Organizational Turnaround at Selfridges & Co - Case Study Example

CASE STUDY: HRM AND ORGANIZATIONAL TURNAROUND AT SELFRIDGES & CO. Contents Human Resource Policies and Procedures Practiced in Selfridge Trafford Park 2 Leadership and Management Styles at Selfridge and Role of Team Leaders 3 Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy 5 Conclusions 7 References 9 The management body of Selfridges and Company focused on changing their face from a sedentary and traditional mode as a large number of surveys indicated to a high fashion zone enabling the easy movement of fashion brands and consumers in the stores. Selfridge’s history reveals that from the time the company had opened its first outlet in Oxford Street during 1909 it had always endeavored to render sophistication in the marketing and shopping activities. During the 1990s the company rendered large amount of investments to enhance its brand visualization. Thus it is evident that the organizational culture of Selfridges and Company focuses more on the aspects of innovation to augment the value of the concern (brandchannel, 2011). The company management at Selfridge also focused on the innovation policy in regards to the human resource management activities of the concern. Thus while going about the process of selecting team leaders the organization required its employees participate in a selection process that focused more on the parameters of skill and productivity. Further the appraisal policies of these employees were also revised to help them move ahead in their career and thereby to develop them in a much better manner (Storey, 2007, p.98). Human Resource Policies and Procedures Practiced in Selfridge Trafford Park The human resource policies and procedures practiced in Selfridge and Company would be studied in respect of the store at Trafford Park. The Trafford Park store of Selfridge is located in the outer periphery of the Manchester region and is considered as the first outlet of the company which was opened up outside the main area of London. This store of the company earns due reputation for gradually it turned out to be a testing center which enabled the development and working of other future stores of the company. In the initial period the store operated mainly based on a working capacity of around 650 people. This 650 people were constituted by both staffs belonging to direct company payroll and other people taken on concessionary limits. Further studies reveal that the organization catered for the development of the staff productivity through the holding of training and other developmental programs in an extensive scale. Moreover the loyalty factor of the employees was better enhanced through the generation of forums wherein the employees could state their problems or also render fruitful suggestions for the development of the company. The employees were also rendered discounts by Selfridge and Company in the course of their making certain purchases. Speaking on the communication front the management body at Selfridge and Company focused on maintaining effective communication with the employee groups spread along different departments and organizational levels to help enhance on the aspects of employee motivation. Owing to the above factors a further survey conducted to study the satisfaction and motivation levels of the workgroups in the organization revealed that the employees mainly at the ground level were highly motivated to perform and excel in their career. Again in terms of the work atmosphere in the organization the employees were found to reflect high amount of satisfaction levels to the jobs or tasks performed (Purcell, 2008, p.68). Leadership and Management Styles at Selfridge and Role of Team Leaders Selfridges and Company found that the persisting leadership roles pertaining to the different teams failed to render confidence and motivation in inspiring the team members to better perform. The company management found that the employees of different departments complained of lack of effective communication from their supervisors or team leads for which the performance appraisal systems of the company faltered to appreciate the performances of the productive individuals. Lack of proper communication signified that the team management was not interested to know the reasons for the poor performances of the individuals and the latter thus felt uncared which led the reduction in satisfaction levels of the employees. Thus the management felt the need to improve the team leadership dimension through changing the process of selection of such. The selection process for the team leaders revised focused more on the behavioral traits of the individuals and other skills relating to communication and aptitude to gain leadership positions. Moreover the existing appraisal systems of the company were also reviewed to become more increasingly linked to the careers of the employees and also in helping them to earn leadership roles in the organization. This change rendered in the roles of the team leaders helped the employees feel that they would be fairly appraised in regards to their performances and also the team leads were concerned of the problems that they are facing in regards to the work environment. The role of the team leaders in Selfridges and Company were further enhanced in terms of pursuing human resource activities pertaining to recruitment, training, performing counseling activities to help understand the problems of the individuals in a more focused manner. The team leaders should also render focus on the effective protection of the guidelines and rules of the concern and also in handling the grievances of the employees. In the process of recruitment the team leads should endeavor to effectively evaluate the skill sets and potential of the interviewees before selecting them for specific posts. Further the team leads in the newer dimension are also required to evaluate the several issues related to customers and also other floor and operational problems. Thus the team leader’s role in Selfridge and Company is enhanced to a great extent to encompass different activities which enlarges their role and operational dimension (Purcell, 2008, p.68-70). The above discussion shows that the team leader’s role in the organization was much enlarged to handle the job responsibilities of the first line management of the company. Thus in addition to the effective management of specific human resource issues starting from recruitment to training and development and management of appraisal and grievance activities the team leads also operate to render effective customer servicing and augmentation of productivity (Purcell, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2003,p.44). Selfridges and Company in the course of the development and enhancement of the team leader’s concept indirectly helped in the augmentation of the brand value of the concern. The employees working under the new team leaders thus were made more accountable as consciousness increased helping the employees to respond effectively to external demands and changes (Baron & Armstrong, 2007, p.100). Again the enhancement of the roles of the team leaders also helped in reducing the differences between the activities of human resource managers and that of the first line managers managing consumer relationships and other productivity issues (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005, p.143). Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy The main objective of the ‘equal opportunities and diversity policy’ is to render opportunities in the working sphere to all individuals regardless of discrepancies pertaining to factors like age, sex, religious differences, working abilities, disability benefits, ethnicity and nationalistic factors and other such variants. Moreover the policy protects the rights of the individuals and thereby renders protection to the individuals from undue discriminatory practices in the different organizations. The management body of the organizations must endeavor to help the employees become increasingly conscious about the existence of such policies so as to protect themselves from being deprived of their rights. This policy helps in the promotion of large scale diversity in the workforce through the support rendered by different legislations brought about from time to time (Standards Board for England, 2008, p.3-4). Further these policies help such individuals belonging to the minority groups or races like the Latin Americans residing in United States. However it is widely noticed that several organizations render more importance is rendered in augmenting the level of profits and market share than on helping to curb the effects of work diversity in the organizations (Lucas, 2004, p.102). The equal opportunities and diversity policies can be best observed in case of large business organizations than in cases of smaller ones. However the smaller organizations also reflect similar protective measures for rendering protection to diversified work groups coming from minority backgrounds. Further it must be observed that only possessing such diversity policies and opportunities does not always help the business organizations. Rather the mangers of the business corporations must work on the implementing such programs for the sake of the diversified work groups. Again the business corporations devoid of any such diversity and equal opportunity policies however such firms also tend to show an equal respect to the granting of equal opportunities to the different levels of employees in the concern. Further the human resource managers can help in generating needed interviews to survey the level of consciousness of the different team leaders regarding the breadth of such diversity problems and ways of encountering such. The main objective behind the implementation of such polices must be made clear to the different team leaders as in showing equal amount of respect for the diversified work groups in the organization pertaining to the criteria of sex or belonging to the different socio-cultural backgrounds (Susan, 2009, p.214-216). The human resource practices of Selfridges and Company show relevance of equal opportunity practices which helps the enhancement of the productivity of the employees in the organization. Though large organizations like Selfridge and Company does not have any physical presence of such equal opportunities and diversity policy yet the human resources policies practiced helps in rendering equitable and fair treatment to all organizational employees. The equitable and fair polices practiced in Selfridges helps in rendering motivation to the employees that thereby helps in enhancing the productivity of the same to augment the productivity and profitability of the organizations. The team leaders are better trained to honor workforce diversity in the departments and appreciate the performances of the employees through the appraisal systems in place (Johns & Leatherbarrow, 2004, p.37). The human resources policies and practices at Selfridge and Company are found to render large impacts in helping reduce the attrition levels in the organizations. Moreover the level of absenteeism is also found to reduce in the different departments owing to the considerable amount of friendly human resource policies in the concern. Thus the human resources policies practiced at Selfridge and Company help the concern to enhance both in terms of organizational and also in terms of labor productivity. Again the human resource policies practiced in the organization is also found to cater to the issues of workforce diversity which helps employees coming from different cultural backgrounds to work in a collaborative manner to help fulfill organizational objectives. This fact also helps Selfridges and Company stand apart from its competitors like Harrods and John Lewis while operating in the retail markets of Europe. The large number of employees of the company spread along a number of retail outlets thus reflect wide amount of work satisfaction owing to the human resources polices practiced in the concern (Cooper, 2007). Conclusions The management of Selfridges and Company operating in the retail sector of Europe works to render large changes in the existing human resource polices of the organization to help enhance the productivity of the organization and the employees. Team management roles of the company were enhanced to a large extent to encompass a large number of activities both pertaining to human resources and operational activities relating to augmenting the customer satisfaction levels. Further the selection process of team managers in Selfridge and Company was revised to gain such leaders who would help in bettering up the communication with the people pertaining to different hierarchy levels in the concern. This helps the employees to gain wide amount of motivation to render large amount of productivity in gaining more amount of profits and market share and in enhancing the relationships with the customers. Again the company also works to reduce the diversity relationships in the workforce and thereby in helping the employees coming from different social and cultural backgrounds to operate more effectively in pursuing organizational goals. Thus the turnaround process envisaged at Selfridge and Company helped the organization to counter potential competition rendered by its competitors and thereby to maintain its stand in the European retail market. References Baron, A. & Armstrong, M. (2007). Human capital management: achieving added value through people. Kogan Page Publishers. Cooper, N. (2007). Selfridges' human resources director Maria Stanford reforms the retailer's HR brand. Retrieved on July 5, 2011 from: http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/07/02/41308/selfridges-human-resources-director-maria-stanford-reforms-the-retailers-hr-brand.html. Brandchannel. (2011). Selfridges and Co. Retrieved on July 5, 2011 from: http://brandcameo.org/features_effect.asp?pf_id=5 Lucas, R. (2004). Employment relations in the hospitality and tourism industries. Routledge. Johns, T. & Leatherbarrow, C. (2004). People resourcing. CIPD Publishing. Marchington, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2005). Human resource management at work: people management and development. CIPD Publishing. Purcell, J. & Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development . Understanding the people and performance link: unlocking the black box . CIPD Publishing Standards Board for England. (2008). Equal Opportunities & Diversity Policy. Retrieved on July 5, 2011 from: http://www.standardsforengland.gov.uk/media/Equal%20Opportunities.pdf Storey, J. (2007). Human resource management: a critical text. Cengage Learning EMEA. Purcell, J. (2008). People Management and Performance. Taylor & Francis. Susan, H. (2009). Brilliant Answers To Tough Interview Questions: Smart Answers To Whatever They Can Throw At You, 3/E. Pearson Education India. Read More