Research Project IV
Nicole L. King
Baker College
HRM315: Evaluating Human Resources
Tae Dawson
June 13, 2012
Abstract
This purpose of this research project was to find out how well BWI HR is meeting the needs of its employees. Fifty surveys were collected and reviewed. One each survey were eight HR services. The HR services are Performance Appraisal, Wage & Salary Administration, Incentive Pay Program, Internal Job Posting, Healthcare Insurance, Technical Training, Career Counseling/Development and Flexible Work Schedule. Each of the HR services had a rating scale to see how important and satisfied the Target employees would rate them. There were three HR services that showed the largest gap between importance and satisfaction. The incentive pay program, performance appraisal system and career counseling and development all showed large negative gaps. The incentive pay program should be changed from an individual-based program to a team/group-based program. The performance appraisal system should evolve into a “social network” type of performance management system. This type of social performance management system will bring many advantages, including empowerment. Finally, the career counseling/development programs should see a small expansion and reviews of the eligible degrees, adding certificates, increasing the tuition reimbursement amount and adding mentoring programs. These improvements should be implemented to improve the HR services, our people and our overall company performance.

Introduction The HR department is proud to provide a wide array of services to our excellent people that make this company great. As the needs of our customers change, so too do our people. Our HR services are only as good as they are effective. How do we know the HR services we provide are meeting the needs of our people and the company overall? This is where an internal employee survey comes in. HR sent out surveys to all 1,190 people. We received 50 surveys. There was a list of eight HR services on each survey along with a rating scale to see how important and satisfied the Target employees would rate them. The three services with the biggest gaps in importance compared to satisfaction were the incentive pay program, performance appraisal system and career counseling/development. The incentive pay program should be changed from an individual-based program to a team/group-based program. The performance appraisal system should evolve into a “social network” type of performance management system. This type of social performance management system will bring many advantages, including empowerment. Finally, the career counseling/development programs should see a small expansion and reviews of the eligible degrees, adding certificates, increasing the tuition reimbursement amount and adding mentoring programs. These improvements should be implemented to improve the HR services, our people and our overall company performance.
Sampling Plan Best Western International, Inc (BWI) is headquartered in Phoenix Arizona. BWI also has operation centers in Phoenix, Arizona and Milan, Italy (Best Western Overview, 2012). The employees at headquarters and operations centers provide “marketing, reservations and operational support” to its members (Best Western Hotel Development, 2012). BWI is a membership organization (Best Western Hotel Development). A membership organization is a group of independently-owned and operated hotels are a part of the BWI hotel chain (Best Western Hotel Development). Best Western International has over 4,100 hotels worldwide (Best Western Hotel Development). A total of 1,190 people will be surveyed for the purposes of this report. The surveys will be distributed by email. Each employee will be asked to print out the anonymous survey, complete it by the end of the week and return it through inter-office mail. The purpose of this survey is to find out how employees feel about the programs in the survey. With the data collected, we hope to find satisfactions with all programs. If we find there are deficiencies in any of the programs, we will take the deficiencies and work to correct them.

Results of Data Collection The results of the data collection are in! We emailed 1,190 surveys and 50 employees, or 4.5% of the employees we attempted to survey returned the surveys via inter-office mail by the due date listed in the survey request company-wide email. We surveyed 8 HR services: Performance Appraisal, Wage & Salary Administration, Incentive Pay Program, Internal Job Posting, Healthcare Insurance, Technical Training, Career Counseling/Development and Flexible Work Schedule. We have reviewed the data of the submitted surveys. For the eight, we asked how important employees believe these services are in the company. Further, we wanted to know how satisfied employees are with the eight HR services. Each of these services was ranked on a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high). For the performance appraisal service, we found an average importance score of 4.72 and a low satisfaction score of 2.74. The wage & salary administration importance score is 4.28, while the satisfaction of the administration of wages & salary is 5.80. The third program, the incentive pay program, has an importance score 5.62 and the employees that responded gave it a satisfaction score of 3.58. The fourth HR service, internal job posting has a 3.36 importance score. The satisfaction score is 4.72. The importance score for our healthcare insurance program is 5.80 and its satisfaction score is 5.62. The technical training available for employees shows an importance score of 2.74 and a satisfaction score of 4.28. Our career counseling & development programs have an importance score of 4.66 and a satisfaction score of 3.36.The final HR service, a flexible work schedule, has an importance score of 3.58 and a satisfaction score of 4.66.
Table 1: Summary of Data Results

|HR Service |Importance Average Score |Satisfaction Average Score |
|1. Performance Appraisal |4.72 |2.74 |
|2. Wage & Salary Administration |4.28 |5.8 |
|3. Incentive Pay Program |5.62 |3.58 |
|4. Internal Job Posting |3.36 |4.72 |
|5. Healthcare Insurance |5.80 |5.62 |
|6. Technical Training |2.74 |4.28 |
|7. Career Counseling/Development |4.66 |3.36 |
|8. Flexible Work Schedule |3.58 |4.66 |

Analysis of Findings Delving further into the data in the survey, we will discuss what our employees find most important and least important on a scale of 1 (low importance) to 7 (greatest importance) of the eight HR services that were surveyed. Additionally, on the same scale we will discuss what is the least satisfying and the most satisfying of the eight HR services that were surveyed. Then we will identify the HR services that rated high in importance, but low in satisfaction. Our analysis will conclude with a summary of three negative gaps that will be explored for improvement. Starting with the least important HR services and moving up into the highest important HR services we will start with technical training (2.74). Internal job posting are considered the second least important HR service (3.36). The third least important HR service is a flexible work schedule (3.58). Our fourth least important HR service is wage & salary administration (4.28). Our fifth least HR service is career counseling/development (4.66). Our sixth least important HR service is our performance appraisal program (4.72). Now that we have tipped the scale from 4 to 5, the remaining two HR services could be considered the two most important services provided to the employees who have responded to the survey. Our second most important HR service is the incentive pay program (5.62). Not surprisingly, the most important HR service is healthcare insurance (5.80). Onto what our employees are least and most satisfied with, in terms of the eight HR services. From least satisfied to most satisfied HR service, we start with the performance appraisal system (2.74). Our second HR service our employees are least satisfied with is the career counseling/development (3.36). The third HR service the employees are least satisfied with is the incentive pay program (3.58). The fourth least satisfied HR service as reported by the responding employees is the technical training (4.28). The fifth least satisfied HR service in the survey data is the flexible work schedule (4.66). The internal job postings are the sixth least satisfied HR service (4.72). Now that we have reached 5 on the scale we will switch to the two HR services of which the responding employees are most satisfied. The second HR service the responding employees are most satisfied with is the healthcare insurance (5.62). The HR service the responding employees are most satisfied with out of all eight services is the wage & salary administration (5.80). The largest negative gaps found in the survey data are with the incentive pay program (5.62, 3.58), performance appraisal system (4.72, 2.74) and the career counseling/development (4.66, 3.36). We believe the gap between high importance on the incentive pay program and the lowest satisfaction on the program could be the way it is structured and the amount of the incentives. The second negative gap, the performance appraisal system may be the inconsistencies that have been reported in the past. Additionally, many employees have spoken about a higher frequency and more specifics in feedback. The third negative gap from the survey is the career counseling/development HR service. We feel inconsistencies and the tuition reimbursement that has not been reviewed for a raise in 5 years may be contributing to the low satisfaction in the survey data.

Recommendations There are three services within the survey that have a large gap between what employees found important and how satisfied they are with the services. As these services exist, it is important for them to be fully utilized and effective. If one service was rated much lower on satisfaction than importance, then that means that the service is seen as important, however, it is not very satisfying to the employees. If the service was rated much lower on importance than satisfaction, then that means even though the employees seem to be satisfied with the service, they may not understand the importance of the HR service. The three services with the largest gaps are the incentive pay program, the performance appraisal system and the career counseling and development programs.

Incentive Pay Program Our employees told us the incentive pay is important to them. They also told us their satisfaction is average. In our industry, average means second best, third best. Our people are not average. They are above average. They are the reason why we are above average in so many ways. We have moved from seeing output on an individual basis to seeing output from teams/groups. While we still award individuals for their hard work under the current incentive pay program, it would be easier to measure performance in a group format. The recommendation is to begin team/group incentives. We can base awards on “team/group performance goals or objectives” on a quarterly or semi-annual basis (Gerhart, Milkovich & Newman, 2011, p. 332). Team/group incentives will “reinforce teamwork, stimulate ideas and problem solving and better reflect how work is performed” (Gerhart, et al, 2011, p. 332).

Performance Appraisal System Our employees feel the performance appraisal system is important, but they are not satisfied with the system. The inconsistencies that have been reported in the past are the major issue with our performance appraisal program. A recommendation to help improve the low satisfaction score can include using an online “social networking” type of performance appraisal program. This type of performance appraisal program called a social performance system is already being used in some of today’s companies. This social performance management system would eliminate the reviews we do periodically (Curtis, 2012, para. 2). It would allow employees and supervisors/managers to communicate with each other in real time (Curtis, 2012, para. 2). This type of performance management system serves an intrinsic need as well. This is a complementary system to our incentive pay program.

Career Counseling/Development Our career counseling and development programs are important to our people. Yet, like the incentive pay program, our people feel they are moderately satisfied with the programs. As our industry changes at a rapid pace and more is demanded of our people, we are being inconsistent with stagnant, never changing career counseling and development programs. A recommendation to improve the career counseling and development programs would include a small expansion of the current programs. First, we can review what types of college degrees would directly benefit the employees and the company. Additionally, for the first time we should look at sponsoring certifications (Aguinis, 2009, pp. 184-85). After that review is complete, we can review the level of tuition reimbursement. College tuition is costly. In general, college tuition increases 8 % every year, or doubles every 9 years (Kantrowitz, 2012, para. 1). Large, well known corporations have courses taught at their own company universities (Aguinis, 2009, p. 184). We can provide mentoring to those identified as employees who wish to move up in the company.
Conclusion
The employees at Best Western International were asked to fill out and return a survey on how eight HR services were serving them. The results of the survey showed three HR services employees found important, but were less than highly satisfied with. The first service that showed a large gap was the incentive pay program. This service can be improved by moving from an individual-based incentive pay program to a team/group-based incentive pay program. The second HR service with a large gap is the performance appraisal program. This service can be improved by moving into a social network type of performance management system. With this new program, employees have access to their superiors and vice versa. They can receive intrinsic rewards at anytime and see what others are doing. They can also manage their goals and objectives through this system. The third HR service that needs improvement is the career counseling and development programs. These programs can be improved by reviewing the eligible degrees, adding sponsoring certificates and increasing tuition reimbursement in the face of ever-increasing tuition costs. Wasting limited resources on programs ruins our return on these investments. Employee dissatisfaction leads to employee disengagement. Employee disengagement leads to turnover. Turnover is a preventable and unnecessary expense. We demand a lot from our employees. We must improve these services to show we give a lot because we believe in their futures as they believe in our future.

References

No Author (2012). Best Western: About Us Overview. Retrieved from http://www.bestwestern.com/newsroom/factsheet_countrydetail.asp No Author (2012). Best Western Hotel Development. Retrieved from http://www.bestwesterndevelopers.com/index.html Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance Management (2nd Ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River Curtis, S. (2012, May). CIO. Spotify Deploys Salesforce Rypple for Social Enterprise. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/706953/Spotify_Deploys_Salesforce_Rypple_for_Social_Enterprise Gerhart, B., Milkovich, G.T., Newman, J.M. (2011). Compensation (10th Ed.). McGraw-Hill Irwin: New York Kantrowitz, M. (2012). FinAid. Tuition Inflation. Retrieved from http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml

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