ANALYSIS OF PMS SYSTEM OF

PICKABOO
Submitted To: Dr. Nazmul Amin ALA Scholar
Course Instructor: Performance Management (H604)
Institute of Business Administration,
University of Dhaka

Submitted By:
Abu Nasir Md. Muzahid ZR1603035
Faisal Ahmed Khan ZR1603004
Mohiuddin Ahmed Sarker ZR1603015
 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

June 1, 2018

Dr. M. Nazmul Amin,ALA Scholar

Course Instructor: Performance Management (H604)
Institute of Business
Administration University of
Dhaka.

Subject: Submission of Research Report

Dear Sir

Please be informed that this report entitled “Research Report on Pickaboo, an online based
business in Bangladesh” has been presented as a partial requirement for the course:
Performance Management (H604). This report is based on performance management system that
has been studied throughout the course.

The purpose of the report was to develop first hand learning regarding this particular Organization
and emphasize on the overall knowledge gained by research.

I sincerely hope that the work will come up to the level of your expectation and any further query
regarding the report will be welcomed.

Sincerely,

Mohiuddin Ahmed Sarker

ID: ZR1603015
EMBA 26th

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Contents

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL .............................................................................................................. 1

1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
1.1 Brief History of E- Commerce:............................................................................................ 4
1.2 E- Commerce industry of Bangladesh: ............................................................................... 5
1.3 Brief History of Pickaboo.................................................................................................... 6
1.4 Objective of the Study ........................................................................................................ 7
1.5 Limitations of the Study ..................................................................................................... 8
2.0 Objective 1: ......................................................................................................................... 8
3.0 Objective 2: ....................................................................................................................... 13
4.0 Objective 3: ....................................................................................................................... 18
5.0 Conclusion: ....................................................................................................................... 20
6.0 Recommendation: ............................................................................................................ 21
7.0 References: ....................................................................................................................... 22

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1.0 Introduction

Electronic commerce or e-commerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial

transaction that involves the transfer of information across the internet. It is currently one of
the most important aspects of the internet to emerge. Electronic commerce or ecommerce is
a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction that involves the transfer
of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from
consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading
goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects
of the Internet to emerge. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the at least at one point
in the transaction's life cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such
as email, mobile devices and telephones as well.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e business. It also

consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business
transactions.

E-commerce can be divided into:

1. Virtual Store on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual
mall".
2. The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts
3. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business to business exchange of data
4. Business to business buying and selling

Social media continues to fuel the e-commerce market, which aims to boost electronic
business process efficiency. E-commerce is being considered as a separate, profitable
field business and intermediary actors are updating their B2B business models, while
embracing aspects of social media.

E-commerce industry is growing at a rapid pace in Bangladesh. Major retailers are now
opening their own websites which complement their traditional bricks and mortar outlets. Some
retailers operate solely over the Internet, especially in F-commerce (Face book commerce).
Online retailers often sell products and services at a significant discount to those offered by
traditional outlets. Buying online is convenient. Consumers can make their purchases from the
comfort of their own homes and have them delivered to their doors. In the near future the
boundaries between „conventional‟ and „electronic‟ commerce will become increasingly
blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto Internet.

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1.1 Brief History of E- Commerce:

In 1950s company began to use computers to store and process internal transaction records
and in 1960s businesses that engaged large volume of transaction had begun exchanging
transaction information on punched card. Transportation Data Coordination Committee
(TDCC ) was formed by some companies in 1968. American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) chattered a new committee to develop uniform Electron Data Interchange (EDI) in1979.
Online shopping was invented in the UK by Michael Aldrich in 1979. Minitel was introduced
nationwide in France by France Telecom and used for online ordering in 1982.World‟s first
recorded B2C online home shopper was established where Mrs. Jane Snowball used the
Gates head Tesco system to buy groceries in 1984. Swreg begins to provide software and
shareware authors means to sell their products online through an electronic merchant account
in 1987. Tim Berners

Lee writes the first web browser, World Wide Web,using a NeXT computer in 1990. In 1992,
J.H. Snider and Terra Zippering published “Future Shop: How New Technologies will Change
the Way We Shop and What We Buy”. Netscape releases the Navigator browser under the
code name Mozilla, Pizza Hut offers pizza ordering on its Web page, the first online bank
opens, attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online and adult materials
also become commercially available, as do cars and bikes in 1994. Jeff Bezos launches
Amazon.com and the first commercial free 24 hours, Internet-only radio stations, Radio HK
and Net Radio start broadcasting, Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for
commercial transactions, eBay is founded by compute programmer Pierre Omidyar as Auction
Web in 1995. Business.com sold for US$ 7.5 million to eCompanies which was purchased
in1997 for US$ 149,000, the peer to peer file sharing software Napster launches, ATG Stores
launches to sell decorative items for the home in online in 1999. DHgate.com, China‟s first
online b2b transaction platform was established, forcing other b2b sites to move away from
the “yellow pages” model in 2004. Day by day online users have expanded; developed
countries have increased E-commerce. In 2011 US e-commerce and online retail sales
projected to reach $197 billion, an increase of 12 percent over 2010 Quidsi.com, parent
company of Diapers.com, acquired by Amazan.com for $500 million in cash plus $45 million
in debt and other obligations. GSI Commerce, a company specializing in creating, developing
and running online shopping sites for brick and mortar businesses, acquired by eBay for $2.4
billion. According to Forrester Research, online retail sales are projected to outpace brick-and-
mortar sales for at least several years. Online retails sales were expected to reach $370 billion
by 2017, boosted by expanding use of smartphones and tablets and also by increased

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investment by traditional retailers in expanding online sales. By 2015, mobile ad spending was
expected to increase to $33.1 billion while total digital advertising spending was estimated to
equal roughly $133 billion. Projections for mobile ad spending had it rising by 61 percent during
2014 and 53 percent during 2015.

1.2 E- Commerce industry of Bangladesh:

The rollout of 3G internet in Bangladesh 3-4 years ago led to rapid adoption of online shopping
there. The country’s e-tailing sector is expected to grow 70% in 2017, according to RedSeer
Consulting. Internet penetration to 40% of Bangladesh’s 165-million population has bolstered
the growth of local ecommerce, F-commerce (merchants conducting online business through
Facebook pages) and e-grocery startups.
The e-commerce market is still largely Dhaka-centric and it caters to a small segment of the
population. There's clearly an inherent barrier to greater adoption of e-commerce because of
the need for computing device and internet access for the purpose. Given the rapid growth of
internet-enabled mobile phones, the situation is likely to change fast. The e-commerce market
has been growing very rapidly over the last couple of years, especially since it began with a
low baseline. However, the most critical hurdle to growth remains trust in online payment
mechanisms. And it needs time to develop.

The Bangladesh Bank governor had once estimated the size of e-commerce market in the
country at Tk 2.0 billion. Much of this e-commerce activities are not, however, necessarily what
constitutes true e-commerce transactions. Typically, an e-commerce transaction requires the
actual transaction where funds are transferred from a buyer to a seller electronically. Most of
the transactions that are categorized as e-commerce in Bangladesh involve cash-on-delivery,
which cannot be considered an electronic transaction, even if other parts in the value chain
such as product listing or marketing are done electronically. According to U-Lab e-commerce
report series, Bangladesh has led to a 72% growth in e-Commerce transactions over the
course of 2016, with business-to-consumer (B2C) accounting for 90% of all transactions. With
over 60% of online shoppers between the ages of 25 and 34, the market is young and tech-
savvy. Cash-on-delivery is still the most popular mode of payment for e-commerce
transactions. Cash-on-delivery constitutes 95% of all the payments that take place, followed
by bank/wire transfer (2%), bKash/Ukash (2%), and credit cards (1%). These statistics are
expected to change in the next 5-10 years as regulations for online payments with credit cards
mature, and overall financial literacy of citizens, increase. The Report also shows that 78% of
the online shoppers are low-cost item buyers. Average basket size for online shopping
remains below 1,000 BDT with higher concentrating in lower price groups. However, this base
is to pick up as consumers show interest in trading up for their online purchases in near future.

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The bulk share of online shopping takes place before and during cultural events (like Pahela
Baishakh, Victory Day) and major religious festivals (like Eid, Puja) in Bangladesh.

According to Daraz survey in 2016, approximately 60% of the participants picked Daraz as
the top site while Kaymu being second with 29% of the popular support. Only 20% people
chose Pickaboo espectively as the top site in Bangladesh. Most 5 popular e-Commerce sites
are listed as follows, Daraz.com.bd (https://www.daraz.com.bd/), Ajkerdeal.com
(https://ajkerdeal.com/), Bagdoom.com (https://www.bagdoom.com/), Chaldal.com
(https://chaldal.com/), Rokomari.com (https://www.rokomari.com/).

More than 1,000 e-commerce operators are currently in business in addition to many other
platforms that mainly operate their trade via Facebook. The market is growing at around 20
per cent a year. With no specific policy in place, entrepreneurs in the sector face different
challenges. India started e-commerce ten years ago, and its transactions will hit the $100-
billion mark within two years. Bangladesh has just started the online trading process. The
country has more than 20 million middle-income and affluent consumers who are ready to
take the benefits of e-commerce.

Products & Services of E-Commerce Business:

Though being a under developed country, selected segments of the Bangladeshi business
community has embraced technology with reasonable success. Personal computers and the
Internet are also emerging as day to day business tools. These positive indicators are favoring
the prospects of e-commerce in Bangladesh. Some sectors are given below-

 Ready Made Garments (RMG).

 Banking sectors (Online Banking).
 Online Shopping.
 Web Hosting, Domain.
 Online cards, gifts.
 Oil and Gas sector etc.
 Online Transportation System,
 Hotel Management and Tourism etc

1.3 Brief History of Pickaboo

Pickaboo.com is a Bangladeshi e-commerce platform for mobiles & electronics,

headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is a brand child of Silver Water Technologies
Bangladesh Limited. The business started its operation in April 2016. It is an online shopping
destination where you can shop the widest selection of Mobiles and tablets with their

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accessories, Computer and accessories, TV and it’s accessories, Gaming consoles and their
accessories, Home appliances, Grooming products, and have them shipped directly to home
or office. Pickaboo.com is a B2C platform following the market place model.

Pickaboo was started with a seed funding of $3 million and is a promoted by India’s MoMagic
Technologies and Bangladesh’s Edison Group (also promoters of Symphony Mobiles).Mobile
phones, with about 60-65 per cent of the total sales, amount for the major sales on the
marketplace, followed by electronic products such as TV and washing machines among
others. Noida-based MoMagic Technologies, which counts Chinese contract manufacturing
company Foxconn Technology Group and MediaTek Inc Taiwan as its investors, is expanding
its footprint in South-East Asian nations. These include Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore,
Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam among others.

Their Official Facebook page is verified and it has more than 740,000 with 4.3 stars out of 5
stars overall reviews. Pickaboo has around 6 minute’s response time, reaching a staggering
98% response rate thanks to their dedicated social media team. The Pickaboo website has
an average of 25 thousand hits per day. (Source: Pickaboo Facebook page). Pickaboo is
currently working on customer loyalty program. They are making a contract with various types
of the resort, restaurant, hotel, fashion houses and others. This program is basically doing for
loyal customers of Pickaboo. The main objective of this customer loyalty program is to give
pickaboo’s customer some privileges. They also design membership card based on customer
categories, like silver, gold, and Black. Pickaboo is very much careful and always be the
concern on exact product collection and delivery system.

Last year Pickaboo declare that they are the second largest e-commerce company in
Bangladesh.

1.4 Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to analyze the following questions in respect to performance
management topics covered in the course. The first question is the nature of problems and
issues, and what are the likely causes [based on PM concepts] facing Pickaboo. The second
question is what sort of PM approaches should Pickaboo needs to be taken to ensure ongoing
strategic competitive advantage. The third question is about the Performance Management
challenges Pickaboo will face in the 21st century.

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1.5 Limitations of the Study

Performance Management system is one of the most ignored aspect in Bangladesh which is
also true for E Commerce businesses as they are particularly new entrant in the market. We
have surveyed couple of organizations which are involve in E commerce business and rarely
find any PMS system existing except some standardized protocol. Moreover as the industry
is new so there is no standard appraisal system which they follow to have effective analysis.
We have to depend on the interviews of the individuals to form the base of the report.

2.0 Objective 1:

The questions for objective 1 is to analyze the the nature of problems and issues, and what
are the likely causes facing Pickaboo and we need to analyse these with respect to
Performance Management concepts.

Pickaboo is an online based shopping portal which uses the E business platform of Magento.
Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform provide new ways to heighten user
engagement, smoother navigation, improved conversion rates and revenue generation for
virtual store owners. Pickaboo is a very flat organization. The Organogram is shown below.

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The top position holds by the CEO. There are six Departmental Heads position:

 Marketing
 Product Promotion/Digital Marketing
 HR & Administration
 Supply Chain Management
 Customer Support & Call Center
 Finance & Accounts

The Appraisal Process of Pickaboo:

The appraisal Process conducted once in a year in Pickaboo. The process contains three
steps: Self-Appraisal, Manager Appraisal, and Department Appraisal. In Employees self-

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appraisal employee appraises their own performance based on values, skill sets and goal
performance. Then Team managers appraise the performance of their employees based on
the self-appraisal (values, skillsets, and goal performance. Department managers review &
discuss the appraisal outcomes based on scores, identify the low, medium and high
performers across the department and new employee goals. These reviews are then sent to
CEO for final review. The overall appraisal outcome for the organization will be reviewed to
see the appraisal impact for the organization. Within departments, manager’s scores will be
adjusted and normalized based on comparative team scores to account for external factors
(relationship with managers and department size. In the whole appraisal process is conducted
only once and most of the time the process in conducted with employee in informal way. The
KPI’s are being set by the team heads. As it is an online based platform, their KPI system
mainly depends on the online performance of the system and customer acquisition. The Key
indicators are set on assumption basis. Pickaboo has a high turnover rate. Average
employees are between 22-30 years age group. They have a standard Vision, mission and
values set with their profile. For exceptional performances they have reward systems. The
compensation packages sets up mainly on evaluation of management. They have no training
or development plan in their employee’s performance system.

Theoretical Background

The overall aim of PM is to establish a high performance culture in which individuals & teams
take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes & for their own skills
& contributions within a framework provided by effective leadership. One of the characteristics
of the Performance Management System is PM is a continuous & flexible process that involves
managers & those whom they manage acting as partners within a framework that sets out
how they can best work together to achieve the required results. It is based on the principle of
management by contract & agreement rather than management by command. The lack of
effective performance management system will result in disorientation between the
organizational goals and employees objectives. These differences will ultimately result in poor
performances of the whole organization and loss of business.

To have an effective performance the employees must have clear understanding of company’s
vision, mission values with their assigned objectives and how those are interlinked with
organization’s performance. Effective performance feedback looks both at a person’s job
competencies and their alignment with core values.

Having a clearly outlined performance feedback system that identifies competency can also
help you recognize areas in which mentoring or training might help develop a high potential
employee within your organization. Also without the proper two way feedback system about a

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employees effort and its effect on performance an organization run the risk of losing its
employees motivation and subsequently loss its organization goals.

Some form of performance measurement is inevitable in all organizations because decisions

have to be made that require some judgment about performance. In the absence of a formal
system, subjective judgments will be made because there is no common understanding about
what constitutes performance. This practice will not only produce unjust and inequitable
decisions, but is also wide open to legal challenge. The traditional approach to performance
assessment is to use the job analysis as the basis for assessing worker outcomes. Once a
task is broken down into its behavioral components of what an individual needs to do, then
the assessment evaluates how well each of these components is performed (Banks and May,
1999), either by comparison with others or by rating the outcome on a scale that rates or ranks
the level of effectiveness; i.e. whether good performance or poor performance is demonstrated
by the person being evaluated, so that they either do not meet, meet or exceed expectations.
The appraiser’s role is to give feedback to the worker, with the aim of discussing how
performance can be improved or rewarded. Rewards can be additional pay, promotion or
benefit; penalties can be demotion, or a reduction in pay if a lower level job is allocated, or the
person could receive additional training to help them achieve the desired standard.

There are two reasons why performance management systems were often less effective than
hoped for. Firstly, because of the focus on the individual through job analysis, traditional
performance measurement rarely included broader organizational criteria (Banks and May,
1999 ). Performance measurement was linked to a downward cascade, where strategic
planning decisions at the corporate level flowed down to operating units, sub-units and the
individual. The first problem was that performance measurement was usually static rather than
dynamic; that is, it captured, at one point in time, a summary of a whole year’s work in terms
of behaviors and outcomes. The second issue is that because of their focus on the individual,
rather than the organization, performance interviews tend to concentrate on reaching
agreement about individual performance and where improvement may be needed (Cascio,
2006 ), rather than on the overall needs of the organization. This was often exacerbated by
strong departmental boundaries, in which departmental goals predominated over
organizational goals.

The present business scenarios are lot different than the previous ones and there are lot of
challenges they have to face.

 In the past, the environment was stable, jobs were more clearly defined and work
practices were often procedural and observable, but this is no longer the case. The

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 business environment is now much more turbulent, skills sets are broader and require
multi-tasking.
 Managers had a narrow span of control; this is now much wider and because of
interdisciplinary roles managers are often not able to observe or fully understand what
their subordinates actually do.
 Work arrangements have changed; from individual to team based.
 Flatter structures and less job security have also reduced the opportunities for
motivating and rewarding performance through a promotions system.

So New ways need to be found to realign employees’ focus to the factors that produce
business success. Advice from Kondrasuk’s (2012) article highlights that the appraisal should
be about process. Effective appraisals focus on understanding what is happening, they are
not just about holding people accountable.

Case Study

The evaluation of Pickaboo provides a very serious underlying issue regarding the
performance management system of the organization. From the study of the company it can
be seen that there is a lack of formal performance measurement in Pickaboo. Where formal
performance measures are applied, they are used on an ad hoc basis and there is no
agreement as to which e-commerce performance measures are effective. Common
performance measures are frequently adapted from existing, traditional measures which may
not have suitably demonstrate the actual performance parameters of the individuals.

The employee’s activities shows discontent from their work and the organization. They don’t
have the desired intention of conducting value based performance or in simple sense the
motivation is lacking. It can be attributed to the lack of clear outlined performance evaluation
system which instigates in having them set for routine performances strictly adhere to their job
description. As the relation between job description and the outcomes of the job is not
monitored properly the intended result, behavior and outcomes keep missing from individual
performances. It also result in disappointing performances for both team and organizations
sometimes.

Another issue is as the link between Organizational Goals and performances of employees in
not clearly communicated, it means the performance reveals a major gap in realizing desired
result and behavior from the individual performs. As a result the traditional performance
appraisal system does not produce expected outcomes for the employees which results in
unjust and inequitable decisions, which creates dissatisfaction and also wide open to legal
challenge.

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The absence of proper feedback system impacts the potential high performing employees
from calibrating their attitude and behaviors to align with the organizational goals, hence
contributing to the future equity of the organization.

Also proper training and development program is very important for E commerce platform life
Pickaboo. This E commerce market is very volatile and highly competitive. To gain strong
foothold in this market experienced and properly trained manpower in very important. But in
the traditional performance management system that this important attribute is overlooked.
Hence there is lack of any structure to train up and retain potential employees which will help
for the future growth of the organization.

Two things differentiate performance management from performance measurement. The

focus shifts from static, individual tasks that are measured at fixed points in time, to a
continuous assessment of individual employees’ roles and how they relate to goal
accomplishment. Thus, performance assessment is transformed from a tool of evaluation and
review to one that molds performance through continuous feedback. The job description is still
important in that individuals need to know what it is they are expected to do, but feedback on
how well they perform can come from anyone who has the opportunity to observe the
individual’s or group’s effectiveness; this can include peers, subordinates, clients and
managers. The outcome is still aimed at assisting performance alignment and achievement,
but in partnership with the worker, so the aspirations of the individual and the organization are
kept in alignment.

3.0 Objective 2:

The questions for objective 2 is to find out the Performance Management approaches needed
to be taken to ensure ongoing strategic competitive advantage.

Performance management ensures employee goals, objectives, and outcomes are in

harmony with organizational goals. The performance management system consists of three
main parts: defining performance that is appropriate to the organization through the job
analysis process, measuring performance by acquiring information on how well an employee
is fulfilling his/her job via the appraisal system, and finally reporting performance feedback and
effectiveness to employees.

It should be noted that the performance management process is not a onetime event that
occurs once a year but it is a fully-fledged model process as shown in the figure below. The
model which is based on the one proposed by Elaine D. Pulakos in his book “Performance

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Management: A New Approach For Driving Business Results” consists of six steps for an
effective performance management process.

Step 1. This step involves the identification of the organization’s goals and objectives and the
key performance outcomes that provide value for customers, employees, and the organization
in general. The goals of all departments, divisions, and employees of the organization need to
be aligned with its strategic goals.

Step 2. This step involves identifying SMART objectives, goals, behaviors, and activities for a
given employee in order to determine how he can achieve the company goals spotted in the
first step.
Step 3. This step involves exchanging regular feedback between employees and their
managers to point out their achievements and their weaknesses and issues. Proper training
and senior management support is provisioned here to ensure performance feedback is
genuinely communicated between the employee and the manager, an effective performance
management system is entrenched in the organization’s culture, and appraisals are completed
on time.

Step 4. This step involves the performance assessment of the employee’s results and
behaviors by their managers against the agreed performance targets and goals. For this step
to be effective, the evaluation process needs to be a two-way discussion of weaknesses and
opportunities for improvement between the employee and the manager Has to happen on a
frequent basis (rather than annually).

The behavior approach emphasizes what employees do on the job & does not consider
employees’ traits or the outcomes resulting from their behaviors. This is a process-oriented
approach that emphasizes how an employee does the job.

Step 5. This step includes the identification of improvement needs (training, behavioral
adjustments, new priorities based on changes on organizational goals or performance
indicators).

Step 6. This step includes the results of achieving or failing to achieve the required
performance outcomes such as promotions, salary increases, bonuses, opportunities, layoffs,
etc.

It is very crucial for the performance management process to be effective since it constitutes
the source of any needed change to the organization. The process should satisfy a strategic
purpose by linking employee objectives to organizational goals through defining and
measuring employee characteristics that would help in implementing the organization’s
strategies. It should also help in making administrative decisions like salary raises,

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terminations, layoffs, etc. Finally, it should aid in improving employees’ performance by
determining the reasons behind any weaknesses they have and by conducting a proper talent
management system to identify their training and development needs.

Fig: Performance Management Process

Performance Management Approaches

There exist several approaches that determine how to do performance evaluation, each of
which has its own strengths and weaknesses. In order to achieve its strategic business goals,
an organization can chose to adopt a particular approach or blend many of these approaches

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for the sake of implementing an effective performance management system. This system
needs to evaluate both the performance results as well as the behaviors that the employee
has demonstrated to achieve the organization’s business goals.
In his seminal article ‘An uneasy look at performance appraisal’, Douglas McGregor suggested
that the emphasis should be shifted from appraisal to analysis. The article was written a long
time ago but its message is just as relevant today, and the persistence of the concept of top-
down judgmental appraisal in many organizations suggests that there is still much to be learnt
from McGregor in this area, as in a lot of others. Assessments require the ability to judge
performance, and good judgment is a matter of using clear standards, considering only
relevant evidence, combining probabilities in their correct weight and avoiding projection
(ascribing to other people one’s own faults).

The Behavioral Approach

This approach includes several techniques that define and shape the right behaviors of
employees for an effective performance. The first technique, Behaviorally Anchored Rating
Scale (BARS), defines behaviors, which serve as guides for the rater, associated with different
levels of performance for a given performance dimension or trait. For each of these
performance dimensions, the evaluator would rate the performer by associating him with the
behavioral level that fits his performance. A major disadvantage of this technique is that
managers tend to remember only behaviors that closely relate to those defined in the
performance scale which leads to biased rating.

Another technique, Behavioral Observation Scale (BOS), is a variation of BARS with two more
features. First, it includes a larger number of behaviors to provide a more specific and accurate
description of the employee behavior for an effective performance. Second, the rater would
need to rate the frequency that this behavior is seen to be exhibited by the performer. The
overall score would then be the average of all these frequency ratings. A major drawback of
this technique is the big load of information about employee behaviors that needs to be
remembered and processed by managers especially when they are responsible for rating a
considerable number of employees.

Another technique is the use of Competency Models which provide descriptions of

competencies that are common for a particular occupation or organization. By definition,
competencies represent the skills and abilities required to perform a certain job. Teams across
the entire organization should work together to come up with a list of competencies for each
job and a weighting given for each competency for performance evaluation. These models

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also need to be periodically reviewed to make sure they stay relevant to the organization’s
goals.

As Pickaboo in an E-commerce platform which has a very unique and volatile working
condition to run its business it is highly important for it to keep its workforce motivated through
effective culture of work environment and motivation. To achieve this at first the Pickaboo
should first define its objectives with respect to the Organizational vision, mission, strategic
goals. Also it should be able to define the key performance outcomes of the stated objectives
and define a clear link between the results and expected behavioral outcomes. Employee and
the supervisor must be in agreement with the performance outcomes and they should also
develop a development plan for the said job. During the performance execution stage it is
important to exchange regular feedback between employees and their managers to point out
their achievements and their weaknesses and issues. The feedback system should be two
way and much have a clear communication channel to achieve desired results. In the
performance assessment stages the employee’s results and behaviors will be assessed by
their managers against the agreed performance targets and goals. For this step to be effective,
the evaluation process needs to be a two-way discussion of weaknesses and opportunities for
improvement between the employee and the manager and it has to happen on a frequent
basis. It is important that the managers and the employee both take the ownership of the
process. The appraisal meeting that happens between the employee and the supervisor is the
formal meeting where the employee receives feedback regarding his/her performance. It
should also include a discussion on goals and development plans that the employee will be
expected to achieve over the period before the next review session. In addition, human
resource departments need to establish a sense of collaboration and commonality among
whatever system or combination of systems is chosen. This can be done by not only making
roles challenging and stimulating, but also by sharing skills and cross training employees. In
many of the conventional sectors, HR is supposed to be very process driven and rigid. There
are companies, which are ready to let go of a talent but not bend rules. Such rigid HR policies
are a complete ‘No’ in the e-commerce sector. Keeping in mind the thinking process and the
behavior patterns of the young, aspirational, socially overactive and highly opinionated
workforce today, Pickaboo should come up with market- leading and differentiated people
practices. Organizations in ecommerce ecosystem, especially, must follow their own set of
management rules for surviving in a volatile market. Earlier this year, Snapdeal introduced a
new performance review system (GROW - Goal setting, Regular feedback & appraisal, Own
your development and Win with the company) in which the company decided to undertake
appraisals every trimester instead of annual performance reviews. The new system also
encourages employees to give their feedback as an effort to manage their expectations.

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For the performance measurement Pickaboo will determine he key area that the employee
will work which can be easily identified from the job analysis. For assessment of the
performance Behavioral observation scale (BOS) can be used which is a variation of BARS
which uses all behaviors necessary for effective performance to rate performance at a task.
Performance assessed in terms of the frequency with which specific behaviors are performed.
Results will vary from position to position, even department to department. This is essential
to understand that how Pickaboo will determine the performance standard from the aspect of
quality, quantity and time; what is the expected performance required from an individual to
achieve the business goal.

4.0 Objective 3:

The questions for objective 3 is to analyze the performance management challenges Pickaboo
will face in 21st Century.

Electronic commerce technologies are changing the way that work tasks are conducted and
thus has significant implications for the way organizations manage their human resource
functions. Although the impact of IT on work and employment has been the subject of
research, little attention has been paid to electronic commerce and its effect on work
organization and HR management. The role of HR in the e-commerce sector is best described
in terms of agility, quirkiness and thinking out of the box when it comes to hiring, retention and
rewards and recognition policies. Performance Management in e-commerce is a challenging
portfolio because of the sheer diversity in the organization.

Some important Performance Management Challenges for Pickaboo to take on are :

1. They need to find a way to motivate the Team player with an ability to create the feeling of
'one team, one goal'. Because of the diverse genre of team formation to mitigate the
challenges of meeting customer requirements and to stay ahead of the competition Pickaboo
needs to employ employees and team members who are diverse in nature and with different
motivating factor. To align them under one umbrella and make them one team is one of the
key challenges which Pickaboo will have to face in coming years.

2. In E Commerce Business tendency for managers in a project-structure to focus on project

completion to the exclusion of other managerial responsibilities. In essence, because the firm
rewards managers for project completion (on-time, on-budget), a single-mindedness of
purpose develops around that goal. In the process, managers may neglect their people-
management responsibilities. Firms face the challenge of balancing managers’ attention
between the immediate need for project completion with the long term capability gleaned from

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effective management of people. Pickaboo will have to face the same challenge with its
growing number of portfolios. As it have to continuously evolve with customers changing
requirements there will be new projects to take on and the managers will increasingly focus to
short time project development rather than focusing on long term goal.

3. The skills necessary for managing people this way seldom appear naturally in highly
technical employees. Such employees tend to focus on technological issues and solutions,
and assume that people work like machines. Given the centrality of technology in e-business,
these managers are easily drawn toward focusing on either the technology or project
completion to the neglect of their people. Failing to provide such managers inevitably results
in employees fleeing to the nearest competitor who offers marginally greater compensation.

4. At the point when a business first chooses to actualize e-business methodologies and
operations, it regularly utilizes the personnel it has for doing so. However, as the strategy
increases in magnitude, the organization will need to change in order to create a more efficient
and productive organizational restructuring for maximum desired results. In doing as such, the
human resource for the organization can turn out to be critically imperative to achievement.
The quantity of required experts expected to cooperate with a specific result to expand
capability turns into a great test.

5. Hiring and retaining good workers is a significant expense for companies. But in E-
Commerce business it is becoming a norm to have a high turnover rate. The companies have
limited influence over the experienced employees because of the volatile nature of the market
and is It will be increasingly difficult for a company like pickaboo to creating and holding such
employees. The intense competition for talent has resulted in spiraling compensation
packages and increasing variability in the quality of talent obtained. This creates a situation
where firms must pay more, but face serious risk of getting far less than they paid for.

6. One aspect of this challenge lies with the governance or management of younger
employees. Because they place greater value on autonomy and have less respect for
authority, control via position power is less effective.

Because many of them entered the job market in a situation of high demand, they believe that
they have much greater leverage and control over their own careers and are thus less
influenced by traditional reward and coercive power. As it seems their technical skills probably
exceed those of their managers, they are less likely to be subject to expert power. Thus, the
effectiveness of traditional modes of exerting power over employees dissipates. Rather, these
employees are more effectively influenced by charismatic leaders who can appeal to their
idealistic vision. Because they grew up surrounded by technology, they see opportunities and

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applications invisible to those of previous generations. Thus, the challenge is to both absorb
younger employees into the firm and to find ways to exploit their knowledge.

5.0 Conclusion:

In looking over the challenges identified above, one certainly could wonder that there is
actually no really difference between the Performance Management challenges of an e-
business and a regular business. Overall, it can be assumed that the firms have faced most
of the challenges identified in the past, and that this simply represents the latest iteration of
these challenges, but two factors distinguish managing people in an e-business today from
managing in a brick and mortar business.

The first factor distinguishing e-business from traditional business is the complexity of the
problem. What seems different about managing e-businesses today stems from the interaction
of facing all of these challenges simultaneously. While organizations may have faced each of
these challenges before, they have probably never faced so many challenges at the same
time. This creates a level of complexity seldom experienced before. The Second issue is
uncertainty and speed. Biggest change in moving to e-business is the speed. Also, the
concern with not knowing for sure how to manage in the present environment that was
accentuated by uncertainty regarding what might happen next. Managing an e-business today
requires dealing with an unusual amount of complexity, uncertainty, and dynamicity. This
certainly requires a new paradigm for organizing in terms of how the structure, processes, and
people of the firm are managed. Managing performance management of the employees to be
able to survive the competitive business environment has become one of the core issue of
these business.

Pickaboo is one of the leading E Commerce site of Bangladesh. E-commerce industry is

relatively new one but highly anticipated market for growth opportunity for this country. In the
highly competitive market it is required to maintain competitive advantage to sustain the
business. To achieve the sustainability it is imperative for an organization to have highly
motivated employee to carry the organization’s objective forward. As any business is all about
people, so people management is most important thing for an organization. Performance
management system is the key way to involve the employees with organizations objectives
and thus achieve sustainability.

This paper aims at providing a clear conception of performance Management process of

Online Platform Like pickaboo and discussions regarding how to conduct it. The study reveals
the process of performance Management for Pickaboo, the PMS Sessions along with the pre
and post tasks of PMS meeting. The benefits and challenges of performance management

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have also been identified. In light of the findings and literature review, some recommendations
have been provided to make the process successful. This is evident from the study that
performance Management system can be a constructive tool to remove the problems
associated with the existing appraising methods. But before implementing this, the challenges
associated with it should be dealt carefully.

6.0 Recommendation:

From above study it can be summarized that Performance management system is one of the
most important aspect for an organization. But Latest E commerce Platforms like pickaboo
has ignored to implement this vital aspect. This is also true for most of the online based
platform of Bangladesh. This is one of the reason why the present E commerce organizations
are so vulnerable.

In most cases in Bangladesh Organizations are keeping the present traditional Performance
System intact which not only frustrates employees also do more harm to the business. At
today’s dynamic and competitive business world, organizations should evaluate its employees
effectively. Very often it creates confusions and frustrations among the employees. If these
confusions can be faced intellectually, then performance management system will be more
accurate and acceptable. In light of the above discussions, some measures are given below
for making the process successful:

 The Performance Management System should be aligned with organizations core

values, vision, mission and objectives. Thus the whole process should be strategically
linked and effective with organization’s purpose.
 The Performance Management Meeting should be held as a neutral point of view.be a
neutral third party. Employee should never felt any manager to have too much
influence over the sessions and decisions.
 The facilitator should create a participative environment where the participants will feel
free to challenge and debate with each other. S/he should remain objective and avoid
the halos effect.
 The managers should adequately represent their employees and the ratings provided
to them. S/he should also make them prepared in case of any questions or challenges
from the managers of other departments. The managers should not criticize rather
cooperate each other during the sessions.
 Before rating employees, appropriate and timely training should be provided to both
the managers and the employees. The managers should always be cooperative and
fair to the employees about the process to reduce their frustrations and confusions.

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  For differentiating high performers from the lower one, sufficient time and efforts
should be given by all the participants.
 Confidentiality is one of the preconditions for a successful Performance Management
process. So, all the participants should maintain confidentiality of discussions and
results.
 A successful Performance Management process also depends on asking the right
questions to the managers. So, the questions asked should be constructive and
appropriate.

7.0 References:

Daniel, T. A. 2012, “Managing Employee Performance”, Society for Human Resource

Management.

Tahira Zahan, 2017, “Performance Management System: An Empirical Study on Private

Sectors “, THE COST AND MANAGEMENTISSN 1817-5090, VOLUME-45, NUMBER-6,
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017

Sahadat Hossain*, Muhammad Hasibul Hasan 2016, “Strategic Human Resource

Management (Shrm) Practices In Bangladesh: What Really Makes The Difference?”,
Researchgate

Armstrong’s Handbook of Performance Management, 4th Edition, Michael Armstrong

Performance Management Key Strategies and Practical guidelines, 3rd Edition, Michael
Armstrong

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