The Management of GS Plumbing - Term Paper Example

HRM – case study analysis Introduction The company GS Plumbing owned by Greg Smith mainly focuses on repairing and renovating the existing plumbing units used by the community people. This activity of the company has earned huge response from the company and was helping it to further enhance its business operations. However the company runs by four people in the management level and other sixteen people working as staff members was facing the heat of human resource turmoil in recent times. The main problem that was attributed for causing a decline in the motivation of the staffs was problem regarding their service allocations. Moreover the staffs feel a greater sense of insecurity for the people of the upper management fail to pay a pleasant ear to their problems. Thus the company in the current juncture is largely facing the threat of rise in attrition levels of the staffs. Older staffs of the company have started developing a feeling that they are being rendered the same importance as given to the newcomers for which they are reflecting less attachment to the task ordered (Fuller, n.d.). Thus the management needs to devise plan of action to let the staff feel secured and motivated so as to reduce the attrition rate. Human Resource Audit-Significance In review of the above problems occurring in GS Plumbing the case for conducting a Human Resource Audit is widely suggested. The Human Resource Audit conducted would help the management to understand the potential and significance of the different Human Resource policies in properly monitoring the activities of the people through the satisfactory compliance of legal and legislative standards. Human Resource Auditing Process earns due importance for it rests on the activity of conducting interviews on the staffs and employees of the concern pertaining to different levels. Subjects of the interviews mainly aim at highlighting the conditions of employment being offered by the company and the amount of job satisfaction reflected by the large number of interviewees amongst the employees. The Human Resource Audit activities are conducted both by internal and external people. However audit team generated from the external environment is considered more dependable than the internal audit team. The scope of Human Resource Audit is emphasized for it helps in the identification of obsolete policies being practiced by the company and renders fruitful suggestions in changing such for better efficiency. Further Human Resource Audit also helps in enhancing the training dimension of the company to better enhance the working standards of its employees. This practice also helps to focus on the areas, which are deprived of policy regulations and thereby provide efficient mechanisms, which would help in the sorting of problems pertaining to such. Thus the Human Resource Auditing Activity, which in itself is a quite expensive operation, encourages the indulgence of both the management and staff levels. It is because the set of policy recommendations suggested to develop the performances of the organization must be welcomed and reviewed by all. Through such the system of Human Resource Audit earns its due expertise (Gross, 2011). Unplanned Absence of Employees The employees at GS Plumbing were found taking sudden leaves which failed to be administered by the upper management owing to their unplanned nature. Unplanned leaves taken by employees constituted of absences regarding breakdown of their personal health or of the family members. Again the category of unplanned leaves also comprised of employee leaves, which happened due to occurrences of serious accidents in the workplace, and other leaves, which were payless in nature. To address the problem of the growing number of unplanned absences the managers both at the strategic and tactical level are required to conduct a useful process. Firstly the managers and the supervisory team must work to augment to make others aware of the frequencies and consequences of such leaves. Thereby a set of close monitoring actions also needs to be put in place for restraining the employees from taking such leaves. Secondly the managerial and supervisor team must conduct detailed interviews with the employees in order to understand the reasons and factors both reasonable and unreasonable that triggered them to take such leaves. Thirdly the managers and company supervisors must inform the employees about the disciplinary actions and procedures that they ought to face if they frequently take resort to such unplanned leaves. (Brown, 2001, 14, 19; Rose, 2010). Human Resource Recruitment and Retention Strategies The main challenges for the Human Resource Team for any concern revolve around recruiting the proper workforce for such functions, which help in the retention of the same. These functions of an organization are treated at strategic dimensions owing to the huge amount of expenditure incurred in conducting the recruitment process for hiring the appropriate manpower. The Human Resource Department of an organization must focus in rendering creativity in the recruitment process to make it largely lucrative for the desiring candidates. Communication strategies within the interview process should be dealt in a timely manner to render efficacy in the interview process. Further the interviewer must render increased attention to the job process for which the interview is being conducted to impart considerably efficiency in such functions. Similarly the retention strategies, which must be used by the Human Resource Department to retain the recruited manpower, should consist of motivating functions to bind the employees with the concern. The upper and middle management should help in the practice of transparency within the organization where the flow of communication should help in motivating the employees to work prudently for the concern. Similarly the performances of the employees must be reviewed from time to time to render further efficiencies in such. Reviews and assessment procedures must be maintained in a potential manner and reviews generated by the upper management should be shared with the lower level to generate employee loyalty. The employees being informed about their deficiencies in certain areas would try to improve in such thereby making a developed workplace. The management team must also work in rendering proper training functions to the employees with regards to the areas where considerable performance decline is noticed. This would generate efficiency in the knowledge sphere in the organizational machinery and improve team performance. Further the human resource management team must render positive checks on the existing processes of recruitment and retention functions to make them updated with the changing scenario. This process of updating the human resource procedures helps the organization to gain considerable efficiency in sustaining the right talent in the concern (Reilly, 2010; Wentland, 2006). Benchmarking the Human Resource Functions Allan Arrowsmith, the Human Resource Manager at GS Plumbing in order to generate further efficiency in the human resource functions decides on conducting certain benchmarking operations. The act of conducting the benchmarking operations renders some distinct advantages, which can be outlined as follows. Firstly it helps in analyzing the human resource functions in the light of meeting the organizational objectives. Secondly it helps the organization to work on the fallacies conducted to impart future success. Thirdly the instrument of benchmarking helps in generating organizational effectiveness through the creation of a knowledge environment wherein the employees can share their ideas to impart organizational effectiveness. Fourthly the act of benchmarking helps in generating employee motivation by encouraging the process of teamwork. The process of human resource benchmarking taken by Allan encompasses several human resources functions like proper recruitment and training functions, focusing on reducing the attrition and absenteeism level within the concern, and in promoting enhanced health and work safety systems within the concern. Process of benchmarking the human resource functions works on some significant steps, which can be stated as follows. Firstly, the benchmarking function requires the creation of a higher-level management team, which would conduct the audit of the human resource functions in place. Secondly, the activities should also highlight on the mission of the organization against the human resource functions in place to judge their efficacy. Thirdly the human resource functions in place must be properly evaluated and implemented to help in the fulfillment of organizational strategies. Fourthly, the benchmarking functions should closely monitor the existing human resource polices within the organization to generate useful recommendations for making it more effective. Fifthly, the benchmarking actions should also make comparison of human resource policies and functions of the organization to those of bigger concerns in order to help the management consider important changes in such. Sixthly, the benchmarking activities should also make reviews of the outcomes generated through countering changes in the policies and human resource procedures. This is done to check whether the changes made rightly help in fulfilling the objectives of the concern (Jangla, n.d., 2, 4; Philips, 1996, 40). Issues at the Management Level The main issue that was troubling the higher management team at GS Plumbing was the growth in the number of unplanned absenteeism by the employees in recent times. It is observed that the employees are bent on taking sudden leaves from their work especially during the Mondays and Tuesdays giving excuses like sickness of them or of their family members or complaining of any serious injury. This issue in due time has become the most troubling one to the senior managers (Fuler, n.d., 359). A strong process of evaluation in place would help the management team in countering the growth and frequency of absenteeism in the organization. The management should closely monitor the number of days absented by the employee on a monthly or weekly basis to render increased focus to such events. Evaluation of the causes that lead the employee to take resort to such frequent and sudden absenteeism must be properly handled through an emotional and personal touch. This helps the employees gain a positive outlook of the management and in turn also helps the management earn the confidence of the latter in order to restrain them from being absent in the future. It must be noted that a management team fails to generate employee loyalty by exerting unnecessary pressure, which in turn disturbs the loyalty factor and makes the employee more prone to taking leaves. (Lop, 2010; Bohlander and Snell, 2009). Conclusion With the growth of organizational complexities in the modern day business environment the role of Human Resource Management has earned a strategic importance in helping to generate organizational effectiveness. The case studied in this regards of GS Plumbers also shows the strange reaction of the employees while performing their work or in abiding by the rules and regulations of the company. Henceforth the management team at GS Plumbers should rightly focus in generating a more interactive sphere with the organizational employees to understand their problems and ideologies, which are triggering them to cause disruption in the operations. The benchmarking function as described above can be of strong help in this regard. The management must adopt a policy of strict monitoring as well as emotional and personal touch in dealing with the employees. Individual level interaction is therefore necessary and addressing personal problems to resolve professional issues strategically should be carried out meticulously. Human Resource strategies outlined above are expected to help the management gain better control of the human resources in fulfilling organizational objectives. References 1. Brown, Michael. 2001. Strategies to Reduce the Level of Unplanned Absences in the Tasmania Fire Service. http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo32054.pdf 2. Bohlander, George and Scott Snell. 2009. Managing Human Resources. New York: Cengage Learning. 3. Fuller, Troy. n.d. GS Plumbing in Hot Water 4. Gross, Barrie. 2011. The Importance of Human Resource Audits. http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/2975416-1.html 5. Jangla, Bhushan. n.d. HR Benchmarking. http://www.hrfolks.com/knowledgebank/benchmarking/hr%20benchmarking.pdf 6. Lop, Philip. 2010. A managers guide to managing unplanned employee absences. http://www.helium.com/items/1947456-managing-unplanned-absence 7. Philips, Jack L. 1996. Accountability in Human Resource Management. Burlington, MA: Gulf Professional Publishing. 8. Rose, Suzanne. 2010. A managers guide to managing unplanned employee absences. Accessed on March 24, 2011, http://www.helium.com/items/1946897-a-managers-guide-to-managing-unplanned-employee-absences 9. Reilly, Val. 2010. Key Recruitment and Retention Strategies. http://www.ehow.com/list_6819798_key-recruitment-retention-strategies.html 10. Wentland, David. 2006. Strategic Training. Amherst, MA: Human Resource Development. Read More