Task 1: Business Report

Abstract
As stated in the given scenario suppose we have opened a food business that provides all kinds of
continental and desi food to customers. This is a business opened in Islamabad and therefore has a
lot of competitors. (Yeung, 1997) The business needs to have an efficient working system that can
give it a competitive edge and can provide it with the necessary tools for bringing the new company
amongst the top share in the market of food industry. (Boon, 2019) The food business will have
different departments that include Marketing, Management, Finance, Liaison, and Human
Resources. For this report we will be focusing on how to develop the human resources department t
in a way that benefits the company and brings out the maximum productivity from the employees.

Introduction
Food industry in Pakistan is amongst the most popular industries. It has a growing market and a lot
of competition that puts all the candidates on its heels all the time (Fisher, 2011). With the ever
changing environment of the business world the food industry is also highly effected by those
changes. The external factors such as the weather, economy, competitors and unforeseen factors
like the one we have seen this year that is the Global Pandemic. Due to this all food businesses have
been highly effected and no one was prepared to face this blow in the business industry. Therefore
there needs to be people in the business who are ready to take on any impacts coming from outside
or internally. This is why the selection of employees and their skills matters a lot in all the
businesses. (Osibanjo et al, 2012)

Human Resources Department not only ensures that what people come in to the business abut also
make sure that they stay motivated throughout the time they serve a company. (Wilson, 2005)
Along with that the HR department has an integral role of keeping the employees active enough to
bring out the maximum level of efficiency in the work and hence increase the productivity levels of
the company. (Yeung, 2006) This can be done using various strategies, one of which is High
Performance Working System which is known to be the most widely used in the corporate world for
maximum productivity levels in employees, the detail of which is in the essay followed by the report.

Human Resources Department

Human Resources department is more than often only associated with hiring and firing of
employees in the knowledge of a layman. However it is associated with so much more than just that.
Human Resources department is responsible for the following tasks in a company as stated by the
author in the book “HUMAN Resources in Food Service and Hospitality Industry”

1. Planning
To know what the business needs and what it requires in order to function properly and
efficiently. This is the first and most important step. As this steps requires the HR department to
gather all the information and knowledge about the recruitments and the kind of people needed
for the business along with assigning the tasks as to what is required of them. (Tannebaum,
1992)

This includes knowing what is the total number of employees needed, how much is the total
budget and what salary amounts can be given. What are the required skill sets of the employees.
What will be the tasks of the hired individuals and what goals need to be met by them in what
appointed amount of time (Wilson, 2008) And also where to find the best candidates and what
to look for in those candidates. All these questions need to be addressed and fulfilled before you
start searching for the employees of the business.
2. Recruitment

As stated in the figure above the recruitment process of any business looks like this. First we have to
analyze what jobs we are hiring for. In our food business we need cooks, waiters, culinary chefs.
Cleaning staff, manager, financial advisor, liaison officer and marketing manager. After that we will
see what the job description requires and list that for the company. Next step will be giving out
advertisements in all the places we could find potential candidates for the jobs for our new food
business. (Čiarniene,2008)

After these candidates have been selected they will be brought in for interviews and asked about the
skills they can offer to the company and to analyze what mindset they have for the company. After
that the HR department will sit along with the other departments in order to select the best possible
candidate for the job.

3. Selection and Orientation

After the employees have been selected they are given brief reviews about the company and what
tasks they will be provided with. Orientation is a good way in order for the employees to get
comfortable in the new business environment and break the ice between the recruiters and the
employees according to (Fisher,2011).

4. Training and Development

Effective training is necessary for employers to bring out the best from their employees. (Singh,
2005) This may be needed when employees stop meeting deadlines, there is a lack of motivation,
the tasks are not completed, skills are being lacked in performance, productivity is low. That is when
the HR department will conduct training and development sessions that will ensure that all
employees are working to their full capacities and giving the best from their skill sets.

5. Benefits and Rewards

The rewards, benefits and compensations are very important for employee retentions as they give
strong incentives to the people working in a company. These can include bonuses, monetary
rewards, basic appraisals, appreciations and acknowledgement. The little effort made by employers
to even commend their employees work can go a long way and bring in motivation to the
employees which will ultimately result in them working more hard to achieve the tasks they are
given and hence increasing the productivity level of the business/ company.

6. Relationship Management

The Human Resources Department is also responsible for the relationship management all across
the departments in a company. (Castillo, 2002) It is the department t which organizes team building
activities which strengthens the bonds of employees within the departments throughout door and
in-door activities. These can include in-office lunch parties, hikes with the entire team or just office
dinners in relaxed environments.

7. Termination

The Human Resources Department also takes care of the employees to be taken out of the company
whenever they are told to. (Westover, 2008) This may be a difficult task but the HR department is
responsible for taking care of the entire process, to see if they have been paid, to know if there are
any outstanding dues or any other kind of information related to an employee when they leave the
company.

Skills and Behaviors

The skills test can also be judged by the following factors which are

 Personality Attributes
 Leadership Skills
 Interpersonal Skills
 Analytical Ability

The most common ways of interpreting and analyzing the skills and behaviors of employees are
through some of the well-known test known as Mayer Brigs Personality test. This steps helps analyze
what type of personality a person has.

This test indicates whether a person has the abilities to be a leader, an analyst, and entertainer or
what else, it states all of them. This is mainly used by psychologists to analyze employees and what
kind of personality they possess and whether they are fit for the tasks of the company or not.

HR professionals may depend on personality assessments for training and onboarding. These tests
are also useful in helping someone determine what kind of work to pursue. For example, resource
pages for high school students are available for guidance in deciding what college programs they’d
like to enter or what trade is the best for their personality (Matthews, 2019)

More than half of the companies worldwide use these personality test for testing employees and
their skills. This has been so popularly used as time goes by and has been shown that it grows ten
percent with every year. This means that it is one of the most renowned tests according to Mathews
in her article about personality tests in business HR departments.
Figure via TRG blogs
Personal Skills Audit
This can be done by preparing an audit which will be different for different companies and
henceforth can judge what skills a person has. For our food business the employee needs to have
the following skills on which they will be rated upon.

 1 being the lowest

 5 being the highest.

Figure via Mark Long’s Career Development site.

For a person to be an employee in a restaurant needs to have good communication skills. Should be
able to talk and deal with customers in the best possible manner. (Ulrich, 2009) Should have the
capacity for anger management and to listen to the customers as well as the management and
complete the tasks given to them in the best possible manner that can increase the company’s
productivity level as well as increase the efficiency of the employees working level. This will be able
to put the company amongst the top in the competitors in the food industry market.

Training and Development

Training and development is one of the most crucial tasks that are handled b y the Human Resources
Department. Training is when you give the basic skill set to employee who are lacking it but it is
needed in the job description that is given to them. Therefore organizations take up tasks to increase
their knowledge and skillsets. Development is usually when employees already have skills but they
are further polished by the company’s Human Resource department. (Westover, 2008)

This training can be done by the following steps that are as follows:

Set roles for the employees

In the food business the employees will be assigned roles to what is expected out of them and what
they already have and have not in terms of skills. This will be done on all employees including
waiters, chefs, managers, and external team too.

Analyze the performance

Then their performance will be analyzed and their skills will be see. The HR managers will be in
command of all these trainings and developments.

Evaluate the results

The results will need to betaken into evaluation. Each employee will be tested as to what they lack
and what skills they are best in. They will be given tasks in the future that can develop their abilities
and increase efficiency.

Coaching

What the employees lack will then be taught to them by the mangers and top staff who are have
more knowledge. That is how employees van develop their skills and enhance their abilities.

Conclusion
The businesses all have to be efficient and have more skills in order to succeed in a competitive
market. This can only be done if the employees have the most effective skill sets and knowledge that
can benefit the company and put them in a better position in the market. The food business as a
new entrant will have to have very skilled individuals as chefs, waiters and manger along with active
security guards in order to make the restaurant work amongst the already established businesses in
the city. Only then will the business thrive. Along with that the management needs to have routine
appraisals set for the employees in order to measure their performance and polish their skill sets to
give the highest performance levels to the company.
Task 2: Essay
“Effective use of High Performance Working and Performance Management models to support
High Performance culture.”
Introduction
These days the world is continuously evolving and so are the businesses. With the pandemic at wake
businesses are trying to find ways that can bring up the productivity levels and satisfy the customers
along with taking care that the company goals are aligned with the new strategies. Attempts to
reform workplace practices and make work more meaningful and less alienating are almost as old as
mass production and the routinized jobs associated with it. In the earliest period, reformers and
managers argued that it was deficiencies in workers and the social needs and personal problems
they brought to the job that hindered improved organizational performance. (Apelbaum,2019)
To find the right people with the right processes one can make the company into a High
Performance Working system. High Performance Working Systems are a type of strategy that is used
for maximize employee engagement to achieve high level of performance in the company. Moreover
the HPW is a general approach to managing organizations that aims to stimulate more effective
employee involvement and commitment in order to achieve high levels of performance designed to
enhance the discretionary effort employees put into their work, and to fully utilize the skills that
they possess. (Belt and Giles: 2009)
Employee Engagement in HPW
Employees are an integral asset of a company and they can ensure if a company can move forward
or beak down completely. For employees to be working to their maximum capacities and to be able
to use their skill sets in an effective way and work towards the benefit of the company they need to
be trained and their work needs to be analyzed to see if it is in sync with the organizational goals and
objectives. Intrinsic rewards and motivation can help increase their performance levels along with
many other factors (Tregaskis, 1997) According to an article in the British news, the productivity
levels increase from 20% to 40% for the companies who are adopting High Performance Working
Systems.
High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) are perceived to create value for an organization by
reducing costs, improving productivity, as well as creating value for employees. However, measuring
improved organizational performance, particularly in regards to human resource improvement is
difficult and much of the research developed around HPWS often varying and lacking HR
enhancement. (Zhang, Fan & Zhug, 2014).
A group of separate but interconnected HR management practices designed to enhance employee
and firm performance outcomes through improving workforce competence, attitude and motivation.
(Nishii et al, 2008) To equip the employees with all the information needed to carry out tasks that
help in developing the company and are given the right tools, instructions, information and
incentives that can build the employee towards giving a high level of performance. It is recently
being used in many companies that have broadened their scope and given full autonomy to the
employees that carry out their tasks with complete competence. This is due to the training given by
the company in the light of High Performance Work System strategy.
Factors in HPW
Working in an organization where HPWS are applied leads employees to perceive more enrichment
and less conflict between their work and family lives, making them more engaged in and less
stressed by their work. (Babic, Audrey et al, 2019) There can be many strategies that can be
implemented under the High Performance Working Systems but roughly they can be shortened as
follows:
 Organizational Structure
According to Kumpikaite in his journal, the organization needs to have a intricate structure that
allows the employees to work with all their skills being put under good use and do not have the
management micro-managing all the tasks. This gives the employees power and psychological
relaxation that their work is entitled without the superior mangers correcting them.
 People
People are the assets of a company whether employees, clients or staff they all make an
organization work. (Yeung, 1996) Selecting the right team of people that have skills that are
necessary for the organization. Also Human Resource department of a company needs to be fully
aware of the skill sets the people have in order to know where to make the necessary trainings and
develop their skills in order to benefit the company at large.
 Information
The right kind of information needs to be delivered all across the company to all the employees in
order for the organization to work fully well. (Fisher, 2011) The sensitivity that comes with
information handling is a very crucial element that determines how well the company van deliver
the tasks and achieve the organizational goals.
 Rewards
People are incentivized with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that enable them to work tirelessly.
Motivation comes with not only these rewards but through words of appreciation as well. This
means that an employee needs to have full support of their organization in turn for them to give
back to the organizations with completed tasks and outstanding work performance. The productivity
levels are directly proportional to the rewards a company gives as research suggests. (Conolly, 2007)
Competitive Advantages of HPW
In environments which have turbulent external factors directing them and also the ones in which
there are a number of competitors in the market industry, the company needs to have full control
over its task management efficiency and should be working at a highest level of work performance in
order to not lose their position in the market or any clients to the competitors.
Therefore High Performance level strategies need to be implemented which allow the workforce to
deliver the hundred percent and bring the efficiency level to the maximum. This can happen only if
they are equipped with the right knowledge and information. Along with these, they should also
have the perfect skillsets that are needed to deliver the objectives. (Ozcelik, 2016) To know whether
the employees have the above proficiencies in order to deliver maximum efficiency and reach high
productivity levels the organizations need to take there tests for there skills and give them the
ultimate training and development sessions in order to increase their efficiency levels.
IBM
IBM is the prime example of a High performance working System. It is one of the top companies of
information technology and software producers and has the top market share in the industry with
dozens of competitors. However it has implemented the high performance working strategy into its
system that has provided it with the efficiency and productivity levels for being the top most
company within its competitors.
When IBM was under the direction of Vincent Learson, he started conducting serious conversation
with senior level management in order to find most effective strategies. Based on situation analysis
and future market anticipation, a newly appointed committee suggested IBM to implement an
organizational learning process by maintaining 360 new line computers only for the use of
management and employees. It was the strategic beginning of organizational learning at IBM and it
still goes on as strategic movements to achieve high performance working in the organization
(Lipshitz, Popper and Friedman, 2006).

Performance Management Models

Figure A: (Pulakos, 2016)

“Performance management systems, which typically include performance appraisal and

employee development, are the “Achilles’ heel” of human resources management. They suffer
flaws in many organizations, with employees and managers regularly bemoaning their
ineffectiveness. A recent survey by Watson Wyatt showed that only three out of 10 workers
agree that their company’s performance management system helps improve performance. Less
than 40 percent of employees said their systems established clear performance goals, generated
honest feedback or used technology to streamline the process. While these results suggest that
there may be poorly designed performance management systems in many organizations, it is
typically not poorly developed tools and processes that cause difficulties with performance
management. Rather, difficulties arise because, at its core, performance management is a highly
personal and often threatening process for both managers and employees.” (Pulakos,2014)

Performance Planning is one of the first steps that we use for this model which includes getting
all the details for the increase in performance levels and gathering the necessary information for
this strategy to be implemented. (Fisher, 2011) To know what the employees are expecting out
of the tasks given and to analyze their behaviors. This is crucial as the employees will be shaping
the success of the company in the future therefore to plan for their trainings and development.

After the analysis of their behaviors, the company management should be proving adequate
feedback to the employees. This is necessary as to let them know which aspects they have to
work on and which skills are to be polished in order to increase their productivity levels and
hence increase the company performance. (Ulrich, 2009) Employee Input has its own perks of
being involved in the whole process as it makes them feel more involved and hence can bring
out the best performance from them. Performance of the employees are then measured on
different aspects included their technical and inter-personal skills, their behavior and
knowledge. This performance evaluation is done by the top management with respect to the
scale that is developed by every organization according to their own levels of analysis.(Yeung,
2006) A sample evaluation chart can be seen as follows.

Figure 2: (Pulakos 2016)

The last step of perfoemnce review tells us that how much an employee has the capacity to
work upon the company objectives and carry out the tasks with a high level of perfoemnace.
There are objevtive measuremnts that are taken as scale however this has been evaluated as a
poor perfoemance indicator startegy as all employees have different levels of trainings and
skillsets.(Najendra, 2014) Therfore most employees behaviours are then evaluated baseed on
the acomplishments theuy have achieved and their impoact on the company’s perfoemnce. This
is to ensure a fair level of evaluation for all employees.

The Food Company and the High Performance Working Systems.

The food business that has been opened according to the given scenario will have a resource
management department that will look into the employee performances and evaluate their
behaviors. (Boon,2019) The employees will be given trainings according to the skillset needed
for example Waiters will be trained on how to greet and deal with customers. How to set up the
tables. Mangers will be trained on client dealings and customer satisfaction proficiency
methods. The cashier will be attested on financial skills and accountability. The kitchen staff will
be tested for their skills in the culinary and confectionery departments. (Singh 2012)

Therefore all levels of employees will be attested on different levels. After the analysis their
results will be evaluated at the end and they will be marked upon the achievements they have
brought to the company’s working and how much they have added to the company’s success
amongst the competitors in the market.
 Figure 3: (Pulakos, 2016)

With the help of point scale ratings, employee will be evaluated according to their own
accomplishments and hence attested for high performance working system which will be
introduced in the company. (Hough , 2016) This will not only help the employees realize where
they lack but it will also help the mangers provide feedback to the employees and help them
develop the skills that they lack in order to increase performance. The point scale rating will the
from 1 to 5. 1 being the highest achiever meeting expectations of the role model and 5 being the
lowest, achieving level below expectations. (Najendra, 2014) This will also give the employees a
track record of their performance and can help them to motivate themselves with incentives
which will be kept for performances that reach the level of role models.

Conclusion

High performance working systems are a good strategy that can influence and motivate the
employees and the people working in a company to do their best and achieve high levels of
productivity along with reaching maximum efficiency that can help the company compete in a
turbulent competitive environment and reach the top shares of the market industry. This
strategy being implemented will not only be beneficial for the company but also the employees
as it will give them intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that will ultimately add to the success of the
company.
References

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Westover, J.H., (2008) Effective human resource training and development: examination and
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