A strategy for managing change process - Essay Example

? Management Contents Contents 2 Introduction 2 Organisation Culture and Behaviour 3 Change in Organisational Culture 3 People Management Issues 5 Human Resources Planning 6 Internal and External Factors Affecting Human Resources Planning 6 A New Human Resources Plan 7 Training and Development 9 Analysis of the Training and Development Needs 9 Addressing Skills Shortage in the Hotel 10 Rewards and Performance Management 11 Appropriate Pay and Reward Strategies 11 Strategic Recommendations to the New Management 13 Conclusions 13 References 15 Introduction The foundation of any organization is based on its human resource management structure. It is the successful application and implementation of HRM strategies in an organization which reflects through the performance and productivity of the organization. The case of the hotel in New York depicts a picture of extremely poorly managed work structures and HRM strategies which has consequently resulted into poor performance, discontentment and dissatisfaction among employees, lowering motivation levels and high attritions and labour turnovers in the organizations. The major strategic direction of the organization requires change which consequently needs a dramatic change in the organization culture and behaviour of employees. Thus the project presents a strategy for managing change process and possibilities of encountering employee resistances and opposition in the organization. This is followed by the presentation of the steps in human resource planning in the organization. An elaborate training and development program have been developed for the purpose of addressing the problem of skill shortage and finally designing a compensation structure aimed at raising motivation and performance level of employees in the hotel. Organisation Culture and Behaviour Change in Organisational Culture Organizational culture is the experience which the hotel is supposed to bring to its customers. However, this is largely reflected through the behaviour of the associates of the hotel towards them. Therefore it is important that the present must try to build a strong culture along with insuring its core values such that it serves to contribute towards the continuous growth of the organization and accounts for the satisfaction of employees too. The first step towards a strong culture would be to establish core values of the organization. The hotel must seem to build core values which aims to provide the best services to customers, associates and the community at large. The basic culture is to provide the company associates with the maximum opportunities as well as providing superior quality of services towards customers. The next step towards initiating the change would be to attain the participation and involvement of company executives in the change process. Executives and employees in the organization must show their active participation in the change process and just in words. For example, in this case since a continuous change in behaviour towards customers is called for. Thus leaders must actually show their behavioural change in order to act as examples for remaining employees on their conduct with customers of the hotel. The management must practice effective communication. It is important that all employees in the organization are informed about the specific changes in order to make the process successful. This would necessarily ensure their commitment and success. Every employee must be told what exactly is expected of them. The organizational structure might also require changes. This would include changing the job description, roles and responsibilities for each employee and redesigning the same in order to bring about changes in their performance levels. Performance targets could be reset for each employee to bring about sufficient changes in the overall productivity and performance level of the organization. This must also be coupled with the reviewing and redesigning of approaches towards rewards structures and recognition. It is very crucial to change the rewards structures and systems in order to encourage the behaviours of employees vital for the desired organizational changes (Child, 1984, p.22-24). Reviewing and redesigning the work systems must be followed after the above step. This includes changing the processes of recruitments and selections, performance management systems of employees, employee promotions, pay practices etc and aligning them with the desired new organizational culture of the hotel. People Management Issues Since the aim is to bring about a complete change in the culture of the organization, it is bound to have some implications on the employees and staffs in the organization. Changes cannot be made successful overnight and requires consistent and continuous efforts from the part of the management to make it happen. People generally tend to be apprehensive about their forthcoming roles and responsibilities with the changes in the work structures too. This it is crucial to make the change process as transparent as possible and make the people believe in the benefits that are likely to result out of the changes. Employee resistance is one important issue that managements find hard to tackle. Different people have different factors for motivation. Thus they have to be treated differently based on an analysis of the possible reasons for resisting the changes. People might apprehend a loss of status or begin to have a feeling of job insecurity because of their changing job role and work structures. Consequently this could cause disruption in the interpersonal relationships between individuals and groups. This problem would have to be managed by the organization by providing employees with the assurance that there were no reasons for being apprehensive. Rather the new job roles would have to be described on solid grounds to provide them with the comfort of accepting the changes emotionally. The management must actively try and seek the employee’s thoughts and reactions towards the change processes. They must listen carefully to their views and understand the cause of the problem is. However, in the initial stages they must not try to convince them by elaborating and justifying the reasons for the change. It must be understood that people want to be heard and would like to have their concerns attended in a proper manner. Management must recognise that it takes time to work through the reactions to chnage. Resistances can be handled considerably by including and involving them in the process of decision making in the organizaion. In cases when there is need for a person who is not in support of the chnage, he must particularly be included in the process of decision making of the chnage process. To tackle the problem of diverse responses to the change processes from people coming from diverse backgrounds, it is important to ensure that people from all levels in the organization are involved in the planning of the change process. Contnuous feedback from empoyees and aksing them for suggestions to improve the chnage process are some of the tricks which coold be applied safely (Randall, 2004, p.63). Human Resources Planning Internal and External Factors Affecting Human Resources Planning HR planning in the hotel would need a thorough analysis of the external and internal factors. External conditions like the existing unemployment rates in the region would have to be studied. This would provide insight as to extent or degree of availability of employees in the market. Additionally the ongoing wage rates and existing salary standards in the industry would throw light on the salaries in the organization. Additionally the availability of talents as per the requirements the company would need analysis. This is particularly important for the company as there could be chances that talents available in the labour market were not sufficient to meet the growing demands of the business. Staffing must be absolutely done based on the hiring needs of the organization. A competitor analysis would necessarily have to be conducted to analyse the possible threats in the organization from competitor hotels. This is particularly important because this hotel was encountering with high staff turnover rates or high rates of attritions. This could be possible because of the existing standards of salaries or better prospects in the competitor organizations. Moreover the work cultures in the competitor organizations could also be more favourable to attract employees. The reasons for which present employees were leaving the organization would provide the basis for designing the future human resource planning in the organization. Some of the internal needs like forecasting human resource requirements in the organization would require analysis. Most importantly hiring needs would necessarily have to be aligned with the strategic direction of the company. The present skills and knowledge gaps in the organization would require analysis. The performance management system in the company would also need a review. It is imperative that set performance standards in the company and for individual employees would have to be changed if the overall productivity of the organization would need change. In that case identifying the loopholes in the performance management system of the company would reflect the reasons for low productivity and performance of employees. Review of the internal working environment coupled with compensation structures, incentive bonus structures would throw insight into the reasons that were causing discontentment among employees, low motivation, poor performance levels and poor interpersonal relations among colleagues and members. A New Human Resources Plan The first step in designing a human resource plan would be to identify the business needs and strategies. For this the management must make a thorough analysis of the firm’s internal and external opportunities and record them as to how they would have an impact on the company’s businesses. This requires identifying the competitive pressures that are likely to affect the business, the technological changes, and the changes in demands of customers in the market, the economic growth of the region and the changing attitudes of the company’s workforce. The above step would be followed by conducting a job analysis. If it is felt that there is need for new employees or changing the roles of the existing employees, it is crucial to conduct a job analysis by reviewing the current workforce of the company. Then the knowledge gaps and skills gaps would have to be measured. Based on the skill gaps and the existing knowledge gaps the management would have to develop a job description. This would be applicable for both the present employees as well as the new hires. This would be followed by setting the right salaries for the employees (Sask Network, 2008, p.3-9). The next important aspect of human resource planning would be determining the feasibility of hiring. In this context three different aspects would require analysis, such as the costs of hiring, the benefits derived from hiring and finally the risks associated with not hiring. Some of the costs which would have to be considered while making the analysis are salaries and benefits and labour costs. Various recruitment costs including advertisements, time spent on hiring new recruits, training costs associated with the changing roles and responsibilities of employees and with the new set performance standards. This required making a cost and benefit analysis of the recruitment process in the organization. Based on the cost and benefit analysis the suitability and possibility of the hiring process would have to be determined in the hotel. In case it was seen that recruiting new employees were being more expensive as compared to changing the roles of present employees through training and development activities, then the latter would be done. A new compensation structure would be developed considering the current performance, motivation levels and rates of attrition in the company. It is recommended that performance related pay packages would have to be designed and a lucrative incentive structure would be prerequisite for driving up performance and productivity of employees. This would not only ensure higher performance but also motivate employees to better their performance. Additionally creating a favourable working condition would help to attain employee devotion and faithfulness in the organization and consequently control the problem of high attritions too (Sask Network, 2008, p.14). Training and Development Analysis of the Training and Development Needs The training and development of the employees working in the hotel industry should be rendered high amount of priority to help in the enhancement of the parameter of the service quality and thereby work in the brand enhancement of the company. Training and development activities of the employees can be rendered both in an on the job and off the job mode. The training rendered to the employees in the off the operation mode consists of theoretical training that incorporates the imparting of the vision and mission objectives of the concern to the people. This aspect helps in defining the mode of action the employees are required to reflect their abidance by the objectives of the concern. Further different aspects pertaining to management education relating to the field of finance and marketing should also be imparted to the employees to help in enhancing their knowledge potential. As with the theoretical aspects training must also be rendered in the practical manner wherein the employees are assigned to different departments. In such departments the employees are required to work in the training period and learn the different aspects of rendering quick and effective services to the customers. The new people in this process can learn new techniques of preparing effective and quality dishes for the customers. Larger hotel corporations also train the employees in several aspects like preparation of wine for the customers. This both the on and off the operation training enhances not only the operational potential of the employees in the concern but also helps the employees to grow up in their career ladder. Again the employees can also be trained in separate aspects involving domestic and international culture. Training the people in terms of domestic culture encompasses making the people understand the cultural essence of the region and thereby design their service effectiveness in terms of such. Internal people coming for off-shore training curriculum need to be trained effectively to honour the cultural essence of the country where the hotel is based. The employees coming from foreign countries need also be trained on the ethnic languages of the country to help them effectively communicate with the consumers. Mode of communication been enhanced would help the employees get enhanced feedback from the consumers and thereby revise the mode of service offerings. This in turn would also help in the brand enhancement of the company in the international markets (Sturman, Corgel and Verma, 2011). Addressing Skills Shortage in the Hotel The hotel brought by John McMillan reflects that inept management of the human resources in the organisation has resulted in the reduction of employee morale to a large extent. This reduction in the employee morale in the organisation has resulted in increasing the attrition rates of the people in the concern. In fact the turnover rates of the people in the concern have risen to around 60 percent resulting in huge loss of effective human resources in the concern. Thus an effective strategy needs to build up to help address issues in regards to shortage of skills in the concern. One of the main strategies that can be taken by the hotel management is this respect is the orientation strategy through which the new employees as well as the existing ones can be steadily involved with the operational objectives and parameters of the company. With the introduction of new processes and technology in the concern the employees both existing and new ones start feeling alienated to the job environment and henceforth feel increased stress. Thus these people need to be oriented with the new processes so that they can understand the need for its incorporation and help in reaping the advantages gained from the same. Further the feedback processes of such programs can be gained from the employees after a certain time duration say after a fortnight or after two to three months. This gaining of feedback from the employees would help in understanding the potency of the training programs and also in enhancing the contents. The review mechanism would also help in developing the relationships with the employees at different levels. Development of relationships with the employees helps in understanding their problems and thereby helps in finding reasonable solutions to that effect. The orientation training program is also known as the induction training program in some cases where the employee is introduced to the new situation or environment. Assignment of a buddy is rendered that takes care in engaging the employee to the organisational environment and in that orients the person’s mind and perception to deliver the needed skills and productivity (Kusluvan, 2003, p.439). Rewards and Performance Management Appropriate Pay and Reward Strategies The compensation systems in the hotel must be designed keeping an eye on the industry environment. Adequate compensation systems must be created to help the employee at all level get motivated to work for in the concern. The compensation systems in the hotel must be constituted essentially by two components. Firstly the compensation package needs to have a basic pay structure that is standardised and does not thereby vary with industry and economic situations. The second part constitutes of the variable part and is constituted of elements like bonuses and incentives. Bonus structure is maintained in the organisation in view to the profit element of the concern and can be rendered to the employees on a quarterly basis depending on the performance parameter of the company in the competitive markets. Proper employee assessment schemes must be put into place that tends to evaluate the employees based on the actual performance structure that is compared to the standardised ones. The performance assessment or evaluation of the employees must be kept free of being manipulated by the organisational managers and also must not depend on the experience factor or age factor of the employees in the concern. Effective performance evaluation can be conducted on a 360 degree basis in which the employee is evaluated both by the superiors and subordinates. Even the customer of the company can be taken to evaluate the performance of the people in the concern. The high performing employees must be aptly recognized and rendered financial compensation as incentives. The financial compensation package is rendered to the employees based on the performance level of the individual in the concern and is based on the amount of revenue generated by the person in regards to the operational environment. Apart from financial rewards the company can also work on some specific recognition programs wherein the effort rendered by the employees is recognised by organising special meets. In that the name of the person is called and is aptly rewarded and recognized as the star performer of the concern for that very period. This fact helps in enhancing the motivational factor of the employees and thereby also enhances the dimension of employee loyalty. Similarly another incentive structure can be followed by the concern where the employees can be rendered incentives in helping the concern get hold of new skilful labours. The employee referral scheme thus can be started in the concern coupled with such incentive scheme which would help in gaining effective people for the company. Thus the above reward, recognition, incentive and compensation structure put into place would rightly help the concern in sustaining the employee population in the company and thereby helping in reduction of attrition rates. Again the compensation structure can be enhanced through the designing of apt insurance schemes that can work in groups or individually encompassing the families of the individuals. This value addition rendered in the compensatory structure thus helps in enhancing the motivation of the people in the concern to render productivity in an enhanced manner (Enz, 2010, p.487). Strategic Recommendations to the New Management The newly selected management body needs to be rendered some effective recommendations in regards to the reward and compensation programs designed for in the company. The management body to render adequate compensation programs need to adequately make arrangements in the budget framed on an annual basis. Further the performance based incentives needs to be rendered by the management body to the employees keeping a focus on the specific departments. The incentive structure can be rendered to the people working in specific quarters to help enhance their productivity. This pattern of incentive structure rendered to the customer servicing representatives of the company would help in enhancing their productivity towards the concern and thereby also helps in augmenting the profitability aspect of the company. Similarly the turnover factor of the employees can be reduced also through proper incentive and compensation structure designed for the employees. The incentive structure can be super emphasized during particular events like certain festivals or carnivals where the potential of the employees need to come out in a superfluous manner. Potential of the employees thus enhanced would help in augmenting the competitive position of the concern in regards to its competitors. In such cases effective bonus schemes can be designed in respect to the carnival periods to the employees that would help in motivating the people to work more effectively in the concern during such periods (Armstrong and Brown, 2006, p.106-107). Conclusions The hotel bought by John McMillan can be made to act in a productive fashion through making some needed alterations in the human resources structure. Firstly the organisational culture existing in the concern can be revised through incorporation of the parameter of the social responsibility. The employees need to become largely accountable to the external society for their activities and thus must work in the value and brand enhancement of the concern. Moreover the employees need to be effectively trained to welcome the change process introduced in the concern and design their operating paradigms and perceptions accordingly. Side by side the compensation and the rewarding schemes must be introduced and emphasized in the concern to largely motivate the employees and increase their commitment to the concern. Moreover effective programs can also be taken in regards to training the new and existing employees to help them grow with the new processes and technologies incorporated. Such orientation programs help in enhancing the compatibility of the people and also in enhancing the potential and productivity of the organisation as a whole. References Armstrong, M., and Brown, D. (2006). Strategic reward: making it happen. Kogan Page Publishers. Child, J. (1984). Organization: a guide to problems and practice. SAGE. Enz, C. (2010). The Cornell School of Hotel Administration Handbook of Applied Hospitality Strategy. SAGE. Kusluvan, S. (2003). Managing employee attitudes and behaviors in the tourism and hospitality industry. Nova Publishers. Randall, J. (2004). Managing change, changing managers. Routledge. Sask Network. (2008). Module 1: human resource planning. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.sasknetwork.ca/html/Employers/hr/Module1-HR.pdf. [Accessed on January 11, 2012]. Sturman, M., Corgel, J., and Verma, R. (2011). The Cornell School of Hotel Administration on Cutting Edge Thinking and Practice. John Wiley and Sons. Read More