Performance Management
As a catering manager in a hospital, my role in performance management is to handle most of the human resource responsibility in the department. The roles played will entail: identifying specific responsibilities that each employee will be expected to carry out; ensure employees have expected proficiencies, or that there is a procedure for employee to acquire them; provide timely feedback on how effectively employees are applying work skills and knowledge in order to achieve set goals; to reward and recognise performances that are exceptional; and to make sure that each employee is working independently and as a team.
Examples of SMART objectives and Performance Standards
Within two months, workers should show professionalism and managed performances. This will be achieved by the catering manager undergoing a single day attachment that would enable proper understanding of protocols concerning recruitment and performance. Catering Manager will then brief the team accordingly with a view of communicating the new expected competencies.
To improve professionalism in working with others and serving the community. There will be an informal meeting every three months to evaluate the progress. The spokesperson, who will be one of the employees, has to establish and maintain contact points for the community.
To improve worker performance in productivity and motivation within a month of setting up the objective. Performance will be measured by the catering manager at the end of every month after evaluation using a score card taken daily.
At the end of the year there should be improvement in leadership and professionalism when handling food and maintaining safety and health. This will be done by the catering manager reviewing all the risk procedures that are used for safety and health evaluation for all catering facilities within the command area.
Measuring Performance
Measuring performance of the set objectives is best measured using specific PI’s (Performance Indicators) that would show how a certain group or individual is faring in relation to the set standards (Cardy et al., 2011). For instance in measuring the community plan where workers are expected to provide service to the community, the community and life indicators will be used. In the case of individual employee performance, business management, and accountability, the performance indicator that could be best used are management, team/ individual, and information. Service plans in the catering department like meeting safety and health regulations are measured using local and service level performance indicators. These performance indicators are evaluated and analysed through formal meetings where areas in performance that require intervention are reflected upon and recommendations made. Therefore, these indicators do not necessarily produce outcomes but provide a strong basis for decision-making, identifying areas that need improvement, and in determining what information should be shared (Cardy et al., 2011)
Instances of Under-performance
In the catering department there may occur an instance of underperformance where an employee might have been recruited for a job that they were unsuitable. The unsuitability may have arisen due to the complexity of job specifics, or may require the usage of advanced technology that the worker has no skill in operating hence resulting into a mismatch between the employee’s skill and the job specifics.
In dealing with this kind of situation, the supervisor may have to discuss with the employee to understand the problem. If the performance still deteriorates, then the policy of managing underperformance will be used. An informal procedure will be applied where employee is subjected to education, therapy, and training so as to: clarify company standards; specify areas of concern; identify causes of performance; set targets; and identify a review date (Cardy et al., 2011). Review meetings are expected to be formal and in case an improvement is noticed then any action intended to be implemented is suspended. If nothing changes after 12 months of stopping the action plan then two decisions could be taken which are: changing employee to a more suitable department or by laying him/her off.
References
Cardy, R. L. Leonard, B. & Newman, B. I. , 2011, Performance Management: Concepts, Skills, and Exercises, New York: M.E Sharp, pp. 39-243
