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The foundation of business firms or organizations is fundamentally

rooted on an ultimate purpose to fulfill for the targeted markets, for the various

components of the business, and the community at large. Accordingly, a

business organization clearly defines and establishes its mission,

conceptualizes the set of products or services to offer, and puts in place

business procedures and policies to ensure that the products and services are
linked to and received by the consumers. The entire process of purpose

formulation, product development, and delivery mechanism entails the skills

and knowledge of people ± the company¶s manpower. Human resources are

the players and movers of a business firm. The humans in the business

provide the ideas, expertise and skills towards the accomplishment of

corporate objectives. Thus, it is critical for the company to have established

systems of finding, maintaining and developing its workforce in order to

survive in a turbulent environment. According to (2002) the dramatic changes

brought about by the twenty-first century to the business environment make it

reasonably clear that effective and successful management of an

organization¶s people or human resources is a key source of competitive

advantage and can be the major determinant of long -term organizational

performance ().


  
  

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CompuLearn is a British internet technology (IT) company that

provides IT-based teaching and learning programmes in business and

management. The company collaborates with United Kingdom -based

universities which validate the company¶s services to help the students obtain

a recognized qualification on the successful completion of a program of

study. CompuLearn aims to become a major player in e-learning delivery of

university validated programmes in the world and become a learning

organization. The company has fifty staff mainly based on its established
headquarters at Preston, Lancashire. The employees function in eight major

areas: Programme Development, Customer Service, Human Resource,

Marketing, Finance, Sales, IT Support and Quality Assurance which all have
an office in the main trading areas of the company located in Nairobi, Mumbai

and Dubai. Presently, the company seeks to extend its ma rket from 200
education centers in 30 countries to 500 education centers in 60 countries.

The human resource management department at CompuLearn handles the

responsibilities of selecting, training, developing, retaining and rewarding the

talents of the company. Presently, the company¶s remuneration system is

attractive and is appropriate to the prevailing rate in the IT industry. However,

opportunities for professional growth and development within the firm are very

limited. Its main human resource focus i s on selection and recruitment of

highly-skilled IT people and specialist employees rather than internal training

and development. The company¶s training budget of £25,000 is primarily used

for training the sales staff who have been previously identified a s the ³jewel of
the company´. Though the system has previously worked, recent years have

proved that the pool of managers though highly equipped in technical

expertise, lack management skills. To add to the severity of the problem,

CompuLearn has no established performance appraisal system for evaluation
of staff performance, and most of the headquarters employees are criticized

by the partner-university staff for their customer service skills. The university
employees term the CompuLearn people as ³brash p ushy and ill-informed´.


  
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CompuLearn is in the midst of a human resource management crisis.

Basically, the company¶s human resource issues fall under three categories:
training and development, performance appraisal, and customer service. The

first two problems are long -term in nature while the last is an immediate
concern. Training and development, and performance appraisal are inherent

components of the function of human resource management. (2002) stated

that effective career development is integral to organizational human resource

management functions and structures in order to establish a collaborative

nature of all human resource management components (). In relation to this,

(2004) claimed that a performance appraisal program is relevant to

professional development of staff mainly due to its functions of enhancing

communication patterns, potently responding to performance issues, and

improving employee morale.

Foremost, the company¶s situation requires the adoption of the so -

called strategic human resource management approach. Strategic human

resource management refers to the method of linking and aligning human

resource management practices with organizat ional goals in order to foster an

organizational culture that encourages flexibility, efficiency and creativity, and

enhance business performance. It involves incorporating all the human

resource functions of selection, training and rewarding employees in the

formulation of business strategies (2005). Specifically, successful alignment

and integration of human resource management with strategic planning can

be done by involving the human resource management function in the

company planning process, undersco ring human resource activities that

support organizational objectives, and building a solid human resource -

management relationship (1999). The CompuLearn management has to

understand that in order to tackle specific human resource management

issues; the company has to be firm with and should constantly reinforce the

mission. The present mission is to become a world leader in electronic

learning programs to university students, a learning company, and to extend

the market base. The mission is broad in context and taken literally, it would

require continuous development of skills, knowledge and expertise within the

company. After all, no company who aims to achieve a global presence

operates with stagnant structures and minimally -skilled employees. Once

CompuLearn has incorporated in its culture that its mission is a serious
matter; the specific human resource problems can now be addressed.

The traditional psychology of employees towards employment is to

obtain tangible rewards for their performance . However, the onset of

modernization that calls for diversity of skills has altered this thinking. Today,
employees bargain their performance for the extent of training and

development that the company can provide to them which would permit them

to maintain marketability. Therefore, the human resource management

function which handles employee selection and training has to alter its

mindset as well. Human resource management activities must now be

designed to address the long -term interests of employees and their need for

continuous professional growth (2002 ). CompuLearn does not address this

need. Presently, it does not provide immense chances for employees to

realize their full potential. Training and development is focused on one
department which limits the availability of skills to be learned by the staff.

Thus, most of the employees opt to leave to find better employment despite
an attractive remuneration package. The company has to alter its human

resource mindset of focusing only on recruiting highly -trained employees

while ignoring the necessity of internal professional development. It needs to

supplement the effective compensation package with a strong framework for

training and development in order to respond to the holistic needs of

employees. One effective model identified today which supports strategic

human resource management is a strategically aligned training and

development model that aspires to foster preparedness and flexibility among

the various levels of the organization. The model has f our phases: Plan, Do,

Check, and Act. The Plan phase as the first step involves the establishment of
training and development as a strategic priority for the organization. This

means the organization has to assess the components of its training and
development program to identify those that support the business strategies,

create policies that would elevate the training and development program into

an organizational priority, and formulate plans as to how training and

development can be transferred to job p erformance (1998). For CompuLearn,

this should be done through the collaboration of the Human Resource Director
and other managers of the different divisions. There is a need to set a

meeting for revisiting the corporate mission in order to extract the nec essary

elements that would define the training and development policies. Usually, the
key element of organizational mission that helps define training and

development policies revolve around statements on expected attitudes and

behaviors that support learn ing (1998). The CompuLearn mission states that it

aspires to become a learning company in the world. The management can

build on this statement in formulating the training and development policies.

The policies can include explicit statements of the signif icance of training and

development for the employees, budget allocation, required number of hours

or levels of participation in the program, and required level of training before

or after promotion. Furthermore, transferring training and development into

the job performance can be simply achieved through on-the-job training by

incorporating learning into the daily performance of tasks (1998). The second
phase is the ³Do´ phase. This requires the selection of specific training

program contents from various alternatives. An organization has to pattern the

content of its training programs with the company objectives, culture, values,
and current and anticipated competency needs (1998). CompuLearn¶s

immediate need is on leadership and management training. Organi zations

usually provide this training in short courses designed to render a realistic

overview of managerial responsibility (1998). According to (2005) leadership

in organization helps employees to comprehend the company¶s purpose and

business strategy, assists them to understand how they can contribute to

fulfillment of objectives, shares information and knowledge with employees,

and predicts employee satisfaction and confidence in an organization. The

effectiveness of leadership trainings in instilling strong leadership skills to

CompuLearn¶s managers would prevent possible occurrences of a line

manager criticizing an employee for a mistake because they would be

oriented on the best ways to handle these things. The third phase, evaluation
or ³Check´, can be undertaken through several activities: measuring on -site

reactions of participants to training and development, gauging learning

through behavioral exercises during the training, observing employee

performance after the training, interviewing superviso rs, and examining the

post-training performance appraisals. Finally, after the process of planning,

executing and assessing the training and development program, the

organization must be willing and ready to render modifications to the program

based on the evaluation, and to start the process once more. Training and
development is not a one-time deal. It should be continuous. CompuLearn

should not stop at the four phases. There is a need for continuous (most
effective is annual) review and update of trainin g and development goals and

processes in response to the changing strategic needs of the business units

or organizational components (1998).

The second long-term issue at CompuLearn is the absence of a

performance appraisal system. Many manager s today do not take

performance appraisals seriously for fear of negative feedback. However,

performance appraisals communicate to the employees the company¶s

interest and appreciation for the employee¶s work and efforts. Thus, instilling

employee morale (1990). CompuLearn¶s issue with training and development

is somehow connected to the lack of performance evaluations. Employees do

not feel encouraged because they do not know the value of their contribution

to organizational endeavor. They could not see an y structure that would

determine the kinds of merits or promotions they can receive if they perform

well. This is made even worse by the minimal opportunities for professional
enhancement offered to them. The company has to establish and fully

implement a performance appraisal system to supplement its training and

development program. (2004) asserted that the performance appraisal

system do not only help to detect hidden talent but also identify training

needs. Performance appraisal is the process of exami ning and discussing

employee performance for the purpose of making judgments regarding

strengths or areas of improvements, and identifying opportunities for skills

development (2006). There are three things to consider for a performance

appraisal system to be effectively put in place. First, the company has to

determine the objectives of the process. The objectives would serve as the
guiding principle for the conduct of the entire procedure. Typically, the major

reason for having the system is to monitor em ployee performance, encourage

employees, and improve organizational morale (2004). CompuLearn can

adopt these objectives since it currently has no mechanism for monitoring
performance, has a need to motivate all its employees and not only the sales

people, and change the culture and moral of the entire company. Secondly,
the company must develop a plan, a form, and a timeframe for launching the

program. The planning stage involves all the managers to contribute to the
components of the program like procedures as well as the indicators to be

measured. The primary tool for assessing performance is through a

performance appraisal form. A basic structure for an IT company performance

appraisal form consists of parts for the employee¶s major responsibilities and

duties; achievements within the rating period; difficulties encountered in the

job; actions taken; needed trainings; a rating scale for specific areas like

judgment, technical knowledge, IT skills, problem -solving, communicating,

teamwork etc; future plans and activities; supervisor¶s observations and

recommendations; agreements; and other issues (2006). Performance

appraisals should be guided by a calendar. Managers should conduct at least

two formal dialogues with each employee annually. The first is to p lan and the

second is to review the accomplishment of plans. In between the rating

periods, the managers have to consistently coach their subordinates (2003).

Coaching is a form of performance feedback that lessens the managers¶ fear

of criticism and facilitates real-time performance evaluation. It addresses

management questions such as manager¶s behavior or activity that makes the

employee¶s job more difficult; any measures that the supervisor can render to

assist the employee in effectively carrying out his/her functions; employee¶s

understanding of the manager¶s expectations from his/her performance; steps

that the employee can take in order to prepare him for the next promotional
opportunity; and what the supervisor can further provide to the employee in

order for him/her to perform at his/her full potential (1990). CompuLearn

should start the establishment of its performance appraisal system with all the
managers of the eight divisions and the Human Resource Director sitting

down to formulate the objectives, plan the process and steps of the
implementation of the system, craft the performance appraisal form, decide on

the time of implementation, and deliberate on other matters that can be done
to stimulate the strength of the company¶s workforce and make the most out

of their performance. The managers should start by again considering the

mission of the company and patterning the performance appraisal objectives

with this mission. Each of the departmental managers must be able to

determine the key performance indicators in their respective division. They

should have an overall view of how their specific department contributes to

the accomplishment of the company¶s mission. Corollary to this, they should

know the individual functions of the employees within their department and

how to be able to effectively measure each function. The meticulous

delineation of the functions would make the appraisal system cover and
scrutinize all the necessary areas within the company that impact its business

performance. The specific key performance indicators would be the contents

of the performance appraisal form. Moreover, CompuLearn has to be rigid in

the implementation of the program. The managers should be able to set a

specific date of the first implementation, the fix ed rating periods, and the
schedule for staff orientation regarding the performance appraisal system.

Although the managers are the most convenient persons to conceptualize the
system, the staff has to provide their inputs too. According to (1994) futile

implementation of performance appraisal systems can be caused by lack of

employee acceptance. Performance standards set by the managers would be

well accepted by the employees if they are informed of them prior to

implementation. Employee input is advantag eous in identifying possible

biases or weaknesses in the system, and rendering suggestions for

improvement (p. 3). Finally, the company has to discuss the matter of

coaching. The managers must be aware of their responsibility towards their

subordinates. CompuLearn lacks a solid organizational culture. Since there

are no internal career development and performance appraisal systems, the

staff have to decipher what the company wants them to achieve in the long

run. The company has to practice simple steps of making the staff feel valued.
Managers must constantly monitor their activities and engage them in

dialogues in order to provide a channel for ideas and difficulties encountered

in daily business undertakings. This simple step would provide a strong

foundation for the implementation of the more formal training and

development program. Thirdly, the performance appraisal system is not a

static structure. It has to be reviewed in order to adapt to the changing needs

of the staff and the company. An annual rev iew of the system is highly
recommended with an emphasis on examining the grading system in the

form, extent on how hard and soft skills are evaluated, ample space for

employee¶s comments and suggestions, and categories that correctly tackle

and measure the employees¶ responsibilities and job descriptions ( 2004).

Finally, CompuLearn is faced with an immediate concern regarding

employee customer service skills in the Preston headquarters. (1996)

reported that the information technology market is one of the fastest-growing

industries in the world. Computer -related services comprise more than a third
of the information technology market at $146 billion in 1994 (pp. 37 -38). This

fact entails competition and turbulent business environment for CompuLe arn
as an IT company. The company has to examine its structures and processes

in order to gauge how it is performing in the midst of a changing field. To start

with, CompuLearn has to address the customer service issue immediately

because ignoring it would lead to losing its biggest asset which are the

customers, and therefore, destroying all the dreams of making the firm a large
learning organization and e -learning provider through effective training and

development and performance appraisal systems. Since the company will

adopt a strategic human resource management approach which would enable

the staff to fully integrate the mission and objectives into their daily activities,
CompuLearn can implement customer service management. This involves

rethinking the whole company and transforming it to a customer -centered

organization. This involves encouraging the staff to go out of their way to

discover what customers want and act upon them. Discovering what
customers want requires dialogue with them. CompuLearn e mployees must

initiate to have casual dialogues with the staff of their partner universities even

if it is only through telephones or email. This would give the impression that
the company values it partnership with them. Also, customer service involves

evaluation and analysis of customer data and concerns provided on sales and
other means. It is important that employees be made responsible for studying

customer data and concerns in order to motivate them to discern and come

up with strategies for customers to have superior customer service experience

with the company (2000).

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