Name

ABCD

CMI ID

123456

Unit Lecturer

XYZ

Unite Code

7002

Unit Name

Strategic Performance Management

Word Count

3531

Plagiarism Statement:
I declare that, apart from properly referenced quotations, this assignment/report is my own work and contains no plagiarism; it has not been submitted previously for any other assessed unit on this or other courses.

Introduction: Strategic performance management is a business function where business owners and managers develop activities or tasks to gauge the overall effectiveness and efficiency of their company. This process often involves taking a detailed look at the company and setting specific goals or objectives for divisions, departments, managers, and employees. Owners and managers will set goals or objectives for business processes, gathering information to measure performance and making changes to correct issues or improve the companys performance. The aim of this assignment is to explain the importance of strategic performance managements various attributes, framework and its effects, which will help us understand the importance of strategic performance management in an organization. The organization which I have selected for this assignment is Waitrose. Waitrose is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. As of June 2010, Waitrose had 228 branches across the United Kingdom and a 4.3% share of the market, making it the 6th largest grocery retailer in the UK. The company attempts to differentiate itself from its competitors by offering high quality food and customer service. As a result, it has the reputation of being more expensive and is popular with the middle classes. The company has a Royal Warrant to supply groceries, wine and spirits to Queen Elizabeth II. It formerly held a Royal Warrant for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. The company has a long term goal of opening 400 branches across the UK by 2017 and doubling its revenue to 8bn by 2016. Waitrose, the supermarket division of The John Lewis Partnership, operates more than 220 branches dedicated to offering high quality fresh food, value and customer service. Waitrose has been driving through an ambitious change programme designed to further strengthen the business and create a solid platform for sustainable growth. A combination of outstanding service delivery and competitive pricing for consumers, investment in existing and new shops and formats and improving the efficiency of the business, fuel this ambition.

Following an earlier collaboration with Procure4 resulting in a 20% cost saving on consumables distribution across Waitrose and John Lewis department stores, Waitrose re-engaged Procure4 to concentrate on the cost effective delivery of capital items for its new shop design and fit out projects. Three store development exercises down the line, categories in focus have included: Refrigerated Cabinets, Refrigeration plant Shelving, Serve Over Counters, Lifts & Signage.

1. Setting Performance targets at Waitrose: 1.1 Connection between Team Performance and strategic objectives : Performance is essential to achieve any objective. Every Organization has its strategic objective and so does Waitrose. To understand the link between Team performance and strategic objectives in a practical way, its Important that we understand the strategic goals first. Strategic goal of Waitrose is to expand their sale of organic produce ten times over the next five years and also to become strong in non food supplies as one of the long term goals. Waitrose has a net income of 123.3 million and 42900 employees. It also wants to make it a better place for its employees to work and achieve employee satisfaction which is also one of the strategic goals. Waitrose is looking to make the shopping trip as easy as possible for its customers and constantly seeking to reduce prices to help them spend less. Externally focused strategic objectives of Waitrose: Through the joint venture with Ocado, Waitrose hopes to be present in a huge e-grocery market should the forecasts be correct. In addition Waitrose could sell it products in areas where has no stores, in a time where finding good stores locations become increasingly difficult. Currently Ocado is serving the whole of the M25 area. The long-term plan is to build five depots round the country to serve the whole of the UK. The leaders at Waitrose are aware about their strategic goals and putting lot of efforts to achieve them. Just like Waitrose stores, their online offer uses a differentiation strategy targeting the supermarket. The service is designed to target affluent, busy people who have no time to shop, possibly not living close to a Waitrose Supermarket, but still prefer

Waitrose over other supermarkets. Waitroses online venture does try to attract the same kind of customers that also visit the store, but also tries to snap up customers that are not satisfied with the service offered by big four online service. Being located in the south, where Waitrose has its strongest presence, allows a strong brand leverage of the existing Waitrose brand. Added to Waitroses high quality products, their online business can differentiate itself from online competitors with the service that their centralized business model enables them to offer (one-hour-slots, 2% substitution rates). However, loyal to Waitroses green image, it is indicated when a delivery van is close to a customers area it is encourage to book a delivery at that time, in order to save the environment. To increase the sales at Waitrose and gain customer loyalty, the marketing team, Information Management Team and the Sales Improvement Team work together to increase the sales, this performance is also monitored .This performance of various departments and there action is aligned and similar to the strategic objective of Waitrose which is to increase its sales. The HR team also helps all departments in supplying best tools, smart, talented and dedicated people to work and contribute to the organizations success. In this way the team performance of every department is constantly heading towards achieving the goal which is aligned with the strategic goal and that's one of the ways the team performance is linked with the strategic objective of Waitrose. 1.2 Tools and Technique's to set performance targets at Waitrose: Tools and Techniques As we all aware of how important it is to perform to achieve the targets. The leaders in Waitrose focus a lot on performance as it helps them in achieving its objective. To help the teams in Waitrose and make the task easier for them the leaders set performance targets. This helps the individual and teams of knowing their objectives, what they need to achieve and what is expected from them by their managers and the strategic leaders in Waitrose. The leaders do use tools and techniques to set up Team performance targets in Waitrose which helps in promoting alignment. Mckinsey 7 s model is the tool which is used by the leaders of Waitrose. The basic

premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that needs to aligned if it is to be successful, the seven aspects are categorized as either hard" or "soft" elements. Hard" elements such as Strategy, Structure and System which are easier to identify and management can directly influence them. Soft" elements such as Shared Values, Skills, Style and Staff can be more difficult to describe and are less tangible and more influenced by culture, but they are as important as "Hard" elements.

Mckinsey 7 s model helps the leaders a great deal in setting up team performance targets in Waitrose. Mckinsey 7s model helps the leaders understand what is Waitroses strategy, how do Waitrose intend to achieve its objective, how should Waitrose deal with competitive pressure, how the changes in customer demands should be dealt with and how is Waitroses strategy adjusted for environmental issue. Once these objectives are clearly defined then the leaders set Team performance targets according to these objectives which make it easy for Waitrose to achieve its strategic goals and its objectives. Mckinsey 7s model also helps the Waitrose leaders in evaluating team performance and analyze its sales which also helps in setting up Team performance targets.

1.3 Importance of Team performance tools in Waitrose

The team performance tool used by Waitrose is Mckinsey 7s model. This team performance tool helps Waitrose leaders in measuring its team performance and set future team performance targets to achieve its goals. The tool helps out in defining the objectives clearly. A record of all the findings is kept which is used for future performance reconciliations. The causes of any variations are pin pointed and rooted out in the quality assurance process.It leads Waitrose in achieving its strategic goals. It also helps Waitrose in Reviewing capacity and capability of current workforce. Team development is important at Waitrose for: Assessing of team skills, systems and processes Alignment and development of systemic team improvements Team leader leadership coaching and mentoring Team accountability coaching and mentoring Facilitating teams through stages of development Team incorporation of organizational change or changing market conditions Work with individuals to be contributing members of the team Incentives that reward the right behaviours, outcomes and results Building trust and clear communication Clear communication and aligned behaviours

Examine capacity and capability of workforce Waitrose has a current workforce of 1,980.The employees at Waitrose are highly motivated and well aware of their goals and objective which adds to their Qualities and helps them in attaining customers with great customer service skills and ability leading to customer loyalty. Define whats going to be measured The Mckinsey 7s model helps the leaders in defining the strategic objectives clearly in Waitrose. Once the strategic objectives are defined the leaders are aware of that they needs to achieve e.g. Waitrose wants to increase its sales and gain customer loyalty and make Waitrose a better place for its employees to work. Mckinsey 7s model as help in defining the score card for its employees at Waitrose. It helps in measuring the Sales as per the requirement, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction at work place. The tool also helps Waitrose in identifying individual team members accomplishments which supports the team. It helps in tracking the

performance and develops team and individual performance standards and measures and Reward and Recognize the Best performers. This is why the team performance tool which is Mckinsey7s model has a great value in Waitrose.

2. Agreeing Team performance targets to meet strategic objectives of Waitrose.

2.1 Measuring required performance targets against current performance: In Waitrose the leaders do study the Team performance every month. The

leaders in Waitrose want its employees to show specific, measurable, agreed, achievable, realistic and time-bound performance. This helps the leaders in setting up required performance targets within teams for future or the coming month in Waitrose. The targets are set up in three different ranges for both sales targets and customer satisfaction targets. The three different ranges are Minimum range, moderate Range and Stretch Range. Minimum Range: Minimum Range is a range which is below par and needs a lot of attention and guidance to improve. In Waitrose there are very few exceptional cases where the performance goes to a minimum range or below minimum range. Waitrose has few tools to deal in such circumstances like performance development plan. Minimum range performance means it would lead the organization into losses if it continues. Moderate Range: Moderate is the Average performance which only leads to sustain position. As Waitrose is looking to maintain its position it needs to compete and put up an excellent performance so it wants its employee to performed more than the moderate Range. Moderate Range performance means the organization will make no losses but any profit as well. Stretch Range: Stretch Range is where Waitrose wants all its employees and Teams to be. It give them the grade of exceeds in their performance. As most of the employees and leader are highly motivated in Waitrose it leads their performance to the stretch range. Stretch Range means it will lead the organization in to huge profit if it is continued. These ranges help Waitrose in determining required performance targets within teams against current performance.

2.2 Individual commitment to boost team performance: Employees' commitment to their work teams and to the organization can influence turnover, willingness to help co-workers and team performance.

Building individual commitment to the workplace is one important goal of human resource policies and practices. Research shows commitment has a positive effect on productivity, turnover and employees willingness to help co-workers. Team Performance in Waitrose is very important to achieve organizational objectives. Waitrose wants to improve its sales so it want its employees to be committed towards it and contribute to team performance and success so that it can achieve its organizational goals by making more sales. Developing core competencies is inherently dependent on the individuals commitment to improve his performance. It is essentially a self-directed endeavor, and the organization is simply there to provide guidance and support to this person. In their effort to help an employee to perform well in various situations, Waitrose has utilized a performance development system designed specifically for their employees. Individual commitment to team performance in Waitrose also acts as a motivating factor for other individual as well. It creates competition between individuals and teams which leads to better results. It also keeps the environment and atmosphere highly motivated and electrifying in Waitrose. These factors also help Waitrose in creating employee satisfaction and make it a better place for its employees to work which results in achieving Waitroses objective, thats why leaders at Waitrose feel the need to encourage individual commitment to team performance which helps in achieving organizational objectives.

2.3 Delegation, mentoring and coaching for achievement of the organizational objective in Waitrose Purpose of delegation, mentoring and coaching : Delegation is an important part of Management. The leaders at Waitrose use Delegation to build in confidence in the employees or subordinates. When delegating a task in Waitrose, it also hand overs the necessary right to carry out a task which motivates the individual. The individual learns to act with confidence and a sense of responsibility. It helps Waitrose in grooming employees and a group of well groomed and experienced individual makes it easier for Waitrose to achieve its Organizational objective.

2.4 Evaluating a Team performance plan to meet organizational objectives in Waitrose Waitrose has its organizational objectives and also has a team performance plan to help achieve its objectives. Once the leaders at Waitrose set up team Performance plan to meet organizational objective they do Evaluate the plan to check if its impact ,affect and if its correct. The leaders at Waitrose also find out of the Team performance plan is worthy of meeting organizational objectives. Both coaching and mentoring are an approach to management and a set of skills to nurture staff and deliver results. They are, fundamentally, learning and development activities that share similar roots despite lively debate among academics and practitioners as to the meaning (and implications) of each word. Numerous studies have shown that the greatest factor to organizational growth occurs not at the structural level but at the personal level. At Waitrose, integrating proper coaching techniques into the organization's framework maximizes the payback from outside training, reduces turnover by motivating the staff and increases your investment in "human capital." When the employees are empowered, they work smarter, producing a "trickle-up" effect that creates a true performance-enhancing culture and enables tangible transformational change within Waitrose. Improved Knowledge and information sharing Waitrose recognizes that knowledge constitutes a valuable intangible asset for creating and sustaining competitive advantages. Knowledge sharing activities at Waitrose are generally supported by knowledge management systems. The leaders at Waitrose have few criterias to evaluate the team performance plan, the leaders at Waitrose check if the plans helps them in improving the strategic problem solving and decision making in Waitrose, they also look if the plan helps in Improving cross boundary collaboration and knowledge and information sharing within the teams and employees.

3. Monitoring actions and activities to improve team performance:

3.1 monitoring team performance and initiating changes at Waitrose

Monitoring team performance Team performance management is important to the success of a company. Without it, it is difficult to determine whether a team is headed in the right direction. At Waitrose effective team management motivates workers to take responsibility for their job performance and produce superior outputs. In most cases, a consistent demand for a quality performance yields the best results. The leadership of Waitrose ensures that the team finishes projects in a timely manner. At Waitrose, the team members undergo a number of development phases to work together effectively. Rewards are given to well-performing individuals, while motivation is given to those who have become too lax in their performance.

Methods of effective feedback At Waitrose, effective feedback is given and the following rules are followed: Be direct, dont sugar coat the message. Be sincere. Give praise where it is due. When its not, make it clear that you need to see improvements or changes, however this is done with encouragement. Avoid being side tracked by any of the feedback blockers. Preserve the other persons self esteem. Deliver bad news in a non-critical way. Concentrate on your pitch and tone so that valuable information is not seen as a complaint, criticism, whinge or nag.

3.2 Weighing up Team performance against agreed objective in Waitrose:

Every Year when the strategic leaders of Waitrose meet to discuss future goals they decided on the organizations objective which is called agreed objective. Waitrose has a agreed objective of increasing its sales and also make it a better place for its employees to work. To achieve any objective its important to work towards it and perform better to outshine the competitors. The leaders and managers at Waitrose do motivate its employees and teams to perform better to achieve the objective and increase efficacy and effectiveness in their work as they are very keen to getting everything right to achieve their goals and objectives. The leaders and managers at Waitrose also monitor and evaluate team performance as it helps in examining and determining the team performance to make sure that it is heading in the right direction and towards the objective.

4. Application of influencing and persuading skills for personal Interactions in Waitrose.

4.1 Methods influencing and persuading to gain the commitment employees:

Involving employees in Decision Making: In Waitrose Employee involvement means creating an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. In Waitrose, employee involvement is a management and leadership philosophy about how people are most enabled to contribute to continuous improvement and the ongoing success of their work organization. Rewarding Employees: At Waitrose, rewards are given to all employees, even the less visible employees. It is believed that all employees are important to the success of the business. Good work performance and good attitude is always acknowledged no matter what level of job one performs at Waitrose. Leaders at Waitrose believe that When you have strong performing employees, their performance should be rewarded quickly. Monetary and non-monetary rewards are given to employees, which motivates employees to further improve their performance. 4.2 Impact of individual dynamics, interests and organizational

politics on securing the commitment of individual to a course of action in Waitrose Training and development of staff and leaders at Waitrose: In Waitrose the leaders also have introduce Personal Development plan for employees which encourages them to perform better for higher level promotions. The Personal Development Plan helps the employee, where necessary, to enhance existing skills or knowledge, and/or develop new skills or areas of expertise, so that the employee can effectively fulfill an existing role but where the responsibilities increased to a level that merits regarding to a higher grade or an alternative role at a grade equivalent to the employees previous grade. At Waitrose, the personal development plan and progress is reviewed approximately every six months. Where it is agreed that the plans objectives have been achieved, a new job description is created and submitted for grading, reflecting the new role. Conclusion At Waitrose, performance management is about establishing a culture in which individuals and groups take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and of their own skills, behavior and contributions. It is about sharing expectations. Managers clarify what they expect individual and teams to do; likewise individuals and teams can communicate their expectations of how they should be managed and what they need to do their jobs. It is also about interrelationships and about improving the quality of relationships - between managers and individuals, between managers and teams, between members of teams and so on, and is therefore a joint process. It is also about planning - defining expectations expressed as objectives and in business plans. In this assignment I have tried to explain the impact of Performance Management and how it has helped Waitrose in achieving its long term and short term goals. I have also explained how Performance Management helps in monitoring, evaluating and improving Waitrose's performance and day to day activities. I have also made an effort to highlight the different aspect of Performance Management and explain its framework and the positive difference which it has made to a huge organization like Waitrose. Performance Management has also helped Waitrose in achieving its Strategic objectives. PASS:

This assignment fulfils all the assessment criteria set up by CMI though assessment criterion 2.3, 3.2 & 4.1 needed more elaboration.