Evaluating Caltex Australia Performance Management
Question
Task: Draft a report discussing about the Caltex Australia performance related initiatives taken by Caltex Australia Ltd in a detailed manner.
Answer
Introduction
Caltex Australia performance management of people can be regarded as the process to train, inspire, and direct the staff in an organisation for optimising the productivity of the workplace and promote the professional growth of the workforce. Organisational culture relates to the system of shared beliefs, values and assumptions that controls the behaviour of the employees in a company (Al-Shamlan and Doblas, 2019). Organisational culture has a strong impact as it directs the way in which the employees can perform and act on their jobs. Employee engagement is another important element in organisations as it reflects the extent to which the workers in an organisation feel passionate regarding their jobs and are committed to the company. Therefore it is important to study these three elements to have knowledge regarding the initiatives taken by organisations to manage people and culture effectively. The present study is based on the people management and contemporary leadership in Caltex Australia Ltd.
What is the role of Caltex Australia Performance Related Initiatives?
Caltex Australia Limited is an Australian Company in the oil and gas operation industry and was founded in the year 1900 (Caltex. 2020). The number of total employees in Caltex is more than 6600 and it is headquartered in Sydney. It is important to measure and manage the performance of employees in business organisations, as it provides the managers with the ability to gauge the efficiency of the workers in a proper way and recognise hard work (Ali et al., 2017). Moreover, the identification of employee performance can help to determine the proper way to compensate the workforce and improve the overall productivity of the workforce. In the year 2019, the organization was rated as 418th World’s best employers by Forbes (Forbes. 2020). Hence it is highly important for the company to take up Caltex Australia performance related initiatives that can help improve the workforce performance.
It has been identified that in order to enhance the performance of the employees in Caltex the organisation has taken in a number of initiatives among which the enhancement of capabilities and competitiveness of the employees is a major initiative. In the year 2016, the organisation has continued to develop the practices of talent management for enhancing the key capabilities of the employees (Caltex. 2020). Moreover, the organisation was also determined to build sustainted competitiveness across the organisation. In 2016, Caltex developed a leading Australian university naming Caltex Academy with the aim of delivering a consistent and targeted approach to employee development. Caltex Academy was created to empower the employees in the key stages of their career targeting the enhancement of their knowledge of business, strategy development, leadership skills, and other skills. Although the academy was initially targeted at the senior leaders, the company has made the decision to expand the scope of the academy to include all the employees.
Apart from that, a Caltex Australia performance management system was introduced by Caltex in the year 2015 that was aimed at improving workforce performance through the development of employee-manager relationships with the help of better coaching, feedback, expectations, career support and goal setting (Caltex. 2020). According to Shamim et al., (2017) the approach of 360-degree feedback can be an effective initiative in organizations to measure the success of performance improvement initiatives. It is identified that the company in its Caltex Australia performance management system, implemented the initiative of feedback collection. The opinion, feedback and assessments of the performance of the employees from a particular circle of individuals in organizations such as managers is an important approach to measure the extent to which the performance-related initiatives are effective (Munar et al., 2018).
Culture Related Initiatives
Stoermer et al., (2016) has defined organisational culture as the underlined values, viewpoints and philosophies and the way through which people can interact with each other for contributing to the psychological as well as the social environment in a unique way in a business organisation. The improvement of organisational culture is essential for any business as it helps in improving the overall behaviour of the organisation and its people to enhance Caltex Australia performance. Maintenance of the organisational culture can elevate the reputational level of the organisation as well. The organisation Caltex has taken a number of approaches to shape its organisational culture. The development of aninclusive workforce is one of the major approaches to the culture-based initiative in Caltex.
As explained by Lee and Kramer, (2016), an inclusive workforce relates to the working environment that provides value to the differences between individuals and groups within a workforce. In Caltex, it is believed that every person must be able to bring their authentic ideas and personalities to work and feel a sense of belongingness. The employee reference groups at Caltex play a significant role in developing the organizational culture which is characterized by inclusion and diversity (Caltex. 2020). Hence, at Caltex, people from different perspectives and backgrounds are recruited, motivated and provided with the opportunity to contribute their full potential into the work by creating an inclusive workforce. As stated by Ailey et al., (2016), an inclusive organizational culture enables an organisation to explore different perspectives towards specific tasks and therefore support innovation in products as well as processes. Therefore, it can be said that the inclusive organizational culture initiative of Caltex is an important step to improve the overall Caltex Australia performance.
As explained by Wong (2019), there are four major types of organisational culture that are Adhocracy oriented, Hierarchy oriented, Market-oriented and Clan oriented cultures. In clan oriented culture a company promotes a culture that is characterized by nurturing mentoring of the employees and supports a family-like behaviour within the organisation. Market-oriented culture in organisations is focused on the achievement of the business and concentrates highly on the market competition. Organisations having a hierarchy oriented culture focus highly on organisational structure, control, stability, and efficiency (Cooper-Thomas et al., 2018). On the other hand, an adhocracy oriented culture is a feature of entrepreneurial and dynamic organisations and focuses on Innovation and risk-taking. From the analysis of the organisational culture of Caltex Australia performance, it is identified that it supports a clan oriented culture and focuses highly on "doing things together".
Engagement Related Initiatives
According to Ruck et al., (2017) employee engagement relates to the emotional commitment of the employees to the organisation as well as the organisational goals and objectives. Moreover, it is also identified that employee engagement is different from employee satisfaction. Bailey et al., (2017) has demonstrated that a higher level of employee engagement in organisations leads to increased sales, higher customer satisfaction, higher profitability, increased quality of service and productivity, and a higher return for the shareholders. In Caltex, employees are provided with a greater significance as employees are regarded as one of the core values of the organisation.
One of the important initiatives regarding employee engagement for Caltex Australia performance is the launch of the Employment Value Proposition (EVP) in the year 2018 (Microsites.caltex.com.au. 2020). The organisation has identified the core strengths, flexible workplace culture, opportunities for career growth, Caltex's heritage, success and other unique elements of the employment and brought these strengths to develop the value proposition, "You Take Us Further" (Caltex. 2020). The value proposition has helped Caltex to differentiate its position from the competitors. Moreover, in 2018, a Bi-annual Employee Engagement Survey was also organised for getting feedback from the employees in Caltex Australia performance. From the survey, the organisation has identified that the initiative of providing a flexible workforce and the values-led leadership of Caltex are key strengths for the organisation. Moreover, the overall engagement score was also identified to be 83% which was above the Australian Corporate Average in the oil and gas retail industry (Caltex. 2020). Hence, it is identified that among the employee engagement initiatives the development of employment value proposition and the commencement of employee engagement survey are the unique approaches of the concerned organisation to keep the employees engaged with the organisation and committed to their job. Apart from that, the organisation has also launched LinkedIn learning for its employees that is aimed toward the gain of a higher employee engagement level.
The value proposition initiative in regards to the Caltex Australia performance is efficient as it reflects the story of the way in which the employees in the organisation are able to drive the success for the company and how the company itself contributes to the professional growth of the employees. Therefore, the initiative is likely to enhance the employee engagement level. On the other hand, an employee engagement survey is also an important approach of Caltex as more employees can be engaged with the survey and the collected feedback can help the company in improving specific elements of the business.
Conclusion
From the above-conducted study, it has been identified that management of the workforce is an important function of any business organisation as it contributes to the overall Caltex Australia performance, growth and success in the concerned industry. The ASX listed organisation Caltex Australia Limited focuses on developing a performance management system to enhance the capabilities and competitiveness of the employees for improving the overall Caltex Australia performance. The organisation highly supports a clan oriented culture and has taken the initiative to include people from different cultural backgrounds and possessing different perspectives in their workforce to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity. Furthermore, the organisation is also identified to focus on gaining higher levels of employee engagement through the launch of Employment Value Proposition and a Bi-Annual Employee Engagement Survey. Hence, it can be interpreted that the management of people is much effective and efficient in the concerned organisation.
References
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