Reference no: EM133518209

The Hotel Paris competitive strategy is " To use superior guest service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and thus boost revenues and profitability." HR manager Lisa Cruz must now formulate appraisal policies and activities that support this competitive strategy, by eliciting the required employee behaviours and competentices.

Lisa knew that the Hotel Paris's performance appraisal system was inadequate. When the founders opened their first hotel, they want to an office-supply store and purchased a pad of performance appraisal forms. The hotel chain used these. Each form was a two-sided page. Supervisors indicated whether the employee's performance in terms of various standard traits, including quantity of work, and dependability, was excellent , good, fair, or poor. Lisa knew that amoung other flaws this appraisal tool did not focus either the employee or the superivisor to focus the appraisal on the extent to which the employee was helping the hotel paris achive its strategic goals. She wanted a system the focussed the employee's attention on taking those actions that would contribute to helping the company achive its goals, for instance in terms of improved customer service.

Both Lisa and the firm's CFO were concerned by the current disconnect between (1) what the current appraisal process was focussing on and (2) what the company wanted to accomplish in terms of its strategic goals. They wanted the firm's new performance management system to help breathe life into the firm's strategic performance, by focussing employees behaviour specifically on the performances that would help the Hotel Paris achieve its strategic goals.

Lisa and her team created a performance management system that focussed on both competencies and objectives. In designing the new system, their starting point was the job descriptions they had created for the hotel's employees. These descriptions each included required competencies. Consequently, using a form similar to graphic rating scale, the front desk-clerks' appraisals now focus on competencies such as," able to check a guest in or out in 5 minutes or less." Most service employees appraisals include the competency able to exhibit patience and guest support of this even even when busy with other activities. There were other required competencies. For example the hotel paris wanted all service employees to showinitiate in helping guests to be customer oriented and to be team players ( in terms of sharing information and best practices. Each of these competencies derives from the hotel's aim of becoming more service oriented. Each employee now also receives one or more strategically relevant objectives for the coming year. One, for a housecleaning crew member, said, " Maratha will no more than three room cleaning infrastions in the coming year," for instance.

In addition to the goals and competencies-based appraisals, other Hotel Paris performance management forms laid out the development efforts that the employee would undertake in the coming year. Instructions also reminded the superivisors that, in addition to the annual and semi annual appraisals, they should continuously interact with and update with their employees. The result was a comprehensive performance management system: The supervisor appraised the employee based on goals and competencies that were driven by the company's strategic needs. And, the actual appraisal resulted in new goals for the coming year, as well as in specific development plans that made sense in terms of the company's and employees' needs and preferences.

Questions

Choose one job, such as front-desk clerk. Based on the list of the duties, competencies, and the performance standards for that job, and on what you read in this chapter, create a performance appraisal form for appraising that job.