Personnel Performance Monitoring in Modern Business

Landon Care Products is the international company that is currently at the stage of active growth. As a result, the employees in the company face pressure of a growing number of tasks and a significant responsibility for the success of the business. The person exemplifying this issue is the talented product manager, Alex Sander. He is the perspective manager with high qualifications and motivation for work. At the same time, his approach to employee performance management and the fact that Sander actually accumulates all tasks in his hands contribute to the development of scandals in the workplace. As a result, Sander himself cannot develop effectively as a leader and other employees cannot demonstrate their full potential. Also, the existing personnel performance monitoring system has not been demonstrating the potential effectiveness recently. In this way, the problems of the case study are connected to the improvement of the talent management practices in the company and the change of the personnel monitoring method applied.

Among the recommendations, the following options have been presented: to change the value model of personnel management to contribute to the development of talent qualifications and full realization of the employees’ potential and to implement a new method of electronic performance monitoring (EPM) technology based on the ethical norms of data collection. The new values of personnel performance should include the following: “trust and integrity, nature of the job, the connection between individual and company performance, career growth opportunities, pride about the company, coworkers/team members, employee development and personal relationship with one’s manager” (Anwar et al, 2014, p.1151). These solutions should contribute to the realization of the potential of the company and its staff.

The presented case study is concentrated on the discussion of the problem of talent management and personnel performance monitoring in modern business. The author is provided with the opportunity to work as a product group supervisor in a big international company. According to the case study, the issues of talent management on the example of Alex Sander, the perspective product manager at the Landon Care Products, will be discussed (Greiner & Collins, 2008, p. 1). Sander is the employee with a high potential for growth, but his relations with the supervised employees and management team in the company can be characterized by the high rates of conflicts and efforts of Sander to perform all tasks by himself since his employees are not properly qualified to guarantee the required result. At the same time, the issue of employee performance monitoring practices improvement in the company will be discussed. These two themes will become the basis of the case study analysis in the presented paper.

Talent Management in the Company

The first question that was raised regarding the product group supervisor is about the possible solutions in the sphere of talent channeling inside the Landon Care Products and the creation of opportunities for talent development there (Greiner & Collins, 2008, p. 5). The experts should devise solutions to the issue of talent development and promotion in the company in the format that would be beneficial for all the employees and management team. Currently, the talent performance in the company can be seen on the example of Alex Sander. He is a talented and qualified employee who has also demonstrated strong leadership talent and ability to control and motivate other employees. At the same time, he usually places high expectations on the staff and reacts in quite an aggressive manner in case of their failures. As for the most negative aspect of Sander’s performance model, he usually prefers to assign all the most important tasks to himself as he considers others less qualified and motivated (Greiner & Collins, 2008, p. 2). He is sincerely interested in the company and its performance, but such attitude to problems can actually hinder his potential from developing due to his overly busy work schedule. As a result, the main questions for the supervisor are connected to a search for opportunities for reduction of work pressure on Sander and the creation of conditions for more effective tasks distribution within his team. Instead of accumulating all tasks in his own hands, Sander should be provided with reliable means of sharing responsibility with his employees, which will also contribute to his growth.

This way, the main recommendations for the managers are connected with the creation of conditions for higher employee engagement in the company. It includes the discussion of twelve key factors of providing better motivation for the employees in their work, such as “trust and integrity, nature of the job, the connection between individual and company performance, career growth opportunities, pride about the company, coworkers/team members, employee development and personal relationship with one’s manager” (Anwar et al, 2014, p.1151). All these values should be shared by the employees at the Landon Care Products, including Sander. These are the values that should be used by Sander to motivate and support his employees in their work performance. On the basis of these values, the specific recommendations for staff management within Sander’s team should be developed.

Employee Performance Monitoring

Another issue that occurred during analysis was connected to the search for possible means of employee performance monitoring practices improvement at the Landon Care Products. Currently, the company is using a 360o monitoring program that includes an assessment of employees’ evaluation of each other’s performance. On the basis of this information, the supervisors make decisions about the overall effectiveness of staff performance, including the work of talented leaders like Alex Sander. At the same time, the limitation of such an approach can be connected to the subjective character of the assessment method. As a result, the employees are likely to present subjective responses affected by emotions rather than facts. For example, some employees of Sander could provide negative feedback about his performance because of their interpersonal conflicts or high pressure imposed on them by Sander as a manager. Such situation is unacceptable and can drastically affect the general well-being of the company. A more objective method of employee performance monitoring system is required to avoid possible biases.

A possible solution is the integration of electronic performance monitoring (EPM) system for analysis of personnel performance in the company. Here, the main risks for the management team are connected with the issue of employees’ privacy. The company should adequately assess the perspectives of the integration of the EPM system for systematic monitoring and collection of information about the personnel performance in the workplace. Among the privacy and ethical principles that should be integrated in the EPM system in the company, the following should be mentioned. No monitoring should be performed outside the actual employee’s workplace, meaning that restrooms, locker rooms, and lounges have to remain monitoring-free. Offsite monitoring should be prohibited; the duration of monitoring per day should be limited and previously defined; the employees should be informed about the means of their data collection and monitoring of their performance in the workplace. Finally, the personnel should be informed about the positive consequences of the EPM system integration (Moussa, 2015, p.2).

First of all, it is not acceptable to collect any information outside the workplace as this can be considered a violation of the personal privacy of the employees and serve as a factor of additional stress. As a result, their motivation for work will suffer from such a format of monitoring. The limitation of monitoring duration per day to several hours should be effective as a mean of employees’ stress prevention and optimization of the company’s costs spent on the EPM system. The employees should be provided with all the required information about the process of monitoring and data collection in the workplace to avoid conflicts. Finally, the provision of information about the benefits of the EPM system as a mean of company’s performance improvement should be considered as a measure of employees’ encouragement and engagement in the monitoring process. The workers should see that the new EPM system is not an unnecessary control option for the management and that it actually creates benefits for all sides.

Recommendations

While the recommendations regarding the ethical character of the new EPM system were discussed earlier, the question about the change of talent management model in the company should be analyzed more carefully. The supervisor should organize several sessions with Sander to deliver a message about the importance of the integration of the earlier presented values to him. The value of trust should encourage the employees to present higher results of performance as a response to the more personal and fair attitude of the manager. Sander should create conditions for the personal engagement of the employees through the demonstration of actual opportunities for career growth and develop a personal relationship with the employees in the way of contributing to their development as specialists. While the realization of these tasks may seem to create additional pressure on Sander, it will contribute to his development as a professional manager and effective leader and it will allow him to avoid the risk of doing all work by himself.

Conclusion

The discussion of the case demonstrated the relevance of the issues of talent management and personnel performance monitoring in the company. As an outcome, the perspective and talented managers like Alex Sander do not receive opportunities for professional growth and effective development. To solve these issues, it is recommended that the management of the company integrate new core values of personnel performance management connected with effective employees’ engagement and the integration of a new EPM system to guarantee the collection of objective information about the personnel performance.