Managing performance

How Bucks University measures individual performance

At Bucks University the ways student’s performance is measured is by having TCA exams at the end of the year to see how much they have learnt throughout the year. The university sets time constrained exams for all individuals to take and the results are soon after given to see how well they have done and what grade they have achieved. Assignments are also a key in performance management as they show how well I am doing and as assignments are relevant to the course subjects; it shows how well I have understood the topics and how well I can apply it to theory. Other factors that are considered such as attendance to lectures and seminars are also observed as this can affect overall grades and can be the possible reason why certain individuals did not achieve as high as they were predicted.

Between the four lecturers I have, they all have slight differences in the way they measure my performance. For the module people and organisation, my lecturer Mary usually has a 3 hour lesson going through PowerPoint slides on different topics every week. During the lesson time, we have a lot of group work and discussions as there are many theories involved. To help us understand in the class we are given many tasks where we work in teams and carry out the tasks that we are asked to. Also we are given a set of questions where we have to answer them through writing blogs in our own time on every topic that is covered in class and this is worth 60% of the overall grade for this module. This is a very good way of measuring my performance as it shows how much I have learnt in the lecture and how I can relate to the theories learnt in class and apply it to myself. She often reads through the blogs we have written and provides us with feedback commenting on how well we have answered the questions, our overall progress and any improvements that can be made.
For the other module business environment, my lecturer lucia normally gives us assignments which we have to submit. After it is marked she then hands them back to us with the feedback sheet and goes through it with us personally on how well we did on meeting the criteria and any improvements we could have made. Recently we have an assignment that is called the company profile which is also worth 60% of our overall grade. The assignment is split in 3 sections so we have to submit each section one at a time. As soon as we submit in one section, we can work towards the second part and so on. When I handed the first part, lucia told us she had marked it but not give us a mark until its all handed in but she called a list of names of the people who did not do that well and said that they need to put more effort in the second part. She also had a personal chat with those people. The way she measured our performance is by monitoring us and helping us progress and how we can develop further.
The other module managing accounts, my lecturer Mandy also provides us with feedback when we get given an assignment back which is useful and helpful. In a way it motivates me as she points out on the things I did well on and the potential I have so I feel satisfied.
The final module managing money, my lecturer Lindsey who is also my personal tutor has personal one-to-one interviews with us and goes through all the module assignment grades we have achieved and talks about it. She keeps a track of our progress and attendance. This is a chance where we can talk about any issues that may concern us and whether we are happy with the course we are taking.

Skills required being an effective mentor:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3778514.ece

A mentor in my eyes is someone who is experienced and can be trusted in to guiding you through development. It is the one person who you can look up to for advice and guidance. In business terms, mentors are not only used to help entrepreneurs in their careers and achieve goals but also transferring new skills such as improving their ability to solve problems and to interact better with other people. I think the skills required to be a successful mentor are they must have good listening skills. The reason for this is the mentee can feel encouraged to discuss their needs and issues openly and in confidence with the mentor and feel they are listened to. Communication skills is also a major asset which mentors should have because they need to be able to give help and advice on how deal with issues that will arise. If both listening and communication skills are effective, it will help in solving new problems and challenges more efficiently. Another communication skill for mentors is effective questioning. Questions enable the mentor to ask for known information and encourage the mentee to offer viewpoints, judgements and justifications on their self-development. Mentors should encourage a solution out of the person they are mentoring rather than telling them what to do.
Mentors must be capable of building up a good relationship with their mentee to an extent that they will be able to trust you and be honest with you. In order to understand the needs of the mentee, a mentor should first know themselves and their strengths and weaknesses.

A mentor in my life..

During A- levels I felt I needed tuition for maths as I was finding the subject quite tough. As my final end of exams was approaching, I did not have that much time and I needed help with exam practise. My personal tutor who I found was also a maths teacher who had been teaching a-level maths for over 10 years. I told her my problems that I had not started revising and that I was struggling. She was aware that I only had 2 months until my real exam, so she scheduled the time accordingly between the day I started and the last tuition class before the exam. She had firstly planned out all the chapters that she was going to cover with me and how much time I should spend on each chapter between the time I had and started on from there. She was very helpful and kept a positive attitude and even though she knew I was going through a lot of pressure, she supported me and kept reassuring me that I would do fine. As I was seeing her twice a week, she covered through the chapters fairly quickly and was on target as planned and because it was on-to-one tuition I was starting to understand much easier. I felt as if I needed her at that point and I could only rely on her to help me cover the syllabus on time before I start to do practice exam papers. I started to feel a lot more confident when I covered the whole syllabus which released a lot of stress from my mind. Not only did I revise all the chapters on time, but I was really starting to understand the hardest topics which I thought I would have never understood. When it came to doing practise papers, I found I could answer most of the questions without hesitance. I ended up achieving well on the exam and was satisfied with my grades. I was also thinking of dropping maths in the second year of a-levels as I thought I wouldn’t be able to cope but because of her being my mentor I decided to carry on with maths in A2 as I found it very interesting and was achieving well in it.

Conclusion:

In conclusion employers need to measure and manage employee’s performance to increase their productivity which would lead to higher motivation. The benefits of managing performance is it sets clear expectations of what needs to be achieved as well as individual targets and goals. Businesses measure employee performance in various ways such as feedback, personal meetings, interviews and monthly reviews.