Benchmarking the HR Function at GS Plumbing - Essay Example

?GS Plumbing The keys to the successful running of every organization involve the efficient use of its resources, financial and other. To evaluate the efficiency of the use of its finances, every organization practices yearly financial and accounting audits, by external statutory auditors who review the financial statements and give the organization an all clear on have satisfactorily presented their financial transactions. HR Audit Human Resources are a very important organizational function and play a big role in its successful running. As of now, managements are realizing the importance of the Human Resource function and are putting in greater efforts to make their human pool their strength. At this point comes in the HR Audit, that refers to “the systematic verification of job analysis and design, recruitment and selection, orientation and placement, training and development, performance appraisal and job evaluation, employee and executive remuneration” and the other HR functions such as “motivation and morale, participative management, communication, welfare and social security, safety and health, industrial relations, trade unionism, and disputes and their resolution.” (citehr.com) In simpler terms, HR Audit, similar to a financial and accounting audit is the review of the employees of the organization that helps to review and assess the relationship between the employees and the organization in terms of their best contribution to achieve the goals, of both, the organization and each individual employee. HR Function in GS Plumbing To date, GS Plumbing hasn’t conducted an HR Audit for their employees. They have 18 plumbers working for them, and the four members of the senior management – Greg Smith, Alan Arrowsmith, Jane Brown and Gail White. It would be recommended to the management of GS Plumbing to conduct an HR Audit of not just the plumbers but all the members of the management as well. An HR Audit will be beneficial to the organization in the following ways: The management will be able to identify the contribution of every employee to the organization and vice versa. It will help to identify problems that may be arising and nip them in the bud. Employees will feel motivated as the management is taking a personal interest in each of them. Also, the employees will get a chance to personally speak out any sort of concerns they have. An HR audit will give the management confidence about their employees. They will know where there are gaps and will be able to device systems to close them. (humanresources.hrvinet.com) In the case of GS Plumbing, everyone should be involved in the HR Audit, from Greg Smith and the rest of the management, right to the plumbers working on part time and job sharing basis. It will show the rest of the employees that they are all on the same ground and all of them are equally responsible and accountable to GS Plumbing as an organization. Also, everyone is not perfect and an HR Audit will find out mistakes that people might be making and will help them by giving them solutions to fix it. Unplanned Employee Absence Massive absenteeism and illnesses could impact negatively on many lost working hours and medical insurance expense (Charles and Kell 2006). Employees of GS Plumbing are calling in sick regularly and not planning their absence. This creates a lot of problems for GS Plumbing, such as: It affects the daily allocation of duties. It disrupts the work routine of the organization. It could lead to the employees feeling pressurizes and over worked when they have to cover for their absent colleagues. It could disrupt team based and training activities that may have been planned for the employees’ benefit. (Lingham 2007) Also, repeatedly taking unplanned leaves is not a very ethical practice. An employee may be genuinely sick but it is hard for the management not to have a little doubt about the employees’ real reason for having taken a leave of absence at the last minute. There are various reasons an employee might have to take leave from work at the last minute, such as in case of medical or other emergencies. Taking unplanned leaves cannot be completely prevented; however employees can be prevented from taking fake sick leaves. GS Plumbing does not seem to have a leave policy in place. They should work out a leave policy for all their employees in ratio to the duration of their employment and the hours of work they put in, and also consider their seniority. Following is a plan they can follow. Earned Leave: 15 days for every one completed year of service Employees can use this as a chance for a well deserved break after having worked hard throughout the year. If not, they can encash only 10 days’ leave, making 5 days mandatory. Authorities must be informed at least 2 weeks in advance when an employee wishes to avail his Earned Leave. Casual Leave: 10 days in a year Every employee will be given 10 days in a year as Casual Leave. He can use these days off to tend to any errands he might have, or as per his discretion. However, he must inform the authorities 2 days in advance and can take only 2 days Casual leave together. Sick Leave: 10 days in a year An employee can avail 10 days as Sick Leave in a year. These can understandably be availed at the last minute. However, in case an employee needs to avail more than 3 days of Sick Leave at a time, a doctor’s note will be required to be produced. Maternity Leave: 3 months Female employees will be given 3 months of paid Maternity Leave. Paternity Leave: 2 weeks Male employees will be given 2 weeks of paid Paternity Leave.(allexperts.com) By giving the employees a structured leave policy, they are aware of how many leaves they are officially allowed to take, without losing their salary. Also, they all know that they are on the same level and all of them are being governed by the same rules and regulations. This will create a sense of uniformity among the employees and cannot lead to accusations of discrimination or favoritism. Employee Attrition Currently, GS Plumbing seems to have a very high Employee Attrition rate. Employees have been leaving their jobs to join competition. This is mainly because plumbing jobs are easily available with the competition, who provide their workers with better earning opportunities in terms of non financial incentives. Also, there does not seem to be a very conducive working environment at GS Plumbing for employees to voice their concerns. When an employee leaves GS Plumbing, the management must conduct an exit interview to find out exactly where the problem lies. It shouldn’t stop there. On finding out the problems that employees may have faced at GS Plumbing, the management must try and rectify these errors to make a better working environment for the other employees. This could prevent the others from leaving unexpectedly and from the same reasons. Another option GS Plumbing must consider is open communication with the employees. When they know that employees are leaving, they must speak with the other employees and find out if they are facing any problems and if any of them are considering leaving. Also, they must take feedback from them as to what will make GS Plumbing a happier place to work at. Taking an interest in the concerns that employees have at GS Plumbing will make the employees more happy and thus make GS Plumbing a sought after place of employment. Also, the management might want to consider making changes in their job offers by including certain other fringe benefits to the employees apart from their salary, such as Medical or Health Insurance. This will play a very important role in retaining their current employees as well as attract new candidates, thus improving their options for recruitment of employees. Benchmarking the HR Function at GS Plumbing “Benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding and adapting outstanding practices from organizations anywhere in the world to help your organization improve its performance." (Jangla). The whole point of benchmarking is to improve an organization. It is usually a comparison of one’s business with another organization that is seemingly more successful or the best in the industry. Benchmarking works on the principle of adaptability. By researching on other organizations, one can figure out what policies they have in place and which of those policies can be adapted to our organization for full benefit. To benchmark the HR Function at GS Plumbing, Alan took the initiative and spoke with a colleague facing similar problems. This was the first step. He must now devise a plan to improve the HR Function of GS Plumbing. Some suggestions towards the same are: 1. Conducting Internal Surveys: To know where the organization stands, it is important to know what the employees are feeling and their opinion on how things are being conducted therein. 2. Conducting Staff Performance Reviews: It is essential for the staff to know how they are performing, individually and in a team. Therefore, individual and team based evaluations must be made to figure out where they stand. 3. Compensation Structure: A well defined and maintained Compensation structure can not only retain existing employees but also attract new ones. Therefore, an organization must ensure that their compensation structure meets industrial standards and has financial as well as non financial benefits included in it. (itu.int) To begin with, Alan could incorporate these suggestions at GS Plumbing as the main problems that GS Plumbing seems to be facing with its employees is the lack of communication channel and employee attrition due to more attractive compensation packages in other organizations. Senior Management Issues The Senior Management of GS Plumbing consists of four people - Greg Smith, Alan Arrowsmith, Jane Brown and Gail White. Each of them probably has their own set of issues. But Greg and Alan seem to be having issues with each other and not communicating them. Greg Smith, owner of GS Plumbing, has his issues with book keeping and is unsure of the breakdown of his workload. He thinks that some of his employees are unofficially working after hours and collecting cash for their services, using company equipment, but he does not want to speak to his employees in this regard as he feels their morale will get affected with such accusations. Also, Greg likes to play golf and often leaves Alan in charge of his duties. Alan, Greg’s right hand and the company’s HR Manager, is tired of looking after Greg’s affairs. He is also tired of doing all the administrative tasks for GS Plumbing. Alan has certain ideas that would better the functioning of GS Plumbing, but does not seem to find a listening ear in Greg. He is very frustrated with having to take care after all Greg’s affairs. The main issue here is a lack of communication. Both these men are the most senior people at GS Plumbing. They are in charge of all the decisions that need to be made, all the employees are answerable to them, and they are responsible for the well being of all the employees of GS Plumbing. For the successful and smooth running of the company it is essential that Greg and Alan have a heart to heart conversation about everything that they have in mind and sort things out. Also, Greg must put aside his love for Golf, especially when it comes in way of his work. Both Greg and Alan are worried about the welfare of the company and their employees. They need to join forces and sort out their differences and work together for the betterment of GS Plumbing. The HR Evaluation function might be able to play a role in this, by evaluating what is currently going on in the company, making changes that will positively affect the organization and then evaluating how these changes have impacted the organization in the long run. (Cabrera & Cabrera 2003) Conclusion GS Plumbing is like any other organization, not without problems. However, with some effective communication, they can overcome the biggest of their problems and move on to be a successful organization that loves its employees and works hard for their welfare. This way, they can optimize the motivation levels of the employees, thereby the productivity and the success of the organization. References Cabrera, A & Cabrera, EF 2003, Strategic Human Resource Evaluation, Human Resource Planning, viewed on March 26, 2011 http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/99146560.html Charles, M. and Kell, R (2006) Flexibility in Sick Leave. Available from [Accessed on 30 November, 2009]. citehr.com, Hr audit, viewed on March 26, 2011 http://www.citehr.com/162815-hr-audit.html humanresources.hrvnet.com, Benefits of HR Audit, viewed on March 26, 2011 http://www.humanresources.hrvinet.com/benefits-of-hr-audit/ Jangla, B,, HR Benchmarking, viewed on March 26, 2011 http://www.hrfolks.com/knowledgebank/benchmarking/hr%20benchmarking.pdf itu.int, Human Resources Benchmarking, viewed on March 26, 2011 http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/hrd/wghrd/doc/survey-report2009/Benchmarking-e.pdf Lingham, L 2007, Human Resources/Leave Policy, viewed on March 26, 2011 om http://en.allexperts.com/q/Human-Resources-2866/Leave-policy.htm Read More

 

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