Analysis of Business Opportunity

The primary goal of all company owners is to optimize profitability. Any company is made up of systems and factors that help it perform better. Marketing strategy, the type of product or service, the company infrastructure, management, and personnel are all considerations to consider. It is important for a company's growth to understand all of the corporate aspects. Furthermore, economic and environmental conditions have an effect on a company's results. The economic cycle, in which the business performs badly during recessions, is one of the reasons. The location of the business is also a determining factor whereby the more accessible and closeness the business is, to the target customers, the higher the sales (Zikmund, Babin, Carr, & Griffin, 2013)

Despite the adequate marketing, a good business infrastructure, a conducive environment, employee performance can lead to a downfall or the success of a business. Globally, having employees who are maximally productive, despite the skills and competencies has become a problem. Strategies to improve employee performance have been put into place such as digital machines to make work easier, forms of training among others. However, use of digital automated machines has not been effective. Hence, there is need to address the problem and come up with other strategies that will improve the performance of the employees.

Justification for Problem Definition

Employee productivity commonly referred to as the workforce productivity is an evaluation of the efficiency of the workers or an individual worker in a business organization (Zikmund et al., 2013). The productivity of an employee is evaluated with regard to an employees’ output at a given time period. Additionally, the performance of a company is assessed relative to other employees doing the same work. According to Rios, McConnell, and Brue (2013), 80% of the success of a business relies on the productivity of the employees, hence, the employees’ productivity is an important consideration in business. Employees with low productivity are often unable to perform their duties with efficiency. They fail to maximize their potential and capability in order to produce quality output. It has been noted that most employees exhibit a low sense of ownership with regard to their roles and they don’t aim in upgrading themselves. Consequently, the below average employees may affect other colleagues, hence reducing the overall efficiency in terms of enhancing productivity (Rios, McConnell, & Brue, 2013 ).

There are managerial factors associated with the performance of employees. Inadequate supervision of the employees is one of the factors that result in poor employees performance (Rios, McConnell, & Brue, 2013). Most of the employees neglect their task, while in some cases there are high cases of absenteeism. The problem of negligence has been partly solved in many businesses. First, businesses have come up with a digital machine that records the time by which each employee has arrived and departure time. The strategy has enhanced a reduction in the number of absent employees and enhanced punctuality. However, an employee can arrive early but fail to accomplish the day’s objectives. Therefore, the machine used to record arrival time of employees does not solve the problem of employee productivity. Failure to delegate duties is another factor that affects employees’ productivity (Rios, McConnell, & Brue, 2013). It is related to lack of trust which results in a negative attitude of the employees. Failure to delegate duties inhibits creativity and innovation hence, leading to limited expansion of capability.

Poor communication is also another factor that leads to conflicts and misunderstandings in an organization. However, two-way communications have been enhanced by the use of emails, organization communication apps, which make communication much easier as it reduces time wasted in holding meetings which are unnecessary unless the agendas require face to face conversations. Some of the employees who are unhappy about their jobs often underperform due to lack of morale which is caused by boredom or fatigue, a poor managerial structure whereby the superiors and juniors are not in good terms. Outdated systems may be ineffective in making the employees work easier. According to Rios, McConnell, and Brue (2013), the use of high tech equipment and machines in an organization makes work easier hence increasing the business productivity. By the use of outdated systems, employees waste a lot of time in processing data and retrieving lost data. Nowadays employees tend to abandon the business computers and equipment to use their personal devices which are more effective. This is because the modern technology outperforms a firm’s technology. Therefore, it is important for businesses to come up with alternatives strategy to improve the employee's productivity

Alternative Course of Action

There are the alternative courses of actions that can improve the performance of employees. Upgrading the employee's software and firm's system is one of the alternatives. Decision-making with regard to the upgrading of the software needs to be examined like any other business decision making. However, some companies are reluctant in upgrading their system as the investment cost is high. The upgrading of the software may not be accounted for as it is seen as a form of investment and an additional expense to the firm (Jenkins & Williamson, 2015). This is the reason why many businesses use outdated systems. Globalization has brought about technological changes globally and to remain competitive in the market, businesses have to change and adjust in accordance to the technological advancements (Jenkins & Williamson, 2015). Additionally, after the software has been upgraded there is need to train the employees on how to use the apps for efficiency. Another alternation action that can be taken is the advancement in the training of the employees.

Training is a key factor as it enhances the development of confidence while working. A business should select an outdoor form of training that will break the monotony of working indoors. Alternatively, a firm should create a “fun” working environment whereby some of the working policies are flexible. For example, employees should be given freedom to mingle during breaks in order to share their ideas. The interaction enables them to be more creative. However, despite fewer restrictions, the business should set up goals that should be met by the employees.

Evaluate the Alternatives

Alternative course of action

Advantages

Disadvantages

Upgrading systems

Enhances streamlined operations

Saves on time

Increased productivity

Easy to use hence motivates the employees

Reduces the companies expenses

Easy monitoring

Requires training

It is an expensive investment

Training

Motivates the employees

Amplification of skills

Positive attitude

Boosts employees confidence

Increased stress

Time wastage

Boredom and lack of interested for the employees

Search for greener pastures after acquiring new skills

Minimal Restrictions and goals

Exchange of ideas

Creativity

Self-motivation

Misuse of resources

Time wastage

Difficulty in supervision and setting a limit to the level of freedom

Breeds disrespect

In the evaluation of the alternatives, all the strategies exhibit different advantages and disadvantages. Upgrading of the system makes work easier and fast. It further motivates the employees as they enjoy performing their duties with up to date systems. In a research conducted by Bodie, Kane, and Marcus (2014), indicated that 80% of the employees despite their age have shown to appreciate the upgrade of a company’s system as it enhances the fast flow of integration of document and communication. Additionally, as the system is fast, it saves on time hence increases the employees productive as they are able to undertake several tasks at the same time. The supervisor is also able to monitor and to keep track of the ongoing activities in the employees’ machines. Monitoring is easy and the supervisor is able to identify a passive employee.

Conversely training the employees is also important in enhancing the employee's productivity. Training is important to improve the employee's skills. Indoor training tends to create a negative attitude in the employees which diminishes their interest to improve their skills. Henceforth, the effectiveness of training depends on the type of the training. Further training is seen to be a waste of time, especially where the employees fail to appreciate the training activity. Some of the employees feel stressed up during training which results to ineffectiveness (Bodie, Kane, & Marcus, 2014). Additionally, after the employees enhance their skills after the training, they look for new job opportunities which leads to loss of human resources for a business.

According to Laudon and Traver (2013), creating a conducive and "fun” environment boosts the morale of the employees motivating them to work better and improve their productivity. Even though it enhances the exchange of ideas, misuse of resources is a risk factor as the employees enjoy their freedom, they waste time in mingling resulting to ineffectiveness. Disrespect may also occur in the workplace. Putting a limit to employees freedom is essential in maintaining respect between the juniors and the seniors (Laudon & Traver, 2013).

Review

After evaluating the alternatives, the most appropriate method to be used in improving the employee performance is to upgrade the business system. Due to the changes in technology, it is important that businesses keep on advancing their systems for effectiveness (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). The adaptability to change is the key factor to remain competitive in the market and for long-term success.

Conclusions and Recommendations

After the comparison of the alternatives to improve the employee's performance the most effective is upgrading the business systems. However, for the strategy to be effective, there are various elements and strategies that have to be put in place for its effectiveness. The business requires consultation from IT technologies with regard to the most appropriate software that can be used to upgrade their current systems or ways by which the business systems can be upgraded. The software and systems to be used depending on the structure and business of a firm. After enquiring on the software to be used, a budget should be made which will estimate the cost of the project and the time taken to accomplish the project. Upgrading the systems can take three days to implement, but evaluating the effectiveness of the new system as well as establishing the adaptability of the employees is a continuous process. However, the department should notify a systems interruption for a given time period. It is appropriate that the activity should be done during the weekends to prevent disruption of normal business (Zikmund et al., 2013).

Follow-up and Evaluate

A follow-up study should be conducted on the effectiveness on upgrading the systems. An evaluation should be conducted by two personnel, the IT manager, to evaluate the level of efficacy, and user feasibility of the upgraded system and human resource who will assess the employees on the adaptability of the upgraded system. The human resource can enquire from the employees on how they feel regarding the system and in six months the performance can be evaluated at intervals, to determine whether the set goals have been met within a particular time frame.

Workforce

Department

Activity

Responsibility

Time

MIN

MAX

Performance

Current

Scale

Previous

Scale

I.T Personnel

Systems upgrade

Installation

3 days

7 days

User feasibility

Data Update

Speed

1-10

1-10

1-10

1-10

1-10

1-10

H&R Manager

Employee evaluation

Evaluation of performance

1 month interval

6 months

Goals

Adaptability

Efficiency

Level of output

_%

_%

_%

_%

_%

_%

_%

_%

Operations

Manager

Evaluate overall performance

Management

1 month

interval

6 months

General productivity

Efficiency

_%

-%

_%

_-%

Evaluation of the project requires coordination of various personnel in departments. The I.T. manager should evaluate the system in terms of speed: fast or slow, and the complexities involved in using the interface, how friendly the system is to the user. The systems should be upgraded in three days but in cases of disruptions in the activity it should take a maximum of seven days. After the upgrade of the system the H&R manager evaluates the adaptability of the employees, time taken to achieve the goals and the level of output which is given in percentage. The evaluation should be done on an interval of one month for six months. Additionally, the general manager should evaluate the general output and compare with the previous output to determine the efficacy of the system upgrade. However, if the performance of the employees remains constant, the firm should consider an alternative such as training.

References

Bodie, Z., Kane, A., & Marcus, A.J. (2014). Investments. (10th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Jenkins, W., & Williamson, D. (2015). Strategic management and business analysis. London: Routledge.

Kehoe, R.R., & Wright, P.M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Management, 39(2), 366-391.

Laudon, K.C., & Traver, C.G. (2013). E-commerce. New York: Pearson.

Rios, M.C., McConnell, C.R., & Brue, S.L. (2013). Economics: Principles, problems, and policies. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Zikmund, W.G., Babin, B.J., Carr, J.C., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.