Performance Appraisal; Shaw\'s Department Stores

Performance Appraisal; Shaw's Department Stores

The Management Survey Results provides information regarding the bosses and employees opinion of a performance appraisal system. Shaw's wishes to obtain information regarding the level of staff interest into a comprehensive performance appraisal system. If there is a lack of interest in the appraisal system, then Shaw's will forego the investment. The company wishes to enhance the skill set of its staff and yield a competitive advantage via delivery of a superior customer service experience to the consumer.

The first question ascertains whether the supervisor feels the appraisal system will aid the assessment of employees' performance. The response rate of 58.3% for 'Very useful' indicates that performance assessment is viewed positively by the majority with 41.7% indicating the appraisal system to be 'Fairly useful'. 100% agree the appraisal system will aid the assessment process and to improve employee performance.

The second question ascertains whether the retail employees will benefit from the performance appraisal system. The response rate of 100% for 'Yes' indicates that retail employees are best utilized under Theory Y managerial and leadership practices. Performance management rewards Theory Y workers whilst motivating Theory X workers to improve and adapt to Theory Y attitudes.

The fourth question ascertains how a performance appraisal will benefit the staff and provides a selection of choices. The responses are listed below in order of response rate (%).

Identify any training needs (100%)

Help to improve customer service (91.7%)

Discussion of employee's role and responsibilities (83.3%)

Agree employees' objectives (83.3%)

Enable staff to meet company objectives (83.3%)

Review employee skills and competencies (75%)

Improve sales techniques (66.7%)

Identification of career opportunities (66.7%)

Allow for objective comparison among staff (41.7%)

The fifth question ascertains how often a performance review should be conducted with individual staff. The majority response is for 'Annually' with the response rate at 58.3%. 41.3% believe the review should occur every six months, or biannually. 8.3% believe the review should occur every three months or semi-annually.

The annual performance review enables a full calendar year to evaluate employee performance. In terms of financial and performance data, the annual review provides four quarters of data regarding employee performance. The data may be deseasonalized to determine the employee's true performance during the period. Deseasonalization enables the removal of low effort sales results, such as holiday season and the like.

Question six ascertains aspects that should be covered during a performance review. Setting employee targets and Discussion of individual achievements against set targets received a response rate of 100%. Identify any individual training or development needs received 91.7%. Assessing individual skills, attitude or behavior received 83.3%. Discussion of store or organizational performance received 58.3%.

Each received a majority vote indicating that each aspect is considered relevant during the review. The setting of employee targets and the discussion of individual achievements against set targets are the most important aspects followed by the identification of individual training or development needs.

Question seven asks to what extent does one agree with the following statements.

Have time to carry out appraisals effectively

Require additional performance management training to conduct appraisals (retail staff)

Performance appraisals are a paper wasting exercise

Being informed to the advantages/disadvantages of performance reviews

The majority 'Agree' (66.7%) that they have enough time to carry out appraisals effectively, with 16.7% 'Disagree' to have the time to do the same. 45.5% 'Disagree' that they require additional performance management training in order to conduct appraisals for retail staff whilst 36.4% 'Agree' to require this additional management training. This finding is important to the point of additional performance management training as a dichotic need within Shaw's.

75% 'Disagree' that Performance appraisals are a paper wasting exercise with 25% chose 'Strongly Disagree'. Indeed, performance appraisals are recognized by the staff and management as a necessary process improvement initiative that can stabilize and growth the organization via its current staff and operations.

The same percentage 'Agree/Disagree' regarding wanting to be informed about the advantages/disadvantages to performance reviews. The response rate of 36.4% is then offset on either side by a 9.1% response rate for 'Agree' and an 18.2% response rate for 'Strongly Disagree'. Therefore, the majority response leans toward wanting to be informed about the advantages and disadvantages of performance reviews.

Performance appraisal reviews are considered to be of the norm at Shaw's, with 100% responding to 'Yes' for receiving performance appraisal reviews. 50% responded to their bosses assessment of their performance as 'Extremely fair and 50% responding as 'Reasonably fair'.

Question ten ascertains whether performance has improved as a result of the interview. ae's or 75% responded 'To some extent' with 16.7% responding 'To a substantial extent' and 8.3% responding 'To a slight extent'. The 75% response is indeed a positive sign of the interview's capability in improving performance. The structured interview methodology enabled results to the point of yielding a 100% response to improving performance at least to some extent, such as a 'slight extent (8.3%).

The employee questionnaire provides critical information regarding the employee opinion of whether the performance appraisal system would benefit Shaw's Department Stores. The employee response was all female (42) with (45.3%) as Full-time employees and (54.8%) as Part-time employees. Additionally, (33.3%) have worked for Shaw's for less than 1 year whilst (50.0%) have worked for Shaw's for less than 10 years.

Of the 42 respondents, (78.6%) are Sales Staff and (21.4%) are Supervisors. This ratio equates to approximately 1 supervisor per 3.7 employees. The ratio also suggests a level of autonomy in the sales employee as the supervisor may not always be in a position to supervise each employee accordingly. (71.4%) of the employee respondents understand their job responsibility 'A lot' with (14.3%) responding 'A little', and 'some' responding (11.9%). The total that responded 'Don't know' and 'some' equal 6, which is 14% of the aggregate response rate. Indeed, there is room for improvement.

The employees feel either 'Very satisfied' or 'Fairly satisfied' with regard to the level of influence in carrying out their work responsibility. These responses collectively constitute the majority and aggregate to (92.9%). (97.6%) are happy with the level of influence in their job detail whilst the same percentage 997.6%) feel motivated to do a good job in their current role.

(71.4%) feel that the company is training its sales staff 'Very good' and at least 'Fairly good'. However, (19.0%) feel the training is 'Fairly poor' and (9.5%) feel the training to be 'Very poor'.

(83.3%) are 'Very happy' and at least 'Fairly happy' with the training received in the company. However (16.6%) responded as being 'Not very happy' to 'Not at all happy' regarding their training experience with Shaw's. Indeed, training again has been revealed as an area for concern with regard to how employees feel Shaw's is handling this critical organizational area.

(78.6%) of employees whom responded feel the organization is 'Very good' and at least 'Fairly good' at providing Customer Care Training. (76.2%) responded to 'Very good' to 'Fairly good' with regard to Retail Skills Training. Regarding Career Development, (59.5%) responded 'Very good' to 'Fairly good' with (45.2%) responding 'Fairly good'. However, (35.7%), greater than 1/3rd responded with 'Fairly poor'. (83.3%) of employees feel the organization is 'Very good' to 'Fairly good' at providing Health & Safety Training.

When questioned about discussing their training and development needs with their supervisor/manager, the employee response indicated that (28.6%) discuss training and development needs 'Very often' to 'Fairly often'. Disturbingly, (71.4%) responded with 'Not very often' to 'Never'. This is in contrast to effective performance appraisal system management. The lack of communication between management and the employee indicates the lack of a scorecard and training/development linked system to correlate performance with skill set development and training initiatives.

When questioned about whether the supervisor/manager provides guidance to help improve performance, (61.9%) responded with 'Yes, frequently' and 'Yes, occasionally'. (38.1%) responded with 'Yes, but rarely' and 'No, never'; and again, lack of communication. When questioned about satisfaction regarding career opportunities at Shaw's, (59.5%) responded as being either 'Very satisfied' to 'Fairly satisfied'. (40.5%) responded as being 'Not all satisfied to 'Don't know'.

Performance Management: (54.8%) of respondents indicate that their supervisor discusses their performance 'Very often (at least monthly)' to 'Fairly often (at least quarterly/yearly)', (45.3%) responded with 'Never'. (59.5%) believe the performance discussions to be 'Very useful' to 'Fairly useful'. However, (40.5%) believe the performance discussions are 'Not very' useful. With regard to the aspects of work or performance discussed, (78.6%) responded with 'No' regarding Personal Objectives regarding work responsibility. The response for Department/Store Objectives was 'Yes' (52.4%) and 'No' (42.9%). For job role and responsibility, (69.0%) responded with 'Yes'.

Conclusion/Summary

The literature review established the importance and relative benefit of instituting a performance appraisal evaluation system within retail. Notably performance appraisals can assess sales staff and can define ways to improve customer service and increase upselling (Mohr 2011). Additionally, appraisal systems enable "objective comparisons among sales staff" (Mohr, 2011) and "can enhance the firms' reputation" (Mohr, 2011).