Paternity Leave Trend - Assignment Example

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Executive Summary The report deals with the burning human resource issue of today, the peternity leave. The report is structured in to four parts for the Chief Executive Officer of the company to decide whether the peterenity leave should be and can be introduced in the organisation. At the outset, the report provides with a brief overview on the back ground, scope and aims. In the discussion part, the report tries to relate the peternity leave with the reward management and tools for attracting best of the industry talents along with the medium for retaining high performing employees in the organisation. The report also focuses on the introduction of the peternity leave and its related aspects. The report comprises of certain recommendations that can be useful for the management to decide future course of action. Table of Contents 1.Introduction 3 1.1Background 3 1.2Aims 4 1.3Scope 5 2.Discussion 7 2.1Peternity leave objectives and its relationship to employee rewards management 7 2.2HRM strategies that could be adopted to improve attraction of new employees 9 2.3Implementation of employee retention strategies 11 2.4Peternity leave introduction plan 13 3.Conclusion 15 4.Recommendations 16 5.Reference List 17 18 6.Bibliography 19 1. Introduction It has been rightly observed that the only thing constant in the competitive world of today is ‘change’. With the rapid and continuous development in the field of technology and communication, the tricks of the trade are fast changing. The change is felt in all aspects across industries through out the world. As the ways and procedures of business is experiencing almost over all change, it is prudent to accept that the human sentiments are also having transformations. As the human psychology considerably differs from that of yester years, it is must for the organisations to have adequate provisions for such transformations to pace up with the employees and team members to keep them happy and contended. 1.1 Background One of the recent terms which is creating storm in the human resource departments of various leading multinational organisations across the globe is that of the peterenity leave. The leave has been scheduled by quite a few companies in many of the countries of the west. Especially, in the United Kingdom the leave is gaining increasing popularity. As the Chief Executive Officer of our company visited United Kingdom recently, she was taken aback by the type of leave that it is. The report is prepared to analyse the necessity and the related relevance of the leave. The studies have revealed that even in Australia the peternity leave has been accepted by the industry leaders. The leading telecommunication company, Virgin Mobiles have granted their employees such leave. The company expect their employees to be more contended with such leaves meant for their pets. Though the telecommunication company did not entrust this leave to all the employees and for all types of pets, yet the leave has created a stir in the industry. The Virgin Mobiles have issued such leave only to those employees who have experience of more than two years with the company and the pets for that the leave is entrusted includes only puppies and cats. Though quite a considerable population of Australia have snake as their pets, the company do not approve peternity leave for the snakes (Moran, 2009). 1.2 Aims The report has many fold aims. The prime and fore most aim id to keep the employees happy and satisfied. The report basically aims to deal with the psychological issues of the employees and aims to find solution to resolve any resentment of the team members. The employees or the human capital are the most precious asset of the companies in the competitive world of today. The company can find all other resources if lost e.g. the technology or finance. But an employee, once gone, is hard to replace with. Also with the employee goes all the training and infrastructure cost that the company incurred to make him counted in the corporate family. The report would aim to discuss the purpose of the peternity leave and try and correlate it with the rewards management of the employees. The reason for this sort of leave is presumed to attract new members. Therefore, this report would also throw light on the success of attracting new team members through peternity leave. The old and the experienced team members are very vital for the meeting and success of the organisational goals. The report plans to analyse if such leave keeps the existing employees motivated and helps to retain them. The ultimate objective of the report is to formulate a plan that would enable the management of the company to introduce the peternity leave with the system. The report aims to assess the various related aspects and guide the management to do so. 1.3 Scope The scope of the report is huge. As stated earlier, the report deals with analysing the intricacies of the peternity leave, so the report is basically bestowed with the responsibilities of keeping the employees happy and company friendly. The report deals with the various theories of human resource management and would assist the management to get hold of the need and success of such leave and the way to implement the planned steps. The report would also deal with the human resource concepts like rewards management, employee attraction and employee retention of the company. Reward management theory refers to the pay and compensation of the employees. The employee attraction policies are necessary to attract the best of the prevailing talents in the industry. Last but not the least, the employee retention is the one of the most tough aspects for the human resource departments of today and this report also has the scope of analysing the employee retention aspect of the company through unconventional leaves like that of peterenity leave. The leave scheduled for the employees to have affection towards their pets also has a human face. It would invariably help the company to create a kind image with in the society. Therefore, it can be inferred that the scope of the report also extends to the corporate social responsibilities of the company. 2. Discussion 2.1 Peternity leave objectives and its relationship to employee rewards management Efficient reward management has been the contemporary human resource topic of great talks and debates. Reward management can be referred as the strategy that is formulated and implemented so that the employees of the organisation are rewarded fairly and equally that is consistent with the organisational value. Reward management is a broad topic and includes the entire rewarding mechanism comprising the design, the implementation and the maintenance of the processes that are focused to meet the organisational objectives both on the basis of team performance as well as individual performance (Armstrong & Murlis, 2007). The peternity leave is undoubtedly a very recent term coined as employ of many of the organisations get leaves for the sake of their pets. Though it might sound unconventional, the leave has been designed to have a human face towards the pets of the employees. There have been repeated instances in the industry that the owner of the pets provides certain excuses to be with the animal at home. This holds very true when the pet is young and just brought it. In case of birth of the pet also it holds good. As once Liverpool Daily Post reported a research that suggested workers often wants to be at home when they buy a new animal. Even the owners did not hesitate to inform their superiors saying they are sick, just to stay in touch with their domestic dog or cat. The newspaper further quoted Petplan, renowned pet insurance provider, which maintained, to many of the employees pet ownership is similar to child rearing. Apart from the affections of the owners, the other real concern has been losing of pets to the kidnapers of thieves (Daily Post, 2006). Previously, when the concept of peternity leave was yet not established, there were reports that certain pet lovers suggested to there near and dear ones to purchase or bring home the pets on Fridays. The reason behind such suggestions has been that if the pet is brought home on a Friday, the professional would get at least two days (Saturday and Sunday, the holidays) to spend with the pet. There also have been reports when it has been said that raising a puppy is comparatively tougher than to raise a child. One has even went to such height that the person maintained one must have the experience of raising a child at the first place so that he or she can successfully raise the pet (Crooke, 2000). All the above instances have compelled the management of large organisations to think over the issue time and again. As stated earlier, human capital has been the deciding factor in the competitive scenario of today. Now if the employees those who have such feeling towards their pet, can be provided with paid leaves for the purpose would surely boost the morale of such employees. On the other hand, concerned with the pets, the employees might not get focussed with their professional work as well. Therefore, in many of the organisations peternity leave is treated as the means of the reward management apart from the compensations and other pays. The leave might be regarded as the prize that is to be awarded to the committed team members for their seamless effort towards organisational objective. 2.2 HRM strategies that could be adopted to improve attraction of new employees Attracting new employees is one of the most crucial aspects of the job of a human resource manager. If the right candidate for the right job can not be selected the entire organisational goal may fall flat despite innumerable other effort. The most important consideration while recruiting at any level of the organisation is identifying the right traits among the prospective employees. But it often so happen that in spite of selecting the prospective employee through number of steps recruitment and selection, the offered candidate decline to join the organisation. This is particularly true for the lesser known, not so big organisation. Therefore, the other pivotal challenge for the HR manager remains to attract the best of the talents from the industry. As Armstrong, the renowned author on various subjects of human resource management had observed long back that few of the crucial aspects that would ensure the best of the talents join an organisation are as follows: Justice – The justice can be further divided into two forms namely the procedural justice and the distributive justice. Procedural justice comprises the fact that employee consideration are provided with due consideration where as the distributive justice is more about the fair reward system with in the organisation with respect to the contribution made by the employee. Equity – To attract new employees, it is necessary to have just and equal policies towards all employees. Employees serving in similar ranks ought to be equally treated. Transparency - In this era of communication and information boom, transparency holds utmost importance. If the management is not transparent enough, it is not only impossible to attract new employees but also it’s a far fetched dream to retain the existing workforce. Fitness – The employee selected can have high potentials and higher than the requisite background and experience, but the key to the successful recruitment remains in the job fitness and the cultural fitness of the selected employee. Consistency – In order to attract new employees, the management of the organisation must have consistent policies. (Armstrong, 2007) The above discussion of the literature has deep relationship with the peternity leave. In spite of having all the crucial key factors in place, the management might fail to attract new talents if it is unable to understand the emotional quotient of the employees. In the present world of today, intelligence goes hand in hand with emotions. Montreal based The Gazette observed, “The old "I don't feel good today" call to the boss might become: "I can't come in today. My albatross is throwing up" or "I couldn't possibly work today. Our goldfish seems pale and lethargic."” (The Gazette, 2007). According to a survey conducted by Dogster.com and Simply Hired in 2006, the owners of dog accepted to take pay cuts if the company allowed them to bring the pets in the office (Supply Management, 2007). As the issue is turning out to be so serious that even the employees are ready to take pay cuts for their beloved pets, it is understandable how tough it would be to attract new employee (who could well have a pet or be an avid animal lover) to the job if the organisation does not have fair policy on the issue. 2.3 Implementation of employee retention strategies The various challenges faced by the human resource department have been discussed in the previous chapter. It can be well understood that the company might face many reservations to attract new talents. Therefore, more emphasis should be laid upon retaining the existing employees. Also, the company spends huge cost to recruit an employee. Over and above there are certain other costs like training and orientation and infrastructure that the company has spent over the present employees. After all such costs are incurred and then the employee decides to leave the organisation, it would invariably mean the company is at a loss. Also, the face of the company depends upon its present employees. If the competitors of the organisation find that there is huge attrition among the employees, it would signify that there is something major wrong in the running of the company. Also, the society and other stake holders will doubt the organisation. It would send wrong signal to the prospective employees as well as to the customers of the company too. To avoid all these happenings the management of the company should try their best to retain the existing companies. For the purpose various schemes are taken from time to time. The sole objective of such plans are to keep the work force of the organisation happy, satisfied and contended. The various measures include timely pay, good infrastructure, adequate space, well defined leave policies and many others. All these factors are traditional and conventional in nature. As the time is changing, the change in employee perception can be observed. It was often found earlier that the employees used to take leave citing various excuses actually for the purpose of their respective pets. As more stress has been laid to retain the existing workers and the big companies like Halifax Bank or Bank of Scotland are approving time off if the pet of the employee is sick, other company like Royal Mail has gone one step further and have allowed ‘compassionate leave’ on the event of death of the pet of the employee. Many other companies are allowing work from home if they find the pet of the employee if sick (Iradle, 2007). As the gap between the employee and the employer is diminishing, it can be viewed as the positive change for both the parties. The companies can understand the psychologies of the employees better, similarly the employees with better facilities are expected to stay focussed and perform better. 2.4 Peternity leave introduction plan Peternity leave has been fast becoming a leave with social and industry acceptance. If any of the friends find that the other person has not even heard of the peternity leave, it is becoming a matter of ‘shame’. The animal lovers are very clear in their approach. They claim, if the superior of the office claims doctor’s prescription from his subordinate, who has cited the same reason for remaining off from work, the boss might not find it as the real reason of being absent could well be to spend time with the pets(Clarke, 2006). The Australian company Virgin Mobile has finally approved the peternity leave being the trend setter with in the country of Australia. Though all the employee force of the company is not entitle to do the leave, as it has mentioned that only the workers having more than 2 years of experience and those who have cats or dogs aged maximum 10 weeks are eligible for the leave, yet the Human Resource director of the company maintained that she herself would like to use the leave as she plans to bring home puppies in near future (Asian News International, 2009). The Virgin Mobile Australia has approved the pet-ernity leave only for the animals like dogs and cats (i.e. puppies and kittens) and not any others, the reports claim (Ife, 2009). To introduce the preternity leave with in the organization, it would be prudent to conduct a survey among the employees of the organization regarding the domestic pets they have. The employees those who would answer in affirmative, would be further asked the about the average age of such pets and the number of hours (pr annum) the employee would like to dedicate to the pet. Referring to the policy of Virgin Mobile Australia, it can be observed that the company would allow only puppies and kitten. Our company can also include snakes as in Australia a large portion of population keep snake as their pet. Prior to finalizing any leave policy, the human resource department should also consider the commitment that the top management is ready to put in for the purpose. As any extra leave means that more man-hours are lost, so it should be carefully analysed if the management really wants to keep the employees ‘happy’ and ‘contended’ on the emotional aspect and is ready to forego man hours for the purpose. Last but definitely not the least; the management should also carefully decide which strata of the employees these will leave be applicable from. For an instance, the executives still on probation might not be entitled to this leave. As in Virgin Mobiles, only those with experience more than 2 years get the benefit of this leave. In case of selecting the lowest profile for this leave, the prime consideration would from which lowest rank of the hierarchy the value count begins. In other words, the minimum rank which the management thinks to be kept satisfied in order to retain. 3. Conclusion The arguments in favour of the peternity leave seem to be strong and are presumed to stay in the industry. It is not far in the future where the corporate provide peternity leave as mandatorily as the sick leave or casual leave. From the view point of corporate, the argument that favours peternity leave is the emotional satisfaction of the workforce. The companies very well know how tough it is to find a new talent fit for the job. Recruitment also calls for huge cost. Therefore, the onus lies on the management to retain the present work force. To retain the best of the talents, the companies across the globe has to provide with the best of the opportunities as the competing firms are always eager to poach the high performing workers. The modern way of retaining the talents include fine balance between personal and professional life. Paternity leave is also similar form of employee satisfying measure. The facts by PetPlan, the leading insurers for pets, have revealed that 35% of the professionals have taken day off to attend their sick pet and half of the 35% took an entire week off for the purpose. The facts further reveals that the business in Britain may be affected by £ 19 million by off days per year because of ailing pets of the employees (PetPlanet, 2007). All these facts and figures have compelled the companies to plan in advance such leaves. Also, providing peternity leave as the scheduled leave from the company itself helps to maintain a bright face in the industry and would invariably help in attracting fresh new talents apart from retaining the experienced ones. 4. Recommendations From the above thorough analysis, the peternity leave can be assessed as the need of the hour for the company. It is expected that with this leave being a scheduled one, the employee satisfaction will increase thereby reducing the attrition rate. Before finalising the minute details about the peternity leave, it would be prudent for the organisation to take an account of the industry standards regarding the issue. Also, the leave should have direct correlation with the reward management. Otherwise, the prime purpose of the leave would not be served. The leave should be in line with the organisational procedure. There would certainly be certain employees who do not possess pets, it should be thoroughly analysed about their terms of leave i.e. whether they can en-cash the leave or not. Other intricacies of the proposed peternity leave should also be finalised prior to any final commitment is made to the workforce e.g. the number of days to be available as leave, the types of pets, the age of the pets and the rank and hierarchy from which it can be enforceable. The company law of the nation can also be considered along with expert comment of any external entity. 5. Reference List Asian News International 2009, “Oz Company Introduces Pet-ernity Leave for the staff s to take care of pups”, 2 February, 2009, (Online ProQuest). Armstrong, M & Murlis, H., 2007, Reward Management: A Handbook of Remuneration Strategy and Practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Armstrong, M., 2007, A handbook of employee reward management and practice, Kogan Page Publishers. Crooke, V, 2000. “Pet-ernity Leave for Bringing Home Baby”. Edmonton Journal. 27July 2007, (Online ProQuest). Clarke, S, 2006. “Its Dogs lives for hardworking newshounds NEVER LOST FOR WORDS”. Evening Times, 21 September, 2006, (Online Proquest). Daily Post 2006, “Peternity leave study” 2006 (Online ProQuest). Iradle, W, 2007. “Doting Owners Get Peternity Leave if the Dog id Feeling Ruff”, Sunday Times, 28 January, 2007, (Online ProQuest). Ife, H, 2009, “Time off works for Pets”, Herald Sun, 2 January, 2009 (Online ProQuest). Moran, J, 2009, “Pet-ernity leave for Virgin mobile staff”, Sunday Telegraph, 1 February 2009, http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24990539-421,00.html PetPlanet, 2007, “Peternity leave trend catching on”, 29 Januay, 2007, http://www.petplanet.co.uk/news_article.asp?article_id=704 Supply Management 2007, Pet-ernity Rights, Vol 2, No 4, Pg 58 (Online ProQuest). The Gazette, 2007, “Dog days of summer mean time off”, 7 May 2007, (Online ProQuest). 6. Bibliography DeConzo, D. A. & Robbins, S. P., 1999, Human Resource Management, John Wiley & Sons. Moran, J 2009, “Working to the litter of the law”, Sunday Tasmanian, 1 February 2009, (Online ProQuest). Management Issues 2007, “Employers get wise to peternity leave”, 29 January 2007, http://www.management-issues.com/2007/1/30/blog/employers-get-wise-to-peternity-leave.asp Nursing Standard 2007, “Paternity’ leave could boost attendance’ vo. 21, no 34, p 10, (Online ProQuest). The Hindustan Times 2009, “Oz Company Introduces Pet-ernity Leave for the staff s to take care of pups”, 1 February, 2009, (Online ProQuest). TheWall Street Journal 2009, “Careers: best of the juggle”, 17 February 2009, (Online ProQuest). Read More