Organization Development Campaign

Building Organizational Resources from the Ground Up

This campaign encompasses a series of projects that were conducted for a small manufacturing facility known as Shenango LLC. The campaign consisted of four stages incorporating a job analysis, a recruitment and selection plan, a performance appraisal plan, and a website redesign. Apart from the website redesign, these projects were completed through my coursework in my graduate program at NKU.

To begin the campaign, the first step was to conduct a job analysis for a specific position within the company that had no existing documentation.

Job Analysis

Introduction

When an organization is attempting to tackle the daunting task of describing and understanding what an employee does in their position, a job analysis is a valuable tool to utilize. A job analysis, also known as a work analysis, is an analytical approach to human resources activities that center around the development and understanding of preferred employee knowledge, skills, abilities, and other specifications (KSAOs), as well as employee tasks. As such, a job analysis is typically conducted to address any number of purposes including creating job descriptions, classifying jobs, evaluating jobs, designing teams, etc. (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 3).

Through the collection of data via interviews, surveys, questionnaires, observations and performance measures, a job analysis can provide a detailed understanding of the different facets of a job position (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 15). This is due to methodical approach of job analysis which preferably attempt to take qualitative data and convert it to quantitative data that can be used in an analysis. Consequently, this approach is much more comprehensive and effective than the traditional approach to human resources work which focus primarily on assessing raw qualitative data. It is important to understand the features and benefits of a job analysis, therefore, this paper recounts a real-world analysis of a position for a small manufacturing company as an alternative HR approach to traditional company practices.

This particular analysis focuses on a unique situation, within a small company (Shenango LLC), in which a new position (Plant Engineer) was made for an incoming employee. However, when the position was established, no documentation was created or recorded to determine the duties, responsibilities, task statements, KSAOs, or job description involved with the job in question. Therefore, a preliminary discussion of the exact function of this job analysis is necessary to understand the particular approach that was taken. As discussed earlier, a job analysis can serve many purposes. Thus, it is up to the employer to determine the usefulness of conducting an analysis to ensure that company resources are not wasted, and that the analysis is effective in accomplishing its goal. In this instance, there was no existing documentation to support the position in question. Therefore, the employer described the primary purpose of this job analysis in what can be most clearly stated as defining a job description.

A job description is generally defined as a summary of a collection of characteristics that are needed to perform a job satisfactorily. Such characteristics can include duties, tasks, responsibilities, and KSAOs (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 3). The use of developing a job description for this employer was to create clarity for the employee about the existing characteristics of their current position, not to propose or alter characteristics. Altering characteristics of the position would encompass a job redesign which was not the stated goal of the employer (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 4). Strictly speaking, the employer requested that the existing job characteristics be defined based upon the current, but unlisted duties, tasks, responsibilities, and KSAOs of the position. As such, it was imperative to ensure that a thorough approach to data collection was taken in this analysis, so that the development of a job description would not inaccurately depict or exclude existing characteristics.

Additionally, there are a number of factors to consider when conducting a job analysis that vary significantly based upon the circumstances at hand. Such factors are discussed below to demonstrate that company needs were met during the analysis.

Legal Considerations

Due to the limited size of the company in question, legal considerations are not very impactful in the larger scale of this analysis. Standard legal regulations such as the Equal Pay Act or Title VII are considered valid under all employers and are not unique to the position being discussed (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 172). However, some specific environmental regulations are involved in the responsibilities of the position, and so some deliberation on the implementation of those regulations is essential.

As discussed in the following section, Shenango LLC is a manufacturing facility that specializes in the production of industrial components via centrifugal casting. This process involves the smelting of large quantities of metals which produces hazardous waste and air pollutants. Naturally, the presence of hazardous materials in any industry facilitates regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Consequently, Shenango LLC must adhere to the standards of the EPA which also encompass the policies of the local community. The federal EPA policy for iron and steel foundries is known as NESHAP which stands for National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. NESHAP is included as a part of the Clean Air Act which was enacted by Congress in 1990 to protect and improve national air quality (EPA, 2022). While the guidelines of NESHAP are not necessarily important on a daily basis, understanding and adhering to them is an essential responsibility of the Plant Engineer in the long term. Failing to ensure that the facility adheres to NESHAP regulations could result in a complete shutdown of operations and substantial fines. And so, a necessary legal consideration for this job position is an understanding of the proper procedure involved in assuring adherence to NESHAP regulations.

Shenango LLC

Located in Terre Haute, IN, Shenango LLC is one of only two manufacturing facilities in the United States that specialize in centrifugal casting. This scarcity means that Shenango faces little to no domestic market competition and therefore, the company has a handful of long-standing customers that result in a continuous stream of orders. Additionally, Shenango takes on mostly made-to-spec orders and is considered a low-volume facility when compared to foreign manufacturers. The industrial components that are produced by the facility are typically used in industries such as textiles, food, OEM manufacturing, oil, paper, steel, and tobacco. The mission statement of Shenango LLC reads as following from their official website; “To provide overall customer satisfaction through a quality product, while ensuring exceptional technical and sales support” (Shenango LLC, 2004).

Shenango LLC employs 13 total individuals within the confines of the manufacturing facility. These people include a Vice President, a Director of Operations, a Plant Engineer, and ten Foundrymen. By traditional standards, a company as small as Shenango LLC would not typically have the resources or need for a thorough job analysis. However, this job analysis project provides a unique opportunity in which resources are not relevant and thoroughness can be completely explored. Additionally, the absence of any documentation regarding the existing position of Plant Engineer represents an opportunity in which Shenango can benefit directly from the results of a job analysis.

The Position of Plant Engineer

When attempting to identify a position within the company that could be subject to a job analysis, the plant engineer was immediately chosen as there was no existing job description. Initial questioning prior to any official discussions made it clear that the plant engineer came upon his current set of duties and responsibilities by simply working where he was needed at the time of hiring. As a result, the plant engineer’s duties encompassed a lot of tasks and his responsibilities were fairly vague. However, the plant engineer’s responsibility was clearly stated as critical by both the plant engineer and the vice president. If such a position was considered a critical role, one could wonder what the consequences might be if some duties and responsibilities of the role were disregarded. And so, the necessity of a job analysis was clearly presented at the beginning of questioning.

The goal of the job analysis would be to clearly identify the duties, responsibilities, and KSAOs of the plant engineer, so that 1) The current plant engineer could ensure that he was fulfilling those standards and 2) A new plant engineer could be hired in the event of a vacancy of the position. The intended result of this analysis would be a job description that comprises a complete summary of the position, a list of KSAOs, and a list of tasks/responsibilities. Clearly defining these factors would have the potential to resolve the ambiguity of not only the current plant engineer’s duties and responsibilities, but also the ambiguity of the eventual hiring process. Additionally, a clearly defined job description has the potential to attract qualified job candidates during the selection process.

Potential Issues

As previously mentioned, there were a host of issues with the current state of documentation that presented some challenges during the job analysis process. Firstly, the lack of any supporting documentation meant that the entire analysis would be conducted solely on the basis of collected data and external resources. Secondly, the nature of the creation of the position, as one in which the employee does any task of which they are needed, meant that this position would also likely encompass a range of duties from various job titles. Lastly, the inconsistencies in daily activities meant that observations were not likely to be a useful metric by which to collect data and therefore interviews would have to be the primary data collection method. The outcome of this combination of potential issues is primarily a lack confidence in the validity of the data. For example, a lack of internal documentation about position duties meant that instances where duties were not mentioned could only be amended by the potential for external job descriptions to contain the existing position’s duties. Therefore, if the external information search was not sufficiently thorough, it could have resulted in a misrepresentation of the position through overlooked duties. Similarly, this situation then also required that the interviews were sufficiently thorough in the recollection of information specific to tasks and KSAOs. Thankfully, the subject matter experts (SMEs) were available for this sort of thorough interview.

Approval and Support

Familiarity with the plant engineer and the vice president was the primary beneficial factor regarding the approval of the job analysis. Considering that the vice president and plant engineer are both my family members, discussion for approval of the job analysis did not take much convincing and was done in an informal setting. Due to the nature of our relationship, the vice president agreed that the job analysis could be conducted almost immediately and outside of the workplace. Understanding that observations were not to be included in the analysis meant that the data could be collected efficiently under the proposed setting. Additionally, this meant that company time and resources were not being used to conduct the job analysis and so no budgetary constraints were present. Consequently, I was granted approval by the vice president to conduct a job analysis of the plant engineer with the goal of clearly identifying the duties, responsibilities, and KSAOs relating to the position to develop a job description.

Content Analysis

The beginning of the job analysis process starts with a review of the available resources. This is an important step to complete before collecting other forms of data as it can help to inform your information collecting process in interviews, questionnaires, or surveys. Additionally, starting with a review of internal resources has the benefit of informing your search for what external resources may be needed.

Internal Resources

As mentioned previously, there was no existing documentation within the company in regard to the position of plant engineer. This meant that the initial baseline for the job analysis would have to be conducted directly from the information that was collected during the interview process.

External Resources

Due to the lack of internal resources, the search for external resources had no basis. Therefore, this search was conducted after the interviews so that it would be possible to search for positions that contained similar characteristics to the ones mentioned in the interviews. The purpose of the search for external resources was to aid in the creation of KSAOs and task statements that matched the descriptions of the job position provided by the interviews with the SMEs.

To conduct this search, I went to the Occupation Informational Network, also known as ONET. From my search on ONET, I was able to find four different job positions that contained similar task statements and KSAOs to some of the information collected in the interviews. These positions included general and operations manager, industrial engineer, manufacturing engineer, and molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic. References to these positions are available in Appendix A and links to the full job descriptions of each position are available in the references.

The above positions were selected because they encompassed facets of the plant engineer position in one way or another. The general and operations manager contained many KSAOs and task statements that were relative to the administrative work that the plant engineer was responsible for. Such examples included financial responsibilities and communication capabilities. The other three positions encompassed more specified facets of the plant engineer. For example, both manufacturing and industrial engineering contained KSAOs and task statements that were related to critical thinking and machine maintenance. The molding and coremaking position on the other hand related more closely to the KSAOs and task statements involved in the use of industrial smelting equipment.

Overall, the search from ONET provided a good reference point for the creation of initial task statements and KSAOs to be ranked by the SMEs. Additionally, the use of this information on ONET limited the potential of SMEs to accidentally exclude specific job information during the interview process.

Subject Matter Expert Selection

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are a key resource in job analysis. They bring to the table a mix of knowledge and experience that cannot easily be found from any other source regarding the job position. Additionally, SMEs provide contextual information regarding job positions that may have unique circumstances within a specific company setting. For example, the SMEs at Shenango LLC provided specific contextual information about the unique casting involved their manufacturing process. While a typical selection of SMEs at a larger company would be subject to a large selection pool, there were only two available SMEs with at Shenango who were knowledgeable of the plant engineer position. As mentioned earlier, these positions were the plant engineer (SME 1) and the vice president (SME 2). SME 1 was qualified to provide information about the plant engineer position as he performed the job on a daily basis. Additionally, SME 2 was qualified to provide information about the plant engineer position since he was responsible for the current duties of plant engineer prior to the hiring of SME 1.

According to the text, multiple SMEs who are knowledgeable about the job position should be used in a thorough job analysis (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 90). Thankfully, both SMEs were shown to be qualified enough to provide valuable insight about the plant engineer position. SME 1 had a few years of experience as the plant engineer while SME 2 had a few decades of experience in industrial steel manufacturing. Therefore, the credentials of the SMEs were considered sufficient to gain a valid and useful understanding of the position.

Data Collection & Methodology

The data collection stage of a job analysis is one that can be approached in handful of ways. Typical methodology includes data collection methods such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys, observations, ect. (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 15). While a combination of approaches is generally considered best practice, there were some limitations with company circumstances which prevented a combined approach from being conducted. Due to the small size of the company and limited number of SMEs, surveys and questionnaires were not considered to be useful methods of data collection. Additionally, the nature of the plant engineer position meant that duties and responsibilities varied greatly day to day, so observations were considered to be an unreliable representation of the job position. Therefore, the primary method of data collection was separate interviews with each of the SMEs.

Data Collection Method One: Interviews

The interview process was conducted with the goal of obtaining initial information about the plant engineer position so that there would be a baseline for the construction of KSAOs and task statements. Therefore, it was important to align the interview questions with this goal so that the collected information would be useful later in the job analysis. Thus, the questions in the interview contained prompts related to job responsibilities, requirements and skills required of the position.

Each interview was scheduled with the SMEs separately and featured the same series of questions. The interview with SME 1 lasted approximately 1 hour while the interview with SME 2 last approximately 30 minutes. Additionally, the interviews were conducted at the home residencies of the SMEs. The interview questions were written specifically for this job analysis and attempted to focus on the key building blocks of job analysis as described in the text from Job and Work Analysis (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 9). During the interviews, notes were taken via laptop and best practices were used to summarize the information provided by the SMEs. While the interviews were extensive, attempts at recording the conversation word for word would have interfered in the purpose of the job analysis as not all provided information was relevant. For example, SME 1’s description of the skill of “Jack of all trades” is too unspecified to be useful in any real scenario. In situations such as these, I interceded with prompts for clarification about the meaning of the statements in question. The full responses of each interview are available in Appendices B and C.

The first interview with SME 1, the plant engineer, took a bit longer due to the need for clarification on most questions. SME 1 seemed to approach the plant engineer position from a holistic point of view that was more casual than the view of SME 2. It could be that this is due to the comfortability that SME 1 had with the position after a few years of experience with it. It could also be related to the supervisory position of SME 2 over SME 1. Simply put, SME 2 might expect a more professional approach to SME 1’s responsibilities since SME 1 directly reports to SME 2 on a regular basis. In both interviews, the SMEs provided similar explanations of the duties and responsibilities of the plant engineer. However, SME 2 was clear in stating that the educational requirements of the plant engineer are required to be at least a bachelor’s degree while SME 1 stated that a bachelor’s degree was not necessary, but preferred. Again, these differences seemed to be related to the greater expectations that SME 2 placed on the position of plant engineer. Greater expectations for the plant engineer by SME 2 are also consistent with answers from the combination job analysis as will be discussed in the following section.

Data Collection Method Two: Combination Job Analysis

The second data collection method consisted of a combination job analysis method (C-JAM) which aimed to compile the existing collection of data and followed the interview process. The combination job analysis combines the task statement ratings of the functional job analysis method with the KSAO inventory ratings of job element methodology (Morgeson et al., 2019, p. 98). Immediately following the SME interviews, KSAOs and task statements were developed by cross-referencing interview responses with similar job positions on ONET. This was the most appropriate available method by which to construct KSAOs and task statements since no documentation existed for the plant engineer position. Additionally, meetings were held with both SMEs to aid in the development of task statements and KSAOs. In such meetings I quickly recounted the information provided by each SME in their interview responses and we compared it to similar KSAOs and task statements from the four job positions listed on ONET. Following the meetings, a comprehensive list of 36 individual task statements were created which each fell under one of six general responsibilities. These responsibilities included the following:

• Management of Sales and Production Schedules
• Oversight of Plant Operations and Staff
• Management of Financial Responsibilities
• Maintenance of Plant Facilities and Equipment
• Oversight of Hazardous Waste Disposal
• Oversight of Supply Chain Operations

In addition to the task statements, a list of 32 KSAOs were created through the same methods.

The C-JAM method consists of a few steps which attempt to collect data, categorize it, rank it, and compare it across a matrix. After the collection of data via interviews and the construction of KSAO and task statement inventories, each SME was provided with a task statement ratings matrix and a KSAO ratings matrix. Prior to the disbursement of each matrix, I met with the SMEs to explain the ratings process to ensure that the responses were being ranked appropriately. Additionally, SMEs were instructed to complete their ratings sheets independently to avoid influence towards specific ratings from each other. Task statements were to be ranked on a scale of 1 to 7 based on frequency, criticality, and difficulty of the task in question. This method is based on task statement ratings from Levine (1983) to generate a task importance value which is used to give an overall ranking of a task. KSAOs were then rated in 4 separate categories based upon:

• Necessity for a newly hired employee to have the KSAO (yes or no)
• Practicality of the presence of the KSAO in the labor market (yes or no)
• Likelihood of work issues if the KSAO was ignored in the selection process (1 to 5)
• Presence of the KSAO in an ideal employee (1 to 5)

The purpose of both the KSAO and task statement ratings was to exclude nonsignificant requirements from the task and KSAO inventories. This was accomplished by averaging the responses from each SME into a final rating which would determine both KSAO and task statement significance. Additionally, the KSAO ratings that relied upon yes or no answers were averaged to “yes” unless both SMEs rated the KSAO as “no.”

As mentioned earlier, task statements were rated based on frequency, criticality, and difficulty to determine a task importance value. However, frequency ratings were rated very highly across the board, so the frequency metric was excluded from the total task importance value to avoid inflation of numbers. Therefore, the total task importance value for each statement was calculated by adding the criticality and difficulty ratings together to get a value between one and fourteen. Task Statements were excluded from the combined analysis if they scored a total task importance value of less than five. Consequently, only one task statement was excluded from the original 36, leaving 35 valid task statements.

In contrast to task statements, KSAOs were rated on four separate metrics and analyzed separately to determine KSAO significance. KSAOs were excluded from the list and combined analysis if they received a “No” for “Necessity for a newly hired employee to have the KSAO” or a total rating in both numbered categories of less than two. For “practicality of the presence of the KSAO in the labor market” every KSAO was ranked yes and so this factor was excluded from determination of KSAO significance. The result of the analysis of KSAOs was the exclusion of 12 KSAOs from the original 32 leaving 20 valid KSAOs to be used in the combined analysis.

The last step of CJAM consists of the combined analysis in which the remaining KSAOs are ranked in terms of importance of performing the task statement in question. This process of cross-analyzing KSAOs with task statements helps to provide some validity to the presence of the KSAOs as a KSAO which was not important in performing any of the task statements would be considered redundant. The ratings for importance in the combined analysis were ranked from 0 to 4 with 0 being not important at all and 4 being extremely important. Just as the results of the KSAO and task statements were averaged, the results of the combined analyses were averaged between the two SMEs. The results of the combined analysis supported each of the 35 task statements in that multiple links to some of the 20 KSAOs were ranked as having some level of importance. This process confirmed the validity of our task statements and KSAOs. The results of the combined analysis can be found in appendix F.

Discussion

The results of the overall job analysis were effective in establishing a list of linked task statements and KSAOs by which I was able to construct an accurate job description. Due to the extensive list of KSAOs and task statements, some deliberation had to be made when writing the job description as a list of every KSAO and task statement would be too overbearing for a job posting. Therefore, one last meeting was held with the vice president to write up a job description which would most accurately encompass the KSAOs and task statements that were discovered within the job analysis. The job description contained a general summary of the position of plant engineer, as well as job responsibilities, education requirements, skill requirements, and preferred knowledge. The full job description can be found in appendix G.

Earlier in this analysis, a goal was determined to clearly identify the duties, responsibilities, and KSAOs relating to the position of plant engineer to develop a job description. Based upon the results of the job analysis which includes a comprehensive list of task statements and KSAOs as well as a job description, it can be said that the goal of the job analysis was fulfilled to the standards of the vice president. Future plans of Shenango LLC include the eventual recruitment of a new plant engineer in the coming year. Therefore, it is likely that the job description will be used in place of the non-existent documents relating to the position of plant engineer.

Additionally, the comprehensive list of task statements and KSAOs provides some opportunities within the company for future progress. One use of the difficulty ratings of task statements could be to identify weaknesses within the current plant engineer’s skillset. If the plant engineer rated a task more difficult than the vice president, it could be an opportunity for training or sharing knowledge related to the specific task statement. Such an analysis could benefit the skillset and overall operations of the plant engineer. Another potential use of the task statements and KSAOs could be the eventual development of a training program for the plant engineer position, so that there was no ambiguity involved in the training process.

Limitations

While the immediate goal of the job analysis was accomplished, there were some limitations present within the overall methodology of the process. Firstly, the analysis was conducted with only one source of data collection (interviews). The information from said data collection is valid, however it can be prone to bias as there is little to no diversity in the origin of the responses. Such bias is also amplified by the limited number of SMEs that were available within the company. For example, SME 2 rated every KSAO as being available in the job market which may have resulted in an increase of KSAOs that otherwise could have been excluded from the combined analysis.

Another limitation of this analysis was the lack of existing documentation regarding the position of plant engineer. Without a set list of duties that is directly related to the company, the baseline for establishing the task statements and KSAOs of the position was completely reliant on the word of either SME who may be prone to forgetting tasks or responsibilities. While information on ONET was useful in constructing the task statements and KSAOs for the job analysis, it might also be stated that there is the possibility of inferring tasks or responsibilities that the SMEs otherwise would not have considered. As such, it could be said that the use of ONET disrupts the validity of the statements and rankings made by the SMEs. Would the SMEs have answered differently given that they had not been exposed to any of the four job listings from ONET? I think that possibility may be very likely. Nevertheless, the job analysis as a whole accomplished all of its goals it will be used in the future business of the company.

Job Posting

Plant Engineer

The position of plant engineer is responsible for the general management of all facility operations, personnel, and financials. As such, a qualified applicant should be capable of the oversight of production, supply chain operations, hazardous waste disposal, safety regulations, and the general maintenance of the facility.

Job Responsibilities

• Develop sales quotes and invoices for customers
• Process customer orders
• Planning and modification of production schedules
• Direct employees through equipment procedure
• Conduct quality assurance practices for products
• Advise employees of proper safety practices
• Determine financial status of company projects
• Manage financial records
• Develop cost-saving methods for facility operations
• Analyze and repair damaged industrial components
• Conduct safety tests of industrial equipment
• Ensure facility practices meet certified industry standards
• Direct general transport of materials and product

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or Industrial Manufacturing
• Coursework in business or finance

Skill Requirements

• Interpersonal and negotiation expertise
• Time management capability
• Leadership and delegation proficiency
• Advanced critical thinking aptitude
• Knowledgeable financial competence

A Preferred Candidate Would Have

• Knowledge of general manufacturing processes
• Knowledge of standard safety protocols in manufacturing environments

Recruitment & Selection Plan

Following, the generation of a job description from the job analysis, the next step was to form a recruitment and selection plan to attract qualified candidates to the position. The following document was created as a plan to hire a plant engineer for 2023.

Performance Appraisal Plan

The performance appraisal was designed in synchrony with the recruitment and selection plan to present information with a professional and consistent theme. Consequently, the format of the performance appraisal is very similar to the recruitment and selection plan with the exception of the color scheme which used green instead of blue.

The first page of the performance appraisal begins with a section for employee information. Such information includes name, date, review quarter, reviewer, and a spot for a signature so that the employee can certify the appraisal. The reasoning for this section is fairly standard as it identifies the individuals and times associated with the performance appraisal. Following the employee information, is a section which explains the appraisal ratings standards. The purpose of this section is to ground ratings of the core competencies into a standard scale of one to five. As such, a total rating of 21 would suggest that on average, the employee is meeting the expectations of the company. By incorporating descriptions of each rating within the appraisal, a frame of reference is provided to both the reviewer and the employee. The scale itself will not be weighted but will be used by both the reviewer and the employee to rate employee performance of each of the seven core competencies.

The seven core competencies in the performance appraisal were constructed based off of the job analysis that was conducted prior. These competencies directly pull information from the job posting description, responsibilities, and skill requirements. Seven competencies were chosen because they encompassed the overarching themes of the job posting without leaving out any major aspects of the job. Additionally, the use of the job posting as a basis for these competencies provides legal security in the event that an employee may claim they were not evaluated fairly. These competencies include:

• Time Management
• Facility Maintenance
• Finance Management
• Leadership
• Supply Chain Management
• Customer Service
• Safety Management

The second page of the performance appraisal begins with the competency ratings to be completed by the reviewer. After rating the seven competencies, a total score can be calculated to benchmark total performance for the quarter. Following the competency ratings, there is a section for reviewer comments, so that the reviewer has a chance to provide their own narrative about their ratings. Lastly, a prompt asking about employee goals from the previous quarter is provided with a section for a response. The purpose of the prompt is to engage the reviewer directly about the employee’s history of achieving goals. This prompt also goes hand in hand with the prompt from the next page which asks the employee to state their goals for the upcoming quarter. By asking this of the employee, the reviewer has a direct reference to the stated goals of the employee from the previous quarter. Ideally, these prompts can work together to improve employee accountability towards their own goals.

The third page of the performance appraisal begins with the self-competency ratings to be completed by the employee. These ratings are purposefully identical to those found in the competency ratings on page two. Following the self-competency ratings, there is a section for employee comments, so that the employee narrative can be provided regarding their rating choices. This section is then followed by the aforementioned prompt about the employee’s future goals.

The last page of the performance appraisal consists of overall performance and begins with a prompt which asks about the discrepancies between the reviewer competency ratings and self-competency ratings. The purpose of this prompt is to highlight misunderstandings about the expected performance of the employee. It is for this reason that both the reviewer and the employee rated the exact same competencies. Through this exercise, it may be possible to improve communication regarding the expectations of each party and thereby increase performance. Following that exercise is another prompt which asks the reviewer and employee to summarize the employee’s performance during the last quarter. Once again, this prompt aims to bring both the employee and reviewer to the same level of expectations regarding overall performance. By working together to craft a performance summary, the reviewer and employee will inevitably need to find common ground in their expectations. The last prompt on this page then asks the employee how they are going to address the areas where improvement is needed from the previous prompt. This prompt accomplishes the setting of problem-oriented goals for the employee while also providing the reviewer with another opportunity to hold the employee accountable during future performance appraisals. The fourth page ends with a section to record quarterly ratings so that the reviewer and the employee can track each of their perceptions around the employee’s performance. The long-term goal of the quarterly ratings section is to track the difference in competency ratings through both the employee and the reviewer. By including exercises that aim to merge the perceptions of each party, it may be possible that the quarterly values for self and reviewer get closer to each other over time.

The purpose of this performance appraisal is to serve as a guide for improving future performance of the plant engineer. Due to the small size of the company, there is not much actionable use for the total rating metrics which come from the competency ratings. However, these ratings will help to serve as a potential benchmark to measure performance changes each quarter. Furthermore, improvements in such measurements could be used to justify a wage increase if management saw fit, although it is unlikely due to the limited resources associated with a small company like Shenango. Likewise, there is no potential for promotion within Shenango and there is only one plant engineer position which means ranking employees is not useful either.

Overall, this performance appraisal represents the first formal incarnation of any appraisal process at Shenango LLC and will likely be used as such. While references to quarterly appraisals are made throughout the document, it is understood that appraisals will likely be conducted annually due to the limited resources of the company.

Website Redesign

To finish the organizational development campaign, Shenango LLC needed an updated website to host their business from. This is key in attracting applicants that make quality candidates for your posted jobs. To address this issue, I partnered with a friend of mine to redesign their website from the ground up.

During the creation of the website, we prioritized maintaining the existing information while adding more descriptions where necessary. The existing site had not been updated since the early 2000s which meant that there was a lot of incorrect information. By consulting with the current plant engineer at Shenango, I was able to correct all of the incorrect information and modernize the site. The results can be seen at shenango.com and compared with the old website below.

Within the first day of deploying their updated website, Shenango LLC had already receieved their first online order. That brought me to the end of my organizational development campaign for Shenango LLC. My partner and I decided that we could offer these same services to other companies in need as well. That's why we formed Benchmarke, a business consulting company that specializes in technical solutions. Follow the link to learn more about our professional services.