From a company perspective, training and development of company employees are essential for organizational operation. From an employee perspective, the same factor is critical for skill development and for career advancement. “The retention of valued skill sets, are important for continued business achievements” and as a supervisor it is important to continuously train and develop your staff’s skills (McClelland, 1993).
As a supervisor of employees’ whose task is to assemble tuning devices that go into cell phones, it is important to investigate why the quality of work has diminished.
Training, managerial development and training, and performance management are some factors that could be attributing to the decrease in quality of the tuning devices assembled by the employees. Trial and error will need to take place in order to determine if the lack of training has been contributing to poor quality work. The training of employees leads to “increased employee satisfaction, facilitates the updating of skills, leads to an increased sense of belonging and benefit, increased employee commitment to the organization, and strengthens the organization’s competitiveness” (McClelland, 1993).
It also improves productivity efforts. “It is improbable to produce improvements in human performance without relying, to one degree or another, on training” (Asim, Waqas, & Cheema, 2012).
To determine if training should be necessary or required, it would be important for the supervisor to look back at past training modules and new processes. Employees may need retraining on assembling tuning devices and the importance of quality work ethics.
Audits of employee training will focus on task evaluations, work practices, and methods in an attempt to address the problem that has been affecting the employee’s quality of work. Managerial training and development could also play a part of the employee’s quality of work. It is important as a supervisor to attempt to “improve managerial performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitudes, or increasing skills” (Dessler, 2011, p. 155).
Improving managerial skills can assist with implementing ways to improve employee performance and development.
As a supervisor, it is important to work on goals and to figure out which goals are not working for your employees. A supervisor needs to assess their management skills to see if it is hindering or affecting the employee’s work ethics. Feedback on employee knowledge or changes in quality need to further discussion with employees on a weekly base especially if there has been a significant decrease in the quality of work. Another factor that a supervisor must ask is how often appraisal performances are conducted and what affect that has been having on the employee’s work quality.
Appraisals help the supervisor make “promotion and salary raise decisions”, it lets the supervisor develop “a plan for correcting any deficiencies” (the quality of tuning devices), and it facilitates career planning by “providing an opportunity to review the employee’s career plans in light of his or her exhibited strengths and weaknesses” (Dessler, 2011, p. 170).
Creating an appraisal process can shine light on the current issue with the employee’s work quality. If the employees have not been given a goal and/or do not understand their job, it will affect productivity and the quality of work being performed.
The supervisor’s appraisal process would reward productive employees and assist the professional growth and development of inexperienced and unproductive individuals. A quarterly appraisal can take place discussing the job description, the process of assembling tuning devices, previously determined goals and objectives; and ongoing observations and communications of performance. These quarterly appraisals provide information for the employees and can assist with assessing the causes of poor assembly of tuning devices.
During the annual appraisal, if training or what was previously discussed in the quarterly appraisal has not improved the quality of work, then it may not be training and the Human Resources Department may need to get involved. One other factor not mentioned at the beginning is the potential of environmental change. As a supervisor, any new change in the work environment needs to be taken in consideration. Where there any new changes in assembling of tuning devices for the cell phones that was not covered or mentioned in training?
Not all employees are ready for change and if not done correctly it can affect the quality of work. Asim, Waqas, and Cheema (2012) noted “employees thinking, acting and behaviors are important elements for consideration in order to achieve organizational change successfully”. A change may have been implemented that could be affecting the quality of assembling tuning devices. To improve the employees’ task to assemble tuning devices that go into cell phones training development, managerial development, performance appraisals, and monitoring change may need to be implemented.
Constant monitoring of training and development will assess how the training succeeds. The supervisor will devote time to ensuring that employees get the training programs that is most appropriate for them given their existing skill sets. The supervisor will improve their managing skills and take into consideration any changes in the work environment that has been affecting productivity levels. Assessing these factors will assist in closing the gap between how the employees currently perform in their assembling work and how they need to perform to meet company objectives.