Executive Summary
Performance appraisal is a strategic human resource management process that is used for measuring and evaluating employees’ performance. The process has both pros and cons, which argue that it contributes to the positive growth of a company and often can result to poor performance of employees. However, most of world’s companies do not carry out the process frequently as required in order to keep employees’ contribution aligned to the organizational goals and objectives. The reason behind that is that majority managers either lack understanding of the process or ignore its benefits to company. Analysts argue that many organizations’ carryout the process with their interests first, thus forgetting the welfare of the employees. Therefore, it is recommended that employees be protected at all costs, in addition to the welfare of the organization. There are many factors to consider as far as the process is concerned. However, it is imperative to give precedence those factors that directly affect the welfare of employees whenever necessary.
The sole objective of employee appraisal is to enhance the organizational performance that is solely dependent on the employees’ contributions. In order to avoid any unfortunate consequence, it is recommended that the organization hires qualified professionals, who carry out the process. Numerous factors play a significant role in the process thus demanding external professionals who can easily access information without biasness. In additional, they advise management on the methods of communicating the results and implementation of the recommended changes in a professional manner.
Introduction
I have been a marketing manager at Procter and Gamble (P&G), a leading consumer package company in the world, for the last seven years. The company has one of the most effective human resource management in the industry. That has contributed to the company’s good reputation, as the most competitive in the industry. In addition, the company uses a meticulous recruitment process that enables hiring of competitive candidates.
There is also regular performance appraisal that is regularly carried out rendering to new changes being implemented from time to time in various departments. In the past, there have been many unfortunate events in the company that often rendered to loss making, but since the adoption of performance appraisal the company has been able to do well in the industry through hiring and retaining innovative and highly talented employees (Bird, 2013).
Selection of Employees
Based on personal experience, P&G have measures that enhance selection and retention of a highly committed workforce. I will first discuss the approaches that are already in place and recommend on those that need to be adjusted before looking at the proposed approaches. In addition, I will look into the welfare of employees and management that require protection for the company to remain competitive. Just like is the case in most companies, P&G takes the hiring process seriously as it can bring a fortune if well managed or else a disaster. Therefore, the human resource managers oversee the recruitment process and consequently make it tiring for the candidates (Fry, 2011).
The effort to protect the company majorly leads to frustrating and humiliating the candidates as the process takes the company too long to identify the most talented and qualified candidates. P&G’s hiring process has five steps that have proved to be effective, as the majority of successive candidates have contributed to the growth of innovation in the company. It is intriguing also to note that leading world companies have recently adopted the process after its success at P&G. This proves that P&G has an effective human resource management and acts as a pacesetter to others in the world. Above all, one understands that as much as the company tries to look into the welfare of employees; its goals and objectives must precede other interests (Molineux, 2013).
The five steps process includes; application, assessment, initials interview, final interview, and lastly your offer and future. To start with the application stage, the candidate is required to submit the application over the website (www.experiencePG.com). This happens after the respective candidate meets the minimum required qualifications for the company. The company has divided the recruitment process into; business, non-management, and technical divisions. The division aims at enhancing the chances of hiring the best-suited candidates for each of the three divisions. After the submission of the applications, the candidate waits until the human resource (HR) officer makes contacts regarding the next steps.
The second step is the assessment of the candidate. Upon submitting the application documents, HR department is supposed to confirm whether candidate has met the minimum required qualifications. On finding that the candidate is qualified required, the HR official then contacts and asks the candidate to proceed to the assessment step. The goal of the assessment process is to gauge the candidate’s skills and undertakings that hardly materialize from interviews. Assessment is a rigorous process aimed at determining whether a candidate should continue to other steps of the hiring process. The process takes place in three stages, which include, “Success Drivers Assessment, Reasoning Screen, and Reason Test” (Pruijt, 2013).
Success Drivers Assessment is carried out online as the initial stage of the assessment step. It comprises of a multiple-choice test with basic questions most of which are related to the success of the business. However, they are of three types in respect to the three divisions of recruitment mentioned previously. Reasoning Screen test is also carried out online and it comprises of reasoning tests that have basic questions with logical answers. In addition, there are mixed questions where some have multiple-choice answers and others are open questions that require numerical calculations. Lastly, reasoning test is carried out upon passing the above two tests. The test is an in-person interview acting as a preliminary face-to-face interview (Beiske & Murray, 2007).
The recruits proceed to the initial interview stage upon passing the second step. At this level, the HR department is optimistic about the candidate and now has to get to know the behaviors of the candidate. In additional to behaviors, it is also fascinating to get to know what actually makes this candidate tick and past real life accomplishments. On the other hand, the process is done ethically because the candidate is given an opportunity to learn about the company by seeking information from the interviewer. The initial interview stage is a good move for the company. Ensuring two-way communication with the candidate enhances confidence building as it reduces threat responses in the mind (Appelbaum, 2011).
The fourth step is the Final, which is the final step of a candidate proving his or her suitability. From the initial interview, the company knows the behaviors of the candidate and above all past achievements with reference to nature of the background. However, there is no elimination at the third stage because the interest of the company is to get to know the behavior and make a decision on whether the candidate will be hired. The main interest at this level is to get to knowing deeper the skills and capabilities of the candidate. The process takes place in a face-to-face mode, thus giving candidate an opportunity to understand the company’s; culture, values, and career growth opportunities. If the candidate did well in the third step, one can hardly fail at this step (Bohlander, 2009).
Your Offer and Future is the fifth step of the recruitment process. The main responsibility of the HR at this step is to congratulate the candidate who has proved having a lot to offer. The candidate is allocated a supervisor who oversees the probation and training process. At this stage, the employee has profound knowledge about the company and the area of working. For the company, it is time to reward the employee after receiving much from him or her and the established mutual relationship is expected to last to the end of the contract so agreed.
Analysis and Diagnosis
The above five steps process is the only method of hiring at P&G and has proved to be effective from the past valuations. I went through the process and though it was humiliating, it was worth taking for the benefits of the company. It is one of the toughest selection methods that companies can adopt because it is highly rewarding to both the company and successive candidates.
It does not pose any ethical, legal, or practical issues to the managers because it provides channels of proving suitability as per the requirements of the company. In addition, online application limits chances of unethical issues from taking place. For instance, everybody can freely do the online tests irrespective of gender and race without biasness. There are adjustments that need to be made to the process especially those that would make it accommodative to disabled persons such as the blinds.
Performance Appraisal
At P&G, a performance appraisal program is regularly done in nearly every month. However, it is an informal program carried out by departmental heads. There is a monthly meeting for departmental heads who deliberate on the performance and production processes of the company. The discussions on various matters are always based on an informal performance appraisal assessment carried out at the departmental levels by supervisors, employees, and managers. This is evidenced by various changes that are either proposed or implemented immediately after the meetings (Bird, 2013).
The assessment of performance appraisal always conforms to the company’s goals and objectives. This implies that evaluation of individual performance must be in line with company’s goals and objectives. In addition, there are legal issues to consider when carrying out the process especially those stated in the company’s policies. For instance, the company’s policies state that P&G does not discriminate employees on the levels that make an individual vulnerable.
To ensure reliability of any performance appraisal carried out in the company, recommendations are approved during the departmental meetings before proceeding to the managerial meetings to seek approval. The move aims at ensuring that all relevant authorities approve change implemented in the company. However, the most common changes that are carried out at departmental levels include; labor rotation, individual training, and holding of seminars and workshops that aim at enhancing performance. These are considered minor changes and, therefore, do not require any approval from external officials (Bird, 2013).
In addition, trait is the most commonly used method of performance appraisal assessment at P&G. The method is directly linked to the personal character of an employee in relation to the performance in the company. From the third step of the hiring process, the company acquired knowledge of the employee’s personal behavior and that forms the basis of assessing the performance of the employee. The method is essential since the talent is fixed in an area where it best fits for the goodness of the company. In addition, it does not negatively affect the company’s policies since it is based on talent searching in relation to the individual’s behavior. Concerning the above reasoning, the method does limit the organization’s ability to foster diversity and operate effectively in a multicultural global marketplace.
Analysis and Diagnosis
Performance appraisal program is informally carried out but has well communicated goals. The ultimate goal of the company is to maximize shareholders wealth, and the best strategy for realizing it, is to ensure maximum employees’ contribution and smooth production process. There are many individuals that are responsible for carrying out the program. They always keep watch on the performance of the organization as a measure instrument of its reliability.
The process is generally acceptable, and has no illegalities to the stakeholders. It is carried out for the benefits of the stakeholders, and those responsible for implementation are supervisors and employees. Looking into pros and cons of the process, basically it is essential for the company at large since every progress needs monitoring so as to ensure smoothness. The only problem is that it is informal, thus not all employees are included in its execution.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Based on the process of employee selection at P&G, the hiring process is good for the company since it ensures that highly productive candidates go through the process. The goal of the company is profit maximization that can only be achieved through ensuring that employees are highly talented. On the other hand, one would recommend that they give a chance to the disadvantaged candidates who cannot do online assessments such as the blind through offline interviews and application channels (Appelbaum, 2011).
Today’s job market comprises of youthful people who were born earliest in late 1970s, and they are more used to rapid feedback system. Concerning this, it is essential to carryout appraisal programs that enhance rapid feedback to the problems raised. This should be the same as the recruitment process that is done using modern technology through online applications. This will ensure that employees do not suffer threat response, which deters them from performing effectively as they mind about their job securities (Eisenberger, 2003).
Moreover, it would be advantageous for the company to adopt a formal performance appraisal. This would enable employees to perform effectively as they are fully aware of the process. In addition to the process being formal, the individual employees should be rewarded whenever they positively contribute to the growth of the company. This would help in motivating, retaining the innovative, and talented employees.
Reflections
Given a chance to oversee the day-to-day running of P&G Company, I would ensure that I formalize the performance appraisal as well as adjust the recruitment process. This would help the employees to be fully aware of the process and reduce chances of threat response that deters employees from performing perfectly. In addition to this implication, employees would feel to be a significant part of the company and eventually it would be easy for the company to retain them.
References
Appelbaum, S. (2011). Globalization of performance appraisals: theory and applications. Journal of Management History, 43(7), 389-498.
Beiske, B. & Murray, J. (2007). Procter & Gamble Europe. London: GRIN Verlag.
Bird, R. (2013). Performance Appraisal Program. American Business Law Journal, 50(1), 1-200.
Bohlander, G. & Snell, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources. Washington D.C.: Cengage Learning.
Eisenberger, N. (2003). Does Rejection Hurt? Study of Social Sciences, 302(56), 290-292.
Fry, R. (2011). Building Ethical, Virtuous Organizations. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(407), 5-12.
Molineux, J. (2013). Enabling organizational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management – a longitudinal case study. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(8), 1588-1612.
Pruijt, H. (2013). Employability, empowerment and employers, between debunking and appreciating action: nine cases from the ICT sector. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(8), 1613-1628.