SNHU Appraising Performance at Precision Caes Study Discussion

In preparation for this discussion, read the assigned chapters, including the case study “Appraising Performance at Precision” in Chapter 3. Then, answer the following questions:

What are some problems with Precision’s performance appraisal process, and how might these problems cause challenges for Jackson’s implementation of a merit pay program?

What changes do you recommend Precision make to the performance appraisal process in order to align it with a merit pay program?

Appraising Performance at Precision

Discussion 

Precision Manufacturing produces machine parts and has nearly 200 production employees and 50 employees in its front office with responsibilities ranging from data entry to marketing. Jackson Smith is the new compensation manager at Precision, and his first task is to implement a merit pay program that would tie to the company’s performance appraisal process. For the last 10 years, all employees have received an annual pay increase, but it has been an across-the-board increase, with all employees receiving the same percentage increase in base pay. Jackson and the company president have agreed that implementing a merit pay program to provide pay increases based on performance would support the company’s competitive strategy by rewarding employee productivity.

The first step in developing the merit pay program is to ensure that the performance appraisal process aligns with the proposed program. The purpose in implementing the merit pay program is to provide employees with pay increases as a reward for performance, and, therefore, effective measurement of performance is essential. Jackson must now review the current appraisal process to ensure it will tie to the proposed merit pay program.

The current appraisal process is fairly simple. Once each year, the supervisors at Precision provide their employees a written performance appraisal. The supervisors use a generic form to conduct their appraisals, and the same form is used for all employees. The form asks the supervisor to rate the employee on a scale of 1 to 5 in four areas: quantity of work, quality of work, attendance, and attitude. Once the form is completed, the supervisor meets with the employee to share the results. Both the supervisor and the employee sign the form, and then it is placed in the employee’s personnel file.

Jackson’s initial research on the appraisals has brought several concerns to his attention. First, employees do not have written job descriptions that clearly state their performance expectations. Further, his review of past appraisals suggests that the supervisors tend to rate all of the employees about the same. Very rarely is an employee rated exceptionally high or low; most are rated as average. Finally, it seems that employees and supervisors communicate very little about performance. Aside from the one meeting a year to deliver the performance appraisal, the supervisors tend to talk to employees about their performance only if the employee is having a problem.

Jackson knows he has a lot of work ahead of him to create a performance appraisal process that will provide a reliable assessment to support a merit pay program. First, he must clearly identify the problems with the current performance appraisal process, and then he must lay out a plan to correct any deficiencies.

2-1 Discussion: Precision Performance Case Study

Rachael Mancuso posted Mar 29, 2022 9:53 PM

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There are several problems with Precisions’ performance appraisal process. Firstly, the employees do not have a documented and carefully thought-out job description that identifies their performance expectations and job duties. Second, the employee reviews are on an annual basis and have generally been rated an “average” rating for the entire labor force with no discussion in between. The supervisors “use a generic form to conduct their appraisals, and the same form is used for all employees” which does not differentiate between levels of employees and different job descriptions (Martocchio, 2017, p. 74). This does not promote open communication between supervisor and employee, nor does it encourage desire for improvement in job performance or job satisfaction and growth. Finally, the average rating across the board for the labor force, may create tension between high-performing employees and low-performing employees and create dissatisfaction with the overall appraisal process.

In order to create a merit pay program that aligns with the performance appraisal process, Precision Manufacturing and the new compensation manager, Jackson Smith, must work together to clearly define job roles, descriptions, and expectations. Employees must be fully aware of their job description and how their appraisal is being determined throughout an open communication system. An effective performance management system should entail the following criteria: strategic congruence, validity, reliability, acceptability, and specificity as described by Noe et. al (2021, p. 341). Together these will create an ideal performance management system. The system must be able to rely on the organization’s strategy, goals, and culture to emphasize contributions. It also must be able to overlap job performance and the measure of job performance to create acceptability. The process should be reliable over time throughout similar job descriptions and performance measurements based on a consistent evaluation or measures of success in that role. This should be based on a fluid scale as expectations may change based on differences in the business but also create uniform and reliable performance appraisals. The employee should be able to accept the performance measures given and be able to accept being evaluated on such measures. The specificity of the performance management system allows employees to know what is expected of them in their job role and how they can meet the structural expectations effectively. This will help create an open communication line between supervisor/employer and employee, building trust through tough discussions and ongoing feedback, while optimally providing employees with clear expectations and direction to correct poor performance without having to be counseled. To align with a merit pay program, the previously discussed guidelines for creating an optimal performance appraisal system can lead to additional compensation such as incentives and bonuses, and create motivation for future job performance and internal promotions.

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Amanda Calimese posted Mar 30, 2022 11:13 AM

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Hello,

In the case from Chapter 3, we see a new manager Jackson Smith at the company Precision that is manufacturing machine parts. Jackson is currently a new manager in the compensation department. He has a task to implement a new merit program. He has some ideas in mind, but some of the implemented ideas seemed incapable of providing a positive merit program for the employees’ of Precision. For the following questions, I will dive deep into performance appraisals and how they could be a good tool to determine what merit programs could use and how we could improve what suggestions were already made.

• What are some problems with Precision’s performance appraisal process, and how might these problems cause challenges for Jackson’s implementation of a merit pay program?

There are multiple problems with the Precision’s performance appraisal process. One problem they are facing is the employees’ not having a written job description and in the activities to promote non discriminatory of the performance appraisal process it is “conduct job analyses to ascertain characteristics necessary for successful job performance” (Martocchio, pg. . It is important to have a job description to know what their expectations are to behave and perform their jobs. Rating 1 to 5 based on the behavior standard called the BARS is appropriate due to the nature of it being soely based on the job performance.

Another problem is the employees never being rated normally higher than average so why is that? It is solely based on the rating scale and process they use. Unfortunately, whether their score is low or high the employees deserve to know their ratings and why and it helps them improve their behavior and performance. It becomes generic and does not allow any room for employee retention and or engagement. We need these tools to improve the company as well (Martocchio & Pearson, 2016).

• What changes do you recommend Precision make to the performance appraisal process in order to align it with a merit pay program?

There are changes that could be recommended to make Precision’s performance appraisal process align with a merit pay program. There are types of performance appraisal plans that could be a great fit for the merit programs. The one performance appraisal plan is the trait system which is defined as “ask raters to evaluate each employee’s traits or characteristics” (Martocchio, pg. 60). Only this could be presented with a job description due to the nature of not knowing what work to truly reflect on. Trait systems are considered one of the top systems to use for being easy and these are becoming very common in companies. Another recommendation is for Precision to consider a new job analysis as well so employees are able to base themselves off the tasks they are expected to present in and out of work. There has to be support from supervisors as well. They are the ones that present the performance evaluations. The office of Financial Management sets up a plan for supervisors including being prepared, avoiding surprises, being specific, etc. (Office of financial management, 2010).