Abstract
This paper presents a performance assessment tool for grocery delivery drivers. The employees’ performance appraisal is majorly based on the way they carry out their job with relation to the related guidelines. There are various aspects that govern the way employees are required to conduct themselves. Professional employees are governed by the professional ethics and code of conduct whereas other employees are governed by the various requirements that indicate the way that they should perform their work.
The three job components that will be assessed are ‘job-specific proficiency’, ‘communication’, and ‘effort and personal discipline’. Two behaviors will be presented to each of these job components and will be assessed using quantified objective outcome data. The frequency of the behavior occurrence will be used to assess the employees and a criterion to determine a good behavior will be presented. This criterion will be useful to present information about organizational rewards.
Introduction
The modern day human resource management has seen a rise in the need for the performance management. This is because of the need for productivity among the employees so as to match the ever increasing competition from the company’s industry peers (Arnold, et al., 2010, p. 96). The issue of performance management has been an important aspect of any organization because it gives a feedback on the personnel’s productivity.
The problem however lies in the establishing an effective performance assessment tool more so in the areas where the employee output is qualitative rather than quantitative (Campbell, McHenry, & Wise, 1990, p. 118). The performance assessment tools are therefore a bit hard to employ in such areas where such factors as behavior are being measured. Though behavior is an important factor in an individual’s work performance, using discreet tools to measure such qualitative attributes may prove a hard task. This paper will present a performance assessment tool for grocery delivery drivers.
Job Components
The various job components will be discussed in the ensuing text.
Job specific proficiency
This performance construct has to do with the ability of the individual to perform the given task. It deals with the ability rather than the willingness to work (Campbell, McHenry, & Wise, 1990, p. 322). This is the primary task that is used to assess the employee’s performance to a certain job. This construct has to do with the ability to do and has various behaviors attached to it. Grocery delivery drivers need to possess some of the behaviors which are congruent to the performance of the job specific proficiency.
A person who possesses the right job specific proficiency will always be aware of the job requirements and the rules and regulations that govern the job. More so, this serves as a source of confidence and motivation to perform the job assigned. There is always a struggle between a person’s willingness and ability to do something. The first requirement is that persons’ willingness, then ability. This is simply because no matter how much an individual is willing to do something, if he/ she is does not possess the right proficiency and the ability to perform the job, he willingness is in futility.
The first behavior that ought to be displayed by the grocery delivery drivers is adhering to traffic rules. This has to do with the ability of the drivers to say out of trouble with the traffic authorities. It also has to do with driving the vehicle at the allowable speed limits and abiding by the set rules. Adherence to this behavior can be determined through counting the number of times that the driver is apprehended by the traffic police for breaking any of the traffic rules. A driver that completes a three month period without breaking these rules is awarded some marks. These marks are accumulated and at the end of the year performance appraisal is conducted to establish the most disciplined driver.
The other behavior that can be assessed in the driver with respect to the job specific proficiency is the care accorded the vehicle. Driving is a process that requires continual adherence to the driving procedures. Due care should be accorded to the vehicle and this can be assessed by the number of times that vehicle undergoes repairs prior to the manufacturers recommended time. Drivers who drive carefully will always have their vehicles under good conditions and as such, these vehicles will have less repairs and services done to them on frequent basis. On normal occasions a vehicle is required to undergo two services in a year. If any vehicle undergoes more than this, the driver losses points depending on the number of services above two in a year.
Communication
Communication is a vital aspect of service delivery in any job. As such this is a construct that will be used to assess the performance among the grocery delivery drivers. There is an old adage that goes by’ Garbage In, Garbage Out’ which means if wrong set of instructions are fed into a system, the resulting outcome will of course be faulty. Communication is therefore an important aspect of any organization’s achieving goals and objectives.
With respect to communication, a specific behavior will be responsiveness to a job call. Drivers who are apt to respond to any job call will be graded as possessing good behavior. This grading will include the ability to respond to the customer needs as well as the supervisor’s directives. The scale that will be used to grade the drivers will be based on the number of time the drivers respond to the call against the number of call made. A percentage of the response to the calls will be determined and this will be used in the final grid together with other performance constructs.
Obedience to instructions is another behavior that goes hand in hand with communication. The requirements of any job are communicated by the respective supervisors and as such, the employees are required to positively respond to the directives through adhering to the set rules (George & Alexandra, 1991, p. 106). This can be measured through establishing the number of times the drivers adhere to the directives against the number of directives issued. An allowable rate of 80% will be set for the employees as the minimum required rate and as such, employees who do not reach this level are graded as having a bad behavior with respect to communication.
Effort and personal discipline
Above and beyond performing the required tasks, employees are required to display high level of discipline and efforts more so in areas where the environment is not conducive for working (Campbell, McHenry, & Wise, 1990, p. 320). One of the behaviors associated with efforts and personal discipline are spending extra effort under adverse conditions. There are times during delivery that orders get late or other times when the number of orders exceeds the limits and the drivers are required to work extra time. In such cases, the drivers may opt to or not to work since it is a requirement that is outside their contract. As such drivers that remain committed during such cases are considered to possess good behavior with regard to the effort and personal discipline. The grading system in this case will include identifying the number of times a driver works past the normal working hours. This can be enumerated and every extra day worked earns two points.
Staying out of trouble is another behavior that can be attached to efforts and personal discipline. Discipline is defined as being found in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing in the right manner. It is an attribute that many individuals lack and as such, drivers who have high levels of discipline ought to be recognized. There are various indicators of a well disciplined driver. These include punctuality at work, lack of frequent absenteeism, and proper conduct. A driver who is considered as disciplined ought to stay out of trouble and as such, the number of days he/ she is absent from work are recorded and used as to fill performance assessment.
Grocery delivery drivers’ assessment tool
The assessment
Availability of an assessment tool will ensure that drivers perform their duties in a manner that is congruent with their job descriptions while observing the laws and regulations that govern driving. This is the first measure on the ability of the driver to perform his duties and since it has nothing to do with willingness, every driver ought to bear the right attributes with regard to this competence. Such a tool would play a huge role in ensuring that the drivers adhere to the set principles and when coupled with other measurement parameters, an effective management appraisal tool can be obtained.
The assessment table shown above indicates the various behaviors that will be used to assess grocery delivery drivers. While assessing a driver’s adherence to the traffic rules, a score of ten will be awarded to any driver who does not break the rules and subsequent arrest by the police. The score will fall with an increase in the number of arrests per year. Each arrest reduces the score by a point. The number of motor vehicle repairs above two will also cost the drivers the marks as it will be interpreted that they do not exercise due care to the motor vehicles. Each extra repair costs two points.
The assessment of the responsiveness to job calls will also take the same manner. The rate of drivers’ response to calls will be recorded and a score will be awarded out of ten. A good behavior will be determined if the driver ranks above 7 points. As such, obedience to instructions will follow the same manner of evaluation. A driver’s obedience to the supervisor’s directives will be recorded and as such a percentage will be determined and point will be awarded out of a possible maximum of ten.
The final performance construct will assess the drivers’ efforts and personal discipline. Drivers who spend extra time at work in times when the orders are more than estimated as well as the time when other contingencies occur will also earn marks. A total of a possible ten points will be earned with the one who is one hundred percent present during such times being ranked as the one having the best behavior. The same scale will be used to gauge the driver who stays out of trouble and as such avoids such vices as absenteeism.
This assessment is useful to inform decisions about organizational rewards. A total score of sixty points can be achieved by the excellent drivers. A minimum score of forty is required as the threshold to keep one’s job. When carrying out promotions and salary increments, drivers who score highest on this grid are given the priority.
The boon of this assessment tool is that it can be used to indicate the performance levels of the drivers and as such, point out those that need to be recognized as outstanding and those that need to be asked to improve on their service delivery. The single disadvantage on this tool is that it could records inaccurate marks more so when drivers experience remote factors that they are not in control of.
Conclusion
The process of carrying out employees’ performance can prove to be a hard one more so when observing the qualitative aspects such as employees’ behaviors. Nevertheless, the human resource manager should be able to come up with such like tools that will help understand the employees’ service deliveries as well as the performance construct behaviors that indicate their ability and willingness to perform the various assigned tasks.
Personal Reflection
Contribution to the group and its work
Having a group study is one of the most effective learning methods. There are however, situations where the effectiveness of group work is reduced due to different factors. To ensure an effective group work in the future, the single most important thing to do is having a set plan on how the various topics will be handled at specified times. This will ensure that the members understand the set learning objective and as such, work towards obtaining that objective.
The other important way of ensuring an effective group work is by allocating assignments that fit the different individuals’ members’ abilities and skills. This would ensure that the nature of group work is complimentary and each person’s work is valuable to the other member. An individual who is competent in organizing would be assigned the role of heading and moderating the discussions as well the role of compiling the final completed report. An individual who is IT savvy would be assigned the role of doing the presentation. This makes the group not only more effective but also efficient.
There were three aspects of the group work that I contributed most; discussions, putting forward ideas and encouraging others. When formulating the assessment tool, much research work was done by me as well as the presentation. This enabled me to garner adequate and relevant content which was important in ensuring that the presented work is of high quality. It also gave me the confidence to argue out points as well as the much needed motivation to encourage others. The other group member also contributed a lot in ensuring that this work is not only finished but well completed. For instance, member number one always ensured that people keep time when coming for the meetings, member two was in charge of the compiling of the findings, member three always kept the group in check and moderated the discussions where member four work with me in compiling of the work as well and doing the much needed extensive literature research in the topic of organizational behavior.
While presenting the findings to the members during the meetings, a moderated discussion approach was used and was a very effective one since the different members had the opportunity to air their contributions each one at a time. The part of the course work that presented most difficulties was the literature research part. The task of researching the various scholarly sources in order to obtain a deep understanding of the human behavior in the work place proved to be rather tasking. This is because of the specific requirements of the assignment and the need to relate the available theoretical framework to the developed assessment tool.
The available literature in the various organizational behavior books as well as in the scholarly journals need to be integrated into the real world practice and this proved to be more tasking than expected. This is because of the unique situations in the different work environments that compel the different managements to devise different approaches to deal with the organizational unique situations.
References
Arnold, J., Randall, R., Patterson, F., Silvester, J., Robertson, I., Cooper., C. (2010). Work Psychology: Understanding human behaviour in the workplace. Harlow: Pearson Publishers.
Campbell, J., McHenry, J., & Wise, L. (1990). Modeling job performance in a population of jobs. Personnel Psychology , pp. 313-33.
George, T., & Alexandra, K. (1991). Pay for Performance: Evaluating Performance Appraisal and Merit Pay. Washignton D. C.: National Academy Press.