Background
Fazza Galleria is a mega project that is set to be one of the leading prestigious shopping galleries in the city of Dubai. The project is already underway, and at this stage, the focus is to have the right performance management and employee engagement strategy. In the previous section, the planning team looked at human capital strategy that will help the management to get the right employees.
In this section, the planners will focus on how to manage their performance and strategies that can be used to engage them effectively once the project is underway. Having the right employees in the workplace is one thing, while ensuring that they remain productive is another thing. It is possible to have highly skilled and talented employees performing poorly because of ineffective management strategies. Fazza Galleria is going to be one of the top luxury stores in the city of Dubai.
Dubai is currently one of the top tourists’ attraction centres and business hubs in the world. As the planning committee, we understand that having a top-notch business entity in such a competitive city is not a simple task. Other than having the right structures and hiring the best brains in this industry, human resource management unit will need to employ strategies that will make all the employees to appreciate the delicate position of this firm in the market.
The target market for this firm is highly unforgiving in case they are subjected to conditions they consider unfavourable. The rich always have options, and once they develop negative attitude towards a given business entity, convincing them to revisit such a facility may not be easy. For this reason, it is important to avoid such mistakes in the first place. This plan seeks to develop an effective performance management and employee engagement strategy that will be used to in this luxury store to enhance the performance of the employees.
The scope
Developing an effective strategy is a complex process that needs an understanding of both internal and external environmental factors in the context of this city. As experts in this field of human resource management, we know that one of the reasons that make planners fail in their strategies is that they always develop broad plans, which do not address specific areas of study.
Implementing such broad plans is not easy. At this stage, we need a plan that can be implemented because it is simple and clearly focuses on specific issues of concern within the system. It is important to define the scope of the strategy in order to understand the specific area of management that is of target. This employee management plan will only focus on two areas. The first area of focus will be performance management strategy.
We need to implement a strategy that will ensure that the performance of the employees in their respective areas of work meets the expectations of the firm. The second area of focus is development of employee engagement strategy. Employee engagement is very important in maintaining their morale. This strategy will help ensure that employees remain motivated while at work. Motivated employees always perform better than a team of demoralized employees. The scope of this plan will be restricted to the two areas.
Performance Management Strategy
Performance management is one of the most important tasks of human resource management unit. As consultants to this firm, we understand the pressure that the management is facing when developing performance management strategies. That is the reason why we are trying to develop simple ways that be observed in order to ensure that there is success. It is important to know that the principal purpose of performance management is to align employee competencies with the specific job assignments in order to ensure that every task is assigned to the most qualified person.
Employees are always very productive when they are assigned duties that they have vast knowledge and experience in because they will not need to struggle when handling such tasks. In order to achieve this alignment, it is important to start by understanding the overall mission of the firm, its vision, and the manner in which, employees will help in achieving the desired success. In order to have an effective strategy, we strongly suggest that the management should start by understanding the performance management system shown in the pyramid below.
Performance management system is a series action plans that goes deep to the root of the very existence of the firm. As experts in this field, we believe that the only way of developing an effective performance management strategy is to start by understanding the mission and vision of the firm. We know that the firm’s operations are based on the mission and vision statements.
The firm seeks to achieve its vision through every single activity that it does in the market. For this reason, we develop a strategy that is derived from the mission and vision of the firm. We describe it as a system because it is a series of activities starting from the overall objective of the firm, to achieving results in a specific aspect of the firm which, in this case if performance management. It is necessary to understand the relevance of every item in this strategy in the context of this firm.
Vision
Fazza Galleria’s vision is to be the leading luxury store in the city of Dubai. This vision will define every activity that will be done by this firm. This vision statement clearly states that, as at now, this firm has not claimed the top position in the targeted industry. However, every step its makes focuses on how this objective can be achieved. The vision appreciates that this will take a concerted effort of every member of this organisation in order to realize the dream. This is a big dream, and its realization primarily depends on the approach that will be taken by various stakeholders in this firm. In this report, we focus on how employee can help in achieving this vision through improved performance.
Mission
Fazza Galleria’s mission is to offer high quality products to the Dubai market in a consistent manner that meets the expectations of all stakeholders. This mission statement explains how the vision will be achieved. In order to become the top luxury store in this city, the firm will need to ensure that it provides top quality products in the market. The vision statement also emphasizes on the need to ensure that all the stakeholders are satisfied with the service delivery. Employees have a pivotal role in ensuring that the performance of the firm meets the expectations of the stakeholders.
Strategy
After understanding the mission, it is possible to develop strategies that are necessary in achieving the set objectives. Developing strategies for employees’ performance management involves aligning their competencies with the job requirements. The human resource management will start by defining job requirements for all the tasks in order to know how to assign them to various employees. The management will then need to determine the competencies of the employees. It will need to evaluate knowledge, special skills, and talents of every employee.
When assigning the tasks, the management will need to ensure that only the most qualified candidates are assigned specific tasks. The primary goal of the strategy is to ensure that every employee will have the right skills and knowledge to handle specific tasks assigned to them. This will eliminate cases where some employees strain to handle specific tasks. This not only improves efficiency, but also employees’ morale. When they do not strain when addressing their daily chores, they will feel comfortable and highly motivated.
Process
Putting into practice the strategies developed is one of the most complex stages in this system. It involves interpreting the plan and implementing it in a practical context. In order to implement the strategy, the operations manager will need to interpret the strategy, and find a way of implementing it based on the environmental factors. The manager will need to analyze both internal and external environmental forces.
With this knowledge, the manager should develop a strategy that will maximize the on strength of the firm to benefit from the opportunities in the external market. It will also require the management to ensure that all the stakeholders are involved. All the members of this business entity should know their specific duty in this firm. They should know how their roles would affect the overall success of the firm. This will act as a drive for them to go an extra mile in their duties in an effort to help the firm excel in its operations.
System
Having identified an approach that will be used to implement the strategies, the next step is to develop a system that will help in coordinating the activities of this firm. The section above has identified how employees will be assigned to different departments within the firm. At this stage, the management will determine how to form different groups based on the similarity of the work of the employees. For instance, all the employees handling the logistics of Fazza Galleria may form a unit.
Another group handling customer service may form another group, while another group may include the cashiers. These three groups have distinct functions from one another, but with the overall objective of enhancing the performance of the firm. Given that they share a common goal, it is important to find a way of coordinating them within a system set-up so that they may know how they relate with one another.
For instance, the logistics unit employees must know how they need to coordinate with the customer service employees. A customer may ask for a product that is not yet delivered to the firm. The customer service employee must be in a position to explain to the employee when such a product will be available. This information should be made available by the logistics unit. Having an integrated system makes it possible to coordinate work at various departments within the firm. This boosts the performance of the organisation.
Performance management
After identifying the system, the focus will now narrow to the performance management. Dubai is one of the fastest developing cities in the world, and achieving success as a top luxury store may not be a simple process. It needs commitment of the employees in their respective areas of work. Performance management involves ensuring that the output of the employees meets the expectations of the firm. As mentioned previously, the first step in performance management is to ensure those employees’ competencies is aligned with job requirements.
However, the management should realize that assigning an employee a task he or she can perform without struggling is not enough in ensuring that he or she delivers the expected outcome. Managing performance of the employees involve a series of other activities such as maintaining employees’ motivation, creating a positive working environment, and eliminating all stressors that may affect the performance of the organisation. It also involves close coordination of the employees within the workplace.
The management will need to maintain a system where employees are coordinated from a central point within the firm to eliminate cases of duplication of work. Every department and every employee will need to know the scope of their work. The system will also help in defining the nature of activities of individual employees. Some tasks may require intellectual knowledge more than the physical strength, while others largely depend on the physical strength of the employees. The approach taken when managing employees in these two categories is different. Finding the best approach of managing these employees is pivotal in achieving success.
Behaviour and action
The performance management system then narrows down to behaviour and actions of individual employee. Having the right knowledge, skills, and talents does not automatically make an employee successful in the workplace. Discipline is one of the most important ingredients to success. The behavioural pattern that employees embrace within a firm will define their output.
Undisciplined employees who do not care about instruction cannot deliver success irrespective of the level of their knowledge or talents. Similarly, laziness and procrastination are very destructive behavioural patterns that can easily bring down a firm. When employees avoid their assignments, they will find themselves working under pressure in order to address the piles of work that was to be addressed in the past. This largely depends on the action and authority of the management unit.
As experts in this field, we strongly suggest that the management of Fazza Galleria should develop organizational culture to help define strict behavioural pattern that must be embraced by all the employees. The organizational culture must define what may be tolerated within the firm, and what the management does not tolerate. This will help in developing a common culture for all the employees that will define what they can or cannot do. It will also enhance discipline among employees.
Results
The ultimate objective of performance management system is to achieve good results in the operations of the firm. If the management of Fazza Galleria follows the steps defined in this system, from the mission of the firm to controlling the behaviour and actions of the employees, achieving success will be guaranteed. The results expected at this final stage will be in line with the vision and mission of the firm.
When the management uses the vision and mission statement to develop the strategies, then success in these strategies would mean achievement of the vision of the firm. It is only through this that Fazza Galleria will be able to become the leading luxury stores in the city of Dubai. It is important to understand that this system is employee-centric. This means that any processes involved in achieving the vision, which is outside the scope of human resource is not part of the system.
Designing performance measures
Designing performance measures is one of the most important aspects of performance management strategy. In order to determine if the employees are working within the expected levels, it is important to set performance measures. The measures will be used to define the output of an individual employee and the overall output of the entire firm. The management should use simple measures such as the level of output per given time. Performance measures may be designed qualitatively or quantitatively based on the assignment.
Some tasks may be measured quantitatively, while others can only be measured qualitatively. The performance of employees working within customer care services will be measured as per the satisfaction levels of the customers they serve, their response speed, and even the number of customers who they serve. The performance of employees in the logistics unit can be measured as per the efficiency with which they deliver products to this firm.
The management will then communicate to the employees informing them about the measures that have been the designed to evaluate their performance. This will enable them to understand how to evaluate their own performance within the firm. We recommend that the employees should be involved when designing the measures.
They should be allowed to participate in setting the measures because they understand some of the constraints within their workplace. Allowing employees to participate in designing the measures has a massive impact in determining their success. The employees will feel valued. They will feel part of the organisation, and this will motivate them to put more effort in every activity they are doing. They will strive to achieve success as per the measures they have suggested.
Setting targets
Many organizations are currently working with targets, and we believe that Fazza Galleria can apply this strategy too. The firm should develop targets that the entire organisation should achieve within a given period, preferably after one year. The target should then be broken to departmental levels. The department should then set target to all its units to help it achieve the targets. The Units will then set targets that should be achieved by individual employee within a given period.
The targets should be realistic and achievable as per the capacity of individual employee. It should appreciate the fact that different employees have different capacities in undertaking various tasks. We strongly suggest that the management of Fazza Galleria should introduce performance contract to its employees as soon as it gets operational. This means that every employee will be rewarded based on his performance and value to the form other than any other measures. This form of reward will make the employees feel responsible for any amount of income they get as employees of the firm. They will know that their compensations are directly based on their output.
Care should be taken to avoid limiting the potential of the employees. We believe that skills and talents can be limited when the targets are rigidly set. There should be a space for the employees to explore their talents at various tasks. Innovation always comes at a cost. It may involve making a series of mistakes before finally coming up with a superior plan on how to undertake a given activity.
The management should be accommodative to such creative minds. In this competitive industry, creativity is very important in gaining competitive edge over market rivals. For this reason, the management should set up an incubation centre to allow the employees to make all the possible mistakes when developing new approaches of undertaking various tasks without affecting the service delivery process to the customers. The incubation will make the employees to try out their innovative ways in forums that are not related directly related to customer relations.
Performance reviews
When the human resource management of Fazza Galleria has set specific targets for the employees, the next step will be to review the performance of the individual employee and various units within all the departments. The top management will then review the performance of the review the performance of the departments of the firm and that of the entire firms. We suggest that the firm should embrace four areas of management
Personal review
The management can develop personal reviews where employees evaluate their own performances. This is something that is not very common in many organizations, but we believe it will be necessary for this firm. Many organizations always ignore the power of self-evaluation. We suggest that the management should encourage self-evaluation among the employees. The management should help the employees set personal goals and set strategies to achieve them. After this, the management should develop ways through which employees can evaluate their own performance based on the set goals.
Peer reviews
Sometimes the best ways of reviewing performance of individual employees is to rely on the reviews of other fellow employees. Employees are always in a position to evaluate the performance of their fellow workmates. They are always with them most of their time, and they can tell those who work hard and those who avoid their duties. When given an opportunity, they can help identify gaps that exist in the workplace and areas of weakness that needs to be addressed. Peer reviews are always very appropriate in places where employees work as a team.
Customer reviews
Customer reviews can also be used to evaluate the performance of the employees. Customers should be encouraged to make comments about the services they receive at various stages of service delivery. Using suggestion box, customers can make comments about how they were served at various stages within the firm. This way, it will be easy to identify areas of weakness.
When they feel that they have been given poor service at any stage, they should be encouraged to report this to the relevant authorities. The management can also use social media such as Facebook and Tweeter to get the views of its customers about their products or product delivery methods. These reviews should be used identify units within the firm or even individual employees who are not performing as per the expectations of customers.
Management reviews
The management may also organize its own reviews to evaluate the performance of different units or individual employees. As suggested, the management may develop targets for the employees, but instead of allowing employees to evaluate their own performance, they should conduct the evaluations on their own. The management will set up structures that they can use to determine the performance of its employees. Fazza Galleria may use modern technology to track the performance of its employees at different departments of the organisation.
Managing information
In order to have an effective performance management strategy, communication will be very important. The management of Fazza Galleria should establish communication strategies that will be used in issuing instructions and passing on knowledge. As experts in this firm, we suggest that the management should open up its communication systems and avoid bureaucratic systems.
The firm should use the formal communication system where instruction is issued from the top management to mid managers before coming down to the junior employees. On the other hand, there should be a room for a more informal communication system within the organisation. This is especially so when dealing with innovative ideas that may need some funding from the top management units.
The initiator of such ideas, irrespective of their position in the line of command, should be allowed to communicate directly with the top management unit. The figure below shows the diagrammatic representation of this integrated communication system that Fazza Galleria needs to embrace.
This integrated communication system will offer junior employees and top management a forum where they can share experiences relevant to their work. This will make it possible for the top managers to understand the realities that employees face while they are in the field. This will make them develop strategies that are conscious to these realities.
Expected challenges in strategy execution
When implementing the performance management strategy, it is expected that the management of Fazza Galleria will face some challenges. One of the biggest challenges that this firm will need to deal with is inexperience in this field. Fazza Galleria is a new project, and its management is yet to understand the dynamics in this industry. It may force the management to spend more in market research in order to understand its customers within the market.
Another challenge is the changing environmental forces. Tastes and preferences of the customers keep changing as the society experiences changes in various sectors. Some of the employees may be slow in adopting these changes. Some may even resist change. The organisation may also find it costly having to overhaul its operation systems from time to time in order to manage the changing environmental forces.
Employee Engagement Strategy
Employees are the most important assets to any organisation in the current competitive environment. The days when employees had to withstand frustrations of the employers because that is the only option to earn a living is long gone. In the current society, employees can now make decisions on how they want to lead their work life. They know that they can quit one job and get another without stress as long as they have the right skills and talent needed in the job market.
On the other hand, employers are now under more pressure than ever before to retain their employees. Customers are more comfortable when they have specific employees attending to their needs on a regular bond. They form a unique bond that makes the customers to be loyal to the firm. Other market rivals are keen to poach highly skilled and talented employees in order to boost their operations. Losing an employee to a competitor does not only mean brain drain to the affected firm, but also a loss of trusted customers, as they will no longer have the attachment towards the firm.
Training new employees to master their work as well as those who have been lost is also a costly and time-consuming process. These facts make it very important for the management of Fazza Galleria to ensure that it retains its employees. One of the ways through which it will be able to gain competitive advantage in the market is to retain its highly skilled and talented employees. Employee engagement goes beyond developing effective human resource management strategies. It involves creating a culture that will bring employees and management together in a community where everyone feels respected.
It involves developing close relationship among employees themselves. It involves creating an environment where an individual employee will have a sense of ownership in the firm instead of just being an employee. This will enable the management to develop a family that cannot be easily be broken by external forces. The employees will feel emotionally attached to the firm. They will not only dispel any urge to seek alternative employers, but also develop a strong conviction to help the firm to be successful. In this section, we will develop some of the strategies that the management of Fazza Galleria can use to engage its employees.
Creating a positive culture
It is a common cliché that happy workers equals to happy customers, but many employers always ignored it even in the current competitive market. Attractive remuneration is a good boost to employee morale, but it should not be considered the only thing that may boost employees’ morale. In this section, we suggest a different approach that Fazza Galleria will use to engage its employees. It involves creating a positive culture that is conscious of the personal and work needs of the employees. The following are some of the areas of focus that should be given emphasis.
Culture of appreciation
Many employers always ignore the power that comes with appreciating employees in their respective assignments. Psychologists say that human being love being appreciated in every context in life. An employee who puts an extra effort in his or her work is always seeking some sort of appreciation, especially from the supervisors and managers. Appreciation makes employees feel valued.
They feel that the management cherishes their effort. The feeling always make them desire to do more. The management of Fazza Galleria should take advantage of this opportunity. However, care should be taken on how this is done. There should be no form of biasness on the side of the supervisors. Other employees should feel that the appreciation was rightfully earned. It should be delivered in a positive manner that will challenge other employees to work hard in order to earn than other than feeling dejected.
Culture of trust
According to some of the recent research, employers are performing badly when it comes to managing trust. Trust creates an environment of honesty between the employer and the employee. When the employees realize that, the employer trust them, then they will feel the burden to retain such trust lies on them. They will make every effort to remain honest in their work, and this not only improves their output, but also reduces the need for constant supervision.
The employees will feel that they have the responsibility to supervise themselves and even report themselves when they make mistakes while at work. This makes it possible to identify problems within the system as soon as they occur. Trust also motivates innovation. When the employer and the employee trust each other, the employee may not find it an issue coming up with new innovating ways of handling various tasks. He or she will be assured of the support from the management. This is very important for this project given the competitiveness of luxury stores within the city of Dubai.
Culture of communication
As mentioned in the previous section, communication is critical in employee engagement. Employees need a system that will allow them to communicate and share knowledge among themselves. They also need a system that will allow the management to communicate easily with the junior employees. The management needs an Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS) that will ensure that all its decisions are based on facts gathered from all the relevant stakeholders.
The top management of Fazza Galleria should install some of the modern technology-supported systems that will make it possible for all the stakeholders to share information without any restriction. Communication also enhances creativity among employees. When the management makes it possible for the employees to share knowledge, they can help one another to expand their ideas into strategies that can help the firm to achieve greater success.
Communication is very important in maintaining cohesion within the firm. By sharing their stories, employees will feel attached to one another and to the firm that makes it almost impossible to sway them to other firms. Solving some of the common problems is always made easy when employees can share knowledge and experience through effective communication systems.
Community culture
The management should always strive at developing a community out of its employees. Having a culture of community makes employees feel responsible for the well-being of fellow employees. They will feel that they have the responsibility of caring for their fellow employees as they struggle to achieve similar goals. Community culture enhances commitment of an employee to the firm. It also breaks the employer-employee bond and creates follower-leader bond.
The employer ceases to be a boring manager who issues instructions to a loving leader who shows employees the path they should take in order to achieve success for all. In such a community setting, employees cease to see themselves as third parties to the firm who are working to be paid. They start feeling members of the community who share in its success and failures. This project should capitalize on the strength that comes with a unified and committed community. To achieve this, the management needs to work tirelessly in developing organizational culture where employees’ rights are respected, and their views put into consideration as much as possible.
Accountability culture
The final aspect of culture development is the need to maintain accountability among all the stakeholders. Employees are very fast learners when it comes to issues of accountability and integrity. They always monitor their managers to determine their levels of accountability. When they identify any forms of weakness, then they will easily embrace the culture of corruption. This should be eliminated at all cost. To achieve this, we strongly suggest that the owners of this project should give the good example of integrity to the people who are hired to the management levels.
Any forms of corruption should be avoided when hiring or awarding contracts. All the employees should be informed about the emphasis that is laid on accountability and integrity at this firm. Stringent measures should then be put in place to counter or detect lack of accountability within the firm. However, great care should be taken when communicating this message to the employees or when implementing the set strategies. Developing trust is not a simple process. For this reason, the message should not sound like the management do not trust them. The measures put in place to counter lack of accountability should not be conspicuously targeted to the employees who have not raised doubt.
Factors promoting employee engagement
The above section has focused on how to promote employee engagement from the perspective of culture development within the firm. In this section, we will focus on other alternative strategies that can be used to promote employee engagement at Fazza Galleria. The model below shows some of the areas that should be used alongside that that were proposed in the previous section.
Having a team of supportive co-workers is very important in employees’ engagement. Sometimes an employee may face challenges at work or in personal life. Having concerned fellow workers who genuinely care and are willing to help is very reassuring. It makes an employee feel comfortable sharing issues that affect their productivity at work with the assurance that a solution will be found. It also creates a bond among the employees, which many researchers claim is a motivating factor. Career satisfaction is another important factor in employee engagement.
It is possible to find a situation where one resigns from a firm that offers higher salary to a smaller firm claiming that they are not satisfied with what they are doing. The management should make an effort to ensure that all employees feel that they are in the right path in their career whenever they are assigned to various positions within the firm. They should find their work fully engaging and satisfying. To achieve this, the management of Fazza Galleria will need to ensure that the knowledge and skills of the employees are matched with their assignments.
People like working in successful organizations that have good reputation in the market. Fazza Galleria is expected to be one of the best luxury stores in the city of Dubai. This attractive position should be maintained not only for the sake of attractive more customers, but for the sake of also enhancing the satisfaction of the employees as well. They will feel honoured working for such a successful firm that serves the county’s richest people.
The firm should also have credible leadership. Those who are entrusted with the position of leadership should have the right skills admired by other employees. The position should be earned through merit and not through favours. The employees of Fazza Galleria should feel inspired to be led by such a person. This will earn such a leader the respect he or she needs to manage the employees.
Finally, having a pool of satisfied and loyal customers enhances employee engagement. Employees prefer dealing with specific customers regularly. They feel satisfied when they constantly meet with their loyal customers who like using their products. Positive comments that they receive from these customers makes their work enjoyable and less stressful. The management of Fazza Galleria will need to find a way of meeting the needs of its customers in the best way possible. This will help in maintaining a pool of satisfied customers.
Conclusion
Fazza Galleria is an ambitious project that should take off within the next few years. However, the luxury market segment that it is targeting is very sensitive. In order to achieve success in this market, it must develop an effective performance management and employee engagement strategies.
The main aim when developing these strategies will be to ensure that its talented employees are retained, and that all the employees remain motivated in their work. Success of the firm largely depends on how every employee will approach every task assigned to him or her. It is therefore important to make them feel part of the organisation other than mere employees.