Human Resource Management: B R Investments Case Study Analysis

This case study analyzes the human resource management challenges faced by B R Investments, focusing on employee performance appraisal and dissatisfaction. The company's performance plan includes community service, leading to employee grievances and threats of unionization. The report recommends maintaining the performance management system with modifications, including adjusted weightage for different employee roles, implementing a 360-degree feedback system, increasing the frequency of evaluations, and enhancing transparency through an online portal. The analysis emphasizes the importance of aligning performance criteria with organizational values, transparent communication, and fostering a culture that values employee contributions while promoting overall organizational success. The report suggests strategies for addressing employee concerns and maintaining a fair and effective performance management system.

Human resource management
B R Investments case study

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Question 1........................................................................................................................................2
Question 2........................................................................................................................................3
Question 3........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Human resource management in any organization plays a vital role for the success of the
business by ensuring employee satisfaction. This employee satisfaction is achieved through
various strategies including fair compensation, rewards & recognition, open communication and
effective addressing of employee grievances.
Performance management is a crucial function of the HR department of any business. Effective
performance management leads to employee motivation as well as assists the top management in
keeping a fair track of employee performances (Cardio & Leonard, 2014). This report throws
light on a unique situation encountered by B R Investments. The current performance plan
considers responsibility, initiative, and interest in work, leadership potential, co-operative
attitude and community activity while evaluating employee performances. Now that a few
employees have been ranked poorly owing to their lack of contribution in community activity,
they have expressed dissatisfaction about the entire appraisal system. The employees have also
threatened to organize a union. The fear of which has led the chief executive to discontinue to
system all together. This report refers to the issue at hand and recommends strategies that can be
adopted to address the same in an effective manner.
Question 1
It is imperative that the performance appraisal criteria of employees relates directly with the
organizational attributes and values. If the organization as a whole has taken up community
service initiatives as a part of their CSR activity, then it is the responsibility of all the employees
to abide by the same (Carroll, 2015). The growth of our community and the betterment of our
planet is a key responsibility that belongs to every individual. As an organization, it is a positive
initiative to encourage employees to participate in community service. In order to ensure
implementation of the same, B R Investments has added this factor in the employee’s
performance evaluation.
There are five other attributes that are a part of employee’s performance evaluation plan and
hence the impact of a single factor impacting employee’s overall performance would be
relatively less. It is essential for the long term growth of the organization that the employees

hired by the firm believe in the same value set as the organization. This will enable them to grow
together towards a successful future.
Therefore, assigning weightage to all the six criteria based on their relative importance in the
organization as well as in the job role of every individual is a more practical and effective
solution than eliminating the performance evaluation plan. The weightage given to the
community service conducted by the employees can be reduced to an extent but it must not be
eliminated.
Question 2
If I were the HR manager, I would take the following steps in order to tackle the situation.
1. If this were happening for the first time in the organization, exceptions can be made by
providing these employees with a relatively less increment. At the same time, the
employees would be strictly informed about the importance of community service for
future appraisals.
2. Communication within the business also plays a vital role in the success of the
organization. Transparent communication helps in addressing employee grievances
(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Personal counseling sessions could be organized for
grieving employees and matters could be clarified through ha face to face
communication.
3. Organizational culture must now allow threats of forming a union by the employees to
the top management. If the top management succumbs to their needs, then it would be
difficult to control employees in the future as well.
4. As an HR manager, I would also ensure that future recruits of the firm are aware of this
policy at the time of recruitment. Clarifying things with employees at an early stage leads
to smooth functioning of the business and increased employee satisfaction.
Question 3
The performance appraisal system of the company must continue to include the six qualities as
before. These qualities or attributes by which the employee performance would be judged are
responsibility, initiative, and interest in work, leadership potential, co-operative attitude and

community activity. However, in order to reach a grey ground with the employees and
establishing a more practical employee performance evaluation plan, these attributes must be
given different weights.
The percentage of these weights would be different for different employees serving different
roles in the organization. For example, for an employee working at the top management, it is
recommended that he reflects responsibility and leadership ability far more than his interest in
community service. Similarly for a new joined recruit, his interest in the work as well as his
ability to take initiation would play a more significant role than other qualities.
The performance evaluation must also include a 360 degree feedback system wherein every
employee is reviewed fairly by their peers, seniors as well as juniors (Karkoulian, Assaker &
Hallak, 2016). Such a feedback helps in providing a true picture of the employees’ engagement
in the business. Along with this, the performance of employees must be reviewed weekly or
monthly. The output of this evaluation must be available on an online portal for employee’s to
check at any given point of time. This would help employees in keeping a tab on their
performance throughout the year and work upon improving the areas where they are lacking
(Cravens & Stewart, 2015).
Conclusion
Performance management of employees plays a significant role in the success of an organization
because it helps in keeping a track of employee performance as well as rewarding competent
employees for their hard work. This report has laid emphasis on the performance management
issue at B R Investments.
It is recommended that the organization must continue with the performance management system
that is currently adopted by them along with a few minor amendments. The six qualities must be
given a different weightage owing the role played by these attributes in different employees’
jobs. A 360 degree feedback system must be implemented. The frequency of evaluation must be
increased. And lastly, the evaluation must be made more transparent by allowing employees to
view it throughout the year from an online portal. Such transparency helps in increasing trust
(Men, 2014). These steps would lead to increased transparency and efficiency without
compromising with organizational values.

References
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cardy, R. and Leonard, B., 2014. Performance Management: Concepts, Skills and Exercises:
Concepts, Skills and Exercises. Routledge.
Carroll, A.B., 2015. Corporate social responsibility. Organizational dynamics, 44(2), pp.87-96.
Cravens and Stewart, J.S., 2015. Workplace culture mediates performance appraisal
effectiveness and employee outcomes: A study in a retail setting. Journal of Management
Accounting Research, 27(2), pp.1-34.
Karkoulian, S., Assaker, G. and Hallak, R., 2016. An empirical study of 360-degree feedback,
organizational justice, and firm sustainability. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), pp.1862-
1867.
Men, L.R., 2014. Internal reputation management: The impact of authentic leadership and
transparent communication. Corporate Reputation Review, 17(4), pp.254-272.