Improvement of Morale and Productivity - Essay Example

Improvement of Morale and Productivity Improvement of Morale and Productivity Introduction Human resource management in modern day business organizations faces various problems. As a result of these problems, human resource managers need to come up with strategies that will enable their firms overcome these challenges. This paper is going to come up with a set of integrated strategies to alleviate three human resource management problems that are evident at TWK, a company talked about in the book “Temp” by Douglas Coupland. This book is a story that sheds light on the benefits and costs of present day employment paradigm. The book tends to highlight many issues that arise when the credibility of human resource management is under looked. It also highlights major concerns of human resource and thrives in indicating what should be done differently to better such a department. However, for this paper, only a few instances are identified and discussed in their full. The three problems that will be discussed in this paper are: finding and retaining talents, job security, and working conditions. Finding and retaining talents in a business organization can be possible through enhancing the business’ employer brand. Job security can be enhanced by employment contracts. A business organization should make sure that they accord their employees proper working conditions. The solutions discussed herein are further buffered by other solutions. Other aspects of these problems have been discussed herein in the following phases. Problem identification The problems in human resources usually manifest themselves through activities and occurrences that take place within an organization. These observations, however, are independent of other problems. The indications of one problem may not necessarily affect the existence of another. Finding talent and retention has emerged as a major problem within TWK. Certain occurrences in the organization have indicated this problem. It is a problem within the leadership of the department and, therefore, not easy to curb. Businessorganizations have HR experts in leadership development who are expected to build and implement some great programs aimed at talent selection, retention, and motivation. However, this is normally not the case. This is normally indicated by the wrong people always getting promoted. It occurs in several organizations that undeserving employees get promoted at the expense of the deserving ones. Most of them get promoted based on their potential and not performance. Promotions in most organizations are based on how old/young someone is, how good they look, how bright they look and by the fact that they seem to be headed far in their career. This happens instead of basing promotions on whether or not they have accomplished challenging tasks and projects within the span allocated (Kandula, 2009). The occurrence of such cases in an organization is an indication that there are problem of talent identification and promotion. Existence of arrogant leaders in an organization may pre-indicate the existence of a problem in finding and retaining talents. Arrogance tends to show a failing past thus indicating that these leaders could have gotten into positions of power wrongly. When there is a problem between above-averagely performing employees and certain members of the leadership team in the HR department, it could be a sign of talent rivalry, lack of nurturing and suppression of ideas that could have worked for the good of the organization. This has emerged to be the case at TWK with employees raising concerns over the same. Higher members of the organization’s management have also observed these issues of negligence of talent. Employees, whether temporary or permanent, should be paid fairly for work well done. If this is not done, it brings out a clear picture of a management that is not ready to appreciate talents. If talents are not appreciated, they may not, in most cases, be put into nurture. Shannon in the book Temp, talks of not having any dental insurance or medical insurance just to indicate just how much her service and abilities are not appreciated (Bowles & Cooper, 2009). When bosses are awarded hugely while loyal and obvious talents are looked down upon, the good of the organization is at stake. This has also been identified as an issue in the department of HR in this organization. Job security has also risen to be a major problem in human resource management. This problem has not only been there for a long time, but has also been very difficult to deal with. Most workers, in many firms, work under the pressure of losing their jobs. The most common thought in the most workers’ minds is that, “I have to perform well, so as to keep my job”. It is never based on what they really want to do and on how far they would like to improve their performance as individuals (Kumar, 2011). This problem arises from the lack of job security that exists amongst employees in most organizations today. All that employees keep thinking about is their livelihood. With the high rates of the economy change, most, if not all, employees would keep back their ideas on how different firms should be run with the fear of victimization looming around them. No one would want to lose their job for what is commonly known as “meddling in other people’s businesses”. Whenever employees channel their issues to the wrong people, it is because of the fear they have of losing their jobs. Lack of job security for both permanent and temporary employees would always lead to the formation of small discussion cocoons where employees waste a lot of time discussing how things go wrong within their organization. In these cases, the leaders are always viewed as ‘enemies’ and their presence is always taken to cause a lot of tension amongst the employees (Tsui & Lai, 2009). It would not be wrong to conclude that the absence of fear of losing one’s job would have prevented all this from taking place. A lot of time is wasted during these processes that would have otherwise been used actively in the production process of the organization. Furthermore, the fear of unemployment creates tension amongst TWK employees thus hindering performance.Insecurity of jobs also lead to lack of commitment of employees to their current jobs. They tend to concentrate on where they will move to after they are done with that job (Jackson, Schuler & Werner, 2012). This is quite common with temporary employees. Shannon in the book Temp, also talks about not having to take any mistreatment from anyone since she has no pressure of retaining the job. This is because she does not believe she will be there for long. It just indicates an attitude of resignation amongst employees. Unfavourable working conditions at TWK have also been highlighted as a problem facing employees hindering them from giving their best in performance. Apart from the issues of negligence of talents and job insecurity in the firm, it has also been observed that this is an issue of great concern that is emerging amongst our employees. It would be good to note the main indicators of the same to shed more light on this as a major issue in the HR department. It has been said through and through that, the health and safety conditions in most workplaces are in question. Several employees have been victims of accidents in organizations due to the inappropriateness of equipment used (Storey, 2007). Others have also fallen ill on weather-related illnesses. All these are blamed on the organization for not putting in place measures to protect its workers from these problems. Other issues that have been raised include the levels of payment, inequality, and discrimination within the workplace and understaffing. These have been said to be creating demoralizing working conditions within our firm. The management of TWK is concerned about these allegations and they are therefore struggling to put up measures to curb them. Strategies to alleviate these problems TWK employees have raised great concern about the conditions on Human Resources in the organization. The management of TWK takes keen interest in solving these issues. However, for the purposes of attending to these issues, several integrated strategies have been identified to help in this process to ensure the process gives positive results at the end. The management sat down, researched widely, and settled on the strategies herein discussed. A platform for trans-communication within the organization is obviously the best strategy that would open up the movement of information within the firm to help curb all the three problems discussed. In any organization, all that employees need is a way that their problems can reach the management without much friction. With this in mind, the organization can decide to avail monthly open forums held by the employees to enable them discuss these problems. Within these forums, the employees would discuss issues affecting them and provide possible solutions to these problems. This would spare the management the trouble of having to dig for these problems themselves. It would also enable the employees to sort issues that they can solve by themselves. This approach would help do away with the discussion cocoons that wastes a lot of time for the organization. Continuous worker assessment and checking of employees will also take the organization a long way in solving these three issues. When workers are continuously assessed, a positive competitive environment is created amongst the employees. It also creates a clear basis for worker-promotion thus leaving no room for complaints. When equipment is checked constantly, chances of it failing or causing accidents within the organization will be reduced. It will also be an indication to the employees of just how concerned the management is about their well-being, thus enhancing the relationship and loyalty between the management and the employees. Creation of policies and standards will lay the grounds for always improving toward the target levels. When policies for worker relations, management standards, and repercussions for corrupt activities have been set up by the organization, no employee in a leadership or management position will be able to use their powers. It will also indirectly encourage job security for junior employees, as the management will also be in check. This will therefore ensure that junior workers work without fear of victimization. It will also ensure that talents are identified without any biasness and that they are allowed to nurture and grow into bigger ones that will all work for the good of the organization. Through the occurrences that take place at TWK, it is clearly evident that human resource management becomes hard when dealing with temporary workers. The three problems that have been discussed in this paper have solutions which have all been discussed through this paper. The solutions can only be successful through proper strategizing. It is also clear that if such problems have been strategically taken care of there will be little to worry about when handling human resource. References Bowles, D., & Cooper, C. L. (2009).Employee morale: Driving performance in challenging times. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. (2012). Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio: South Western cengage learning. Kandula, S. R. (2009). Strategic human resource development. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt Ltd. Kumar, R. (2011). Human resource management: Strategic analysis text and cases. New Dehli: I.K. International. Storey, J. (2007). Human resource management: A critical text. London: Thomson. Tsui, A. P. Y., & Lai, K. T. (2009). Professional practices of human resource management in Hong Kong: Linking HRM to organizational success. Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Read More