Managing Employee Secondment

Negotiating Work Plan and Performance Expectations

Question: 3

A meeting is arranged with the garden product manger in order to determine the skills and expertise of Kim in doing the new job. In addition, it is also important to identify the degree to which, Kim will be able to learn the new skills. In this case, I consulted with the manager of Kim due to the reason that he will have the most idea about the performance and effectiveness of Kim. I started the conversation with the manager of Kim by causal discussion in order to create a friendly atmosphere with him. This helped me to build a rapport with him and gather the most authentic review about the performance of Kim. I also asked the manager about any achievements of Kim in terms of his performance.

I also conducted with Kim in setting the performance expectations. Kim was consulted due to the reason that it is important for me to have the understanding about the expectations of Kim and to what extent it can be fulfilled and vice versa. I tried to be friendly as much as possible with Kim in order to have the deep insights about his expectations from the new job. It is identified by me that he will able to fulfill the expectation of the new job and he is also communicated about what performance is expected from him in his new job position and he agreed.

Question: 4

Me: Hello Sir, Good Morning!!

Manager: Good Morning!!

Me: Could you please describe your position description?

Manager-. Yes, I will describe so. The job is about assisting the customers and in buying hardware and homeware products. In addition, additional jobs related to sales will have to be looked after by Kim. He is also communicated about the fact that he will be required having proper knowledge about the products and he should be more focused to the requirements of the customers. The description of the position is given to Kim in order to make him aware about requirements associated with the job.

Me: Is the job description communicated?

Manager: Yes, it is. The job description is also communicated to Kim to determine his attitude towards the job. In addition, I also tried to examine the effectiveness and skills of Kim by asking various technical questions. I also tried a simulated situation where he has to sell a product to me. This helped me in understanding about the aptitude of Kim in relation to the given job role.

Meeting with Managers

Question: 5

Me: Hi, how are you? Let’s describe how performance is measured?

Employee: Yes, It is also communicated to Kim about how his performance will be measured. It is discussed that sales revenue and units will be considered as one of the most common performance indicators. This refers to the fact that performance of Kim will be determined by the number of units being sold by him in a quarter. The more will be his level of sales, the more will be his performance. On the other hand, the performance objectives will be determined based on the average performance of the same level of employees and also on the level of performance of Kim in his first quarter. This is important due to the reason that if the performance of Kim is not up to the mark then his performance objective will be revised and vice versa.

It is noted that the performance objective of Kim will be to contribute 2 percent of the sales of the branch. Thus, the performance requirement of Kim will be measured and calculated accordingly. It is also discussed with Kim that the set target for him will be gradually increased with the increase in his time span. It is also identified that Kim will be given a 10 days job training prior to the start of his job. This will help Kim to have the better idea about job to be done and he will be more equipped in his new job role.

KRA	Activities/goals	Measurement/KPIs	Accountability/dependencies
Financial	To achieve the financial target of revenue given	Sales revenue per quarter	Will depend on the potentiality of the market and emergence of undue incidents
Internal process	Will help in mentoring the junior employees	Average performance of the department	Will depend on the attitude of the other employees
Customer focus	Will be customer oriented and will have the visionary skills in dealing with the customers	Determination of the level of customer satisfaction	Will depend on the attitude of the customers and service providers from different departments

Code of conduct is also discussed with Kim in order to provide the idea about the standards that he should have to maintain in the workplace. This code of conduct includes dress code and honesty and ethical values to be considered. This is important due to the reason that Kim will be inducted in the sales job and he have to deal with the customers directly. Thus dress code will determine his attractiveness towards the customers. In addition he should also be considerable about the honesty and ethical values in dealing with the customers without having any biasness and external influence.

Question: 6

Risk	Risklikelihood	Risk impact	Controls	Monitoring	Timelines	Responsible
Personal risk	Moderate	high	Looking after the welfare of employees along with their health	Determining the health of employees	Every quarter	Sales manager
Compliance risk	Moderate	High	Monitoring the activities of the employees and the extent to which they are following the ethical standards.	Determining the feedback of the customers	Every quarter	Sales manager

Answer to question 4

The issues that are faced by the organization are due to lack of sales revenue and customer satisfaction. The performance management team must take steps to develop appropriate systems to develop working conditions of the workforce. On the other hand, amending positive workplace culture among the organizational framework will be helping the business in enhancing the operations of the same while operating as per the objectives. The key changes that are undertaken by the businesses are based on the identification of the issues that are faced by the employees. Therefore, the companies might undertake feedback systems in order to identify the issues that are faced by the employees. On the other hand, the reward and recognition programs helps in boosting the morale of the employees and thereby empower the same in fulfilling their individual; targets for the growth of the organization. The organization might also take session and training of the customer executives in order to induce qualities of suitable handling of the customers. It will be helping the organization in maintaining the efficacy of the functions and strong customer relations.

Identifying Risks Associated with Secondment

Question: 5

One of the major features of performance management measurement process is the goal setting process. This refers to the process of setting up the goals and objectives for the employees in accordance to the organizational situation. The goals and objectives of the employees are being set on the basis of the performance of the employee in the previous quarter. In the current mode of performance management in the organization, goals for the employees are being set according to the previous of the employees. Another major feature of this performance management system is feedback generation system. This is helpful due to the reason that gathering of the feedback from the employees are helping in changing the approach of the human resource management strategies. This is also helping the upper level management in having the idea about the issues with the employees.

Another major feature of the performance management system as now is provision for the performance appraisals. This is also beneficial due to the reason that performance appraisal is important in motivating the employees to perform better. This is also determining the performance of the employees in the long term. Monitoring and development program is also included in the performance management system. This is helping in having a continuous process of evaluating the performance of the employees and changing the human resource management approach accordingly. In addition, this is also helping in enhancing the skills and expertise of the employees. The last feature of the performance management system identified is the recordkeeping the needs of the workplace. This is helping in determining the changing needs of the employees and providing their assistances accordingly.

One of the major amendments done by me is changing the approach of the goal setting process. I have changed the process of determining the goal. From now on, the goal for the employees will be set on the basis of organizational requirement and the market situation and not on the basis of employee previous performance. This will help in having more market oriented goals for the employees. In addition, I have also changed the approach of feedback generation process as multi channel process. Thus, from now on, employees and upper level management will be able to engage in feedback generation process from different ways.

I have changed the process of the goal setting due to the reason that as of now the goal setting process is based on employee previous performance and thus their goals are not aligned with that of the market situation. Thus, the current process of goal setting is also not effective and market oriented. On the other hand, the amendments done by me will help in becoming more market oriented and achievement of the goals of the employees will help in meeting the market demand. In addition, change in the feedback generation system will help in having more effective communication process in the workplace. This will further help the organizational stakeholders especially the internal stakeholders in having enhanced connections among them and having effective decision making process in place.

1. Time and place for the performance appraisal session

Following Risk Management Plan

The time selected for the performance appraisal session is 70 minutes after the store closure every alternative work day. In the weekends, a two hour session would be held for the performance appraisal. This working time would be paid and the time (for the weekend) would be selected based on the discretion of the mutual participating groups.

During the working days, the sessions would be held in the individual stores. On the weekend session the session would be held in unison in the training room of the headquarters.

1. Timeframe and format requirements for submission of the supporting documents

The performance score card is to be submitted through an email chain addressing the justification each scoring areas. The scheduled time for this submission is 7 days. At next the documentation for the procedure and time allotment, per activity is to be submitted and the time limit for this concerned activity is 10 days. The format for the submission of the documentation of the formal training session is as discussed in the third appendix. The time allotted in 18 days.

1. Review of the performance scorecard of the employee

Kim’s performance in the probationary 6 months is far from satisfactory. She was supposed to have achieved an average sales rate of $8000 per month. Rather, her average sales recorded have been $5000 for every month. The lag of $18000 worth sales rate shows that there is acute lack of convincing and pursuing capacity in Kim. This in turn reflects that she needs further training to mobilise the sales rate. It is expected that by the end of the probationary 6 months, a sales employee like Kim should have achieved a revenue generation rate of $10000 per month.

In spite of having adept knowledge of product information, it have been identified that the employee is lacking skills of customer focus. That is why her score in this domain is 5 out of 10 which should be expectedly 8 out of 10. Kim have failed to master the point of sale strategy. She can only perform well when a customer voluntarily approaches her. However, that rate is 2 out of 10. She has seldom only persuaded an employee to purchase the products of a certain brand by convincing the certain employee.

The communication lapse seems more prominent when it is revealed that the time per transaction is also quite high for the employee. Lastly, another weak point of the employee s that she is not attentive during the training session and that is the easy why she have been able to complete only 7 training session whereas the other new joiners have completed 20 to 30 training sessions. The one day long rapport building workshop have also not worked well for Kim. In spite of showing initial interest in every sector of the job role, the employee have failed to exhibit sustained effort of knowledge.

1. Plan of the informal coaching session for the employee

Coaching phase	Notes/questions/planning
Goal and performance expectations	Initially the sales rate of the employee is to be kept low to $7000 per month. In the training session, demonstration with mock customer interactions is to be given to the employee. It is expected that with tis training session, the employee would be able to gain the desired sales rate. In case if this session is successful, then the formal plan would be laid out.
Reality of actual performance	After this session, the customer communication skills of the employee was significantly developed. She was able to initiate communication with 30% more customers, than before. However, the power to convince the customers and entice them to buy particular products was missing.
Opportunities to develop	She is able to give significant description of the individual products. However, she is not able to relate the specific products with the immediate needs of the customer.
Willingness to develop and commitment	She has realised that she has huge scope of improvement and wants to make improvements so that she can achieve the desired sales rate. She is also willing to participate in more training sessions even on non-paid basis.

1. Formal Performance development documentation

Name and position:
Manager:	Review period: 3 months

Reference from operational plan	Key result area	Indicator of success/ performance	Status report/results
Reference from 1.2	Development of entrepreneurship in developing sustained interactions.	Successful interaction with 25 customers on daily basis	Success rate achieved is 7 successful conversations out of 25 interactions.
Reference issues 2.1	Improvement of customer feedback	On an average 3 out of 5 stars form the employee	Customer feedback is 2 and half out of 5 stars from the concerned employee
Reference 4.2	Accountability to Manager ‘feedback	On a general note there should be less than 5 negative feedbacks against each employee on the verge of completion of the probationary period.	There are still 12 negative feedbacks against her performance

1. Participation session
2. Coaching session

The coaching session would be conducted mainly to help the employee to retain the dedication and the motivation level. As spotted out, the lack of dedication and concentration are the key factors because of which the employee is not able to improve at the desired scale.

1. Discussion of Performance Expectations

It is expected that the employee would be able to achieve the sales $10000 per month ales rate by the completion of 10 months at the most.

1. Establishment of the clarity and reality of the employee’ performance

Kim is much more motivated and energetic to learn new sales strategies. However, the employee is still lacking the potential spirit to converse with the customers.  

1. Recognition of achievements, attitude and positive aspects of performance

It is essential that the remarkable achievements of the employee like exceptional knowledge gain, customer support in terms of product selection and others be acknowledged. A cash bonus can be handed out to Kim to support her role.

1. Setting targets and review dates for the next performance review

After the completion of 8 months the target would be set to $8000 per month sales rate again.

1. Completion of performance management recordkeeping for HR

The HR would keep track of the performance and after the completion of the 8 months the performance monitoring and the performance based pay policy would be implemented.

Answer to question 1

Performance of businesses is specifically based on the identification of the different issues and the mitigation of the same. It helps organization ion enhancing the working conditions while operating in different economies. As per the case, recognition and continuous feedback will be helping the organization in understanding the different concerns that are faced by the employees and thereby bring forth modifications in the work process. The implementation of Intranet in the processes of Australian Hardware will be helping the organization in facilitating suitable communication and integration of the workforce. On the other hand, the implementation of consultancy sessions with the employees will be helping the management in facilitating collaborative functioning of the departments. It will be helping the business in enhancing the operations of the same as per the objectives.   The performance of businesses is specifically based on the recognition of the issues through feedbacks that are received by the same.

Establishing KPI (Key Performance Indicators) in the processes will be helping the or5ganization in contrasting the performance of the employees to the standards that are set by the same in order to achieve the outcome. The key elements of change in the organizational operations are based on the identification of the performance lags and thereby framing strategies in order to empower the employees with the aim of maximizing the productivity.  

Answer to question 2

• Equal employment opportunity- The disposition of the Equal Employment OpportunityAct 1987 in the organizational structure aimed at providing equal opportunities of being employed to all the potential candidates irrespective of their race, creed culture and the like. It has helped organizations in holding a multi- diversity workplace leading to different disruptive innovations leading the organizations to achieve competitive advantage over other players in the market.

            Requirement: The organization is required to form policies in order to facilitate equal employment opportunities for the candidates who applied for the job.

• Anti-discrimination- The application of the Fair WorkAct 2009 in the organizational operations has made it mandatory for negating different factors relating to discrimination among the workforce, which might create havoc disturbance in the workflow of the businesses. It has helped the business in maintaining their congruity while adhering to the standards and codes while treating the employees equally and avoid situations like workplace bullying and other controversial situations.

           Requirement: The organization is required to form policies against bullies and workplace harassments in order to avoid situations of controversial terms relating to diversity.

• Health and safety-The imposition of Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011  in the organizational structure has helped in enhancing the workplace health and safety conditions for the smooth functioning of the workforce as per the objectives of the business. The regulation aims at imposing different activities that might be undertajke4n by the businesses  in order to ensure the health and safety of the workers at work.

Requirement:  The organization must take steps to formulate different contingency plans in order to avoid workplace accidents that might affect the health and safety of the people.

Answer to question 3

The issues that are faced by the organization relating to the poor performance of the same might be mitigated through consultation with the operations manager of the business in case the enterprise is looking forward to consult with an internal source. The operations manager of the organization has all relevant information of the different operations that are undertaken by the employees. Therefore, consultation with the operations manager of the organization will be helping the management in understanding the situation of the business performance more vividly and thereby will assist the business in undertaking the strategies to optimize the functions as per the needs of the business venture.  

The organization might undertake consultation with an ex- manager of the business in case the business desires to consult with an outside source.  The ex- manager of the organization is well aware of the situation that is faced by the business and the manner in which the employees might be empowered in order to achieve the organizational objective. Consultation with the ex- manager will be helping the business in maintaining the efficacy of the functions while operating in diverse international markets.

Answer to question 4

I would like to undertake personal sessions with Kim in order to make the employee understand the importance of meeting objectives. The personal session with Kim will be helping me to identify the issues that are faced by the same while operating in the job role, which is restricting, Kim fulfill the performance targets that was provided by the organization.  The implementation of the Code of Meeting Practice will be most relevant legislation as per the scenario as it will be helping the management in undertaking different sessions ethically as per the legislation that is imposed by the Australian government. The different awards and recognition programs that might be provided by the organization to the e3mployees is based on the performance that is given by the same in favor of the business’s profitability. Awards relating to the meeting the targets and overshooting the objectives that are set by the organization for the individuals will be helping the management in motivating the employees.  The support systems that will be provided to the employees is through the establishment of the query and feedback department in the organization in which the employees might resolve the queries in order to maintain the efficacy of their functions as per the objectives of the business.

Answer to question 5

The organization undertakes a termination only after reviewing the performance of an employee for consecutively three months. During the three months, the management of the organization undertakes sessions with the relevant employees and thereby undertakes steps to motivate and empower the same. However, lack of performance might result to termination of the employees as per the policy that is proposed by the organization.

Under the regulation s 385 a dismissal is unfair in case the employer is harsh, unjust or unreasonable to an employee.  On the other hand, unless the Fair Work Australia is satisfied with the dismissal, the dismissal of an employee is irrelevant and unfair as per the regulations imposed by the Australian Government.