Human Resource Management in Practice - Essay Example

? Human Resource Management in Practice Inserts His/her Inserts Grade Inserts (03, February, Executive Summary This report deals with the problems of employee retention and job satisfaction issues among employees. It was found in surveys that employees have negative opinion about their immediate bosses and they feel unrewarded for their hard work. In light of these problems this report will propose solutions to these problems. The company should try to give benefits to employees in order to ensure that they stick to their jobs for a longer period. Also employee empowerment should be focus of attention so that employee satisfaction is increased. The case of Southwest Airlines and Starbucks should be taken as a good example. It is also necessary to view the HR department as a strategic partner of the company rather than just a department. Introduction Human resource management is a very important dimension for any business. It is vital that the human capital is managed in an efficient manner in order for any business to excel. The human resource department is extremely important for retail business because customers are directly handled by employees. The attitude of employees and customer care services that they give is extremely essential in determining the profits of the company. For this reason Safe Shoes should increase its focus on the human resource management so that employee performance can be enhanced. Devising a plan that motivates employees to work and doing so in a cost efficient manner is not easy. It has been observed lately that the performance of the company’s human resource department is not perfect. This report will identify certain issues that the company is facing regarding its employees and then this report will offer solutions to those issues. It is important to understand that employee issues cannot be ignored because they will have a direct effect on the performance of Safe Shoes. The performance of the company has been declining for the past few years and these HR problems might have contributed towards this bad performance. In the end this report will also comment on the enhancement of role of HR in Safe Shoes. Identification of Area of Concerns The main areas of concern that have been identified at Safe Shoes retail stores are retention problems and lack of satisfaction of employees. These are the two main problems Safe Shoes retail stores are facing right now. Employees have a very high turnover rate and the management is finding very hard to retain employees. Also in the surveys conducted employees have regarded jobs as unsatisfactory and they see no scope of promotion. This feeling of dissatisfaction has been seen in the lower level employees the most. Another issue identified is related to the store managers. Store employees are not satisfied by the behavior of store managers and they find them strict. Employees have also complained that store managers show favoritism. These complain may be directly related to the high turnover rate of the employees. High turnover rate result in high recruiting costs and this directly lowers the profits. The employee evaluation system is not working very well because all employees are getting good ranks but still they are not getting promoted. This shows that either the ranking system is not working or ranks are not being considered important. Another major problem is that the evaluation system comes has no affect on the salaries of the employees. This may be the reason that employees are not motivated. The role of HR overall in the organization is not defined very well and its role is limited to hiring and disciplinary issues. All these issues are identified by the HR department in surveys and interviews that were conducted. The following section will review the possible solutions of these issues. Review of Possible Solutions There are many issues that Safe Shoes is facing regarding employees and it is better that all these issues are addressed one by one. Retention is one major problem and that can be resolved by increasing the salaries of the employees or by increasing the difference between the salaries of people at different positions. For example the sales staff should be made considerably less than the team leader and so on. This will increase the motivational level of employees and will also help in employee retention. Increasing the pay cannot be considered a quick fix simply because it will put additional strain on the company. The pay structure of Safe Shoes is similar to the industry average so that is acceptable. Research has identified career training and mentoring as one of the ways to reduce the turnover rate for organizations (Curtis & Wright, 2001). So it is clear that increasing the pay might not be the only solution. In the time of recession organizations are trying to focus on ways other than increasing salary in order to retain employees (Amble, B. 2003). A new system of evaluation might be helpful in solving the retention problem. Employees should be given incentives to work hard and their performance can be associated with the ratings which they get. Employees should be given promotions on regular basis so they feel that their hard work is being rewarded. One possible solution is to increase the say of store managers in hiring people. Store manager should also be consulted before hiring anyone in that particular store. In this way store manager will not feel that an employee was just placed on his head. Including him in the decision making process will make him feel responsible for all employees. This is one way to improve the relationship between general employees and store manager. The problem of job satisfaction can be solved by rotating staffs. This can be done on a store to store level. In each store all employees except the store manager should switch places. The technical staff should not be included but sales staff can switch places with other employees. This will help Sales Shoes give important insight about how employees feel about their immediate superiors. This should be done once in 3 months for a week. This will not interrupt the work and will increase employee participation in stores. This will also help improve relationships among lower, middle and top management of stores. One problem of Safe Shoes is its hierarchal structure. This problem can be resolved by simple removing different positions and making flatter structure. This will decrease the number of position in the retail stores and employees will have to report to one boss. The position of team leader is redundant and that can be removed without any problem. Flatter structure can help reduce the concerns of employees regarding strict superiors. There is an influence of role play when someone is assigned a position and bosses tend to exert their power. This issue can be tackled if organizational structure of stores is revamped. Vertical structures are known to increase differences between employees and managers because top level management is not able to communicate with the low level employees (Daft, R. 2009). This is exactly what is happening in Safe Shoes and in order to tackle this problem the structure has to be reviewed. More frequent employee assessment will also help in reducing problems for the company. This process is done on yearly basis now but it should be done more quickly like after every three months. This will give employees a chance to improve their performance. One year is too much of a time and it is also difficult to assess the performance of employees over a year. Shorter durations between employee evaluations will motivate employees to work hard because they will see the result quickly. Bonuses should also be given for employees who work hard. Employees should know that hard work will pay off so they will work hard and this will add value to the organization. Employee empowerment is also needed for retail stores of Safe Shoes. It is understandable that employees cannot do a lot but they must be given an opportunity to decide about small things like shift timings and dress code selection. Employees can be given an option to design their own uniforms. They can also be made responsible for the decoration of the stores. These small changes will make employees feel that their decision matters in the organization and they will be able to better relate to Safe Shoes. All these are the possible solutions to the problems Safe Shoes is facing currently. The following section will give more specific proposals about how to improve upon the company’s human resource issues. Proposals to deal with the Issues There are many solutions that are presented above for the problems the company is facing. In this section we will select a limited number of these solutions keeping in mind the organizational culture of the company. Solutions will only work if they are given keeping in mind the business practices of the company. This section will give more specific solutions to the problems of Safe Shoes. It is very important to review the selection procedure of the company. The automated system may be cost effective but it seems to attract people that are not fit for the jobs. Anyone on the internet can apply for a job but this is not helpful as it will attract many non serious searchers. People who are just looking for jobs may end up applying and this is hurting the company. Also telephonic interviews are not very appropriate in judging people so it is vital that a strict hiring policy must be adopted. Serious people who are willing to pursue a career in retail business (at least for the important positions) must be hired. The process should also include the store managers as they are the ones who have to deal with the person being hired. Their input is vital in ensuring that the hired employee adds value to the company and works for Safe Shoes for a long period. Exit interviews are also vital in order to find out the reasons why an employee leaves a job. This interview should be conducted by the company’s senior management of HR department. Incentives can be offered to ensure that people leaving the jobs turn up for the interviews. The effect of salaries on employee retention cannot be ignored. Employees prefer to work for a company if it offers better payment structure than other companies in the industry. But increasing pay will not fully eliminate the employee turnover problem. The case of Starbucks is very important in this regard. Starbucks has a turnover rate of 60 percent compared to the industry average of 200 percent and what is important to note is that the company gives slightly better pay than the industry average (Pendergrast, M. 2002). There are lessons Safe Shoes can learn from Starbucks in which employees are called partners and they are given many benefits. Employees are treated with respect and they are encouraged to come up with ideas regularly. This shows that without increasing pay significantly turnover problem can be improved. Retail store employees should be given benefits like store discounts and bonuses. They should also be made responsible for the company. Their voices should be heard and an open door policy towards complaints and suggestion should be adopted. All these things will reduce the turnover rate and will help Safe Shoes retain employees for longer period. Employee motivation is another problem that is needed to be fixed. Employee evaluations system should be changed and it should evaluate employees every three months. Good ratings should include benefits as well. These benefits can vary from bonuses to gifts like tickets for football games or discount shopping cards. The case of Southwest Airlines can teach valuable lessons in this regard. The employee motivation at Southwest is amazing and employees can express their opinions at all forums. Moreover employees are independent in their work for example the flight attendants clean the airplanes rather than waiting for the cleaning staff in order to save time (Bunz & Maes, 1998). Steps like these can also work for Safe Shoes. Employee should be given more responsibility and they should be empowered to a certain extent. Customer care is vital for employees so in every store employee of the month should be named and his name should be placed on the wall in a way it is visible to everyone. This will motivate people to work hard. This kind of recognition can work very well for the organization. Employees will focus on customer care and this will add value to the organization. Store managers should also be evaluated regularly by the area managers. Two things should be taken into account while evaluating store managers. The input of the all the workers of store should be taken and the performance of the store should be checked. This will encourage the store manager to be performance focused but at the same time will treat employees under him in a good manner. All these proposals are the limited number of solutions selected for Safe Shoes. These changes should be implemented immediately as they are proposed keeping in mind the organizational structure and the normal business practice of the company. Proposals for enhancing the role of HR within the Organization The main problem in the organization is that the role of human resource department is very limited and it is just seen as separate unit of the company. Its role is actually central within the organization as it involves dealing with employees. Without HR no organization can function properly. For this reason the role of HR should be increased and more responsibilities should be given to this department. There should be a separate group of HR personnel for retail section of the company. Production and administration should be dealt separately. Retail section requires great focus of the company. This section can directly affect the revenues of Safe Shoes so employees working here should be selected carefully and their monitoring and training should also be carried out vigilantly. The role of HR also includes defining values of the organization (Barrie, P. 1997). This should be done by the HR department of Safe Shoes. Employees should be told about what they are expected to do. This will help clear any ambiguity in the minds of the employees. Starbucks and Southwest have clearly defined the role of employees. Safe Shoes should also follow in their footsteps. Performance appraisal and evaluation should be done every month by the HR department. The results may not be made public but this may keep the HR department in touch with the performance of the employees. This is very necessary in order to make sure that the right people are rewarded. All these steps will help enhance the role of HR in the organization. HR department should not be seen as just another department but it should be treated as a strategic partner. Only then Safe Shoes can resolve all its HR related problems otherwise no change or solution will not last for long. Conclusion Safe Shoes is facing many problems right now. The employee turnover rate is very high and employees are also not satisfied with store managers. The evaluation system of the company is not working properly and employees feel that they are not getting promotions. All these problems can be resolved by giving benefits to employees and incentives in relation to their performance. Along with this employees should also be evaluated every three months and there ratings should be made public. This will increase the motivation levels of the employees. The company can learn employee empowerment from Southwest Airlines. Employees should be given authority to do things so that they should feel responsible. The company should also view its HR department as having a central role in the organization. Bibliography Amble, B. 2003. Recruitment and retention problems on the rise. Management Issues. [Online] Barrie, P. 1997. Competence, efficiency and Organizational Learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly Spring 8: 338-400. Bunz & Maes. 1998. Learning excellence: Southwest Airlines approach. Managing Service Quality, 8(3):163-169. Curtis & Wright. 2001. Retaining employees – the fast track to commitment. Management Research News, 24(8):59 – 64. Daft, R. 2009. Organization Theory and Design. New York: Cengage Learning. Pendergrast, M. 2002. The Starbucks Experience. Coffee International, 176(2). [Online] Read More