Gaps in Human Resources management
In service marketing, Valarie A. Zeithaml's model (Delivery Quality Service, 1990) is widely recognized, in which the author, together with A. Parasuraman and Leonard L. Berry, proposed a model that makes it possible to measure quality specifications in the service delivered by an organization versus the quality expected by customers, and conceptualized it in what they called gaps, or in other words, empty spaces that mark a difference between what should be according to expectation, and what in reality is, and that affect the expected performance.
In this model of gaps, the third gap, which focuses specifically on the management of the personnel who care for an organization's clients, Dr. Zeithaml conceptualizes this gap in the following concepts:
- Role ambiguity Role conflict Inappropriate employee profile for the job Inappropriate technology for the job profile Inadequate supervisory systems Perceived lack of control Lack of teamwork
Based on this model, I made an adaptation to the original scheme, and more than making a quality measurement instrument in the service from the customer's perspective, I developed a questionnaire, adapting some of the original statements, to a rubric in which the Respondents, personnel responsible for the Human Resources areas had to mark with an X if the process was carried out in their organization, with the following options: "Always", "Frequently", "Occasionally" or "Never", and I applied it during a business event held in mid-2015 in the Lagunera Region, of which I was a guest speaker, and which brought together 40 managers of the Human Resources area of medium and large companies, of such different lines as Hospitals, Metal-Mechanical Industry, Telecommunications, Textile, food industry,mining, gas and gasoline trading companies, stationery and office supplies suppliers, transportation, as well as educational institutions.
The purpose of applying this questionnaire was for the respondents to anonymously carry out this kind of “self-diagnosis”, and that the answers together would support us to carry out a survey that would give us more light on the most common specific problems in administration processes. human resources faced by those responsible for personnel management.
Below I present the table with the results expressed in percentages:
| Gaps | Questions | Always | Frequently | Occasionally | Never | ||||
| Role ambiguity | Is the employee given accurate information about the job functions, policies and procedures, and expected performance? | 19% | 32% | 38% | eleven% | ||||
| Do employees fully understand the products and services offered by the company? | 30% | 38% | 32% | 0% | |||||
| Were employees trained to perform according to organizational changes? | 14% | 22% | 35% | 30% | |||||
| Were employees trained to interact with customers? (internal and external) | eleven% | 19% | 47% | 22% | |||||
| How often does top management communicate to employees about the organization's goals and expectations? | 22% | 19% | 44% | 14% | |||||
| Do employees understand what is expected of them and how to meet those expectations? | 10% | 42% | 42% | 6% | |||||
| Role conflict | Do customers and top management have the same expectations of employees? | 9% | 35% | 41% | fifteen% | ||||
| How often do customer service employees have to ask for support from other areas in order to efficiently serve customers? | 16% | 38% | 30% | 16% | |||||
| Do employees have more work than time to do it? | 17% | 3. 4% | 29% | twenty% | |||||
| Do employees have to do work from other areas in order to efficiently serve customers? | eleven% | 31% | 37% | twenty% | |||||
| Employee profile inappropriate for the position | Do the employees believe that they are capable of performing their duties correctly? | 32% | 57% | eleven% | 0% | ||||
| Does the company hire qualified people who perfectly fit the profile of the position? | 17% | 42% | 39% | 3% | |||||
| Does the company dedicate sufficient time and resources to hiring and selecting employees? | 14% | 51% | 30% | 5% | |||||
| Inappropriate technology | Are employees provided with the equipment required to do their jobs well? | 30% | 30% | 41% | 0% | ||||
| to the post | How often does this equipment fail in operation? | 3% | 24% | 57% | 16% | ||||
| Monitoring system | Do employees know what aspects of their work will be measured in their performance evaluation? | 27% | 22% | 30% | 22% | ||||
| and inadequate control | Do employees know what aspects can reward them for an outstanding evaluation? | 33% | 28% | eleven% | 28% | ||||
| Do employees with outstanding performance reviews get rewarded for it? (monetary, recognition or promotions) | 24% | 19% | 32% | 24% | |||||
| Do employees feel recognized for their good performance? | 8% | 24% | 43% | 24% | |||||
| Perception of lack of control | Do employees spend a lot of time in their working hours trying to solve problems that they don't have much control over? | 3% | 2. 3% | 57% | 17% | ||||
| Do employees have the freedom to make individual decisions to provide good customer service? | 22% | 25% | 39% | 14% | |||||
| Are employees motivated to learn new things to do their jobs better? | twenty-one% | 37% | 16% | 26% | |||||
| Do employees need what other departments authorize actions before they can do their day-to-day work? | 14% | 33% | 36% | 17% | |||||
| Teamwork | Do top management and employees work as a team to achieve results? | 27% | 35% | 27% | eleven% | ||||
| Do the staff areas support the line areas in teamwork? | 31% | 43% | 2. 3% | 3% | |||||
| Do employees feel committed to the company? | 22% | 27% | 41% | eleven% | |||||
| Do employees cooperate more than compete with other employees in the company? | 2. 3% | 31% | 31% | 14% | |||||
| Are employees motivated to work together on processes to get results? | 25% | 41% | 28% | 6% |
Within the results, which the reader can interpret for himself, I think it is important to highlight the following.
In the area of role ambiguity, a problem that is caused by the situation in which employees do not know exactly what the function and objectives of their position are, we find that only 19% of the surveyed companies deliver "always" to the employee accurate information on job functions, policies and procedures as well as expected performance in a given job. This can give us beginnings about the problems that are generated by having the majority of companies have their staff without a clear idea of their functions, due to a lack of job profiles and organization manuals.
To the question about whether employees are given training to interact with customers (internal and external), 47% answered "Occasionally", and 22% answered "Never", which can give us an idea about the situations difficult that every organization has with some clients and that are not being foreseen.
Only 22% of those surveyed answered as "Always" the question about whether senior management always communicates to employees about the goals and expectations of the organization, and 44% answered that it does so "Occasionally", which can lead to ignorance in acting and expected performance, not being aligned with the organizational objectives.
In the part of Roles Conflict, which refers to when an employee has the perception that he cannot meet all the needs demanded by his clients, we found that 38% of the respondents responded as “Frequently” to the question about whether The service personnel who serve clients need to request support from other areas to be able to serve clients efficiently, and to the question whether employees have to do work from other areas to be able to efficiently attend to the needs of clients, they responded on 11 % and 31% as “Always” and “Frequently”, which can indicate a poor job design.
When it was the turn of the survey to the part of the Employee Profile inappropriate for the position, 57% of the HR managers surveyed responded that they always or frequently hire qualified personnel to cover the profile of the position, however, 35% He believed that the company does not dedicate sufficient time and resources to the hiring and selection of employees, which can result in inadequate performance, turnover or subsequent layoffs.
In the section on Inappropriate Technology for the position, 30% of those surveyed indicated that the employee is always given the equipment required to perform the job efficiently, and 40% believed that it is done occasionally, also in the question about If the equipment that is handed over to the employee to carry out their work fails during the operation, 57% of the answers were "Occasionally" which gives us an idea of the problem faced by an employee in this situation.
In the Inadequate Supervision Systems section, only 27% of those surveyed answered as "always" to the question about whether employees know what aspects of their work will be measured in performance evaluations, which is a very low percentage. when the rules of the game must be well defined when evaluating an employee.
32% and 24% of the respondents answered as "occasionally or never" respectively to the question about whether employees with outstanding performance evaluations receive any reward for it, be it monetary, in recognition or promotions, and only 8% answered as “always” to the question if employees feel recognized when they perform well. This situation can logically be reflected in a lack of commitment by the employee towards the organization, due to perceived reciprocity with the company.
In the section on Perceived Lack of Control, where the employee feels that they cannot control the variables necessary to properly perform their work, in the question of whether the employee spends a lot of time in their working hours trying to solve problems that they do not have. a lot of control, 3% mentioned "Always" and 23% mentioned that "frequently", which can be reflected as a lack of effectiveness in the efforts to give an adequate result, and to the question of whether employees need from what other departments They authorize actions before being able to do their daily work, 33% answered that “frequently”, which indicates an excess of control that can hinder the effectiveness of the functions of a position.
To the express question about whether employees are motivated to learn new things to do their job better, 26% answered that "Never", which can, linked to the previous items in this section, be a demotivating factor for employees. employees by not feeling that they can control or improve their results at work.
Finally, in the section on Lack of teamwork, in the express question of whether the staff areas support the line areas in teamwork, only 31% answered as "Always", and to the question about whether they are motivated For employees to work together in the processes aimed at obtaining results, only 25% answered as "Always", this being one of the most frequent problems in organizations, especially in those that have complex processes, it is easier for “islands” of power or functions to be created, and processes to be segmented, preventing adequate workflows for the creation of “value chains” for customers.
In conclusion, although each reader will be able to make their own interpretation, what in my opinion makes this exercise positive is in the identified work that is left to the discretion of those responsible for human resources to undertake, according to the situation of their company, that well-defined job profiles are worked on and updated organization manuals are kept. Understand that to the extent that the training is focused on the employee being able to obtain the necessary competencies to give results in difficult situations that can be foreseen, that he can exercise greater control over his activities and be trained to improve his results at work, you will be working on the continuous improvement of the company.
To the extent that those responsible for human resources direct their efforts so that the design of the work in the operation is carried out in process schemes without excessive controls, with well-defined rules of the game from the beginning, according to the evaluation of results, and Recognizing outstanding performance will result in employee commitment to the company and increased productivity by creating chains that deliver superior value to customers.
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