Introduction
Mary Smith, the firm’s new chief accountant, seeks advice from the HR manager. She worries about coaching an underperforming manager named John Miller. John’s plan for improving productivity should focus on raising self-discipline and team organization. The driver of improvement should be the internal motivation of the employee. Additional employee training helps demonstrate loyalty, build a strong reputation, and create a trained professional team.
The Importance of Setting Performance Expectations
Setting employee expectations is a mutually beneficial process for employees and management. Firstly, the same evaluation criteria help quickly understand employees’ effectiveness and adjust plans (Otoo, 2019). In addition, the definition of expectations becomes a convenient reporting document for personnel management. Employees can also benefit if the company has clear expectations for each role on the team.
Employees can strive for self-improvement through continuous professional training (Otoo, 2019). While setting expectations from employees is a favorable policy, managers must try to maintain its effectiveness. Ensuring that the expectations are appropriate for the position and do not violate labor and ethical laws is necessary. It is essential to set precise, achievable, and relevant goals.
John’s Performance Management Plan
John has demonstrated competence in the application of basic accounting principles. However, other competencies required for the position have not been achieved. These include lacking communication skills, failure to meet internal policies, and lack of organization and motivation. John cannot organize teamwork and has a high absenteeism rate. The first area that needs improvement is self-discipline; the second field is communication skills and the ability to organize the team’s work. These two areas need to be addressed, as John is familiar with the central area of work, while his soft skills require changes.
The first step in self-discipline should be to increase intrinsic motivation. It is necessary to meet with John, during which his development goals, priorities, and career desires will be determined. It is necessary to convey that achieving his goals is possible by improving his self-discipline (Peng & Lee, 2019). John will be given a checklist to improve his skills within three months. Upon reaching each item on the checklist, John needs to demonstrate the changes that have taken place. The specific result will be an improvement in his ability to coordinate tasks, specific indicators of accounting work, and the number of visits to the workplace. If John fails to complete the checklist, he may face the threat of being fired.
Addressing the second area will build on the collaborative work of John and his team. The first step is to identify needs and evaluate feedback from John’s employees. Then, it is necessary to convey to John the violation of the moral and ethical code (Eva et al., 2020). John also needs to submit his plan for improving team communication for evaluation. John’s process will be evaluated by collecting feedback from employees. The concrete result of the improvement will be indicators of team collaboration. John can be accused of violating the code of ethics if the goal is not achieved.
At the final meeting after three months, feedback from John will be required. He will have to demonstrate a change in self-motivation, complete a self-discipline checklist, and reflect on improvements in communication. The feedback from his subordinates, the performance of the team, and John’s personal experience will be ways to recognize progress. The next steps might be to improve John’s communication plan and to include expanded criteria for showing team performance in the overall score.
Conclusion
Even though John fulfills the basic requirements of his position, his soft skills are not sufficiently developed. Performance interventions should be based on improving self-discipline and organizational skills. Addressing these goals by increasing John’s intrinsic motivation and involving him in the improvement process is necessary. Evaluation of the effectiveness should be based on the re-evaluation of critical indicators and the internal feelings of the employee.
References
Eva, N., Newman, A., Miao, Q., Wang, D., & Cooper, B. (2020). Antecedents of duty orientation and follower work behavior: The interactive effects of perceived organizational support and ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(1), 627-639. Web.
Otoo, F. N. K. (2019). Human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance: The mediating role of employee competencies. Employee Relations: The International Journal, 41(5), 949-970. Web.
Peng, X., & Lee, S. (2019). Self-discipline or self-interest? The antecedents of hotel employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(9), 1457-1476. Web.