Managing Performance GCSE level

Managing Performance

Answer 1:
There are various benefits that can be achieved by using performance management in organisations. The major benefits include:
 The focus of performance management is on the results rather than the behaviours and activities. As a result, those employees who do not make a major contribution towards the achievement of organisation goals and pretends to be busy can easily be identified.
 It helps in aligning the organisational activities and processes to that of organisational goals and there ensures the better accomplishment of such goal (Performance Management: Benefits and Concerns 2011).
 It helps in motivating the workforce of the organisation in terms of optimising incentive plans to specific goals, creating transparency in the process of goal achievement etc.
 It also helps in improving the managerial control by ensuring transparency in all the activities undertaken within the organisation.
Two methods that can be used for performance management are:
 Balance Score Card: This has been an important method used by companies for managing the performance. There are four major perspectives that are included in this method of performance management such as customers, financial, internal business process and learning and growth perspective (Performance Management – Various Steps, Methods and Benefits 2008).
 Six Sigma: It is another important performance management method used by businesses. It helps in identifying any problems that causes bottlenecks in performing the processes of organisation in a most effective manner (Embracing Six Sigma Approach to Business Performance Management 2011).
Answer 2:
The employees have a right to a grievance procedure and they need to set out their grievance in writing and also needs to send a copy to their employer (Statutory grievance procedures 2011). With respect to the appeals procedure, employees too have a right to grievance procedure. Employees can raise appeals on any number of grounds which can inconsistency, new evidence or undue severity (Appeals 2011).
The important benefits of grievance procedure are discussed as follows:
 It helps in providing a safety valve as the good relations between the employer and employee depends upon belief rather than the terms of pay hours or the working environment.
 A grievance procedure is very much helpful for the employees, as it guarantees them a fair shake by providing them the opportunity to directly appeal to the top level management of organisation (Lawson 2005).
The benefits of having an appeal procedure for the employees are:
 Appeals enables the employees to raise their voice regarding the working conditions without having any major impact on their jobs and also helps in obtaining a fair level of hearing from the top management of the organisation.
 Any kind of discrimination with the employees on the grounds of caste, colour, creed, race, gender, age can be solved in an effective manner through the appeals procedure (Baldwin 1991).
Answer 3:
In order to prevent a successful claim of unfair dismissal, the two most important things that the company should do are:
• Seek advice from the workplace relations lawyers, as they have the better knowledge to handle such types of issues effectively.
• The ongoing concern with the employee performance should be clearly discussed and the employee should be given a chance to respond, so as to arrive at a definite solution for such unfair dismissal (Unfair Dismissals – how to prevent claims 2010).
The two main reasons for the dismissal of employees from the organisation could be:
• The inappropriate performance of the employee in the organisation as expected by the top management could be one of the reasons for dismissal of employees. This may be due to lack of skills or knowledge on the part of employees to perform the job in an effective manner.
• Redundancy can be another important reason for the dismissal of employees from the organisation. Redundancy implies a type of dismissal, when there is no further need of employee at work. This may be due to introduction of new technology or the dismissal of a particular unit of the organisation, so that a particular position may no longer require to be performed in the organisation (Fair reasons for dismissal 2011).
Answer 4:
A contract of employment is very much essential for a varied number of reasons. Some of these include:
• For ensuring the protection by both the parties of the contract. At the time of recruitment of employee, there are various promises being made to the employees concerning their pay, bonuses, appraisals in the organisation etc. Similarly, employees are also expected to maintain the privacy regarding the important aspects of the business. In order to protect all such promises, a contract of employment between both such parties is very much essential (Contracts of Employment 2005).
• Such contract helps in preserving a relationship between both the employer and employee. As the contract requires both the parties to comply with all the policies and procedures, it ultimately results into the creation of relationship between both the parties.
• Such employment contract also helps in protecting from the occurrence of any kind of discrimination at the work place which could be on the basis of race, colour, caste, creed, sex etc.
• Such contract act as a guiding factor for dealing with any particular issue in a most effective manner. The decisions based on the principles and policies of such contract are to ensure equity and fair treatment with both the parties involved in the contract (Workman 2011).
Answer 5:
The relationship between employer and employee is very much crucial for the success of the business. There has been a high need for having an efficient relationship between both of them for ensuring effective performance of all the functions of business. There are various reasons for having an effective relationship between both of them. Some of these include:
• The disputes between the employer and employee have been ever increasing because of the gloomy outlook. As a result, it is not only the business activities that are suffering, but also results into a huge loss to both the parties. This is the major reason for maintain harmony between the relationship of both the employer and employee (Jillpell 2011).
• The existence of relationship between both of them would result into a creation of good working conditions for the employees by the employer and it results into the better performance on the part of employees. It will ultimately contribute towards the overall growth of the organisation.
• Having a better employer-employee relationship would contribute towards various other factors positively. Some of these include increasing sense of belongingness among the employees, improved loyalty as well as team work between them, reduction in the level of absenteeism, improvement in productivity etc. All these will significantly contribute towards the achievement of organisational goals in a most effective manner (Thilakasiri 2011).
Answer 6:
Direct discrimination implies the discrimination when the decisions taken by an organisation are not on the basis of merit; rather they are based on various other factors such as sex, age, religion, colour etc. Such type of discrimination is obvious at workplaces and as such, they can easily be spotted. In simple words, it implies treating less favourably to one person in comparison to another in similar type of circumstances. On the other hand, indirect discrimination implies certain policies and procedures that appear to be unfavourable for any of the group but in practice they involves certain kinds of discrimination to which, only certain kinds of people are able to comply with. In simple words, it implies the policies and practices that can only be able to comply by higher proportion of people at the workplace (Mann 2010).
There are certain circumstances that lead to the acceptance of direct discrimination. For instance, the difference in the pay of employees is considered to be a direct discrimination as such discrimination involves comparison between the racial groups, sex etc. However, employer justifies such circumstance of difference in pay for white and black by saying that one group is far better than the other. On the other hand, indirect discrimination can also be justified on the ground that they are difficult to trace. For instance, the policy of minimum height requirement between the whites and blacks can be difficult to prove and its acceptance is highly guaranteed (Palmer and Poulton 1987).
Answer 7:
It is essential to have an equal opportunity policy in place as it will encourage all the employees to contribute their maximum effort towards the accomplishment of organisational goals. In addition to this, there are various other advantages of having an equal opportunity policy at workplaces. Some of these include:
• Better Work Environment: Having an equal opportunity policy will help in the creation of better working environment for the employees, as they feel highly valued and contributes their maximum towards organisational goals.
• Equal Employment: The systematic disadvantage that the minority group has in the application process to an organisation can be eliminated by having an equal opportunity policy (What Are the Benefits of Equal Opportunity Policies? 2011).
• Services: The application of equal opportunity policy will make it illegal to deny the use of any types of services.
• Protection of Employees: The existence of equal opportunity policy at workplace would also help in the protection of employees from any kinds of discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, creed, sex etc.
Because of having so many advantages of having an equal opportunity policy, it is considered essential that every organisation should have such policies in operation so that employees of the organisation can be motivated to perform their best for the sake of organisational goal (What Are the Benefits of Equal Opportunity Policies? 2011).

References
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