Evaluation Essay on Savannah Engineering, Inspection and Insurance Company

Introduction

Savannah Engineering, Inspection and Insurance Company (SEIIC) has been experiencing difficulties meeting the expectations of its customers and problems with retaining some of its most valuable staff. This paper evaluates three approaches related to training including their respective pros and cons and proposes the best practice for training. It also assesses three current trends related to career management in light of the pros and cons of each direction and suggests service and retention best practice for SEIIC company. Lastly, the paper evaluates three current trends related to performance management and their pros and cons and recommends the best performance management for SEIIC to adopt.

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Current Environment

SEIIC company considers employee knowledge and their skills critical for its success. In the absence of human capital, the company may have little to offer to its customers. However, the company is facing difficulties in meeting customer service expectations which may push customers to do business elsewhere. Measures such as staff training, employee rotation and performance appraisal can go a long way in improving customer service. Another issue facing SEIIC is retaining of employees. Retaining employees ensures the company remains profitable for a long time. In fact, employee retention contributes to customer satisfaction and higher organizational productivity. Employees who work for a specific company for a more extended period are more satisfied than those who work for a short period. A simple practice like making employees know what the company wants to achieve through goal setting would significantly improve the company to retain its employees.

The fact that SEIIC fails to retain its employees can be costly to the bottom line and creates organizational issues such as insecure employees. Losing a middle manager may cost a company as far as 100% of his salary. The effect is more pronounced for the exit of higher positions like the senior executive. Failing to meet customer service expectations and problems with retaining of employees significantly reduce the number of customers who return to the business.

The key HRM areas in any company are training, performance management, and career management. Problems such as the inability to retain employees and meet customer needs arise from the above HRM areas. While developing a solution, it's critical to consider areas that underlie the problems. Therefore, as a solution to address issues affecting SEIIC, the answers will be anchored in training, career management, and performance management.

Approaches to Training in an Organization

The three conventional approaches to training in an organization are on the job training, of the job training and job rotation.

1. On-the-job Training

This approach of training allows an organization to train employees by letting them actually to perform specific jobs or tasks. Employees will do the chores and learn as they go. This type of training can be structured by using hands-on application together with classroom-type instruction. Also, this training becomes unstructured if the only hands-on application is used (Loewenstein & Frazis, 2016). Some of the pros of on-the-job training are immediate feedback on performance and allows swift remediation if tasks are not done to the required standard. Cons associated with on-the-job training are can slower the trainer's production and can disrupt workflow (Loewenstein & Frazis, 2016).

2. Job Rotation

It's a form of exercise that teaches employees how to carry out various jobs over time. Employees are rotated to different positions within an organization allowing them to perform different tasks unrelated to their original jobs (Williams, 2015). The pros of job rotation are reduced employee boredom, increased skill, and creation of new opportunities for employees. Also, job rotation hones in on employee interests. However, job rotation may make employees unsatisfied in their new jobs, reduce their morale if moved for an extended period and may result to disruption of workflow as employees learn new tasks or responsibilities (Williams, 2015).

3. Off the Job Training

This type of training is usually practiced in an organization that is dedicated to training. Off the job training can be done at a place either near or far away from the workplace. The situation may be a resort or a particular training area which has correctly been set aside by the company (Werning, 2012). Regardless of the case, the training area should be external to the workplace such that job-related troubles do not disturb employees and to ensure trainees devote their entire concentration to the course itself. Training may be conducted through the lecture method, PowerPoint presentations, group discussions and various suitable ways which meet an organization's needs and problems.

The advantage of the job training is that a large number of employees can be trained because the setup resembles the formal classroom. This reduces the overall cost of training per employee. The use of audio-visual method common in off the job training aids the visual medium of the brain. Also, the method is economical and economically viable to an organization because several employees will be trained during a single phase. Most importantly, off the job training is time-saving. For instance, during a training period, employees are exposed to a lot of information touching all aspects of an organization which is critical to its success (Werning, 2012).

On the other hand, off the job training has disadvantages such as increased likelihood to hinder production, deteriorating quality, may be ineffective in the actual context and it detaches employees from the workplace (Werning, 2012).

Best Practice for Training

Based on the above analysis, it could more appropriate for SEIIC to use on-the-job training because this approach will allow employees to train while doing the actual work. Rather than completely freeing them to go for training as in the case of off the job training, production would be ongoing in on-the-job training. Unlike job rotation which may result in employee dissatisfaction, on-the-job training will allow employees to retain their positions and tasks while they train.

Trends Related to Career Management in an Organization

Career management is an essential HRM practice that improves an organization's human capital. Some of the trends related to career management are performance appraisal, workshops, and personal development plans.

1. Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisal enables an organization to develop its employees' careers. When the supervisor identifies the strengths and weaknesses of an employee and discusses them with him/her, an employee's needs for development emerge (Abraham, 2014).

Performance appraisal has a wide range of benefits including documentation and structure. For instance, performance appraisal provides a document detailing how an employee performs over a period. This document may be kept in a file for future reference. With regards to structure, performance appraisal creates a structure where supervisors may meet and discuss performance with employees forcing some conversations which although uncomfortable, should happen (Abraham, 2014).

On the dark side, performance appraisal creates a negative experience. If done in a wrong way, performance appraisal creates a negative experience between a manager and an employee (Abraham, 2014). Proper training on how performance appraisal should be conducted can help with this. Additionally, performance appraisal can be overwhelming and time consuming for employees and managers especially in an organization with a large number of employees.

2. Workshops

More and more companies are offering seminars for their employees to develop their career. Typically lasting for two or more days, workshops provide a platform for matching employee's career objectives with organizational needs. In some occasions, the studios are conducted at community levels, and employees are sent or allowed to visit themselves (Moon, 2014).

The most significant advantages of workshops are the length and gaining experience. During learning in workshops, an employee sharpens his skills to become more productive to an organization. Also, because workshops last for a more extended period (2-3 days), employees get enough time to learn depending on their needs adequately. However, studios are not regular, and when one occurs, it will take time a while before the next could happen. This does not give employees a continues environment to learn (Moon, 2014).

3. Personal Development Plans (PDP)

It's a current career management trend that contains the personal development needs of an employee along with the course of action to be taken to achieve those needs. Thus, the management encourages an employee to analyze his/her weaknesses and strengths (Guit, 2016).

The pros associated with a personal development plan is that the welfare of all citizens becomes the primary objective of an economic system, there is minimized wasteful competition, employee wages are controlled by the state and reduced cases of industrial unrest such as strikes. Also, with personal development plans, more focus is paid to the quantity of life, for instance, health, education and poverty reduction than production quantity within the state (Guit, 2016).

With respects to the cons, personal developments plans deny producers and consumers the freedom of choice and lead to low morale due to lack of employee incentives. Due to reduced confidence, service delivery becomes poor. Additionally, it demotivates managers; the system is inflexible to adjust in case of changes which may lead to shortages. With personal development plans, the government sets prices on goods and wages which denies an organization the freedom to make choices on what to pay its employees and on what cost to sell its products (Guit, 2016).

Service and Retention Best Practice

Performance appraisal system has become the heart of every organization, and each organization is trying to assess how their employees are performing. SEIIC should adopt performance appraisal to assesses the strengths and weaknesses of employees for improvement which would ultimately enhance employee retention and meet customer service expectations.

Trends Related to Performance Management in an Organization

Although there are several current trends related to performance management in an organization, coaching, goal setting, and performance appraisal have been identified and will separately be evaluated below.

1. Coaching

Coaching has become the conventional method of managing people, but performance coaching further integrates the practice into performance management. Rather than allowing performance review alone to focus on the time and projects that are done between performance appraisals, performance coaching combines long-term goals development and assessments (Gullette, 2015). With a career objective in mind, often coaching is done by managers who use a more hands-on leadership approach hoping to develop employees' skills. This is encouraging owing that most employees would want to stay with their current employers if they knew their career path within an organization.

Coaching facilitates training. For instance, if an old employee is selected as a coach, he/she becomes a "go-to" person for new employees. In case confusions or hiccups arise, the coach guides through the process making it easy for new employees to adjust to the environment within an organization. Additionally, coaching acts as a sense of achievement. A coach will always acknowledge the work of employees and advice where necessary. An employee will always look forward to hearing encouraging words from his coach which will boost his mo...