CLC - Performance Appraisal at Telespazio: Aligning Strategic Goals to People Development - Case Study

Performance Appraisal at Telespazio: Aligning Strategic Goals to People Development
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Performance Appraisal at Telespazio: Aligning Strategic Goals to People Development
Introduction
With headquarters in Rome, Telespazio is a company that provides space services. The company was founded in 1961 by Italcable and RAI (Profili, Sammarra, Innocenti, & Gabrielli, 2014). Since the beginning, the company's mission was telecommunications through artificial satellites. Among its historic highlights was the live broadcast of the moon landing on 20th July 1969 when it partnered with America's NASA. Today, Telespazio is a leading global company in the space industry and has employees in different parts of the world. The company had undergone numerous changes with a notable one occurring 2007 when it partnered with Thales Alenia Space. This paper seeks to analyze the appraisal structures by the company for its employees.
Current Appraisal Methods
Current Employee Evaluation Methods
The company relies on the Performance Appraisal System (PAT) that was developed in 2005 to align employee efforts with organizational goals and objectives, both locally and internationally. The system encompasses employee management, including rewards, training, compensation, career development, and mobility. The digital appraisal system aims to promote transparency, sharing for information, the mutual definition of goals, focus on competencies/roles, and reference to observable employee behaviors. The appraisal system rates managers, specialists, and professionals based on a 3-level scale: Not Achieved, Achieved, or Exceeded (based on personal objectives against company goals). Further, the system rates employees and operators on a 3-level scale; To be Improved, Standard, and Outstanding. Unlike contemporary systems that focus on reward and punishment, the system is designed to motivate and develop employees.
How the Organization Uses the Appraisal Assessment to Identify Employee Role
As part of the system, all the skills and competencies required for optimal productivity in the company have been identified and integrated with the Competency Management System (Profili, Sammarra, Innocenti, & Gabrielli, 2014). The system combines both organizational and professional skills against the skills each employee has listed. At Telespazio, for instance, required organizational skills include planning, problem-solving, communication, and sharing know-how, among others. Telespazio organization ensures that the competency management system is effective by asking managers to focus on performance and traits portrayed by workers during the assessment. More so, the organization requires managers to base their evaluation on identifying substantial facts and adopting an outstanding, standard, and improved scale. Figure 1 shows an example of organizational skills.


Fifure 1: Organizational Skills for Professionals, Middle Managers, and Specialists
The Current Appraisal Systems and Performance ratings
In the current appraisal system, employees have several roles. First is to list their skills and achievements and where possible, suggest training activities to improve weaknesses. The syst...