Term paper on Training and Appraisals

There is no doubt that, starting a business, every leader aims to progress and to thrive. An established enterprise is expected to be profitable and successful. Every prosperous businessman will tell you that the guarantee of success is the quality staff recruitment and the proper supervision. The staff is the basis of any enterprise, the essential factor, while the main role of a manager is to guide it. “The General might get the credit for an incredible strategy or an inspirational style, but if the battles are going to be won, you’d better have good sergeants there with the troops” (Spitzer, 162). This fact is quite logical if to examine the situation in a company. Thus people, working for you, can lead your business either to success or to a failure. That is why, your task is to do your best to choose good supervisors who will identify the needs of the business, will make certain that resources are used properly, will provide training of the staff if it is necessary and of course will introduce the performance measurement system in order to be abreast of the situation in the company and to give an incentive to the employees. The last factor is probably the most important in the supervision if only it is done properly.

Lately European pharmaceuticals-distribution group Alliance Unichem has experienced certain problems in the integration of the values and cultures of different countries which are in the group. Alliance Unichem has its warehouses in eleven European countries and the guarantee of its successful work is the amalgamation of the whole group, taking into account the peculiarities of different countries (Alliance Boots). Therefore, except of common ways of performance appraisal used in the company, the authorities decided to use a more efficient method, which would make easier the intercourse between the employees and managers. 360-degree feedback was expected to drive change and employee development and increase overall performance.

This method is based on the information about the whole personnel collected not only from the managers but from all the employees in the organization, including self-assessment. Numerous researches proved that such “multisource assessments” have a positive impact on the employees and lower the possibility of their resignation. Together with the influence of such feedbacks their accuracy was analyzed. It was found out that the duration of the acquaintance of the rater with the assessed person influences on the accuracy of the feedback. If the rater knows the person for one to three years, the review is the most accurate, while if the acquaintance lasts for more than five years the information is the least accurate. Scientists assume that the most accurate assessment can be given in the period when the rater knows the person quite well to avoid the first impression and not so long as to give a biased judgment.  The effect of the feedback depends much on the work on its results and consequently on the conclusions drawn from them.

The experience of Alliance Unichem showed that 360-degree feedback contributes to the development of performance appraisal and to the achievement of the established goals, such as the increase of individual performance, the awareness of the major values of the organization by managers and the establishment of performance quality criteria. Alliance Unichem director responsible for Human Resources stated that

“The 360-degree feedback model is a way of benchmarking that gives everyone a basis on which to develop in the future. We want to get managers to focus more on what is good for the group, as well as what is important for their country. The emphasis on a set of behaviors is vital to achieving this and the HR team is confident it is working” (Pollitt 27).

To make a conclusion, Alliance Unichem group showed by its own example that 360-degree feedback is an effective way of performance measurement and helps companies to improve the performance and to achieve the necessary goals. Thus, Alliance Unichem managed to make its managers aware of the main values essential for the integrated company and to establish certain criteria for the performance quality.



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