or position is viewed vis--vis the previous evaluation, it would be difficult for Accenture to measure its growth or even failure in meeting the business goals. In their paper, (Lengnick-Hall, Beck, Lengnick-Hall, 2011) observe that formal performance reviews offer an organizational management an excellent opportunity to take cognizance and agree upon some of the individuals training and development needs. The assessment of needs is always tied closely to the performance outcomes of the workers and therefore when done properly, the firm stands a chance of rekindling commitment of the staffs in their roles towards achieving the objectives of the company. According to (Boxall Purcell, 2011), formal performance appraisals offer the employees with social recognition of their input in the organization. The power of recognition by the organizational management has long been noted to act as a strong incentive that motivates the workers and even enhances their job satisfaction. Interestingly, (Aguinis, Joo, Gottfredson, 2011) observes that people would prefer to receive negative recognition in preference to getting no recognition at all. By ditch ing annual performance reviews, Accenture in the case study will lose its strongest avenue of motivating its employees, and this will result in a high turnover of the workers. Subsequently, the company will end up using considerably high operational cost in recruiting, training and retaining workers. In response, (Moynihan Lavertu, 2012) recommends that instead of Accenture abandoning the performance management reviews; it should integrate it with other informal approaches such as constant one-on-one feedback. Recommendations for how Accenture could effectively monitor, Assess, and Improve the Performance of their Employees The following are some of the recommended strategies that will see considerable improvement in the organizational performance. Regular goal setting: It is worth mentioning that contrary to the traditional annual performance review, effective assessment of performance may involve regularly setting the target goals. (Yuan Woodman, 2010) recommend that Accenture aligns its workers goals more often to ensure that it improves the employees commitment while at the same time drive the business outcomes. According to (Love Singh, 2011)effective setting of the employees goals and aligning them to match the firms overall strategy is a recipe for business performance. In agreement, (Boxall Purcell, 2011) maintains that proper goal alignment is essential in realizing business success. In his argument, the author contends that regular goals setting allows all the workers in an organization to have a proper glimpse of the general business direction as well as provide them the window of visualizing their specific roles and contributions to the organization in the big picture.' Continuous coaching and feedback: In his article, (Bacal, 2011) observed that providing the employees with constant coaching especially on how to handle specific tasks that are oriented towards achieving organizational goals is vital to improve their commitment and performance. In his view, the adoption of informal and yet regular feedback by Accenture would provide the supervisors the right moment to coach their employees in the right direction and thus strategically shoving them to the direction of organizational success. Besides, through continuous engagement and interaction with the workers, the companys management will be in a god position to closely monitor as well as assess the individual employees input in the organization. In this way, the supervisors will easily be able to identify some of the weakest spots that need training and development in the drive to enhance overall employee performance. Flexible System; Accenture decided to overhaul their formal performance reviews since it failed to fulfill its primary purpose. The flexible system will enable the employees to have frequent opportunities of interactions with their immediate supervisors (Chuang Liao, 2010). The close relationship built between employees and their supervisors will enable the employees to be open and discuss any possible problems they are facing with their supervisors and get feedbacks on arrears of improvement on a frequent basis rather than waiting to be evaluated after they have performed poorly. Open communication system; Accenture aims at continuously supporting their workers all throughout their working experience without having to evaluate them annually on how they have performed. Having an open system enables workers to easily and freely communicate with the management, giving them a feeling of interconnectedness with the organization becoming part of the organization thus making them provide high levels of performance (Daley, 2012). Since the firms always strive at employing the best, this process will give the workers the freedom and authority that they need to innovate and enhance the profitability of the firm without undue pressure. This open system will enable the organizations management to easily monitor and assess the performance of the employees identifying areas that they can improve to enhance their performance levels. Conclusion and Recommendations Research indicate that traditional annual performance review is considerably flawed and is ineffective for proper monitoring, assessment, and improvement of employee performance. Arguably, it a good idea for organizations such as Accenture in the given case study to abandon it in favor of informal performance management approaches. Thus, unlike the formal annual reviews, the informal methods entail close monitoring of the employees by their immediate supervisors, and this brings onto the offing the possibility of improving organizational success. Through this approach, the employees are given regular feedbacks on how they perform their respective responsibilities. Evidently, such informal conversation provides organizational management a good opportunity to assess the personal training needs of each employee as well as ensure that the available skill sets are properly aligned to the organizational goals. However, for this to be successful, the organization must have an open and consi derably interactive communication system where the employees are always in access of their supervisors. Free interaction is vital to bring friendlier workplace environment where regular feedback is not feared but welcomed and considered useful in improving the organizational performance. References Aguinis, H., Joo, H., Gottfredson, R. K. (2011). Why we hate performance managementAnd why we should love it. . Business Horizons, 54(6), 503-507. Armstrong, M., Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Bacal, R. (2011). Performance Management 2/E. . McGraw Hill Professional. Boselie, P. (2010). 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