Performance And Engagement Management

Introduction

For an effective organization, performance management and engagement are vital aspects, since it is the basic process via which functions are accomplished. It is a top priority of any manager since it is regarded to be a vulnerable point of organizing the staff. However, there have been several conceptions that organization’s accomplishment organization process aid employees in revamping the relationships as well as consequently their attainment. The organization of the human resource is premised on the concept that the success of the organization originates from the capability to extract a higher degree of compliant staff commitment to collaborate impartially, rather than competing on product or price-quality.

The connotation is that what actually matters is the method unto which staff members decide to initiate their roles, and importantly, the breadth of ‘unrestricted effort’ they are ready to exhaust. In the Beauty salon industry, the business in recently booming and becoming a relevant culture influencing how clients care for their beauty, appearance and well being. Their relevance at the community level has rendered them to be the most competitive business, relying on the competence of the employees and the service offered, which are the capability of relationship and human affection. Basically, individuals are the soul of any salon, or rather the greatest assets and are vital to its success and at the same time the greatest challenge. This report seeks to review the recent manner of performance management in regards to theory and practice while assessing the method unto which various management capability and practice as well as character influence effectiveness in promoting the relationships with employees and their betrothal.

Analysis and Findings
Background Information

Trend Beauty, hair and nail salon is a full-service salon that is committed to customarily offer high client satisfaction by assimilating excellent service, furnishing, quality product as well as a delightful atmosphere at a considerable price and value relationship. It also maintains a fair, friendly and creative work surrounding, which respects ideas, diversity, and drudgery. The full services the business offers is hair services such as colors, cuts, relaxers reconstruction, weaving, perms, conditioning, perms and shampooing, body and skin care entailing massage, body waxing, European facials, nails treatment such as pedicure, manicure, sculptured nails and polish and spray tanning.

The salon has nine employees, who are professional and competent beauticians and hairdressers who have supported the salon to be a great potential for the last year and a half. They have managed to develop a large client follower, through hard work and commitment, leading even more flow of clients leading to its tremendous growth. However, its competitors who are offering to steal away the employees and offering them higher incentives threaten the business competitive edge. Irrespective of the higher incentives, those salons have poor performance management. It is a common challenge in the salon business, that Trend Salon focused its attention on its system and explored methods to improve employee performance (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes, 2002). One of the methods that were undertaken was employee engagement as a propeller of heightened performance.

The business manager is aware that the current’s competitive business surrounding, modes of operation are changing and a company requires to adapt to the rate of adjustment. According to Gruman and Saks (2011), success in salon business is hard to come by as the market progressively compete for the limited clients, so the capabilities and skills of the employees are the main aspects of concern. In this business, its success also depends on the attitudes, morale, energy, and happiness of the employees, thus the Trend Salon has made sure that it does not ignore the wants and needs of its nine employees.

Management of Employee Relation Process

Employee relation process or procedures are those agreed by the management to regulate the manner in which management handles certain business relations and employment processes as well as issues. Most informal employee relation processes that the Trend Salon adopts are outside the framework of business recognition, collective bargain as well as dispute resolution, and takes place continuously. Armstrong and Taylor (2014) depicted that it takes place when the employee is dealing with an issue in contact with the hairdresser or beautician and the issues may entail the method of work, allocation of responsibilities, working conditions, health and safety, overtime, discipline or remuneration-by-results scheme in functions, capable of creating progressive arguments concerning times, standards, re-timing, payment for waiting time or when carrying out contemporary tasks, quality targets and standards, and vacillation or abatements in salaries because of purported managerial inability.

Within the Trend Beauty, hair and Nail Salon, the employer has to handle daily grievances soaring from the above-mentioned matters and she is expected to resolve them to the satisfaction of all the nine employees and the clients that will be directly or indirectly involved and without involving a formal grievance procedure. Shen et al (2009) identified that the thrust for devolving responsibility to employees has heightened the encumbrance on an employer who operates a small business where there is no line manager for Human resource matters who can steward and represent the staff and handle employee relations efficiently. So for effective operations of the salon, the employer will have to establish a working relationship with the employees, by appointing the most effective one to be the steward who will represent the rest of the staff, thus enabling settling of arising issues amicably antecedently they evolve into a dispute.

Effective employee relations’ efforts promote mutual respect and trust among the staff and the employer. According to Muller (2017), those environments where the staff has confidence in the employer’s motive and acknowledge the work they undertake, basically posses higher commission rates. Several studies have progressively been undertaken have indicated that increased engagement has always led to increased productivity. For that reason, the salon and any other company of any size consider employee relation a vital aspect in fostering positive productivity and for the growth of the business.

Managing employee relations basically entails all the fields of Human Resource Management that entails general relationship with the workforce. It can be in form of policies and procedures for the staff engagement and communication or formation of trade unions. It is as a result of increased diversity of the workforce that calls for progressive adjustment of the HR policies and practices. While the practice of managing employee relationship has been perceived to be challenging, conflicts of any form and size are inevitable (Blyton and Turnbull 2004). But they can be overcome by developing sound interpersonal and conflict management skills among the heads of the Human Resource Management departments.

Trend Beauty, hair and Nail Salon has for a while been undergoing difficulty distinguishing between the classification of independent employee, who are paid on commission in regard to the number of clients served on a daily basis. For that matter, even a slight oversight by the employer has on most occasions led to costly mistakes. According to Blyton and Turnbull (2004), there are three common policies that employers apply to determine the right and effective legal business relationship to establish with his or her employee(s). The policies analyze factors such as whether the business owner has any control over how the employees undertake their responsibilities, how the employee is compensated and whether the contract of employment was signed. For that matter, there is four recognized type of employee relationships, and they include; statutory employee relationship, independent employee relationship, statutory non-employee relationship, and employee relationship.

Independent Contractor Relationship

An employee who is independently contracted by an employer has been identified in several companies such as tech organizations to be not considered to possess any form of employer-employee relationship with the company. The reason behind is that the contractor carries out services for an organization, where they provide all their personal supplies and tools and are not susceptible to any form of employment contract. For that matter, the employer is not responsible for paying or withholding any taxes for an independent contractor. It is to mean that the independent contractor is paid after delivering the expected service, which could be adopted in the Trend Beauty, hair and Nail Salon.

Statutory Employee Relationship

While common law treats statutory employees as independent contractors, Armstrong and Taylor (2014) claimed that they can be treated as employees by statute as it pertains to employment taxes. But for the relationship to work, some criteria have to be met such as carrying out services on a progressive basis for the employer, possesses a service contract conveying that all services are supposed to be undertaken by that person and does not possess a significant individual investment in the tools and equipment applied to undertake the services. This is the form of policy that the Trend Beauty, hair and Nail Salon has employed to ensure delivery of services to its clients. In most cases, conflicts arise, since the business (employer) decides what the employee ought to do, and they are expected to fit in. Thus, conflict arises when the employer exercises power by asserting rules and on the other hand employee refuse to cooperate and do as they please.

Statutory Non-Employees Relationship

Statutory Non-Employees are people that are treated as self-employed as long as they undertake their job description and responsibilities under a written contract that states that they will not be treated as employees, and they are compensated for total service delivery or total sales and output against the number of hours worked in a pay period depict Banach (n.d). This policy has been identified to be quite effective in Sales and Marketing industries and it is being adopted in various service delivery businesses according to Gennard and Judge (2005). Trend Beauty, hair and Nail Salon has partly employed the policy by remunerating its employees in accordance with the quality and quantity of service delivery in a day. The relationship between the employer and the employee is eased as various responsibilities are outlined from the first day of contract signing. Banach (n.d) adds that the effort the employees put is measured on a daily basis and remunerated, easing the conflict that arises from delayed salaries.

It is to say that the objective of the employee relation policies is to maintain a good relationship with other staff and the employer. Thus it is vital for the salon to develop a cooperative and constructive employee relations’ climate, effective management of the activity process, the control of labor cost as well the development of an engaged and committed workforce.

The Nature of the Relationship between the Employer and the Employee

In the Trend Beauty, hair and Nail Salon, the policy guiding the employee relationship is that of a statutory employee relationship, which is basically about the pay-work bargain- the agreement made between the employees and the employer. Basically, a number of employees including that of the Trend Beauty, hair and nail Salon simply needs employees who will do what they are told without costing a lot. Employers need commitment and engagement. On the other hand, Holley et al (2011) argued that employees want to depict how much they want to be remunerated, how their work is organized and the terms and conditions of employment. It is to mean that employees want good working conditions, the scope to raise and resolve grievances, a healthy and safe working environment and security of employment. It is to depict that conflict of interest are inevitable between the employer and the employees, and they are resolved by the different employee relations processes or styles such as authoritarian, paternalistic, consultative, constitutional and opportunistic management of employee relations.

The approach that the Trend Beauty, hair and nail Salon adopted is that of an authoritarian employee relation management, a typical style. Purcell first coined the style back in the year 1987, describing it as a distinctive set of guiding dogmas, written or unwritten, which affix guidelines to and emblem for management action in the method the staff is dealt with and specific occurrences are taken care of. An authoritarian form of conflict management in the Trend Beauty, hair and nail Salon entails that the relations of the employees are not respected unless there is an adverse event that has taken place, such as health issues that might affect the productivity of the business.

Further, the individualism dimension characterizes the management style that is adopted by the salon business. According to Purcell (1987), the dimensions is the extent to which personnel is focused on the capabilities and rights of every worker contrary to collectivism dimension that depicts that the management policy is focused towards restricting and fostering the development of collective representation by the staff and allowing them a collective voice in management decision making.

Lowry (2016) assesses that the two dimensions have been associated with the form of policy employed in a business or an organization, where businesses that have been identified to focus on both dimensions have thrived in the employee relation management style. It is by employing line managers and team leaders who are largely responsible for daily conduct of the employee relations.

Employee Engagement and performance Management

The theory of staff commitment is quite broad, and researchers and corporations, have defined it in various methods. Camardella (2003) defined it as the employee involvement, communication, and commitment, which are essential aspects of employee engagement. As asserted by Catrin et al. (2014), it has been identified that engagement is vital for new businesses provided the several challenges that come with being new in a market. The Trend Salon has managed to attain its competitive advantage via employee engagement. Among researchers, they have identified that engagement is that main driver of a person’s attitude, character and accomplishment and organizational performance, retention, shareholder’s returns, productivity, and financial performance. According to Zaw (2016), it has been identified that among recent hundred firms from various industries, the 25% of those firms had a higher engagement index resulting to higher returns on assets (ROA), profits and multiply the stakeholder value when in comparison to 25% of the firms at the least level.

It is viewed that employee engagement is the contrary pole of debility. It is the forceful expertise of embroilment with individually fulfilled functions that promote a person of a staff with a sense of professional adequacy and regard it to be made up of connection, energy, and competence (Poplis and Rizvi, 2015). It is also the conceptual antagonistic of exhaustion but perceives these creations as autonomous juncture with antithetical frameworks that must be calibrated with various tools. It is regarded that staff commitment is a beneficial fulfilling, activity-pertained state of consciousness that is symbolized by dedication, vigor, and assimilation. Assimilation, in this case, is also regarded to be a crucial element of commitment. It is crucial to note that is completely absorbed in an activity comes near to what is referred to as ‘flow’, and the difference is found in the actual sense that inasmuch as commitment is a continuous activity state, progress is extra intricate approach that entails evanescent optimal acquaintance that is likely to happen exterior of the activity (Gruman and Saks, 2011).

In essence, as elaborated by McAfee and Champagne (1993), employee engagement is a bizarre effort over the consciousness and the heart that depict emotional and rational obligation. It is the passion that an employee possesses to expand the unrestricted effort to aid the employer to success. This kind of commitment is an essential part of a salon business that is conceptualized as devotion to commit energy for the achievement of the business. It contributes to career satisfaction and employee engagement.

As affirmed by Endres and Mancheno-Smoak (2008), employee engagement to be attained, communication is essential in attaining an ideal engagement stage. As confirmed by Endres and Mancheno-Smoak (2008), managers and supervisors over and over again communicate with great engagement staff members when compared to low engagement staff members. It is an individually embroilment and pleasure in addition to an enthusiasm for their roles at work. So the high the involvement activity practice emphatically influence on employee commitment.

Model of Performance and Engagement in the Management of ER

The Salon business is quite unpredictable in which variables change according to a season, clients and trends of the beauty, nail and hair service provision. So the model unto which was found to be quite applied consisted of a series of exertions such as accomplishment objective setting or agreement, facilitation or performance monitoring, performance feedback, and appraisal, not leaving out improved performance that all rely on the management of the employee relation.

Note: Arrows circling the model depict the engagement management process. Dotted projectiles depict the drivers of the staff obligation.The figure indicates the commitment Management Model the Salon applies. The framework starts with accomplishment consensus, outlining how the staff members are usually awaited to attain. An extraordinary characteristic of the framework is that the criterion of the activity and its correlated objectives and accomplishment pointers are susceptible to the consultation so that to promote agreement.

The second section of the model is the engagement facilitation. According to Gruman and Saks (2011), it focuses on the design of the job of each employee, leadership, and supervision, coaching as well as training so that the staff is aided and facilitated in the growth of engagement. Performance, commitment, evaluation and response rivets on the notions of certainty, and fairness as the drivers of obligation. Each of the earlier element augments to the staff engagement that is linked within turn an improved employee performance.

Conclusion

The management of the human capital in such as Salon business setting is the top priority of the owner of the business. Basically, the approach that the manager focuses on is on the staff obligation, performance and the quality of the service. The evaluation of the staff accomplishment is the management of the performance; the entire management process encircles all the business’ policies, design, practices that connect to yield employee performance. Employee relations are a construct of approaches, procedures and methods that are adopted by the employer to deal with the staff either collectively or individually, an in the case of the salon setting, the employer has integrated an adversarial and individualized human resource management. Relying on a statutory employee relationship, the business is capable to engage and perform in provision of quality services to its clients. The climate of a business represents the perception of management, the staff and their representatives concerning the manner in which employee relations are undertaken and how the different parties, that is, the manager and employees behave when dealing with one another. Therefore, integration of the Purcell (1987) management style of authoritarian can and cannot be effective without associating it with other management styles such as paternalistic, where more positive attitude towards the staff is adopted.

Recommendation

The concept of employee relation, performance management relies also on the assumption that the staffs are supposed to undertake tasks linked with their jobs. Efforts to deviate from outlined objectives connected with these jobs fit into the middle level in the usual accomplishment organization process. Notwithstanding, another form of outlook on the accomplishment organization acquiesce for the assignments and roles linked with particular activities to alteration. Despite the fact that deluging goals entail the requirement for harmonized activity, there are several deluging objectives that will allow hierarchical integration according to Markos and Sridevi (2010). Productive performance management can draw in acknowledge staff members to possess a voice in the course, in any case, with respect to the evaluation they experience. This may also call for employees being given a platform to dictate their job design, the assignments, as well as the roles supposedly undertaken. Undertaking such activities, will foster mental essentialness and promote obligation by exceptionally granting members of the staff to come with their actual selves towards duty fruition.

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