Talent Identification and Selection Processes and Performance Management System at Packnz Limited

Talent Identification and Selection Processes and Performance Management System at Packnz Limited

Author’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751615” 1.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc39751615 h 3

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751616” 2.0 Chosen Company’s Facts PAGEREF _Toc39751616 h 3

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751617” 3.0 Talent Identification and Selection Practices PAGEREF _Toc39751617 h 4

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751618” 3.1 Application at Packnz Limited PAGEREF _Toc39751618 h 4

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751619” 3.2 Strategic Congruence PAGEREF _Toc39751619 h 7

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751620” 3.3 Talent Identification and Selection Improvement Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc39751620 h 7

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751621” 4.0 Performance Management System and Practices PAGEREF _Toc39751621 h 9

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751622” 4.1 Application at Packnz Limited PAGEREF _Toc39751622 h 9

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751623” 4.2 Strategic Congruence PAGEREF _Toc39751623 h 11

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751624” 4.3 Recommendations for Performance Management Improvement PAGEREF _Toc39751624 h 12

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751625” 5.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc39751625 h 13

HYPERLINK l “_Toc39751626” References PAGEREF _Toc39751626 h 15

Talent Identification and Selection Processes and Performance Management System at Packnz Limited

1.0 IntroductionHuman resource management functions, which deal with managing and developing employees from recruitment to retirement, are indispensable in driving organizational success and performance. The reason is that these HRM functions provide solutions to organizational problems, buttress organizational objectives and strategies, maintain control for the enhancing employee experience, and strengthen all business operations. In the current assessment report, the focus is on the application of two HRM functions, namely, talent identification and selection and performance management in a New Zealand-based firm. The assessment delves into how these functions offer strategic congruence with the enterprise’s values and organizational culture. Also, this paper provides strategic and evidence-based recommendations for improving these two HRM functions within the chosen firm’s context.

2.0 Chosen Company’s FactsPacknz Limited deals with the design and manufacture of paper cups and napkins. The physical address that defines the company’s location is 8 Canon Place, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand, which is its physical office address up until June 17, 2015. This enterprise was inaugurated as a limited company in 2009 and registered on February 10 the same year at its initial service address (38-40 Ben Lomond Crescent, Pakuranga, Auckland, 2010), the current registration address. Currently, the NZ business identifier for this company is 9429032394764, its company number is 2209303, its AR application month is March, and its status is Registered and Physical (Businesscheck.co.nz, 2020). Even so, Packnz has not been constitutionally filed (New Zealand Business Directory, 2018).

Regarding its organizational structure, Packnz Limited has two active directors each with a 50% shareholding status. These two directors are Lie Li (whose contract began on 10 February 10, 2009) and Yuqing Li (whose contract commenced on 01 July 01, 2018). The total number of shares allocated to these shareholders is 1000, meaning that each entity holds 500 shares (BizDb.co.nz, 2020; Businesscheck.co.nz, 2020). The shareholder category for both directors is individual. Based on the interview and websites with company information, the number of employees at Packnz has not been defined, although the marketing, sales, and services departments have 20 part-time and full-time employees. The main products sold by this company are paper cups and napkins that are targeted for sale to coffee sellers, who constitute the main client segment.

3.0 Talent Identification and Selection Practices3.1 Application at Packnz LimitedTalent identification and selection are all elements of talent management, one of the main HRM functions within an organization (Krishnan & Scullion, 2017; Meyers, van Woerkom, Paauwe, & Dries, 2020). In the HRM context, talent identification involves recognizing employees with the potential to excel in different job tasks or supersede certain performance benchmarks and evaluating their current performance accurately (Bennett, Vaeyens, & Fransen, 2019). Conversely, talent selection entails accepting these individuals with the potential for excelling into representative employee groups and development programs (Xue, 2014).

At Packnz Limited, two talent identification approaches are utilized, and they include training-based talent identification and value-oriented talent identification. The interviewee revealed that the training-based talent identification approach is where this company’s human resource management provides training opportunities to employees for free, with training content covering industry trends. During these training opportunities, best performers are identified for further development towards greater performance and excellence. Also, the training initiative incorporates relevant information and knowledge about product updates and development generated from Packnz’s R&D and sales teams’ efforts towards promoting employees (F. Tony, personal communication, May 03, 2020). As regards the value-oriented talent identification, this approach involves identifying talent based on the values that candidates portray. This way, managers at Packnz generally judge candidates’ values and become aware of the organizational value that these candidates can bring to the firm to develop its industry excellence (Tony, personal communication, 2020).

Concerning talent selection, the HRM of Packnz Limited adopts a three-step approach that defines the selection criteria for assessing and aligning workers for future organizational success. The first step is to determine the aspects and qualities needed for candidate qualification into the talent selection program. Here, personal qualities, skills, and practical abilities are considered over academic qualifications and experience (Tony, personal communication, 2020). The second step entails advertising positions on digital platforms such as Seek, Chinese Page, Skykiwi, and Trademe. The third step is about designing and using candidate screening tools, which, in Packnz’s case, involve using structured one-on-one interviews. The last step entails finalizing candidate selection based on the qualities, abilities, skills, and knowledge levels.

As per the interview, Packnz’s HRM maintains a comprehensive program for talent attraction and retention. This program incorporates the elements of offering healthy and good working conditions for employees. It also involves offering benefits and attractive salaries compared to other firms in the industry, providing subsidies and incentives, and providing space and platforms for employee promotion (Tony, personal communication, 2020).

From a critical consideration of Packnz’s talent identification and selection practices, it is evident that the firm’s talent management strategies overlook various aspects of recruitment and selection. Specifically, it was noted that the company’s talent identification and selection model ignores two aspects, namely, academic qualifications and personality traits as part of the evaluation criteria for recruiting suitable talent (Tony, personal communication, 2020). Looking at the company’s approach to talent identification and selection, it is deficient because it ignores essential features and characteristics that are imperative for talent-dependent success.

Personality has been scientifically verified as an important predictor of job performance (Alhendi, 2019; Seddigh et al., 2016). This means that assessing personality traits and candidates’ behavioral predispositions when screening them for talent selection allows the recruiters to comprehend if candidates can be top performers once they are identified. Personality assessments during candidate screening also enable recruiters to accurately determine essential personality traits within candidates such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness and characteristics such as dependability, self-confidence, efficiency, creative and abstract thinking, cooperativeness, and others that define excellent talent. So, the fact that talent identification and selection strategies at Packnz Limited ignores personality assessment means that the firm’s recruiters miss out on critical definers of suitable talent.

Considering candidates’ academic qualifications during talent identification and selection is important because it provides a basic foundation for gauging expected job performance that meets job requirements (Quifors, 2020b). Academic qualifications are also a predictor of candidates’ cognitive abilities, a measure of discipline, and a determiner of individual competence (Djabatey, 2012). So, while academic qualifications or educational background are not a definitive indicator of candidates’ ability to achieve career successes, they are important to consider during talent identification and selection as they help in assessing candidates’ knowledge economy, expertise, and role-specific skills. At Packnz, academic qualifications in talent identification and selection are entirely dismissed, which equates to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

3.2 Strategic CongruenceAt Packnz Limited, the talent identification and selection strategies fail to provide strategic congruence with the firm’s organizational culture. Such congruence is nonexistent in that there exists no planned connection between the firm’s recruitment and selection process and organizational culture and values. Specifically, talent identification and selection focus on recognizing the best talent based on employees’ personal quality, cooperativeness, practical ability, and their retention through welfare treatment to stay competitive in the industry (Tony, personal communication, 2020). This is evinced by the interviewee’s statement that the key to enterprise competition is talent competitiveness, coupled with the ability to attract and retain talent towards enterprise development.

On its part, Packnz’s organizational culture upholds the concepts of consistent profitability, appreciating each other’s’ efforts, environmental responsibility, sound conflict resolution, and integrity all aimed at constant improvements and significant accomplishments. Looking at these differences in focus, it is clear that talent identification and selection at Packnz is strategically employee-centric while organizational culture is executive-centric. So, talent identification and selection can be considered as a best-fit engagement while the organizational culture seems to uphold compliance, goals, and priorities, hence seen as a best-practice arrangement (Quifors, 2020b).

3.3 Talent Identification and Selection Improvement RecommendationsMy first recommendation for improving talent identification at Packnz Limited is the use of acceleration pools or top talent pools. Acceleration pools are groups of high-potential and high-performing in an organization established to be developed in preparation for assuming greater roles and critical responsibilities in particular jobs or task areas (Engle, Festing, & Dowling, 2015; McCracken, Currie, & Harrison, 2016). These talent pools are the foundation for creating best-practice talent pool-based succession plans that guide the identification of expertise, experience, knowledge, and skills essential for success in all organizational areas. Bennett, Vaeyens, and Fransen (2019) suggest that acceleration pools are critical to enhancing participation rates, augmenting healthy competition, and stimulating the flexibility and accessibility of systematic training, allowing the discovery of people’s potential. Coca Cola is a wonderful case example of the use of talent pools, which provide the cornerstone for the firm’s employee network and establishing a healthy mechanism for talent movement (Ti, 2016).

At Packnz Limited, the HRM can create acceleration pools comprising of top 5-10% of employees companywide to push for early talent identification. The inclusion of top employees in the talent pools ensures that they contain a suitable, heterogeneous blend of high-performers, high-potential employees, and individuals who embody the firm’s organizational values and culture. This way, the HRM at Packnz can identify people who will excel in key organization success areas and roles associated with incessant growth. Individuals appointed in this company’s acceleration pools should be always prepared for lateral advancement, regularly subjected to performance assessment, promoted and reassigned to new roles for talent growth opportunities, and deployed as mentors for others towards talent-pool expansion (McCracken, Currie, & Harrison, 2016).

As regards improving talent selection, I recommend that Packnz Limited should consider adopting values-based talent selection tools. Yüksel (2015) suggests that values-based talent selection entails customizing the recruitment process to ensure it reflects candidates’ beliefs and values that drive their behaviors. This way, recruiters manage to attain strategic alignment between candidates’ behaviors, cultural preferences, beliefs, and values with an enterprise’s organizational values. The application of values-based talent selection tools has been associated with augmented employee engagement, productivity or performance, and job satisfaction. This trend is ascribed to greater staff and talent retention, superior workforce support, and the organization’s value orientation (Adeoye, 2017; Güneş, 2019). These are the benefits that the HRM at Packnz expects to reap from adopting values-based talent selection tools.

An example of a business case in which values-based talent selection tools have been used is Amway, a multi-level marketing company based in Michigan. At Amway, the values-based talent approach is based on a framework of four values, namely, home, freedom, family, and reward. This enables the firm to highly engage its workforce, drive performance via intentional people development, and sustain a culture of customer orientation and innovation (HR Exchange Network, 2008). Packnz Limited can emulate and replicate this in its talent management practices.

4.0 Performance Management System and Practices4.1 Application at Packnz LimitedThe purpose of the organization’s performance management system (PMS) is to elicit job performance that is in line with the firm’s goals, culture, and strategy (Quifors, 2020b). Based on the interview, it was evident that Packnz Limited adopts the 360-degree PMS. The 360-degree performance appraisal system is a multi-rater that involves different entities in an enterprise, including bosses, subordinates, peers, and clients (Quifors, 2020a). This agrees with what the interviewee stated that, unlike Chinese corporations, firms in New Zealand are inclined to using the360-degree evaluation that addresses all aspects of the boss, colleagues, subordinates, customers, and employee performance with clarity (Tony, personal communication, 2020). The 360-degree PMS leverages feedback from employees to evaluate other employees, thereby providing a holistic view of what constitutes their peers’ character, work, and overall performance.

The essence of this PMS is that peers at Packnz Limited observe each other more closely than managers and supervisors do. What this means is that they better understand their colleagues’ performance progress or deficiencies, unlike in traditional employee performance where the opinion of the management counts as Murphy (2020) and McCarthy and Garavan (2001) suggest. Also, the 360-degree performance appraisal approach allows the management at Packnz Limited to obtain performance-specific feedback and generate sufficient performance-related data that can enable performance evaluation input from multiple levels within this firm (HR Tool, 2012). This way, this performance management system allows for the identification of strengths and weaknesses of employees, thereby maximizing their productivity, ameliorating their professional positions, and enhancing their competencies (Baroda, Sharma, & Bhatt, 2012; Hosain, 2016). The integration of 360-degree appraisals that capture behavioral competencies into competency-based 360-degree feedback assessments assist in improving the system’s rating reliability.

Packnz Limited uses the 360-degree PMS to ensure that it encourages the utilization of multi-rater feedback that derives a more comprehensive picture and multiple perceptions from multiple employees and different angles, hence generating a broader overview of Packnz’s employees’ performance and behaviors. Also, Packnz uses this system as a framework for expanding the scope of the formal appraisal process through increasingly evaluative feedback (Hosain, 2016). Furthermore, Packnz Limited adopts the 360-degree PMS to ensure the legitimacy, dependability, and responsibility of its performance evaluation process. Lastly, this company uses the 360-degree PMS as a robust instrument for augmenting awareness relating to aligning work-unit performance, employee behaviors, and customer expectation while enhancing work effectiveness involvement and leadership development participation (Basu, 2015; McCarthy & Garavan, 2001).

Even so, Packnz Limited experience some drawbacks emanating from using the 360-degree system. The first is that the system can be accompanied by anxiety and aggression, especially when Packnz’s employees anticipate that the feedback received negatively impacts their wage, promotion possibilities, benefits, and bonuses, or influence potential layoffs. Secondly, Packnz’s employees express resistance to this program for feeling that feedback is targeted strictly for developmental purposes (Baroda, Sharma, & Bhatt, 2012). Thirdly, this PMS instills fear if feedback leads to negative appraisal as this may make Packnz’s employees perceive that their peers are ganging up against them to frame them. Lastly, the elements of anonymity and privacy breach damages the effectiveness of this performance management approach at Packnz as multiple parties are involved in the process (Hosain, 2016).

4.2 Strategic CongruenceFrom a critical stance, the 360-degree PMS provides strategic congruence with the organizational culture and values of Packnz Limited. This is because it provides a holistic approach to improving performance in all areas of the company’s strategic action and culture consistent with its values. Examples of these values are a commitment to customer delight and dedication to employee happiness. The feedback obtained from using the 360-degree PMS plays a growing role in providing structured, in-depth information relating to current performance and future expectations that guide the formulation of detailed and relevant development plans at Packnz (Baroda, Sharma, & Bhatt, 2012). Also, this feedback is an essential component of the firm’s goal-oriented and focused PMS that captures all-around employees’ contributions and performance in interpersonal communication, leadership, management, teamwork, interpersonal interaction, work habits, and accountability, among other areas depending on their job (Basu, 2015). Further, it sets the stage for performance management that assists in addressing all development needs of all Packnz’s clients towards driving enterprise development (Tony, personal communication, 2020). What these assertions mean is that this system addresses organizational and individual performance in all areas that align quantitatively with the firm’s organizational culture. As established earlier, this organizational culture advocates consistent profitability, collective effort appreciation, environmental responsibility, integrity, and sound conflict resolution. Thus, it is evident that the 360-degree PMS offers strategic congruence with Packnz’s organizational culture and values.

4.3 Recommendations for Performance Management ImprovementMy first recommendation for improving performance management at Packnz Limited is the application of the performance management maturity model (PMMM). The PMMM would provide the HRM of this company with the roadmap or prescriptive solution characterized by systematic steps vital in raising the standards of performance. The steps in PMMM constitute the path that Packnz would find valuable in reaching new levels of organizational output, staff morale, and productivity through performance advancement. The first step encompasses initiating ad hoc, inconsistent, and ritualistic processes (Hasseltine, 2019; Sundqvist, 2018). The second step involves refining the process by setting clear goals reflecting the organization’s unique purpose and needs, establishing operational efficacies, and creating metrics to guide implementation.

The third step entails managing the process by establishing policies, standards, procedures, systems, and programs needed to integrate unit performance into an integrated strategic approach. The fourth step is about strategizing, and it involves differentiating competence from performance, creating and empowering workgroups for collaboration, and establishing a culture of measuring progress (Hasseltine, 2019; Sundqvist, 2018). The last step entails optimizing the performance management programs to make them seasoned and effective for the attainment of peak performance by incorporating continual innovative, transparency measures, incremental improvements, and strategy revisions, while making processes adaptable and nimble. By adopting these PMMM steps, Packnz Limited will improve performance management by understanding how and when to invest in programs and people and identifying development and training needs. It will also improve performance management by attaining the best sequencing of performance improvement activities, clarifying about talent acquisition, and overcoming, organizational roadblocks (Hasseltine, 2019).

The second recommendation for performance management improvement at Packnz is the provision of positive reinforcement for employees. In this company, positive reinforcement is entirely lacking in performance management practice. Positive reinforcement involves a token of employee encouragement, hence serving as a powerful motivator to employee teams. According to Wei and Yazdanifard (2014), positive reinforcement rewards positive worker behaviors while meritoriously strengthening the essence of positive conduct. An effective approach to positive reinforcement that Packnz can consider adopting is a behavioral approach called organizational behavior modification (OBM). As Quifors (2020a) suggests, this approach would involve managing employees’ behavior via a formal system of behavioral feedback and reinforcement. The elements of such a system include well-defined key behaviors desired for job performance, deployment of a measurement system for assessing behavior exhibition, managers notifying employees about these behaviors, and feedback and reinforcement (Quifors, 2020a). When teams at Packnz are positively reinforced, they will deliver better results punctually and repetitively, augment their self-esteem, and enhance their work confidence, which imperative for attaining peak performance (Pettit, 2013; Rumfola, 2017).

5.0 ConclusionThe HRM functions of talent identification and selection and performance management are critical for the success of business operations at Packnz Limited. Improving the effectiveness of these functions is a priority in this firm. So, the recommendations in this report are the starting point in realizing these improvements. Specifically, talent identification and selection can be improved by using acceleration pools and adopting values-based talent selection tools. On its part, performance management will be enhanced by applying the performance management maturity model and providing positive reinforcement for employees.

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