Human Resource Management - Case Study Example

HRM Case Table of Contents Introduction 3 Solution Usefulness of HR Function Audit and Persons to be involved in the Process 3 Solution 2: Processof Addressing Unplanned Absence of Employees Issue 5 Solution 3: Steps to be Taken by GS Plumbing when Employees Leave Organization and Evaluation of those Steps 7 Solution 4: Process of Benchmarking HR Functions in GS Plumbing 8 Solution 5: Issues at the Senior Management Level 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction The analysis of the situation presented in the case will be undertaken in this paper. The case demonstrates human resource management issues in GS Plumbing that is facing problems with respect to retention of employees and unplanned absenteeism among the employees. The firm is looking for implementing audit of the HR functions. In this paper, evaluation of HR functions will be taken up and measures will be suggested for effective outcomes of the auditing process. The HR manager of the company has tried to resolve problems there and has come up with probable solution for those. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the resolving options identified by the HR manager. Solution 1: Usefulness of HR Function Audit and Persons to be involved in the Process Considering the situation in the company, benefits of HR function audit have been identified as follows: Measuring Contribution HR audit helps in evaluating contribution of the HR department towards the activities of the organization. As evident from the case, HR personnel were more focused on discussing the issue that provides qualitative base for handling the problems. HR audit results in quantitative data through which measurement of the performances becomes effective. The audit helps in taking action to reduce or remove the flaws in HR department.1 Motivation It seems from the case situation that HR personnel lack motivational influences. They need to be provided with appropriate influencing material for boosting performance level. Data collected through auditing of HR performances will lead to available information in the hands of top managers. By reviewing and evaluating the available data, management can take necessary steps for motivating the HR personnel.2 Sorting and Solving of Problems Smoothly HR auditing will provide dimensions required for identifying and handling problems within the organization. This happens through evaluation of conclusions arrived from the audit. The company should engage in continuous observation and improvement of the policies and practices such that the organization never becomes off the track towards improvement.3 In the entire process of HR function audit, all the staff members need to be evaluated. Problem has evolved from the employees’ end and the management needs to diagnose the problem. Key areas that needs to be evaluated are absenteeism, employee turnover and attitude survey. Research and evaluation on these areas will provide relevant data to the management. The audit process has to be aimed at assessment of staff members’ effectiveness and satisfaction.4 Solution 2: Process of Addressing Unplanned Absence of Employees Issue The worst feature of unplanned absenteeism is that though the management knows the sick days are not real, they are bound to approve those. However, there are processes through which this unplanned absenteeism can be removed. In this section, certain processes will be addressed which GS plumbing can follow for addressing the issue. Flexibility Management can opt for provision of allowances to its employees for outside commitment towards their families. For example, allowances for taking care of their kids and taking tertiary activities can provide flexibility towards their works. Along with the allowances, GS plumbing can also provide options for work from home and variable hours of working.5 Incentives GS Plumbing should take up an investigation to evaluate the rewards which it can offer to its employees. Rewards can then be offered in the form of payments for not availing of the sick leaves in a year. The rewards can even be provided in the forms of gift vouchers or in any other forms that pays off employees’ effort. The main motto of the incentive schemes is to balance workers’ effort with both qualitative as well as quantitative provisions, be it monetary or non-monetary. Management Style GS Plumbing, if interested in following up an authoritarian style of management, things can become worse. Management style has to be transparent, approachable and open communication should prevail that creates cheerful working climate. Managers should be consultative and not dictatorial. It is less likely that employees will take sick days if they can perceive the leaders as ‘managers of friendly nature’. Job Nature It might also be the case at GS Plumbing that employees perceive the jobs to be ‘boring’. It might be for this reason that they are taking more and more sick days. For changing this perseverance of job nature from the workers, variety should be added to each role being performed by them. Monotonous nature of the job can be removed through transforming the job into challenging form by setting targets. Along with targets, it should also be observed what the employees prefer to do as part of their daily activities.6 Solution 3: Steps to be Taken by GS Plumbing when Employees Leave Organization and Evaluation of those Steps The issue of employee turnover is not just confined to human resource department of an organization. This is because when an employee leaves, he or she takes away all the knowledge and experiences that he has gathered from the organization which are beyond the scope of monetary measurements and also cannot be easily filled up again. In the section below, steps have been suggested that GS Plumbing can follow for reducing rate of turnover and their effectiveness in processes of recruitment, selection and retention has also been mentioned. Step 1: The organization should avoid hiring just on the term that a place is needed to be filled. It should understand the necessity, whether it requires short term or long term employees. Based on this, the process should start. Gathering of as much information about the applicant as it can is crucial. The management in the responsibility of hiring employees should take the initiative of contacting any of the applicants’ references to acquire relevant past data. Step 2: Skill testing can be used as an effective tool for decreasing employee turnover. This process helps in assessing whether the management has become able to find out the best fitted employee for its organization or if it still needs to continue with the process. Enhancement of selection procedure is assured through follow-up. Step 3: Consideration of social aspects of the jobs needs to be taken up. Orientation of the job whether it is task oriented or people oriented should be provided to prospective employees during presenting the job description to them. Temperament profiles can be gathered through this and thus suitability of employees for each job type can be determined. Step 4: In the fourth step, after selecting the right candidate, payment is required to be fixed that can stand within the competition in the market. Competitive pay can help in making sure that the selected candidate will stay with the organization. Along with paying competitive, appreciation also needs to be provided to employees for encouraging them to perform better. Step 5: Levelling of workload pressure helps in retaining workers in an organization. Eradicating the feeling of overworked from among the employees will result in greater factor of retention. Step 6: As the next step, organizations need to focus heavily on holding of review sessions. These sessions make the employees feel closer to the management and in turn reduces rate of turnover. Involved employees are expected to stay for longer tenure and perform better for the organization. Step 7: The last thing that management can do to retain employees applied for leaving the organization is to conduct an exit interview. Knowing and understanding of reasons as to why the employee is leaving will help in eradicating the loopholes on the management’s part and lessening rates of turnover in the near future.7 Solution 4: Process of Benchmarking HR Functions in GS Plumbing Alan who is the HR manager in GS Plumbing can follow up the following steps for benchmarking HR functions: 1) Composing the Audit Team: As the first step, Alan should focus on composing an appropriate audit team that is free from biasness. It is not always essential that the senior HR manager should lead the team. Anybody who is unbiased and loyal should be selected as the team leader.8 2) Review of HR Mission: Once the team is formulated, Alan should at least once review the HR statement of mission. Principle activities of HR department need to be assessed before starting the process of benchmarking. 3) Review of HR Function’s Role: The role of HR functionalities needs to be reviewed as the next step for evaluating whether the role is capable enough for executing organizational strategy. This step is important because it establishes linkage between the policies and practices of HR and overall business strategy of the organization. 4) Review of Delivery: At this step, delivery of policies and practices need to be reviewed so that the exact strategies get delivered to the workers and right actions can be evaluated in the most appropriate manner. 5) Internal Comparison: Alan has to go on maintaining an internal database of HR practices followed in GS Plumbing and at the same should also develop a database of HR practices followed in best organizations of the world. Then he should himself make a comparison for grading the practices followed. 6) Outcome Analysis: Based on the grading, performance gaps have to be identified and discussions on the policy implications needs to be undertaken. This step is essential for gaining commitments for generating required improvements within the organization.9 Solution 5: Issues at the Senior Management Level The senior management team at GS Plumbing needs to have a close assessment of the changing nature of organization. They need to realise problems of their internal functioning with respect to satisfying the employees’ needs. It can be observed from the case that the team which considers itself the senior management team is not acting up to its par. They need to recognise the organization’s demands and transform their activities so that both HR goals and organizational goals as a whole can be achieved. The senior management team needs to consider themselves as strategic partners where the entire team’s focus should be entirely on the accomplishment of business objectives. The evaluation function will definitely be helpful in serving the above mentioned purposes for the senior management team. This is because the evaluation process is aimed at deriving both employees as well as management’s loopholes. The team needs to concentrate in understanding the areas where improvement is required.10 Conclusion The analysis of case situation presented from activities of GS Plumbing suggests that organization is distracted from effectively handling HR issues. Though it is not always possible for assessing employees’ demands when not expressed by them, it is always possible to identify one’s own shortcomings. The senior management level is essentially required to handle HR functionalities and sort out the reasons of greater unplanned absenteeism and turnover so that right actions can be taken up at the right time. References Aswathappa, K. Human Resource and Personnel Management. India: Tata McGraw Hill Education, 2008. Buchanan, Anita, 2011. “Human Resources Audit”. Human Resources Consulting”. http://www.buchananhumanresources.com/HUMAN%20RESOURCE%20AUDIT.pdf HROA, 2006. “Human Resources: Benchmarking HR Service Center Processes”. “File”. http://www.hroassociation.org/file/3481/human-resources-benchmarking-hr-service-center-processes.html James, A., 2011. “Unplanned Absenteeism”. “Management”. http://www.expertbase.org/wp-550-264.html Jangla, Bhusan, 2011. “HR Benchmarking”. “Knowledge Bank”. http://www.hrfolks.com/knowledgebank/benchmarking/hr%20benchmarking.pdf PDFCast, 2011. “Employee Turnover Intention And Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Justice, Satisfaction, And Commitment As Antecedents”. “Paid”. http://pdfcast.org/paid/9783838328287 Santa Clara University, 2010. “Ethical Challenges in Human Resources”. “Ethics”. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/ethics-human-resources.html Teo, Stephen, T. T., 2008. “Effectiveness of a Corporate HR Department in an Australian Public Sector Entity during Commercialization and Corporatization”. “Groups”. http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan007384.pdf The Pennsylvania State University, 2011. “Building a Strategic Human Resource”. “Nwac”. http://www.ed.psu.edu/nwac/document/newsltr/brief7.html Thorwarth, Michael & Harper, Paul, 2009. “Simulation Model to Investigate Workload Management for Healthcare and Servicescape Environment”. “School of Management”. http://www.informs-sim.org/wsc09papers/187.pdf Read More