Performance Management in Telstra

The report presents a brief overview of the performance management and its approaches and processes in an organization. Telstra Company has been selected for the report. It explains that how the association manages and evaluates the performance of the workers. It tells that how the company is using the best practices in the organization in order to meet the goals and objectives.

Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian company which head office is located in 242 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, Australia. It is a media and telecommunication company which develops, operates and manages telecommunication networks and mobile, voice, internet access, market voice, and other entertainment products and services. It is one of the largest telecommunication companies in Australia. The operating income of the company is approx $6.3 billion (2016) and the revenue of the company is approx $27.1 billion (2016). The company is expanding its business day by day. Currently, approx 36,165 employees are employed in the company. The profit of the company is approx $5.8 billion (2016) (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014).  

Performance management is a process which provides accountability, feedback, and documentation for outcomes of the employees’ performance. It helps to workers to use their abilities and skills in order to meet the organizational goals and objectives. The main objective of performance management is to improve and promote the employees performance and effectiveness. It is a never ending process where employees and managers work together to monitor, plan and analyze the employees work. The performance management is the backbone of Telstra to analyze and measure the performance of employees. The company measures and evaluates that how much contribution has been given by the employees in order to meet the goals and objectives. The approaches of performance management are discussed below (Camisón & Villar-López, 2014). 

• Comparative approach: The comparative approach includes the ranking system to measure the performance of employees.The rank is given on the basis of highest to the lower performer. The company uses various techniques and methods in a comparative approach like the paired comparison, forced distribution techniques, and graphic rating scale. The highest rank is given to potential and competent employees on basis of their performance. The company provides the proper training and development programs to guide and enhance the skills and potential of these performers. When the firm is leading the small groups with similar employment profiles (Lou & Dai, 2014).
• Attribute approach:In this approach, the rating is given to employees on the basis of a specific set of the matrix such as judgment, innovation, creativity, communication, teamwork, problem-solving skills. It uses the group rating scale to evaluate the performance and efficiency of employees. In group rating scale rating is given to employees on the basis of lower to highest.  This method is very simple and accurate to measure the productivity of the workers (Paillé, Chen, Boiral and Jin, 2014).
• Behavioral approach:It is one of the important technique and method to measure the performance of employees. It uses the behaviorally anchored rating scale and BOS technique to evaluate the efficiency and productivity of employees. The BARS technique is more frequent and specific to measure the behavior of employees.
• Result approach: The report is based on the result and outcomes of the employees and it is a straight forward and simple concept. The balanced scorecard approach is considered as the result approach to measure the productivity and efficiency of employees. This technique focuses on the customers, learning, growth and financial position of the company. Productivity measurement and evaluation system is another approach of result oriented approach. This technique is very effective to encourage the motivation of employees. This approach identifies the objectives of the company which the firm wants to achieve in the future. It also explains the ways and manner through which targets are made. Further, it evaluates the employees’ productivity and performance. In the final step, the company gives feedback to workers. It also measures the external environment of the company (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
• Quality approach:It is also an important method to measure the performance and efficiency of the employees. Mainly, this approach focuses on the customer satisfaction by reducing and eliminating the mistakes and errors. It focuses on the system and person factors to evaluate the productivity. The top management takes regular feedback of the employees from the managers. This approach evaluates the system and employees in the company. It resolves the various problems through the effective teamwork and collaboration. It uses the various sources to measure the output of the employees (Stahl et al, 2012).

Now it is assumed that an organization can use all these performance management approaches to evaluate the productivity and performance of the employees. These techniques motivate the employees for doing work more effectively. Therefore, they can easily identify the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals. The employees’ performance improves and enhances the communication between managers and workers. The supervisors discuss the duties and responsibilities through effective employees’ performance and it creates the healthy working environment. These techniques improve the employees’ performance as well as organizational productivity (Melnyk et al, 2014).

Performance management plays a significant role in every organization. The process of performance management is discussed below.

Planning: It is the first step of performance management process and it plays a significant role in the Telstra success and growth. In this stage, the company set the goals and objectives of the company. After the setting of plans and objectives, management and employees make policies and strategies in order to achieve these goals and objectives.

Assessment/ evaluation: It evaluates the performance of the employees and collects feedback from co-workers and other supervisors to measure the productivity of the employees and organization. Through assessment, the company can judge and evaluate the skills and abilities of potential workers. The company controls and monitors the activities of employees to evaluate their efficiency (Bloom et al, 2012).

Best Practices of Performance Management

Recognition: It recognizes and identifies the capable employees to meet the organizational goals and targets. During this process, the top management and workers should discuss the ways and manners through which the company can increase its productivity and revenue. The company should promote the competent and potential employees for doing the work more effectively. In this process, the organization develops the capacities and capabilities to perform the task successfully (Christiansen, 2012).

Career development: This process improves the quality of employees and it promotes the future improvement for doing work effectively. In this way, the company can evaluate and measures the needs, desires, and requirements of the organization and business. It will help to enhance and increase the strengths of the workers and it eliminates the weakness and threats of the company (Bloom et al, 2012).

Telstra uses all these processes to evaluate and analyze the performance of workers in order to accomplish the long term goals and objectives.

The best practices of performance management which need to be executed and implemented in the organization. They are discussed below (Brewster et al, 2016).

• Identify the purpose of managing performance: It is the best practice of the performance management which should be implemented in the organization. The company should evaluate and analyze the purpose and objective of performance management.
• Clarification of role: Telstra should clarify the work which needs to be done to accomplish the goals and objectives of the firm. In this way, the company should clarify the roles and responsibilities of the workers.
• Set goals and objectives and create a performance plan: The organization should set the goals and objectives of the company and it should establish a performance plan for the employees. This performance plan will help to employees to evaluate and measure their productivity and efficiency (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014).
• Conduct frequently and regular coaching and training programs:The performance management is an important tool to identify the threats and weaknesses of competitors in the market. Thus, it should conduct regular training programs and coaching for the employees.
• Conduct a formal review of the measurement of performance:The formal performance review is the important part of the performance management system. Development and improvement are the best practices of the performance management. It helps to review and analyze the productivity of the workers.
• Train the reviewers:It is the very important practice of performance management and it emphasizes on the training of reviewers. Therefore, it is the best source to achieve the goals and objectives and reduces the damages (Vom Brocke, 2014).
• Identify the sources of ineffective performance: It identifies the sources of ineffective and unsuccessful productivity and performance of employees.
• Reward and recognition for effective performance: It is the excellent practice of performance management. The company should provide reward and various kinds of recognition such as promotion, extra benefits, bonus and incentive to potential employees.  
• Build an action plan and procedure to develop performance:The Company should build and develop an action plan for improving the performance and productivity of the workers and organization (Camisón &Villar-López, 2014).

After the various researches, it has been found that all these practices play a significant role to improve the performance and efficiency of employees. Thus, Telstra can achieve its long term goals and objectives.

For example, Telstra is providing customer satisfaction to employees by taking the feedback from the customers. In this process, the company is using the best practices in the organization. The organization cannot take proper feedback from the customers without effective performance management. The company is providing the best telecommunication and media services across the world. In this process, the organization clear the roles and responsibilities to different workers in order to provide the effective voice and non- voice services (Kuipers et al, 2014). The association is providing training and coaching to employees to take the excellent feedback from the customers. Therefore, many people give the best performance by providing customer satisfaction to people. The company is proving mobile, fixed line and broad internet services to people. The organization is implementing the EC system to provide the broad services to its customers. The association provides the UPS and other mechanical services through the EC system. Therefore, the organization is providing the excellent and most valuable services to people across the world. Many employees are performing the excellent work by effective best practices of the company. The company provides rewards and other benefits to employees with the help of effective performance management practices. The organization regularly evaluates and analyzes the performance of employees. It is taking feedback from superiors and managers about the performance of workers. Now it is assumed that the company is using the excellent performance management practices in the organization. Further, it provides the safe and favorable working environment to its employees (Van Horenbeek & Pintelon, 2014).

Conclusion 

The report is based on the performance management of the Telstra telecommunication and media Services Company. Now a day’s it is providing wide range telecommunication, media, and internet services to its customers. Now it is concluded that the company is following the effective performance management system to improve the performance and efficiency of the company (Bratton & Gold, 2012).

There are various recommendations for improving the current performance management practices in the Telstra. They are discussed below.

• The company should communicate the clear goals and objectives with employees to improve the current performance management practices in the organization.
• The management should maintain the coordination and cooperation with workers to achieve the high efficiency and productivity. It should understand the needs, desires, and requirements of the employees. The top management should maintain the good relations with employees and resolve their queries and grievances.
• The organization should encourage and improve the open communication to improve the performance management system in the firm.
• It should promote the effectiveness, ethics, customs, reputation, and values to increase the productivity and outputs.
• Telstra should maintain the favorable working environment to the workers for doing work effectively.
• It should create a strong and effective team environment to increase the productivity of the employees and company.
• The organization should take the regular feedback of the employees to identify and measure the performance of employees.
• The company should support to employees for their growth and work. In this way, the organization can improve the current performance management practices.
• The company should provide the power and responsibilities to employees. In this way, the organization can build and improve the current performance management practices.  

References 

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Bloom, N., Genakos, C., Sadun, R. and Van Reenen, J., 2012. Management practices across firms and countries. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(1), pp.12-33.

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Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P. and Vernon, G., 2016. International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.

Camisón, C. and Villar-López, A., 2014. Organizational innovation as an enabler of technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. Journal of business research, 67(1), pp.2891-2902.

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