6. Performance Management and Personal Development Plan

 

What is Performance Management?

As defined by Aguinis (2005): ‘Performance management is a continuous process of identifying, measuring and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization.’ Its five elements are agreement, measurement, feedback, positive reinforcement and dialogue.

 Cappelli (2008) wrote that: ‘When employees fail in their jobs, part of the organization also fails.’ Performance management aims to eliminate or at least significantly reduce this possibility. Pulakos (2009) emphasized that: ‘Performance management is the key process through which work gets done. It’s how organizations communicate expectations and drive behaviour to achieve important goals; it’s also about how organizations identify ineffective performers for development programmes or other personnel actions.’

The Performance management cycle in Hospitality Industry

The performance management cycle is an annually recurring phenomenon in which employees are evaluated throughout the year.

✅All employees go through this cycle, starting with goal-setting at the beginning of the year, followed by the monitoring of their progress, helping them develop to do better, and ending with a formal evaluation afterward.

 🎯The goal of this cycle is to develop and execute employee performance plans.

 In Hospitality Industry there are two types of Performance Indicators;

 Financial performance indicator

Non- Financial performance indicator

Financial Performance Indicator 

Performance of an organization has traditionally been measured by looking at the revenues or the profit made at the end of the year, or using key financial ratios. Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) reviewed ten different types of measurement and generalized the results into three dimensions: financial performance, business performance, and organization effectiveness. Ryan and Trahan (1999) used three key dimensions of performance, profit margin, total assets turnover, and equity multiplier. Hoque and James (2000) used a similar technique in asking managers to indicate by self-rating their organizations performance on several financial indicators. Please refer Figure 6.1, to get an idea that how our Head office checking the Organization (Marriott International) performance on every end of the month. 

Figure 6.1 - Hotel Balance Score Card 
(Confidential figures have been hidden)

If any hotel achieves their year-to-date (YTD) figures under Key Performance ("K") goal means that hotel has overall good performance. 

Non-Financial Performance Indicator 

Several research findings (Harris and Mongiello, 2001; Atkinson and Brander-Brown, 2001) in performance management are advocating an emphasis on both financial and non-financial dimensions such as competitiveness, service quality, customer satisfaction, organizational flexibility, resource utilization, and technology. It is important for performance measures to direct attention to such non-financial factors as service quality and customer satisfaction (Fitzgerald, 1991).

Furthermore, there has been an increasing recognition within the hotel industry of the importance and value of people; employees as well as guests in the service delivery process, which has led to suggestions that hotels need to develop better performance information relating to such key areas as employee morale and employee satisfaction. In addition, Harris and Mongiello (2001) argue that even though a hotel is thought of in a service context, in reality it encompasses three different types of industrial activity (rooms, beverage, and food) that exhibit different business orientations. These three orientations call for a diverse set of performance indicators. Chan (2004) reported on the use of non-financial measures in the balanced scorecard as a performance management system to support reporting on various management activities. 

How Hotel management evaluate their associates' performance?

• New Associate should complete 6month of Probation period and departmental head will be conducted one to one meeting to check and fill the probation apraisal form in order to evaluate his/her performance. (Associates, Supervisors, Managers, Departmental leaders)
• Conducting Performance appraisal on yearly basis ( All Associates,  Supevisors, Managers, Departmental leaders.)
• General Manager's performance evaluates by hotel balance score card or Hotel Financial and Non-fianancial performance. 

Employee satisfaction, performances and human resource management

 Demands and expectations of employees compared to the job they perform, the possibilities of progress, the ways of controlling their work, as well as compensation, become more and more determined and higher. The expectations of highly educated workforce, and their satisfaction with the workplace and the assignments they fulfill is a very important factor of the success of the organisation. At the same time, it is expected that the success of the organization changes along with the employee satisfaction. In order to achieve the higher dedication of employees, multi-disciplinary knowledge is required, that has to be encircled by the team of human resource experts. That means that comprehension of economy, psychology, sociology and social psychology is necessary. Boselie did the research analyzing 105 articles in the year 2005 and concluded that the relation between HRM and performances can be described with three different approaches;

•   Contingency theory
•  Resource-based approach
•  Capability-motivation-participation (Pauwe, 2009). 

How to Create your Personal Development Plan (PDP)

Personal development planning is carried out by individuals with guidance, encouragement and help from their managers, usually on the basis of performance and development reviews. A personal  development plan sets out the actions people propose to take to learn and to develop themselves. They take responsibility for formulating and implementing the plan but they receive support from the organization and their managers in doing so. The purpose is to provide what Tamkin (1995) called it a ‘self-organized learning framework’.

Where you would like to go in the short term or long term, can improve your personal development. After studying just about everything that has been written or said about personal development and success.  Brain tracy came to the conclision that the root of both is your level of Self-Confidence. Self confidence is the critical factor in everything you accomplish. Because, with the appropriate amount, you will try almost anything. Many People underachieve in their careers. Because they do not realize the areas of personal development that can help achieve mastery in any field. there is no substitute for hard work. If you set a goal make a plan, and work on it everyday, you will see personal development and progress within your career. There are no limits except for the limits you place on yourself with your thinking. Comit yourself to lifelong learning. Even if you are at the top of your field, there is always something to learn. 

If you live a goal and growth- oriented life. creating a plan for personal development helps you get a better sense of control over your life and will make you better prepared for whatever comes your way. The reason you need a personal plan is that making a plan will help you to make better decisions and remind yourself where you want to go. There are 6 core steps to follow, in order to create your development plan, 

Step 1:    Write a list of the top ten most important goals you would like to achieve.

Step 2:    Write which of those ten is the most important to you and why.

Step 3:    Write down a specific timeline for achieving your goal. 

Step 4:    Write down your strengths and weekness. Focus on about three of each and then write how your strengths can help you achieve this goal and how you plan to overcome those weaknesses. 

Step 5:    Write actions that you need to take in order to achieve your goal. These can be things you need to add to your daily routine as well as things you need to eliminate from it. Doing this will help you to achieve each goal faster. 

Step 6:    This step is to mark your progress. Write down what has been working well, what you have accomplished, what you still need to improve, and what skills or knowledge you have gained along the way. 

Examples for Employee Personal Development plan :

• X' Supervisor wants to get promotion to next level within 2years time.
• Y' manager wants to build a house within 5years time
• Z' Executive leader would like to start a bussiness on end of this year 
• M' Spa Manager wants to improve her healthy meal plan in order to lose weight. 
• L' associate wants to complete his/her work project within one month in order to get more businesses to the company.

Reference: 

Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S. (2014) Armstrong’s  handbook of human resource management  practice (13^th ed). Ashford Colour press Ltd [Online]. Available at https://e-uczelnia.uek.krakow.pl/pluginfile.php/604792/mod_folder/content/0/Armstrongs%20Handbook%20of%20Human%20Resource%20Management%20Practice_1.pdf?forcedownload=1. Accessed on 22nd May 2021.

Marriott International. (2020) HR server. Mhub [Online]. Available at https://mgs.marriott.com/. Accessed on 22nd May 2021.

Wadongo, B. & Odhuno, E. (2010) Financial performance. Key Performance Indicators in the Kenyan Hospitality Industry: a Managerial Perspective, pp859 [Online]. Available at https://repository.maseno.ac.ke/. Accessed on 21st May 2021.