Career-Development-Plan-Summary

Career Development Plan Summary

HRM 531

University Of Phoenix

As a mid-level manager at Kudler Fine Foods, I have been tasked with the restructuring of my team. This team will take on new responsibilities that require the hiring of additional personnel and will require training for new and current employees. We will also consider better methods for appraising the team’s performance. Below is my composed proposal to be delivered to upper management regarding how this restructure will be designed and implemented.

The job descriptions and qualifications for five new positions

The first step is to develop a job description that clearly defines the duties, responsibilities and tasks for the new and old position stores. The tasks clarity is key elements to the organization success and the staff success.

Manager:

Manage the overall operation of all staff at the Del Mar branch of Kudler Fine Foods store. The manager will focus on the inventory and make sure to have the optimum stock to minimize expiration of products. He or she must develop a weekly inventory list and will be responsible to order all products. On the long run, the manager will be responsible to launch a new automated inventory program. The store manager must be present at least 70% of the time at the store to meet customers and attend to their needs. He or she must also attend to the store staff needs and focus on their productivity and morale and do their evaluation.

Accountant:

The accountant should be able to review and reconcile all invoices submitted by the suppliers and ensure payments are made promptly. She or he should be able to Prepare the profit and loss accounts, and also the monthly closing and cost accounting reports. Coordinates the monthly closes and ensures accurate and timely reporting of all finance issues to Kathy. He or she will also perform standard and special analyses that provide insightful views into the operations and financial performance of Kudler Fine Foods organization. The accountant should also evaluate, analyze and report savings initiatives that will increase revenue for the company.

Marketing coordinator:

A market coordinator should be able to update the company’s website to recommend ideas for possible initiatives. Conduct market research to determine market requirements for existing and future products. He or she should also be able develop and implement marketing plans and projects for new and existing products. Deliver marketing activity within agreed budget and should also be able to develop an accurate pricing strategy that will help eliminate unnecessary cost.

Cashier:

A Cashier at KFF should always maintained outstanding customer service according to KFF standards. She or he should be able to process sales quickly, accurately and efficiently. The cashier should make sure that all customers receive outstanding service by providing a friendly environment. Maintain an awareness of all promotions and advertisements that will create more revenue for the business. Must be vast knowledge with cash registers and maintain all cash and media at the registers.

Shelf-Stock staff:

The shelf-stock staff should check the expiry dates, labels, tags and quality of the goods shelved in the store. Should Ensure that the goods stacked on the shelves comply with the standards of the store and that they are not damaged. Coordinate the work processes with the sales teams and other store departments. Efficiently following all the tasks delegated by the supervising authority. She or he should be able to complete all assigned targets within the specified deadline. This employee should be able maintained a clean store and stockroom environment and also be able to follow all standard operating procedures of the store.

Training Program

Research shows that the more time and money invested in an employee in the form of continuing education and skills development will make that employee a beneficial asset to the company. With that been said, we have to implement a welled structured training program that will enhance the skills and qualifications of the new and current employees at Kudler Fine Foods. The objectives for the training programs will first explain an overview of what is expected from trainees. Once training is complete, trainees will be given a test on the new knowledge gained.

The depth and scope of the training program will be determined through accurate feedback received through surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and job evaluations. To know the areas that needs fixing, improving, or removed from the training program. The system must rely heavily upon inputs from supervisors, trainees and others that are directly affected by the training.

The way training is delivered goes a long way in determining the effectiveness of the team. Some distinctive variables are taken into consideration before training delivery method is chosen. Management and trainers must take into consideration the number of employees to be trained; the level of understanding of trainees, the diction in management training might be different from the entry level employees. Trainers must also be ready to demonstrate to employees so that they can see how it is being done. There are some employees that learn by practice, when they do it, they understand it better.

The training program should run for two weeks for new employees, whilst current employees should do a four hours in house training to bring them update of new procedures. The training must also prepare the team for direct involvement with customers, suppliers, managers in the industry.

Method for Evaluating Employee and Team Performance

Evaluating each employee and team performance should be done by feedback and performance appraisals. A positive and constructive feedback is the key when supporting an employee desire to perform well. Feedback is given in regard to client transaction experiences to provide a measurement of employees’ performances against standards set through the job analysis and organizational goals. By creating an appraisal form for each employee allows me to “observe the player’s performance, make an appraisal of it, and then provide real –time feedback to build sound habits and eliminate unsound ones.”(Cascio, 2005)

For the employees to reach a higher level of performance a timeframe should be specified and goals should be observable and measurable. Some employees may not meet the standards of the job requirements; therefore, these individuals will need to be part of a discipline process. A development action plan through skill improvement will be created. The plan requires solid coaching and communication from a mentor who is a leader and able to assist the employee in his or her development. The mentor program will be mandatory if the employee is on an action plan.

Challenges of Team Performance Evaluation

Differences between the two appraisal systems:

The difference between the two appraisal systems is trying to effectively monitor the success of the individual and the team at the same time. It is sometimes difficult to view the individual and team performances separate of one another and truly assess a person’s talent. Trying to measure an individual’s success by the team performance can result in inaccurate assessments. On the other hand measuring the team’s success is dependent on the interaction and roles the individuals take on within the group. One needs to properly assess the individual personalities and the team dynamics to properly qualitative the reasons for their outcomes.

Difficulties of evaluating team performance:

When evaluating a team’s performance, the biggest challenge for a manager is that he or she is reviewing a team as opposed to an individual. If using a graphic rating scale as a team evaluation tool, the problems a manager may face will develop from having to generalize the teams’ performance, knowledge, or ability to fit one of the performance levels. The problem is being able to select the appropriate ranking based on several employees’ performances.

Unique needs of a team appraisal system:

A team appraisal is unique because management has to take into consideration more than one person input into the project. The team appraisal can be an enhancement of the individual appraisal. Individual performance must be assessed and appraised to avoid under performance of team members. This behavior could also result in the decreased performance of high performing team members. The team appraisal system is unique because of the difficulty of the project.

Strategies to discourage social loafing:

Kudler Fine Foods management must ensure that there will be no social loafing at the stores. To discourage this from happening is to understand the skill sets of your team so that you can assign the right task to the right member and create a system for measuring individual performance and rewarding those who excelled above and beyond team goal.

Incentives and benefits packages

To ensure retention of our competent staff and attract out of company talent, a well structured, systematic incentive and benefits packages must be developed. Attractive compensation and rewards are vital to maintain morale, job satisfaction, encourage peak performance and will also reduce turnover at Kudler Fine Foods.

Benefits

By providing benefits for the employees, KFF will benefit through increase revenues, and the employees will benefit through the total rewards package.

The company’s Benefits objectives are to:

Instill sense of ownership in KFF and its customers

Motivate the employees to improve customer satisfaction levels

Build teamwork and improve the relations between the team, the company and customers

Each employee salary will be based on years of experience, title they hold with the company, educational level and the complexity of the position they hold. Incentives will be given to employees in form of commissions, bonuses, gifts, profit sharing and awards. Commissions will be based on sales or gross profit based on the performance of an employee or how well the company excels in a particular year. Also benefits will be a big part of the compensation package. Kudler Fine Foods also provides the following benefits for all its employees.

Retirement plans 401 (K)

Medical and Life insurance for all employees.

Dental insurance for all employees.

Flex time. The sales person will have the option choose the set of hours he or she wants to work in a given day (coming late and leaving late for example)

On-site child care facility.

Strategy for Managing Employees’ Career Development

The challenges associated with the changing nature of work and the workplace environment is real. Rapid change requires a skilled, knowledgeable workforce with employees who are adaptive, flexible, and focused on the future. As a manager, one of your key responsibilities is to develop your staff. Encourage growth and career development of employees by coaching, and by helping employees achieve their personal goals, providing adequate training, encouragement of staff development, and opportunities for growth.

A fair and appropriate compensation plan

It is important that we consider also restructuring the compensation plan that we are currently using. This plan will encourage and reward performance that will increase returns on all fronts. “An organizational reward system includes anything an employee values and desires that an employer is able and willing to offer in exchange for employee contributions more specifically such compensation includes both financial and non financial rewards.” (Cascio, 2005) Motivating employees to work hard is a much easier challenge when the benefits of doing so are appealing. Designing an effective pay plan requires a mix of financial rewards and nonfinancial rewards that link company objectives with employee expectations. The individual needs of each employee should be considered to guarantee a sufficient level of rewards is being offered. Therefore, I am proposing a compensation plan that includes consideration for each of the above-mentioned objectives in which I know will prove to be effective. Designing and implementing an effective compensation program is a critical activity. It may be not be easy to predict the effect of such a program and the influence it will have at InterClean, but it is essential. This new compensation plan for the sales team will include both financial and non financial benefits. Financial rewards include direct payments to salary as well as indirect payments to salary such as employee bonuses. Non financial rewards include day to day work environment appearances that will enhance an employee sense of self respect; an example of this is, training opportunities and involvement in decision making. The new compensation plan will be a market – based pay structure for the employees. When an employee understands their specific detail of their job description it is a key tool in the destination of their pay system. We have already identified the important characteristics of each job; next step is to determine how much InterClean is willing to pay for such a skill

In conclusion, I believe that Career Development Plan I created for Kudler Fine Foods Company will motivate employees to reach performance peak and advance their careers. It will also create benefits for all employees, give the company competitive edge over it rivals, and boost sales margins upward.

Reference:

Managing human resources: Cascio, W. (2006).

University of Phoenix, Web link: Business/Kudler/Internet/Kudler