Changes in People Management at Cafe Co - Case Study Example

PART ONE Main similarities and differences before and after changes made in people management Though the Café Co was losing because of its HR strategy, there were some similarities of the people management approaches before and after Ben Thompson took over as chief executive. Both HR strategies look at the employees as a key asset to success. The HR manager maintains staff loyalty and makes sure that the policies and procedures are met. The HR manager ensures that the organization meets statutory obligations regarding the staff and that it is in line with the current legislative requirements. The HRM policies made go hand in hand with the organizational goals and what it aims to achieve. The differences come in when the HR director, Kim Patel, is made a member of the Café Co board. The HR department is now not only a “policing” but also as a centre of organization success and development of the organizational values. It is also involved in managing other departmental areas. Its main work is to provide the line managers with advice, support and guidance regarding anything to do with employees. The HR director ensures that the HR strategy; right people, right place and right time, is communicated to all through management workshops and leaflets that are distributed to all employees. The HR strategy has listed the organizational values: openness, trust, recognition, helping people develop, enthusiasm, teamwork, communication, fairness and courtesy. The HR’s main aim is to increase employee motivation by seeing them as colleagues and offering them good salary and increasing their talent use. How to convince line managers to take up the HR responsibilities Line Managers need to take up responsibilities when it comes to recruitment and selection of particular individuals for the respective departments. The Line Managers need to be convinced that they are in a better position to choose suitable candidates for various positions to work in their departments. They are well informed on the qualities and qualifications the candidates they are to employ for a particular position should have. They are to be convinced that choosing the right candidates for particular departmental positions is important in meeting the organizational goals. They are to be convinced that they can make better judgment in recruiting staff for their department than the HR manager can (Marchington, 2005, p 126-154). The mention of time and money saving must not be forgotten. The recruitment and selection process is faster because candidates will apply to the respective department with an opening. This will reduce the time the HR department will use in sorting out the applications of the various departments. Money will be saved by avoiding training individuals on how to recruit and select. How Ulrich’s HR roles could help the HR manager solve the problems in Café Co Ulrich, 1998 developed a model to show the HR roles in an organization. He argues that the HR has to adopt the four roles to avoid the beleaguered reputation it has had over the years (Ulrich, 1998, p 124). The Café Co can use the four roles to solve its major problems. Administrative Expert: Café Co HR department will play this role by coming up with an Information Technology strategy in the call centres and shared services with other departments to have access to personnel records and salary administration. The strategy will help in the organization and execution of work. The HR department will increase its administration efficiency and the organization’s as a whole. Success in this role will lead to the increase of the HR credibility that will be a door opener to partner with the other departments in execution of strategy. Employee Champion: The HR director of the Café Co should know that the department represents the voice of the employees. It is to make sure that the concerns of employees reach the senior managers and the recommendations and implementations are carried out. It has the responsibility to ensure employee motivation and that they are willing to work beyond their job descriptions and employment contracts. Kim has the responsibility to assist the line managers in achieving employment engagement once she adopts this role. Change Agent: The Café Co has its own culture that goes through changes from time to time. Kim, the HR director, has to adopt this role to ensure that the whole organization is able to embrace and capitalize on the changes that occur in the organization. She has the obligation to ensure all employees transform the vision and mission of the organization to a practical reality in the Café Co (Ulrich 1998, p125). Business Partner: The HR department in the Café Co is to act as a partner in the strategy execution process. It has the role to ensure that it creates systems and processes that will aid the organization to deliver or reach its goals. Reasons for not successfully selecting suitable baristas First of all the Café Co does not have a wide guideline on how recruitment and selection procedures can be carried out. They have not yet designed the procedures to be followed. Secondly, the line managers have very little or no concern on the recruitment and selection procedures as they know it is the responsibility of the HR department. The store managers who were trained to carry out the recruitment and selection of baristas, received training on how to recruit suitable baristas but there was very little follow up of the training by the line managers. The interviews done by the store managers were informal, unstructured and lasted not more than twenty minutes and the main interest was on gathering information on previous experiences of the prospective baristas. The managers were too direct and open on the kind of candidates they were looking for-committed, good working attitude, outgoing personality, team working and have good referees. Recommendations of the recruitment and selection strategy The Café Co needs to have a documented and outlined of how the recruitment and selection should be carried out. For every department, there must be well documentation of the required qualifications for every position. The salary to be offered must be indicated so that it can be provided to the candidate who has finally been successful in being employed. The salary needs to be very competitive with the rival companies. There should be a computerized screening method of resumes and applications. The organization should be able to keep records of the resumes they receive even if candidates do not qualify so that they can avoid advertising expenses in future. The references of the applicants should be well scrutinized to have a valid conclusion of the candidate being employed (Lavigna, 2005, pp 46-48). Training of particular managers of the different departments on how to recruit and select candidates of the various positions should be carried out. The training must be done at least once a year for the sake of having the current knowledge of the changes that are being made in the recruitment and selection procedures. The managers should be allowed to attend meetings and events that concern various recruitment and selection processes. They also need to attend the different workshops that teach on recruitment and selection methods (Lavigna, 2005, pp 46-48). Advertising of the vacant positions should be done using the most used communication methods that outsiders use. Advertising via the internet should be done. The website of the organization should consider the career option and the ability for the candidates to apply on-line. The advertising should also be done in the most popular read newspapers. This will enable the company to get a lot of candidates to select from. The HR department should be ready to work with the advertising firm and also advertise outside the mainstream. It should very much concentrate on selling the 0professions (Lavigna, 2005, pp 46-48). The interview process should not be a one day procedure but the organization should consider a chain of interviews. First of all, start with an aptitude test or assessment for a particular position. Secondly, group assessment interview to find out if a candidate can team work, panel interview with most of the company’s managers and, lastly, an interview with the manager of the particular department. The group assessment interviews generally look at the kind of behaviour the candidate is likely to have once they are working at the organization. It will help the management to predict the future behaviours that are very critical in achieving the success of any job. The aptitude tests should contain questions that match up the position that is vacant. It is wise to avoid supplementary questions. There should be an increase in communicating with the candidates as the recruitment process goes on. This will enable them to be engaged in the process. It is wise to have oral examinations that can occur in conference calls, schedules of the interviews need to be flexible (Lavigna, 2005, pp 46-48). How to evaluate the success of the new approach It is important for an organization to evaluate if its new strategy is effective or not. The Café Co must prove that it is now able to recruit suitable candidates to work for them by using the new approach of recruitment and selection. External benchmarking is one of the methods it can use to know if its new approach is successful. It will have to do an audit of its processes and costs. This approach will enable the organization to know: the level of labour turnover, absence rate of employees, the amount it spends in training, employee satisfaction, cost and time to feel vacant positions, number of days spent in training, employee relations indicators and productivity. If the labour turnover reduces, then the method is very effective and vice versa. If the time and costs spent in recruiting reduce, it means that the new process is effective. The absence rate of employees needs to reduce to know that the employees enjoy working for the organization. When the productivity levels of the company start to go up, then it means that the organization has employed a better method for recruiting and selecting the employees (Marchington, 2005, pp 12-154). PART TWO Two-day induction training course for baristas of 12-16 people The induction training course has the aim of ensuring that the baristas know the organizational goals and objectives. This will give them a purpose to work thus increasing their performance. They are to know and fully be explained for the mission statement of the company. This will make the employees work hard to realize that vision. The other important thing is to ensure that the baristas know about the history of the organization. How it started and how it has been doing financially. The employees are able to know the organizational rules and how certain procedures are carried out. They will know the different departments of the organization and the managers responsible for them. The employees are able to reduce the anxiety and lack of knowledge because of being in a new environment. This will reduce stress and enhance the capability of the new employee to catch up with the rest (Sparrow 2007, p.218). Time table of the course The course will take place at the Café Co Conference Hall. It will be a two-day course for the employees to learn about the organization. The induction process will occur twice a day for two different groups. The first group will start at 8:00 am and end at 12:00 noon. The other group will come in at 12:30 pm and leave at 4:30pm. There will be two pairs of trainers; for the morning session and the afternoon session. The trainers are employees of the organization that have gone through a thorough induction and training course in one of the best known schools (Sparrow 2007, p.218). The induction training will take part in three ways or methods: general training, job-specific training and follow-up and evaluation after the training. The general training will occur on day one and the individuals will be given the company’s brochures and have a video session in the conference hall. There will be an hour’s walk around the company. The general training method will aim at making sure the employees are familiar with: functions of departments, how the department relates to other departments, standard operating procedures, reporting structures and reporting hazards. It will have a mention of the organization’s history, its activities, the structure of the organization, policies and procedures, benefits and remuneration rates, unions and how to join, the grievance procedure, communication, employee performance, award programs, legal rights and responsibilities, absenteeism, restricted areas and leaves (Sparrow 2007, p.218). Job Specific training will occur on the second day. The timing will be the same as the first day. There will be use of brochures and video shows to teach about what the job entails. There will be a one hour tour to the respective department where the employees are supposed to work. The new employees will be able to know how the department functions, its goals, priorities and structure. They need to be familiar with the reporting structure of the department so that they can know who they directly report as they work. They will also learn their specific duties and responsibilities to that department. The knowledge of how their department relates to other departments will be passed. They will learn the use of equipments within the department and precaution procedures in case to avoid accidents. They are able to know the performance evaluation procedures, where equipments are put, worker legal responsibilities, different kinds of assistance available, handling and lifting restrictions, smoking restrictions and hazards (Sparrow 2007, p.218). Time table for the induction training program Venue Group One (1)- Time Group Two (2)- Time Day One general training Day Two Job Specific training The Café Co Conference Hall. 8:00am-10:30am 12:30pm-3:00pm *History of organization * Structure of the organization *Organizational activities *Absenteeism *restricted areas *Leave procedures *Policies & procedures *Benefits and remuneration rates *Employees’ unions *Grievance procedure *Communication *Employee performance *Award programs *Legal rights and responsibilities *Departmental structure *Functions of the department *Reporting structure *Departmental goals *Departmental priorities *Department relationship with others *Learn specific duties and responsibilities *Hazards *Use of equipments *Precaution procedures *Performance *Evaluation procedures *Equipments location *Worker legal responsibilities *Assistance available handling and lifting restrictions *Smoking restrictions Methods and Media for Induction Four Trainers Brochures Video shows-PowerPoint viewing. 10:30am-11:30am 3:00pm-4:00pm *Tour around the company *Tour around the department 11:30am-12 noon 4:00pm-4:30pm *Asking questions and sharing experience. *Asking questions and sharing experience. The program time table needs to be given to the prospective trainees at the right time for them to prepare for the day and have an overview of what they are going to learn. The vide show viewing will have a lot of information about the company. The video use is to generally reduce boredom. The brochures offered are for later reference for the employees (Sparrow 2007, p.218). Evaluation strategy of the induction Follow-up and evaluation will be done after the two days. It is very important to carry out an evaluation of the induction training to ensure that the employees understood everything that they were taught. It will enable the HR director to know the weaknesses and strengths that the induction training process has thus make changes that will make the process better. There are certain ways in which the HR director will ensure that the induction training process is actually on the right track (Sparrow 2007, p.218). The HR director is supposed to take the initiative to survey employee engagement in the processes of conducting organizational activities. If the engagement is high then it means that the induction methods used were successful. On the contrary, if employee engagement and commitment is low then it means that the induction process was not a success and it needs some revision. The new employee is supposed to immediately catch up with the organizational activities after the induction process (Sparrow 2007, p.218). The new employees might have some questions or queries regarding how the organization works. It is a very good strategy by looking at these queries. The queries will give the HR director information on what they did not touch on during the induction process thus incorporate the things not touched on in the next induction training process. The HR director is supposed to get a report from the departments on the queries that the new employees have (Sparrow 2007, p.218). Employees who are leaving the organization can be useful tools to evaluate the induction training process. They are bound to tell the truth because they are leaving the organization. The HR manager can conduct an exit interview asking how they found the induction training process and what is actually making them leave the organization. The HR director will be able to know the strengths and weaknesses of the induction training process (Sparrow 2007, p.218). Evaluation of the induction process can be done by looking at the number of the new employees who are leaving the organization. If the rates of the new employees’ turnover are high, then it means that the induction process was not successful and it needs some revision. If the rates of those staying are high, then it means that the induction training process was successful (Sparrow 2007, p.218). It is important to get feedback from the new employees about the induction training process. They are able to tell the HR director what they learnt and what was important but was not incorporated in the induction training process. The HR director can use interviews or questionnaires. The evaluation questionnaires can have questions like: did you attend the induction process? How long was it? Did you learn almost everything about the organization? In your opinion what was left out or how can the process be made better? (Sparrow 2007, p.218) Importance of performance management and appraisal Performance management and appraisal involves regular review of how an employee is working in accordance to the achievements of the organizational goals. The appraisal is mostly done so that the employee can get the mandate to raise the employee’s salary or give the employee a higher rank in the organization. The performance management and appraisal in the Café Co will motivate the employees to work hard because once it is noted that the employees are doing a good job they are bound to get rewards. On the contrary, it will help the management to know the employees who are underperforming. It is also important in determining what areas need training and how (Gibb 2003, pp. 281-293). Skills and role of line managers in performance management and appraisal Line managers are supposed to take part in the performance management and appraisal process and not to leave it to the HR director only. For this reason, the line, managers are supposed to acquire some skills to carry out this process. It should be noted that the line managers are in a better position to conduct the process than the HR director or any training specialists. There are several advantages that come out from their involvement in the process (Gibb 2003, pp. 281-293). The line manager can only perform in the process if he or she undergoes a management training process. This will able to make them be directly involved in the working life of their employees. The line manager is supposed to clearly set his or her expectations to the staff. This will involve what the employees need and how they can deliver. It will touch on their job targets, approach, work behaviour and targets. The line managers are able to measure the gap of what an employee is doing and what they are expected to do. The line manager is expected to know this gap. If it too big then it means that the employee needs some form of training. If it is not so big, then it means little efforts will be put to ensure training. It enables the line managers to come up with better career development plans of the employees. The line managers are not supposed to only look at the personal weaknesses of an employee but also know where learning and development is needed for the employee. It helps the line managers to subject their employees to the right job training courses that will help them in their various areas of work (Gibb 2003, pp. 281-293). The line managers are expected to act as coaches. They are to give guidelines to their employees. This role has proven to promote employee motivation, satisfaction and commitment. They are also expected to act as sponsors to their employees. They are supposed to give all the support to their employees as they go for job training. They are to ensure that they are given time to attend the courses by reducing their workload until they complete their respective courses. References Gibb S., 2003: Line Manager Involvement in Learning and Development; small beer or big deal? Employee Relations: Vol. 25, No.3, pp. 281-293. Lavigna, B., 2005: Winning the War for Talent; Government Finance Review: pp. 46-48. Marchington, M., and Wilkinson A., 2005; Chapter 5: Changing responsibilities for HRM"; Human resource management at work: pp.126-154. Sparrow R., & Vernon G., 2007: International Human Resource Management; 2nd Edition; pp 218. ULRICH D., Jan-Feb 1998: 'A new mandate for human resources'; Harvard Business Review: pp.125 134. SECTION D-REFLECTIVE STATEMENT What I have learnt in the process of accomplishing my assessment I have learnt that human resource management is an important department in any company and it is sad that very many people ignore its roles it plays in companies. Employees must be in an environment where they know their needs are being met; not only monetary but also emotional. I have learnt the importance of induction training in joining an organization for the first time. I have also learnt that line managers are to take responsibility of ensuring that they hire and keep very resourceful employees. I have also learnt that performance management and appraisal is of great importance to know if the organizational goals are being met. What helped my progress? Attending classes has helped me write the paper. I did a lot of research and read a lot of books concerning Human Resource Management. I did not encounter any obstacles while doing the assessment. Satisfaction Part one I am satisfied with the critical assessment I have made of the Café Co organization. The recommendations go hand in hand with what scholars of the Human Resource field have written about. Part two I am satisfied with the two-day induction training that I have made. It touches most of the things that an organization is supposed to teach a new entrant in an organization. I have made a good recommendation as to why line managers should consider performance management and appraisal. What I will do next time I believe that my paper is to the best of my ability thus I a fully satisfied with it. Next time I will put the same effort. Action to take after the assessment I will always ask for training if I am to be employed in any company. Further more I will play a part in incorporating the things I have learnt in the organization I intend to work for. Read More