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1. Review the Australian Hardware simulated business documentation provided to you by your assessor, particularly the performance management and performance appraisal processes.

2. Review the scenario below:

You are the Hardware and Homewares Manager at the Australian Hardware Wollongong store. Kim Smith has been on your team for the past six months. It is now performance review time. You will need to provide Kim with feedback on her performance since she was seconded to you from the garden centre.

You are less than satisfied with Kim’s performance, but still hope you will be able to get her to focus on areas she needs to develop in and help her improve her performance to meet the expectations for the role. It is particularly disappointing that after providing her with feedback and setting goals at the outset, she has not lived up to her commitment. You allowed her to reduce her sales targets, but she has not made any sustained effort to develop herself to perform to a satisfactory level. She is even failing to reach the low targets set for the initial six-month period.

While Kim has not performed to expectations, she has made some effort to learn the required product information. You would like to recognise her efforts, while not downplaying the fact that the organisation needs and expects more from their sales staff.

You will need to discuss and agree upon what development steps to take. You have another experienced and high-performing staff member in the hardware and homewares department who has agreed to act as a mentor to Kim. You also have money in the budget for 30 hours of sales training for Kim if she is willing to be trained.

You will need to follow the Australian Hardware policy and procedures for performance management, including recordkeeping.

3. Review the employee’s Performance Scorecard (Appendix 1).

4. Plan an informal coaching session for the employee. Use the Coaching Plan template provided (Appendix 2) or a coaching planning model of your own design.

The focus of this part of the role-play should be on collaborating with the employee to identify performance gaps and taking positive measures to close those gaps.

5. Prepare the formal performance development documentation for the employee. Use the Performance Development Plan template provided (Appendix 3), in accordance with the Australian Hardware performance management policy.

The focus of part of the role-play (done immediately after the coaching session) is to formally establish with the employee the performance issues, remedial steps and work goals for the next performance review period.

6. Role-play. Ensure you complete the following:

a. Conduct a coaching session where you:

i. discuss performance expectations

ii. establish and clarify the reality of the employee’s performance: describe how performance was monitored and measured; your evaluation of the gap between expectations and their performance; and discuss previous feedback given (Assignment 1).

iii. recognise achievements, attitude and positive aspects of performance

iv. discuss opportunities for growth and meeting expectations

v. establish willingness of the employee to take concrete steps.

b. Complete formal performance development documentation, where you:

i. set targets and review dates for the next performance review

ii. complete performance management recordkeeping for HR (Appendix 3), including signatures. Refer to the performance management procedures followed with the employee.

iii. Conduct a formal structured feedback session with employee in accordance with organisational policy.

Appendix 1: Performance scorecard – Kim Smith

KRA

Target

Result

Comments

Financial

$8,000 sales revenue per month

$5,000 average over six months

This low target was set for an initial period of six months. You would expect an employee to reach a target of $10,000 at this stage.

Customer focus

8/10 score on customer focus

5/10 score

The employee is personable and tries hard to develop a rapport with customers. Customers and staff respond well to the employee. However, staff cannot rely on the employee to support them and they are constantly being asked for product information that the employee should know already. Customers are initially attracted to the employee’s friendly manner but are quickly turned off by her unserious attitude. Customers do not have confidence in this employee’s ability to help them choose a product that will meet their needs. Customers who do stick with the employee must then wait longer to complete their purchases.

Internal process efficiency

Two minutes to complete sales transaction

Average five minutes

The employee has never mastered the point-of-sale system; consequently they make errors that need to be corrected before completing transactions.