Prepare a 10-12 slide presentation to persuade the company’s owner of the many positive changes that support the employee experience and the value of performance management. Each slide should include speaker notes that flesh out the information listed on the slide.

The employee’s life and performance in the workplace are viewed through a very different lens than they once were—and the “once were” was not very long ago. New employees are coming to organizations with a higher set of expectations across a myriad of different person-to-organization touchpoints. From the pre-joining brand attraction phase to onboarding and required early career training, a smooth, professional, and engaging process is expected. For this assessment, you will be creating a presentation that is intended to convince your company’s owner—you work in a founder-based organization—-that a modern employee experience is of value. Key areas such as employee engagement, communication, and performance evaluation should all be aligned. Employees should be encouraged through robust learning programs linked to both pay and awards of individual and team recognition rich with meaning and symbols. Lastly, employees should receive meaningful performance feedback that focuses on their successes as well as challenges. Feedback should be presented in a way that encourages the employee and reduces the traditional stress associated with the performance appraisal process.

The HR concept of the employee experience comes from the field of marketing and seeks to provide HR professionals and their clients a very different perspective of work and the workplace. This means many different things to different people. It may mean well-conceived and executed onboarding processes, access to good cuisine, an accommodating place to work, opportunities for advancement, work rotations, or personal growth. The challenge is to create the best possible experience for the employees in the organization, which will attract employees with high potential to make valuable contributions. Determining what makes work a positive experience by a significant majority is similar to benefits programs but from the view of demographic influences, and there will be generational differences and lifestyle-oriented preferences.

ASSESSMENT INTRODUCTION
Scenario
This assessment examines how to assess the effectiveness of a performance management process and how to design and manage the employee experience (organization perspective) in a legacy architectural engineering company.

You work in a founder-based organization. The company designs large bridges for locations all over the world. It is located in a small town and is the largest employer in the area. The company has a great technical reputation in the business, but they have not had a human resources professional working in the organization until you arrived. The company has a tough, somewhat dated, approach to many things.

There is no on-boarding process; employees are expected to start work day one of their employment.
There are no performance appraisals at the end of the year, and employees who have performance problems are separated and never get a chance to grow and reach their full potential.
There are no recognition programs and employees seem confused about how to move up in the organization.
There are promotions, but there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how people are selected for advancement.
While design and engineering work is detailed and complicated, no employees have an office. Cubicles are very small and very close to each other.
Current employees complain they have nowhere nearby to eat.