Staff Motivation at Savile Group - Essay Example

? Savile Group Contents Introduction 3 Literature Review 4 Method 6 Results and Findings 6 Diagnostic Methodology 6 Change Methodology 7 Discussion and Evaluation on the Findings 7 Conclusion and Recommendations 8 References 9 Introduction Savile Group is a collection of organizations that function in the industry of human resource consultancy with an impeccable track record of helping large organizations primarily through helping find the right human resources that can fuel the organizations’ business development as well as performance. Savile group has three different and varied organizations that target various areas of human resource consulting, Cedar talent Management, IDDAS and Fairplace. These organizations work towards talent management, mentoring, professional services such as career transition and coaching. The organization and the group’s primary objective is to help employees transition towards a better career and to help individuals with their talent. The group also aims to target organizations through better talent hunting and management programs. The problem at hand with the group is that outplacement has become more of a commodity as a result of which price in the industry is being cut and the group is losing business to its peers in the ensuing fierce competition. With several players in the market, margins have reduced significantly and thus the service offerings by the group are not earning enough revenues for the organization. The primary aim of the organization is now to earn a significant revenue stream that will help boost its share price. The company has set up a benchmark to improve its share prices from 31.5p currently to ?2 in the future. With this aim, the management will need to earn about ?20 million in revenues and about ?4 million in profit. The management is also of the view that despite the state of the economy, the business is well placed and thus can earn this stream of revenues. The paper aims to evaluate the various options that the management has along with developing a theoretical framework that will help in deciding the plan of action that the management should undertake in order to boost its revenue stream. A diagnostic as well as change model will also be presented that will help the organization towards improved revenues. Literature Review Human resource management is one of the key support functions within an organization and helps leverage the organization’s performance through the usage of human resources. Some of the key areas within the realms of human resource management include hiring, promotions, appraisals, training, placement and talent management, along with coaching and outplacement of employees. Human resource management is now critically integrated with organizational learning as well as strategic management making it one of key fields that organizations should focus on for better results. The key human resource problems that are part of today’s economy include globalization where diversity has various ranges and a spectrum that is difficult to define. (Papalexandrisa, 1996; Boxall, 1996; Garavan, Costine and Heraty, 1995; Garavan, Heraty and Barnicle, 1999; Becker and Huselid, 1999; Stewart, Marhine and Hall, 1999; Stewart, 1996; Garavan, 1991; Gilley and Eggland, 1992) Other issues include problems with finding the right talent with respect to the job description and the creation of various jobs with descriptions that are difficult to fill up due to their technical nature. Retention is also one of the key areas where human resource management is important and where organizations need to be focused on. Retaining employees is one of the cheaper alternatives to hiring another resource where hiring takes long hours and resources to actually fulfil. One of key ways through which human resource management consultancies help includes helping find the right resources towards the jobs that need to be filled by organizations, along with helping in training these employees, equipping them with the tools and techniques on getting the work done efficiently. In addition, helping to manage and train, as well as motivate the top level management is also part of some of the human resource management consulting firms that are part of the industry. (Papalexandrisa, 1996; Boxall, 1996; Garavan, Costine and Heraty, 1995; Garavan, Heraty and Barnicle, 1999; Becker and Huselid, 1999; Stewart, Marhine and Hall, 1999; Stewart, 1996; Garavan, 1991; Gilley and Eggland, 1992) The key requirements from all these firms is to be able to match the right talent to the right job with the lowest amount of cost and in today’s day and age, this is difficult because of the ensuing competition among these human resource management organizations. In this context, significant change is required in organizations where it can help these consulting firms to improve their operations and be able to earn better revenues post change. (Papalexandrisa, 1996; Boxall, 1996; Garavan, Costine and Heraty, 1995; Garavan, Heraty and Barnicle, 1999; Becker and Huselid, 1999; Stewart, Marhine and Hall, 1999; Stewart, 1996; Garavan, 1991; Gilley and Eggland, 1992) With respect to change management, human resource management firms need to be able to cover their elements of inefficiency and be oriented towards improving their structure for better revenues and profits in this recessionary economy. However, inertia to change is one of the major problems faced by any organization as a result of which many firms do not undergo change which is considered a key to their survival. In today’s day and age, competition is rampant and the business environment is constantly changing or evolving. As a result, organizations have to focus on change management techniques as well in order to evolve and beat competition. Each organization has to establish its own change management principles in order to understand how it can improve and become more efficient. Models of change and organizational development are considered inadequate in helping organizations to actually be helpful in organizational change and improvement. As a result, researchers indicate that organizations should develop their own change management principles that help them improve and earn revenues, allowing them to gain a competitive advantage over their peers. (Todnem, 2005; 2008; 2005; 2003; Dunphy and Stace, 1993; Pettigrew, McKee and Ferlie, 1988) Method The methodology under consideration for the purpose of helping improve Savile Group’s performance and subsequently revenue streams includes a two pronged strategy, involving a diagnostic methodology and a change methodology. The diagnostic methodology includes the McKinsey 7S framework that includes structure, strategy, systems, style, staff, skills and superordinate goals. The change methodology will include evaluation of the organization based on first and second order change where the first order change will include incremental adjustments while second order change will include radical or transformational changes. Results and Findings Below is a brief analysis of the various elements that pertain to the Savile Group and how they will be solved through the methodology explained earlier in the paper. Diagnostic Methodology The diagnostic methodology focuses on evaluation of Savile Group through the McKinsey 7S framework which includes structure, strategy, systems, style, staff, skills and superordinate goals. The organization’s structure is efficient because it has various firms that cater to each specific institutional requirement within the human resource management industry. The strategy of the organization is therefore linked to the structure of the firm to target each element of the industry as is required. Systems and skills pertain to the various processes and procedures within the firm along with skills that are part of the organization’s human resources. Even though the skills in the firm along with the staff are aptly equipped to handle the industry in constant flux, the systems within the organization have to be modified in order to target the industry in a better, more efficient manner. With respect to the superordinate goals, the organization has to develop a sense of bottoms up approach where goals for the organization come from the staff themselves since they know the true nature and function of the organization from the bottom to the top. Change Methodology The tool to evaluate change within the organization includes both first and second order change with first order being incremental changes that need to be brought about within the organization such as developing talent within the organization through training and motivational speeches. The second order change within the organization is basically regarding transformational or radical changes within the organization which in this case would be strategic goal setting and top level changes in the organization. Discussion and Evaluation on the Findings The organization is planning on changes which are going to be both incremental as well as transformational at the same time. Incremental changes with respect to training and motivational speeches are useful for a very short term when employees feel that they should be productive and may even be motivated intrinsically or extrinsically to perform well; which in turn the can improve revenues for the group. However, in the longer term transformational changes will be much more helpful as they bring about a radical change which if positive can leverage the firm for higher revenues and productivity. Therefore, the two pronged strategy that the organization is planning on implementing seems to be a positive approach towards how the organization can boost its revenues in the longer term. In terms of the diagnostic issues with the organization, the organization has a large scope of improvement with respect to its staff and skills where the problem lies not with matching the right skills to the right people but keeping the momentum of the organization going by inducting motivated and driven individuals within the organization, for continued improvement and productivity. Conclusion and Recommendations To conclude the discussion on how the organization can improve its productivity and thus be more profitable, it has been found that both top level and bottom level changes within the organization are required. In this respect, staff motivation is one of the key areas that need to be touched upon in order to help the organization to grow and earn revenues. The management has taken the right step to include employee stock options as one of the ways through employee motivation can be boosted, since when sales will grow, the organization and employees both stand to benefit from the profitability. On the longer duration, the top level changes that the organization will implement include strategic goal setting with milestones on how the organization needs to proceed forward with its sales and marketing approach. In this context, the company should step in the direction of goal setting from the bottom up as employees at the lower levels have a better idea on how the organization is currently functioning while the top level management can orient these goals towards the current situation of the market which they are better aware of in comparison to the lower level staff. References 1. Todnem, R. 2005. Organizational Change Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Change Management. 5 (4). p.369-380 2. Papalexandrisa, N. 1996. Downsizing and Outplacement: The Role of Human Resource Management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 7 (3). p.605-617. 3. Boxall, P. 1996. The strategic HRM debate and the resource-based view of the firm. Human Resource Management Journal, 6(3). p.59-75. 4. Garavan, T.N., Costine, P. and Heraty, N. 1995. The emergence of strategic HRD. Journal of European Industrial Training, 19(10). p.470. 5. Garavan, T., Heraty, N., and Barnicle, B. 1999. Human resource development literature: current issues, priorities and dilemmas. 23(4/5). .p.169. 6. Becker, B. and Huselid, M. 1999. Strategic Human Resources in Five Leading Firms. Human Resource Management. 38(4). p.284-301 7. 2008. Leading Change with the 5-P Model: "Complexing" the Swan and Dolphin Hotels at Walt Disney World. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 49. p.191-205 8. 2005. Things fall apart? Discourses on agency and change in organizations. Human Relations. 58. p.83-114 9. 2003. Strengthening Organizational Change Processes: Recommendations and Implications from a Multilevel Analysis. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 39. p.186-207 10. Dunphy, D. and Stace, D. 1993. The Strategic Management of Corporate Change. Human Relations. 46(8). p.905-920 11. Stewart, J., Marhine, E. and Hall, R. 1999. Employee training and development, in Lupold, J., Harris, L. and Watson, T. (Eds), Strategic Human Resourcing: Principles, Perspective and Practices, Pitman Publishing, London. 12. Stewart, J. 1996. Managing Change Through Training and Development, Kogan Page, London. 13. Pettigrew, A.M., McKee, L. and Ferlie, E. 1988. Understanding change in the NHS, Public Administration. 6. p. 247-62. 14. Garavan, T. 1991. Strategic human resource development, .Journal of European Industrial Training, 15(1) pp. 17-31. 15. Gilley, T. and Eggland, S.H. 1992. Principles of Human Resource Development, Addison- Wesley, Maidenhead. Read More