Developing And Rewarding Talent In An SME

Issues in Working with People

Discuss about the Developing and Rewarding Talent in an SME.

The performance delivered by the employees can make or break an organisation and its acquired success and therefore poor performance of the employees can be detrimental to the success of the company. Therefore, it is important for the organisations to empower its employees by proving growth and development opportunity apart from providing are the training and resources necessary for performing the required job. Career growth and advancement are one the key element for achieving employee satisfaction and employee retention apart from being a powerful motivator. In this essay, the researcher has analysed the case of Myriad engineering and their approach towards talent management. Recommendations will also be proposed based on the analysis.

Collings and Mellahi (2009) pointed out that talent management involves, recruitment, leadership development, succession planning and branding of HRM apart from development and managing the progression of the employees through various positions within the organisation. As it has been identified in the case study, the organisation had to focus on key talent development due to the identification of possible positions. The case study indicated that Myriad is in need for the development of key talents that would be capable of justifying the available positions and job roles in the organisation and contribute towards the growth and development of the individuals and the company altogether. The study has pointed out that Myriad has relied on the internal sources rather than the external labour market for development the key talent for filling in the potential vacant position. This is one of the best strategies that have been adopted by the company as it will potentially lead to success in the long term. The internal development approach allows enhancing the knowledge and skills inside the firm and adding to the competitive advantage of the company.

The study pointed out to the importance of the development of the capability as being the top priority of the company and the employees are encouraged to undertake additional tertiary tasks for skills. One of the most prominent methods used by the company has been the fast tracking of the potential talent to develop a strong talent pipeline and develop employees for leadership positions. Various methods were used by the company as part of the fast-tracking programs in the organisation. An example of this fast-tracking program has been personally experienced by my friends in their time working in a highly reputed information technology company in India. The company recognised the potential for development and enhancement of skills in him and thereby offered to fund some of the additional certification courses that will add to the profile of my friend. From a management perspective, these fast track programs are the employee development programs that are initiated by the companies. Considering the work of Jehanzeb and Bashir (2013), the development and fast track programs focus on the employees who have a higher potential.  In every business sector, the success and accomplishment of any organisation will depend on its employees. It is important for the organisations to have employees who are capable of adjusting to the continuously changing business environment. These programs allow the employees to be more productive (Sparrow and Makram, 2015).

Effective Talent Management

A performance review is a tool for identification of key talent. According to Levy and Williams (2004), performance appraisal is one of the most important a parts of the HR strategy that is focused on the identification of the key talents and the scope for improvement in the performance of the employees. Seniwoliba (2014) pointed out that people have differences in their skills and abilities. Performance appraisal and review is vital for understanding the abilities of each of the employees, their competencies and their relative worth and merit of the organisation. Performance appraisal in the case of Myriad would have allowed the management to choose the key talent based on their performance and related skills. This is primarily important because the efforts and performance delivered by the employees determine the success as well as the survival of an organisation.

However, on the contrary, the company despite focused on developing the key talents for the potential job opportunity failed to involve and communicate with all the employees. They did not conduct any performance management and review to identify the best potential staff, but based on the display of leadership skills to choose three of the potential candidates for the fast-tracking programs. Though the company was able to meet the ethical requirement set by the partners, they failed to meet the ethics of the organisation and the values on which the organisation has been built. Rather than focusing on the display of leadership, the company could have utilised the performance review and appraisal system to identify the key employees who are worthy of being part of the fast-tracking programs. From what I have experienced and learnt from other people is that performance appraisal is often limited as a tool used for basic review of the performance to determine the compensation and reward that should be awarded to the employees. Companies, especially in the developing countries often rely on performance appraisal for the same, however, companies like IBM, Microsoft have used this system as a platform not only rewarding for the employees but also to determine their potential growth and promotion.

Overt and covert forms are often used as discrimination among the employees. The case study of Myriad has clearly pointed out to the overt selection of the employees for career advancement and this lead to chaos and dissatisfaction among the rest of the employees. Can this be considered as the new face of employee discrimination? Overt selection for any promotion or career advancement has been based on the education, formal qualification, as well as the technical skills of the employees where the covert selection is purely based on favouritism which has been evident in the case of Myriad engineering (Cloke & Goldsmith, 2007). Kondalkar (2013) in his work cited the work of Richard Hodgetts and pointed out to the factors that reflect the potential pattern of selection of the employees in the organisation. The presence of hierarchy, specific goals of the organisation, available financial resources, skills and abilities of the employees, performance standard adopted by the organisation and the efficiency of the performance measurement indicate the overt organisational climate. On the other hand, prevalent values, attitude and norms of the organisation, personal feeling and interaction with the individual and satisfaction indicate the scope of covert climate. In the case of Myriad, the actions of the top management have raised concern over the fair assessment opportunity provided to the employees.

Fair Opportunity for Skills and Capability Development

Despite Myriad being able to provide the security needs, the social needs and the physiological needs of the employees, it failed to meet the self-esteem needs of the employees with the display of nepotism. As evident from the case study, the current organisational culture has led to the de-motivation among the staff. Kaur (2013) says motivational factors play an important role in increasing the job satisfaction among the employees and this has a direct impact on the improving the organisational performance. Higher productivity is the long term benefits that are acquired by the organisation from the employee motivation.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy theory highlights the five types of needs that are required to be activated in a hierarchical manner and this leads to the constant increase in the employee motivation. According to the theory, the organisation should be able to identify where the employees stand on the pyramids and determine the factor that will motivate the employees. Considering the case study and comparing the same with the need theory, it can be ascertained that the organisation has been able to meet the Physiological needs of the employees which are the most basic. This includes basic needs for food, air, water and shelter. Being a successful organisation, Myriad has been able to pay salaries to the employees that ensure that they are able to afford basic living conditions. They have provided a secure working environment away from any external harm or threat indicating the safety needs. The employees in the organisation feel loved and accepted by the co-workers which allow them to meet the social needs. However, with the recent selection of key talent has raised concerns over the safety needs of the employees as they have developed a sense of fear and lack of self-respect. They feel the organisation has failed to acknowledge their achievements. 

There has been a lack of trust and cohesion in the team and the same has been highlighted by the project managers as well. Lack of trust and cohesion clearly indicates the growing dissatisfaction among the employees. The motivation theory is more indicative of the behavioural responses of the employees considering the prevalent organisation culture. Sachau (2007) pointed out that Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory has always been used for measuring the job satisfaction of the employees in an organisation; it comprises of Hygiene factors and the motivators. The hygiene factors included the policy of the company and its administration, salary, working condition, status, security and supervision. Motivators include the opportunity provided for promotion and career advancement, achievement, responsibility, recognition, the value of work. As it is evident from the case study, the employees of Myriad are affected by both these factors. While the company has adopted the fast-tracking programs, it failed to consider all the employees who could be eligible for the promotion. It has raised concerns in the minds of the employees. This led to the employees questioning all the factors which constitute the motivators. They are feeling a lack of recognition and value in the organisation.

Effective Performance Measurement and Review

An organisation’s success and diversity rely on the ability of the organisation to embrace diversity and the importance of working with people. In addition, the approach of the management and the action taken by the CEO has affected the teamwork spirit in the organisation. The environment of organisation points towards growing instability and these points to the need of having a greater reliance on the teams and highly skilled employees being part of this team. For an organisation to be able to deliver higher performance and achieve its objectives, it requires the team and the team members to work effectively together through the knowledge and skills they possess apart from monitoring each other’s performance (Baker, Day and Salas, 2006). The case study has pointed out to the rising conflicts among the team members considering the decision taken by the management. These conflicts have erupted due to the management failing to meet the expectation of the employees in terms of career opportunity. Vroom’s expectancy theory holds a very important place in the motivation of the employees; it only influences the manner an individual work in a team. According to this theory, the individual behaviour displayed by the people is as a result of the conscious choices they make among the alternatives which are intended to enhance their worth and minimise their pain. In addition, this theory indicates that the performance of an employee relies on their skills, knowledge, experience and abilities (Van Eerde and Thierry, 1996). However, in the case of Myriad despite delivering higher performance for a long time, the company failed to acknowledge the same and this has increased their pain and reduced their value in the organisation. While there is evidence indicating a growing number of people unhappy with the decision of the management, including the people who were chosen as part of the key talent, there are many who remained unaffected. This clearly indicates the choice of behaviour that is preferred by these individuals and their perception of meeting their needs (need theory). While some individual attains satisfaction by meeting the three basic needs of life, others work towards achieving self-esteem and actualization.

Individual face to face communication- This is one the most common method that can be used by Myriad, however, this requires quality and accuracy of the information that is being passed to the team members (Armstrong, 2012).

Intranet- They can rely on the internal email system, also called as the intranet to communicate the opportunity as well as potential reward available to the employees. This is an effective method for all the employees have access to a computer (Armstrong, 2012).

Overt and Covert

Internal job posting- This provides all the employees with the information pertaining to career growth opportunity. This can be carried out through emails as well as posting information on the notice board and company web site.

Company website- Since all the employees’ has access to the organisation’s website which provides the details of a company’s financial performance and the potential job opening in the organisation. The company is recommended to add an additional tab for rewards to reach out to all the employees.

Internal corporate magazine- This is one of the effective means of communicating potential opportunities with the employees. Magazines are a growing part of the social life and can be used for not only appreciating the performance of the employees, but also highlighting the potential rewards earned by the employees (Turner, 2003).

Informal communication- This type of communication can occur at all the levels and work areas in the organisation. It does not require individuals involved to follow any structure or guidelines and can flow in any direction.

Training sessions or meeting- This is one of the most widely used methods by organisation to communicate any potential opportunity or changes in the rewards with the employees. This promotes two way communications between the speaker/ management and the employees.

Performance appraisal reviews- This is not only a tool to assess the performance of the employees, but a platform that allows the management to convey potential career opportunity and rewards to the employees. This is highly effective as the performance is the base of reward and promotion.

Emails- this allows the management to convey the details of any reward and opportunity in real time. Being one of the fastest means of communication it has been accepted as the first electronic communication medium in the organisation.

People, who tend to develop the feeling that their value does not mesh with the organisation’s experience, tend to show dissatisfaction and eventually leave the company as seen in the case of some of the Myriad employees (Nelson and Quick, 2009). Considering the employees who are potentially disaffected by the decision of the management clearly indicates a lack of interest from the employee’s end. It indicates that this group of Myriad employees are not interested in the developments in the company and therefore choose to perform their jobs for probably meeting the basic necessities. This group of employees needs to be encouraged to understand the importance of career choices and opportunities available to the organisation. They need to realise the importance of being part of the decision-making in the organisation.

Maintaining Motivated Employees

The climate of the Myriad Engineering has clearly pointed out to the growing dissatisfaction among the individuals. Individual dissatisfaction can lead to employee grievances which, if not resolved in the correct time can lead to unsatisfactory work, performance and behaviour, apart from adding to the adverse consequences in the competitive position of the company. Myriad employees have been overtly expressing their dissatisfaction due to the unfair decision taken by the CEO. Individual dissatisfaction leads to higher employee frustrations, low morale, deteriorating interpersonal relationship, lack of employee goodwill and loss of good staff members as evident in the case of the people in Myriad engineering (Gennard and Judge, 2005).

Conclusion

Myriad has been able to identify their growth objectives and the same has been conveyed to the employees as well, however, the management has failed to involve employees in some of the important aspects of the business that can have an adverse impact on the employees as well as organisational performance. Suresh (2011) in his work pointed out those human resources department needs to adopt a system that is driven by the moral principles, which identified what is right and what is wrong, and the motives and consequences behind the action of the department and the management. In an organisation, the management should be able to identify which is the desirable behaviour and how they use the ethical values to channelize the individual energy for the benefit of the organisation. In the case study, it is evident that the CEO took an unethical step of choosing the key talents despite having a pool of talented employees and in addition failed to communicate the need and reasons for making certain selections leading to chaos in the business. Buckley et al., (2001) pointed out that organisations are required to take a more ethical approach towards doing business. Ethics can indicate the moral judgment and the standard of the conduct in the organisation. It guides the behaviour of the individuals in the organisation. Employees need to develop the perception of justice in the selection system of the organisation. The employees tend to have a more positive attitude towards the organisational and it’s selection procedures if they perceive the same to be fair and valid. Employees need to be provided with the opportunity for being selected and despite being rejected, they should have the sense and perception of being treated fairly. This has been an error in the case of Myriad wherein the employees found the selection of the key talents as unethical and unjust.

References

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