Abstract
A proposal to improve the productivity and excel the human capabilities of Quality Unit staff members in Saudi Universities, the plan suggests a progression program that embarks on a thorough assessment and rearrangement of the staff through the deployment of a mixture of internal recruitment activities, succession planning, and leadership development (Gordon 2009). This will require a qualified work teams filtered as follows;
1. Saudi universities goals congruence: study the university's strategic goals to bring forth the required objectives of the departments (Cappelli 2009, McCauley & Wakefield 2006).
2. Set departmental Goals: based on the previous step, the establishment of a set of SMART; short and long goals for the year (Action Plans) (Gakovic & Yardley 2007).
3. Create Roles: Goals are set for the department, therefore roles must be created to achieve these objectives; monitored by KPIs, balance scorecard, including any other measureable goals (France, Leahy & Parsons 2009).
4. Employees profiling: by having employees upload their profiles or resumes online in the institute's internal system (Jacobs 2005, McCauley & Wakefield 2006).
5. Sorting and grouping: group employees by specialisations, education, qualifications, previous experiences and skills (Jacobs 2005, Sharma & Bhatnagar 2009).
6. Profiles verification and refinements: by preparing a mix of psychometrics and technical tests, skills assessments and measurement and semi-structured interviews to test the culture fitness to thoroughly learn the employee's skills, abilities, knowledge and most of all the potential to harness their full capacity to achieve proposed goals (Jacobs 2005, McCauley & Wakefield 2006, Sharma & Bhatnagar 2009).
7. Successors profiling: categorize employees into four main categories: A, B, C, or passive:
a. (A's) are those whom are top performers and have the ability to lead, plan, make decisions and execute those decisions. Usually they become mentor to those less significant. Always fortify the system with acquired training (Conner 2000, Earle 2003).
b. (B's) are those who have the potential to be good successors of category (A's), they are best fit for deputies, assistance, mentoring and executers. With the proper engagement and training, they will be (A's) (Conner 2000, Earle 2003, Hills 2009).
c. (C's) are those who are the slow learners (lagers), or have adequate skills but have difficulty in further development. Those can be given specific roles where they would perform best (Conner 2000, Earle 2003, Hills 2009).
d. "Passives" are those who do not have the required education, skills, abilities nor the willingness to develop. These should be set to transfer to less important roles away from sensitive roles that affect the quality or outputs of the teams. It is important to isolate them completely from prior groups; by occupying them with different tasks than that of A, B or C's categories which in turn will promote a healthy cooperative culture (Conner 2000, Earle 2003).
8. Best-Fit Matching: match results to best-fit roles. This aims to list three to five best-fit roles for each person, which means constant monitoring and assessment (Hills 2009, McCauley & Wakefield 2006).
9. Engage employees: after foreseeing the plan, all employees should be involved by participating in opinion and decision making for minor decisions. This is important to get their reflection early to accept this type of endorsement program (Sharma & Bhatnagar 2009).
10. Mentor Performances: to assure the goals are been achieved. The role of Performance Improvement Unit/Centre (PIU or PIC) should be established. The core responsibility of the PIU is to meet with each employee on a regular basis and set objectives, suggest tasks, provide guidance, and training. While promoting a mentor rich environment that will facilitate employees and staff to develop and prosper (Hills 2009, Pilenzo 2009). Measurements of performance against benchmarks are imperative.
11. Reward achievements through Total Reward System (TRS) options (Jacobs 2005).
As a result of above-approach, staff will be significantly fit to the appropriate positions and promote well-productiveness. This can help the Saudi universities to reach their strategic goals and be able to have a competitive advantage in the education industry.