Scribd
Upload
208 views

Chapter 1 - Individual Exercise: Additional Cases and Worked Solutions

Here are draft responses to the questions: 1. A performance management system would help the state better achieve its goals by aligning employee performance with strategic priorities. It allows for clearer communication of expectations and regular feedback to support development and continuous improvement. While the current system ensures fairness, a performance management system could enhance accountability, engagement, and outcomes. Benefits include improved service, productivity, retention of top performers, and identification of training needs. 2. A poorly implemented system risks reducing morale, trust and productivity if not thoughtfully designed and managed. Clear policies, training and oversight are needed. The HR department must have resources and expertise to support both managers and employees. 3. Upfront costs to develop the system could be offset

Uploaded by

shaikha alneyadi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
208 views

Chapter 1 - Individual Exercise: Additional Cases and Worked Solutions

Here are draft responses to the questions: 1. A performance management system would help the state better achieve its goals by aligning employee performance with strategic priorities. It allows for clearer communication of expectations and regular feedback to support development and continuous improvement. While the current system ensures fairness, a performance management system could enhance accountability, engagement, and outcomes. Benefits include improved service, productivity, retention of top performers, and identification of training needs. 2. A poorly implemented system risks reducing morale, trust and productivity if not thoughtfully designed and managed. Clear policies, training and oversight are needed. The HR department must have resources and expertise to support both managers and employees. 3. Upfront costs to develop the system could be offset

Uploaded by

shaikha alneyadi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Chapter 1 _ Individual exercise

Can you please answer the first three questions in the first case below of
the CRB, Inc. It’s an individual exercise. Spend 10 minutes in each
questions so you have total of 30 minutes to complete the exercise.

Additional Cases and Worked Solutions

Case Study: CRB, Inc.

A very small car restoration business (CRB, Inc.) is interviewing you for a position as its human
resources manager on a part-time basis, working 20 hours per week, while you complete your
degree. You would be the first HR manager they have ever been able to afford to hire, and the
husband/wife owners (Al and Mary Brown) have been operating the business for 10 years. In
addition to you, they recently hired a part-time janitor. This brought the paid staff to seven full-
time employees: a foreman who is responsible for scheduling and overseeing the work, two
auto body repair workers, a person who disassembles and reassembles cars, a painter, and a
detail person who assists the painter with getting the car ready to paint and sanding and waxing
it afterward. Al Brown handles sales and estimating prices, runs errands and chases down parts,
and envisions the future. Mary has been doing the bookkeeping and general paperwork. The
owners and employees are very proud of CRB’s reputation for doing high quality work in the
restoration of old cars made as far back as the 1930s.

CRB pays its employees based on “flagged hours” which are the number of paid hours that were
estimated to complete the work. (For example, the estimate may say that it will take 3 hours to
straighten a fender and prepare it for painting. When the auto body repair worker has
completed straightening the fender, he would “flag” completion of 3 hours, whether it took him
2 hours or 6 hours to actually complete the work. It is to his benefit to be very fast and very
good at what he does.) CRB pays the workers 40% of what it charges the customer for the
flagged hours; the other funds are used to pay the employer’s share of the taxes and overhead,
with a small margin for profit. The foreman, who does some “flagged hours” auto body repair
himself, is also paid a 5% commission on all the labor hours of the other employees, after the car
is accepted as complete by the customer and the customer pays for the completed work.

Employees are given feedback by Al, the foreman, and by customers on an infrequent basis.
Right now, everything is going well and the employees are working as a team. In the past, the
situation was less certain and some employees had to be fired for poor work. When an
employee filed for government paid unemployment compensation saying that he was out of
work through no fault of his own, CRB challenged the filing and usually was able to prove that Al
had given a memo to the employee requesting improvements in quality or quantity of work.
There has never been a formal planning or appraisal process at CRB.

Mary Brown has read an article about performance management and is wondering whether CRB
should implement such a system. Please answer her questions based on your understanding of
this small business.

1. Critically assess whether a performance management system would work for such a
small business.

2. Discuss benefits that such a system would provide for us as owners and for our
employees.

3. Explain any dangers our company faces if we don’t have a performance management
system. What could be a problem if we go with a poorly implemented system?

4. What 10 characteristics, at a minimum, should we include in a performance


management system? Explain your answer with 1-3 sentences for each characteristic
you recommend.

5. Explain how we could tie our current reward system to a performance management
system.
Case Study: Our Civil Service

A state civil service hires a wide variety of employees, ranging in pay and educational levels from
janitors and truck drivers to clerical staff at various levels and professionals in a wide variety of
fields (such as engineering, law enforcement, social work, etc.). These entry-level people report
to supervisors, who report to program managers, who report to division directors, who report to
department directors, who report to the governor. The department directors serve at the
pleasure of the governor and are charged by the governor with strategically directing their
departments to fulfill various campaign promises; the other employees take standardized tests
and are hired and promoted on a civil service, merit-based plan.

During their first year in their positions, these employees are employed on a probationary basis,
with evaluations every 90 days. After the first year, supervisors evaluate employee performance
once a year. The appraisal process is standardized, with the supervisor grading performance in
five categories: quantity of work, quality of work, effort, teamwork, and adherence to
procedure.

Due to a constitutional requirement that government employees be paid the same as


comparable private sector employees, these civil service employees are paid at the mid- range
for similar positions in the private sector. There is a seven-step pay system. Employees are
hired at step one and they receive a 5% step increase every year until they reach step six. They
remain in step six for 5 years and then are moved to step seven as a seniority bonus. In
addition, every year, if there is an increase in the cost of living, salaries are adjusted to match
the cost-of-living increase. The civil service matches the mid-range of private sector insurance
and retirement benefits. Some employees complain that they could probably get paid better in
the private sector and often leave after a few years. Other employees care about the programs
they are involved with and still other employees are grateful for the security of a government
job.

The primary purpose of the entire civil service is to administer and enforce the laws of the state.
You have been hired by the governor to examine the civil service institution and make
recommendations to improve its responsiveness to the public. You want to recommend
implementation of a performance management system and have requested a meeting to
discuss your recommendations. You are anticipating that the following questions will be asked,
and you need to draft some good responses before the meeting.

1. Critically assess whether the state needs a performance management system.


Discuss the purposes such a system serves and explain whether it would be better
than the current system. Explain advantages of implementing a performance
management system for the employees and for our state.
2. Explain any dangers of poorly implementing such a system. Evaluate the potential
effect of such a system on the human resources department.

3. How much would something like this cost? Assess whether there might be some
cost savings from implementation of a performance management system.

4. Evaluate whether implementation of a performance management system would


have any impact on employee rewards, considering the constitutional mandate
that employees be paid comparably to private sector positions.

You might also like