Question

You are hired as a consultant by the national corporate office to address consistently lower performance scores for at least the past five years at one branch office in DeLand, FL near a train station. While the performance ratings are still average to just below average in some cases, the scores are considerably lower than at all of the other branch offices across the country. In addition, productivity declines consistently during each summer. The job positions with poorer performance include indoor and outdoor jobs and occur with all of the positions at the branch position. Performance evaluations are identical for each of the jobs across the branches (for example, performance evaluation criteria for the production manager in DeLand, FL are the same criteria for the production managers at each of the other sites.) Upon, first review, you find that the items on the performance evaluations seem to be consistent with the expectations in each of the written job descriptions. It is now time to visit the DeLand site. The corporate office has allowed you to make suggestions directly to supervisors at the DeLand office, implement any training programs you deem to be helpful, and then report your findings to the corporate office, What are some of the things that you anticipate might account for the lower ratings? After an objective analysis of the job responsibilities, comparisons with job descriptions, interviews with staff, and systematic observations, your suspicions are confirmed. How will you address them and what suggestions will you make to the corporate office?

Answer 1

Q1: What are some of the things that you anticipate might account for the lower ratings?

Ans: It seems likely that the job description mentioned differs significantly with the actual job responsibilities, for most of the positions. If this is the case, the items on performance evaluation will also be not aligned with the actual job responsibilities, but will be consistent with the job descriptions. This can be easily verified by conducting interviews with staff to understand the actual job responsibilies, and systematically matching them with the job descriptions. It is possible, this difference came about over time, with the evolution of the companies, but the job descriptions might have remained unchanged.

Q2. How will you address them and what suggestions will you make to the corporate office?

Ans2. To address them:

1. We can recommend redesigning the job descriptions to be in alignment with the strategic and functional goals, and thus the actual responsibilities for each position.

2. Once the job descriptions are corrected, training programs for the supervisors can be conducted to make sure they understand why the changes were made, and how they should rate their colleagues from now on.

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