Managing Employee Performance: Barclays Bank Case Study
Barclays bank is the third largest bank in the world with 155,000 employees around the globe that was incorporated on 20th July 1896. The company is involved in wholesale banking, credit cards, investment banking, investment management and wealth management services. In the report, the focus is on the company’s mortgage section in North England which has about 800 employees. Due to the competitive market alignment of employees committed to the company’s objectives is essential. Employees are on a system that focuses 50% on the business objectives (what one does) and 50% on the attribute (how one does the job).
Company's Strategy and Departmental Targets
Company’s strategy developed business objectives and translated into departmental targets. Team leaders facilitated employees to develop their goals, responsibility areas, and measures that reflect the departmental aims. The target is to set expectations and measurable outcomes in the objectives specifying the nature of exceptional performance where possible (Friedman 2017, p. 46). The danger of setting goals is that they can be filed away and neglected. The only way of making objectives followed by employees is to undertake a quarterly review in which employees’ individual achievements log is updated (Triandis 2018, p. 35). The reviews facilitate changes in business priorities to be revealed in the employee’s aims.
Attributes and Performance Bands
In hand, attributes are qualities and behavior expected of employees performing effectively, which are subdivided into dimensions reflecting jobs at different levels in the company and performance bands. Among the eighteen qualities eight of them are selected as core to a specific role, and assessed in the quarterly review which consists of a reviewer assessment and self-assessment. Feedback is delivered in writing and the attributes library objectives and specifications used as benchmarks to critic employee’s performance. Scores on the scale ‘exceed,’ ‘meet,’ ‘fall short’ and ‘fail’ are communicated. The employee is also required to gain feedback from six other people throughout the year. If there are deficiencies in performance, a development strategy is drawn up. In the report, the main aim is to discuss performance management system in the Barclays bank, its weaknesses and strengths and recommending some other methods to improve the current performance management system.
Objective-Oriented Development and Performance Appraisal
The approach is an objective-oriented development focused towards ensuring that company’s processes are in place to exploit the productivity of employees, teams, and the business (Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson 2007, p. 75). It is one of the main keys to achieving organizational plan because it consists of improving and measuring the value of the employees. Performance management contains incentive goals and values so that the connection can be understood and communicated. Performance and incentives are closely connected. Performance management systems are one of the leading focuses in business today. Although every human resource function adds to performance management, performance appraisal and training play a more significant role.
Dynamic Performance Management System
Performance management is a dynamic, unending, continuous process while performance appraisal occurs at a particular time (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014, p. 74). Every person in the business is a part of the performance management system. Every part of the system, such as training, appraisal, and rewards, is incorporated and connected to endless organizational efficiency. With performance management, the strength of every employee should be focused toward accomplishing strategic goals (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014, p. 75). If an employee’s skills need to be enhanced, training is required. With performance management systems, training has a straight connection to accomplishing organizational efficiency. Also, pay and performance are essential in meeting organizational goals (Melnyk et al 2014, p 173).
Performance Management Systems in Barclays Bank
Barclays’s performance management systems use some concepts such as performance review, goal setting, 360-degree feedback, etc. Goal setting means formulating realistic and attainable goals. Setting challenging and specific objectives leads to higher performances in many businesses. Thus, in any organization goal setting is an essential component of the performance management software. In Barclays bank goals are mainly set for the whole team rather than for separate individuals. Such objectives motivate the employees to work harder helping each other to achieve goals for each person and end up accomplishing general goals.
Importance of 360-Degree Feedback and Performance Reviews
In Barclays bank the performance management system enables setting of goals to be a simple, straightforward and easy way to encourage team leaders and members set realistic aims and accomplish milestones at work (Mone and London 2018, p.53). 360-degree feedback is one of the most important features of the most performance management systems. Unlike the traditional methods, using the approach one can get feedback from all the people around him or her, such as the senior managers, team members, subordinates, supervisors, peers, internal or external customers and even the employee himself or herself (Cascio 2018, p. 25). Most of the successful companies and businesses use the 360-degree feedback for the performance evaluation of their employees, and Barclays bank is one of them. It mainly focuses on skills required across organizational boundaries (Morrow et al. 2015, p. 75).
Fast and Objective Performance Assessment
The software also allows Barclays bank managers to give ratings in a fast and convenient manner. The method also provides a more objective perspective of an employee’s performance which includes a broader view of the employee’s performance due to multiple feedbacks, thus, minimizing biasness in the process. Multiple feedbacks also make the process more lawfully defensible. Although the method has its pitfalls where some colleagues may intentionally distort a colleague’s performance information and to other colleagues or say something good which may not be true. The method is still widely used by many companies to find ways of avoiding problems. Barclays also uses performance reviews to measure performance in the organization. A performance review which is also known as a performance appraisal is a tool that is used to assess and measure employee’s effectiveness and efficiency.
Succession Planning and Strengths of Performance Management System
In Barclays bank managers use the approach to measure employee’s performance to see whether further training is needed, a salary or wage increase is merited, or in a situation where an employee is being promoted to a higher position. The performance review involves several steps; the first step involves the manager and the employee sitting down and defining job responsibilities and expectations so that everything is clear on both parties. The manager should later conduct the performance of the employee based on the standards and expectations set in step one. In the final step, the manager should give the employee the feedback about his performance. Based on the quality of the work done by an individual the manager might recommend further training, a promotion, or a salary increase for the employee (Hodge 2018, p. 94).
Improvements to the Performance Management System
Another method is the succession planning wherein Barclays bank’s focus is also on the employees who retain a job position for long due to the benefits, employee’s engagement and also the happiness of the position (Bryson 2018, p. 64). Employees’ mobility is a concern in many companies. Due to the concern, Barclays bank uses the succession plan where an employee is moved to the next position. The skills and talents that make the individual suitable for the position or the job are passed on to the other employees through coaching and skill development as part of the performance management system (Rothwell et al. 2015, p.86). The approach is one of the ways used to increase the employee’s performance making an employee grow in what he or she does and by learning new ways of doing or performing tasks.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Performance Management System
In every company, there are strengths and weaknesses in the performance management system, and Barclays bank is not an exception. The company utilizes methods which are very effective and use the results to improve the overall performance of an organization. The Goal setting method is one of the methods that are employed in the organization, and it does not only measure performance but also helps the individuals to work as a team and help each other where possible, thus, improving the overall performance and reduce the time taken to achieve the specified goal. The succession planning is strength in managing employees’ performance in Barclays bank. It enables job rotation within the organization and the workers are coached to develop skills to replace the moved employees. Hence, they learn about how to promote the business or perform various tasks. The employees grow attaining different skills and abilities (Amirkhani, Nazeryani and Faraz, 2016, p.69).
Considerations for Improvement
The 360-degree feedback may be one of the most popular methods among many organizations and businesses, but it has some pitfalls. For instance, an employee may distort information of another employee so as he or she does not get a promotion and a pay raise, or an employee may favor another employee by praising him or her in order to make sure the same will be done to him or her when the time comes. A performance review that is conducted by the manager to a particular employee may also be distorted by the manager so as not to promote the employee or decrease the salary due to misunderstandings or conflicts between the manager and the employee (Hodge 2018, p. 96). Other employees feel overworked and demotivated by the process which will affect their productivity. On the other hand, since some reviews are done online, it hastens the process, thus, reducing the time taken in decision making instead of the manual way of performance management. If appropriately conducted, appraisals or reviews are the most effective when it comes to performance evaluation (Zhu 2014, p.84).
Recommendations for Improvement
One of the suggestions for the Barclays bank to use to improve the current performance management system is to outsource participants from other firms in the 360 feedback method. Such move will increase confidentiality in the organization and reduce the possibilities of incorrect information. Also when conducting performance reviews and an employee is found not satisfying he or she should be trained and motivated rather than discriminated and in other cases fired. A good performance management system entails the following components: manager reviews, engagement survey, 360 feedbacks, social recognition, succession planning, goal setting, and alignment. For better overall performance I would recommend an organization’s performance management system to entail all the components. An example is the goal setting method goes hand in hand with the goal alignment where the managers keep employees working towards the set goals or objectives.
References
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Triandis, H.C., 2018. Individualism and collectivism. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
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