Example of report on working with and leading people

(Course No.)
(City & State)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The management of resources in organizations either in form of workforce or physical resources needs in depth level of understanding in evaluating, choosing and organizing. Human resources management is entitled with attracting, training, assessing and rewarding employees while overseeing the organizational mandate and objectives. Tesco is a customer oriented company that seeks to absorb and develop employees. Its baking departments are carrying out a rigorous process to select the best employees, train, motivate and oversee their career growth and performance. Through performance appraisal and management, it seeks to design a performance management strategy, employ performance evaluation tools and use a shared approach of governance to achieve its objectives.

INTRODUCTION

This report is dedicated to Tesco Company and seeks to highlight the important factors, procedures and mechanisms for selecting a new role of a baker, leadership and management skills applicable and ways of integrating the new member into teams and working groups to enhance productivity and business success. Tesco is a customer-oriented business that specializes in grocery products and services. In order to continue its market dominance of more than 30% in the UK and deliver high quality services, it needs to conduct an all-round analysis of the operational and technical aspects involving recruitment and selection, leadership and motivation, team work and performance management. This report will provide an in depth analysis and provide recommendations of what needs to be sustained and improved in the company.
Effective team building is an essential aspect of human capital that ensures optimum production and an ambient working environment. Interaction of individuals in a team leads to exchange of skills, opinions and ideas that shape the way work is executed and communication is relayed. Employees working on a team feel motivated and their interaction of their various expertises reduces boredom of doing the same thing over and over again while enhancing efficiency. Through team work, a new employee in the baking department will learn and develop new skills while introducing new ideas into the group that were non-existent.
Goals are better achieved from a team point of view than from an individual basis. Berian an in-store bakery manager at Tesco employees the effectiveness of a team in ensuring that products are available at the shelves by 8. 00 am. The team effectively delivered according to the goal by employing a shift breaking mechanism to sustain increased product demand. As such, it affirms the fact that team building and operation is effective than individual operation.

SELECTION PROCESS

Tesco aspires to recruit and develop good leadership qualities for its staff, administrators and managers in tandem with the business philosophy to “ We believe in treating each other with respect, with everyone having an equal opportunity to get on, ensuring Tesco is a great place to work”.
Employee selection is the process of putting the right persons into the right job. The process involves matching the organizational requirements with the employee skills and qualifications. Effective selection is considered successful when the right people have been chosen into the right job. Selection of the best candidate is crucial because the organization will drain maximum and quality performance from its employees and enhance productivity. Moreover, employee inefficiencies and absenteeism will be minimizing thus reducing employee turnover. Frequent entry and exit of employees in an organization only serves to taint the name of the company as well as institute many legal battles from disgruntled employees that were termination. The organization will also save time and money required for the rigorous processes involved with selection and recruitment.
The process of employee selection and recruitment takes place in a series of steps. After laying down the minimum eligibility criteria and receiving application documents, preliminary interviews are conducted to eliminate unqualified candidates. Aspects of concern in this stage include skills, academic qualification, family backgrounds, interest and competencies. A t this stage, the candidate is given the chance to prove his knowledge of the company and the kind of business it involves in. In our case, new employees are required to identify the products and services produced by Telco and identify the job profile of a baker.
The next stage involves filling of the application blanks detailing their age, qualification and reasons for exiting the previous job. Written tests are administered in the third stage and may include aptitude, intelligence, personality and reasoning tests. Formal interviews are conducted to find out the suitability of a candidate to a bakers post. Because formal interviews are costly to the company in terms of money and time, it is important to conduct them in the most sincere and proper manner without biasness. The interview venue should be free of distractions to cultivate an honest communication environment between the candidate and the interviewing panel. Finally, other essential requirements such as medical examinations and state/government regulations are conducted to ensure compliance. Since the post of a baker involves handling foodstuffs, this process is of critical importance because it eliminates risks associated with employing unhealthy employees against laid down regulations.
In order to build an effective team capable of delivering according to the set goals, effective leadership is required. The management team should be well versed with effective management skills to steer employees towards high productivity and success. Managing starts with the process of outlining the goal or motive upon working for. Management team should clearly craft the goals of the organization and lay down strategies towards achieving them. This involves clearly communicating the business objective to the team members.
Further, the management team should posses’ good analytical and evaluation skills that will help point out relevant skills for a certain task. This is followed by task allocation and delegation to right individuals in the group. Every individual in the group should contribute to the attainment of the stated goals through thorough execution of the task allocated. The bakery manager should allocate duties to employees according to the working conditions and experience. New employees will be allocated duties apart from product critical processes which require experience. Equipments that may inflict injury to the user may be left with experienced employees as new employees learn to use them.
Other qualities that management team should posses in respect to managing employees include good listening and communication skills. Employees feel valued and appreciated if they know their concerns and suggestion will be considered. Listening managers understands employees better and are able to point out if there is conflicts or disagreements between coworker or with the management.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LEADERS AND MANAGERS

Berian is a store manager at Tesco and leads a team of 17 employees in exploring ways of improving productivity to meet the increasing demand witnessed since bakery expansion. In leading the team, Berian manages its production capacity to ensure that the product is of the highest quality and is available at the shelves by 8 o’clock. His management technique is of democratic kind since he engages employees in finding a solution to the problem. The approach seems to work because the responsibility is delegated to the employees for achieving the desired result under his leadership.
Stephen on the other hand is a manager of 20 departmental managers under which each manages around 300 employees at a medium size Tesco store. For the more than 10 years he has been with the company, his leadership style has enabled him rise through the ranks. He allows his managers to make their operational decisions but comes in when a critical activity occurs. At such instances, he takes full control to ensure prompt and coordinated response.
Martin uses a different kind of approach in managing his employees. His authoritarian kind of leadership applies when he requires an urgent activity in a limited timeframe. For instance when he requires a budget to be reduced quickly in order to manage costs Martin will dictate what needs to be done and how it should be done within a specified period of time.

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Employee motivation is an aspect of rewarding employees for their hard work and cooperation. When planning a major stock reduction exercise for instance, the manager asks employees for opinions and strategies of achieving the same. This increases team creativity and motivation as members take it upon themselves to find solutions. As a unity is fostered as cooperation and productivity is doubled.
Once the targets or the objectives have been achieved, the manager may further reward them by offering monetary incentives. This may include salary increase, allowances, and discounts among other. Other innovative activities that managers might come up with include job promotions. Hardworking employees who satisfy promotion requirements may be appointed to be the head of the team. Other team members will be challenged to put more effort in the team in order to get the same privileges.
Other motivational acts accorded to well performing employees include appreciation, recommendation and appraisals. Employees fell valued when they are commented for their efforts and strive to achieve more. The managers should cultivate a habit of appreciating performing employees no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Appreciation puts the employees on the heart of the company and realizes that they are part of it instead of the mere act of working for it.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Tesco managers desire to develop employee skills through constant evaluation and training. The best tool utilized for this purpose is a performance management proposal. Training and development is the field that is concerned with organizational activities aimed at improving the performance of individuals and groups in organizations. The three primary aspects of employee skills development include training, education and development. Training is focused upon and evaluated in the performance management proposal against the job that an employee currently holds. For instance, in training and evaluating a new employee in the baking department reference is made to baking particulars.
Education activity focuses upon the job positions the individual may hold in future. This may include team leadership training, managerial positions and even directors and chief executive training and mentoring as the employee climb the ranks.
Development activities involve those activities that the organization employing the individual partakes in the present or future but is almost impossible to evaluate. Training and development comprise of cooperation from all the quarters in the organization. Specifically, they include sponsors and senior managers, business planners, line managers and participants. Line managers are responsible for coaching, resources and performance evaluation.
A performance management system is comprised of a number of stages that when included, add value to the organization managers and bakery staff. Evaluating and appraising performance is one of the components and it is done with partnership from ongoing communication processes to derive value and clear expectations of the job role and responsibilities.

The plan will entail;

– Developing a means of coordinating bakery department so that the aims and objectives of every individual are clearly outlined.
– Establishing a method of providing regular feedback to employees in a way that promote motivation
– Inform employee development plans and strategies
– Devise a two way communication mechanism that allow employees to have a meaningful input around their roles and responsibilities

Devise a mechanism for managers and team leaders to work with staff to identify, diagnose and solve the problem.

The employee development process takes place on a three phase plan involving pre-plan, design active and post-plan.
Fig 1 Integration of results, processes and relationships in managing employee skills

Results

Process Relationships
In order to ascertain the success of the performance management plan, the leading considerations include;
– The design and planning of the Performance Management proposal is completed to timescale
– An individual evaluation tool is produced to be used for individual groups
– Shared approach of governance has been delegated and is proven to work.
Fig. Employee Skills Management plan

CONCLUSION

The report has successfully outlined the aspects of recruitment and selection, leadership and motivation, team work and performance management in relation to Tesco and specifically the post of a baker. Employee selection and recruitment takes place in a series of steps. This includes interviews, filling of application blanks, formal interviews and medical examination. The paper has outlined the differences between managers and leaders. Leadership involves the process of influencing, motivating and inspiring people to perform certain tasks to meet objectives. Managers organize human capital and physical resources to attain business goals and objectives. Finally, it has shown that motivation and performance management is essential for developing employee skills through constant evaluation and training. It has recommended ways of motivating employees that includes monetary and non-monetary incentives. Likewise, it has highlighted the difference between a leader and a manager with specific examples on team leader skills and team member skills. Finally, the report has highlighted performance management plan including a performance appraisal.

References

Armstrong, M., 2010. Essential Human Resource Management Practice,. London: Kogan Page.
Beardwell, J. C. T., 2010. Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach. London: Pearson Education.
Taylor, F. W., 2007. The Principles of Scientific Management. s. l.: Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.
APENDIX
Baker’s Personal details
– Fluency in English and any other language
– Minimum of three to five years experience as a baker in a busy commercial company
– Diploma or degree in Food Nutrition and Dietetics with a major in Pastry arts
– Experience in variety of cakes and or loaves production
– High proficiency and dexterity in scratch baking, pastries, cookies, cakes, rolls, breads and muffins
– Experience with modern digitally controlled computerized bakery machines
JOB DESCRIPTION
Bakers post will require;
– Overall responsibility in performing and measuring, mixing, cutting, molding and baking utilizing various devises and procedures
– Helping production managers with inventory
– Training and assisting coworkers in proper production of cakes and bread
– Maintaining clean sanitary conditions in the working areas
– Safely operate and sanitize all bakery equipment in the recommended manner
– Monitor cooking completion times and set heat and humidity temperatures for proof boxes
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
– Tell me about yourself
– What are your strengths and weaknesses?
– Why did you leave your previous job?
– Let me know about a period when you assisted resolve a misunderstanding between coworkers
– How do you handle it when the boss is wrong?
– Describe a hard decision you ever made with the help of your superiors
PERFORMAMCE APPRAISAL