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    DEVELOPING AND REWARDING EMPLOYEES
    Assignment Overview
    Signature Assignment: Written Communication, Reinforced level

    In this assignment, your information literacy skills will be assessed. The information literacy rubric will be useful for this purpose. In the course MGT302, written communication skills were assessed at the introduced level. In MGT407, they will be assessed at the reinforced level. Finally, in MGT491 your written communication skills will be assessed at the emphasized level. The grading rubric for written communication at the undergraduate level has been developed to measure student success in meeting the MGT407 Case 3 expectations. Rubrics for the other two courses are included in their respective assignments.

    Hallowell (2011) explains, What I mean by peak performanceand what most of us seek in our lives and what managers wish to help their people achieveis consistent excellence with improvement over time at a specific task or set of tasks. He further asserts, Those three factorsexcellence, consistency, and ongoing improvementdefine peak performance for my purposes. Managers should always be on the lookout for employees who just dont ‘fit in’ with the organizations culture. You can tell a person is not in the right role if he feels no enthusiasm for what hes doing, if his mind never lights up, if he never gets excited about his job, if he chronically complains. And, the author continues, This doesnt mean hes a dull person or that the line of work he has chosen is intrinsically dull, just that hes not assigned to the right task.

    Being assigned the right tasks and then being responsible for those tasks relates to the division of labor concept coined by Adam Smith (1776). The goal is for employees to spend as much time as possible at the intersection of three spheres: what they like to do, what they are most skilled at doing, and what adds value to the project or organization. For peak performance or enhancing productivity levels, many would argue that specific tasks should be assigned to specific individuals with specific skills. Strategic leaders are known for being able to quickly match skills to tasks.

    HR managers need to understand the importance of employees having fun while at work. Many organizations are highly task oriented and forget the importance of being relationship oriented. One way you can tell if your employees are in alignment with the Cycle of Excellence is to see if they are having fun. For example, some modern managers see the value of having fun at work or even taking time off from work to just relax and reflect. For example, Bill Gates is famous for taking seven days off, twice a year, in a secluded cabin where he reads, drinks diet Orange Crush, and thinks.

    The author provides the following recommendation for managers, Consider having a goofy day of some sort now and then. It must conform to the basic rules and values of your organizations culture, of course. But make it fun. By having a goofy day at work or dressing up for certain holidays, employees are able to have some fun, which also relieves stress.

    Effective management limits bad stress as much as possible, while promoting good stress in the form of surmountable challenges. Effective managers also understand the importance of recognizing employees for their daily contributions. The author continues, Recognition is so powerful because it answers a fundamental human need, the need to feel valued for what we do. Managers are in a unique position to offeror withholdsuch recognition, and with it, the feeling of being valued.

    According to Hallowell (2011), there are five steps to igniting peak performance in an organization. He calls the steps the Cycle of Excellence:

    Step 1 – Select: Putting people into the right jobs so that their brains light up.

    Step 2 – Connect: Overcoming the potent forces that disconnect people in the workplace both from each other and from the mission of the organization, and restoring the force of positive connection, which is the most powerful fuel for peak performance.

    Step 3 – Play: Play, or imaginative engagement, catalyzes advanced work, and managers can help people tap into this phenomenally productive yet undervalued activity of the mind.

    Step 4 – Grapple and grow: Managers can create conditions where people want to work hard, and employees making progress at a task that is challenging and important turns ordinary performers into superstars and increases commitment.

    Step 5 – Shine: Doing wellshiningfeels good, so giving recognition and noticing when a person shines is critical, and a culture that helps people shine inevitably becomes a culture of self-perpetuating excellence.

    The five steps of the Cycle of Excellence provide a novel approach to maximizing peak performance.

    Reference: Harrison, J. (2011, March). Interview with Edward M. Hallowell, MD, author of Shine: Using brain science to get the best from your people. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(4), 43-45. Available in the  Online Library.

    Case Assignment
    Draw on the material in the background readings and do additional research to prepare a magazine article in which you do the following:

    Analyze the five steps of the Cycle of Excellence and use it as a starting point to create your own cycle of excellence.
    Discuss how the cycle of excellence you have developed is the optimum approach for managing human capital.
    The magazine article you are writing should be similar to an article you might find in TD: Talent Development (magazine of the Association for Talent Development) or in HR Magazine (magazine for the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM). Both are found in the Online Library.
    Utilize at least three other reference sources to build your article. Cite sources within your paragraphs and include them in a References list at the end of your article. (Note: Even though practitioner magazine articles at times do not cite sources or have a reference section, they are needed for our academic purposes. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper for additional information.
    Include a cover page and a reference page. Note that the deliverable for this assignment is not an essay paper, but rather a journal article formatted like other published journal articles. (Hint: Most articles are written in columnar form.)
    Citation and reference style instructions are available at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/. Also see University’s Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper .

    You will find the following useful as you critique sources:

    Cornell University. (2015). Critically analyzing information sources: Critical appraisal and analysis. Retrieved from http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill26.htm

    Cornell University. (2014). Evaluating Web sites: Criteria and tools. Retrieved from http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/webeval.html

    Reading info below:

    Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they dont want to. —Richard Branson

    Source: Hyacinth, B. (2019). Treat Employees Like AssetsNot Liabilities. LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/treat-employees-like-assets-brigette-hyacinth

    Mastering and applying talent management information is crucial to helping managers create an effective performance management and measurement system. Firms often use performance management systems to properly identify the success of their employees. Success in the workplace is often defined by an individual’s ability to live up to the demands of his or her position. With proper job analysis, it should be easy to quantify the level of success or failure that each employee has reached toward performing or exceeding job expectations.

    Assessing Employee Performance

    What is the value of performance appraisals? Read the following for benefits of conducting appraisals:

    KPI.com. (n.d.). 9 Benefits of the Performance Appraisal. Retrieved from https://www.kpi.com/blog/2016/01/18/10-benefits-of-the-performance-appraisal-system/

    It is no surprise to learn how critical it is to develop employees so that they perform their jobs at top effectiveness and efficiency. It is a continuous process of improvement and an opportunity to provide human capital with the updates and insight needed to be successful on the job.

    In what ways can we be most effective in evaluating performance?

    Read the following for tips to improve:

    Heathfield, S. (2019). Want 5 Tips to Help Managers Improve Performance Appraisals? Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/improve-performance-appraisals-1918839.

    There are times, however, when performance problems occur. Read the following, which features a concept called the Seven Factor Model. This model can be used to assess problems with performance and to identify how to address them.

    Bacal, R. Performance enhancement: Diagnosing performance problems. Retrieved from http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/diagper.htm

    Lets continue on to the topic of Training and Development.

    Training and Development

    Read Employee Training and Development, and the following article:

    Heathfield, S. (2019). Tips for transferring training to the workplace. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/training-can-make-a-difference-tips-during-training-1919303

    (Robbins, 2017)

    Robbins, J. (2017). How to Train and Develop Your Employees. Retrieved from
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejIyoRit6z8

    You may also find the following sources helpful:

    Michalowicz, M. (2013). 101 ways to reward employees (without giving them cash). American Express. Retrieved from https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/a-101-ways-to-reward-employees-without-giving-them-cash/

    22 Surefire Ways to Boost Employee Engagement

    Source: Eisenhauer, T. (2016). 22 surefire ways to boost employee engagement. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/gtqo98n

    Employee Recognition and Rewards

    (Jo, 2017)

    Jo (2017). How to Develop a Reward Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNQbAuAxkSc

    (APA, 2017)

    APA Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program (2017). Employee Recognition. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhE4ECnscBk.

    (Ryder, 2017)

    Ryder, R. (2017). Employee Rewards and RecognitionHow to Recognize Employees. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCs-mn2r9oE.

    And, finally, read the following from the Society for Human Resource Management about company gifts to employees that just might not be appreciated.

    Wilkie, D. (2020). Company Gifts That Workers Hate. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/gifts-workers-hate-.aspx

    Module 3 Summary

    In Module 3 we will examine the importance of developing and rewarding human capital so that they perform their jobs at top effectiveness and efficiency. It is a continuous process of improvement and an opportunity to provide human capital with the updates and insight needed to be successful on the job.

    You are getting closer to finishing this course! Do you need a boost to jump in and finish Module 4? The following video just might be the one to keep you walking toward your goal, to keep you working toward your degree, to keep you moving toward top effectiveness and efficiency on the job you have promised to do.

    (Scott, 2019)

    Scott, B. (2019). Ive Come Too Far to Quit. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aPntFAyRts

    Keep walking, everyone. We are almost there.

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