Resourcing and Talent Management - Lima Tire Plant - Case Study Example

Lima Tire Plant Case study Table of Contents Executive summary………………………………………………………………………..………3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Analysis of the case study………………………………………………………………...……….5 Implications of foremen turnover for the Lima plant……………………………………………..5 Recruitment and selection…………………………………………………………………..…….6 Training and Development………………………………………………………………………..7 Performance evaluation…………………………………………………………………………...7 Communication and employee relations………………………………………………………..…8 Conclusions and recommendations………………………………………………………………..9 References………………………………………………………………………………………..14 Executive Summary High employee turnover has a negative impact on the productivity and image of an organization. The high number of foremen who were quitting from Lima Tire plant is a clear indicator of failures in the human resources management in the organization. In order to arrest the exodus of foremen from Lima Tire plant, it is necessary for the company to evaluate its policies in regards to recruitment and management of the foremen. The recommendations proposed in this paper can help to improve the working conditions of the foremen and reduce rate of turnover. Introduction According to the case study, Treadways Lima Tire plant is faced with very high employee turnover rate. The data available indicates that the Tire Plant had a forty six percent turnover rate in the foremen position at the company in 2007 (Beckham and Skinner 1). The projections for the future are also grim given the fact the no considerable effort had been made to sort out the key issues that had led to a high turnover rate among the foemen of the company. The case study indicates that the company’s overall operating costs had risen significantly due to the increase in the costs of oil and other materials used in the manufacture of tires. The additional issues of high turnover meant that the company had to spend more money in recruitment as well as absorb loses from reduced productivity. The low morale and dissatisfaction in the foremen segment had begun to infect the entire plant and this would eventually lead to overall reduction in the productivity of the plant. The Lima Tire Plant had made significant investments to fuel its expansion and upgrade the manufacturing technology that was used in the company. The plant was one of the group’s top locations for quality and productivity ratings. Due to the transfer of more production capacity from a facility that was shut down, the Lima Tire plant had to scale its operations round the clock. This meant that the line-foremen segment had to work on twelve hour shifts unlike the usual workday of eight hours. The foremen were not given additional compensation for the increased hours of work and they also lacked effective authority to control the hourly workers under them (Beckham and Skinner 2). This paper will analyze the key issues that affect the working of foremen at the Lima Tire plant in order to establish the root causes of the high turnover. After establishing the key staffing issues, the paper will evaluate the available literature to give recommendations that can be implemented to remedy the situation. Finally, the conclusion will highlight the key issues discussed in regards to the case study. Analysis of the case study Implications of foremen turnover for the Lima plant The main issue that affects the Lima Tire Plant is the high turnover of foremen at the company. One of the negative implications of high turnover rates in an organization is reduced productivity (Guest and Conway 1998). Essentially, employee turnover leads to lose of manpower and thus the productivity of the organization. On top of this, the management has to spend significant time in search of replacements to fill in the vacant positions. Imperatively, the time spent in frequent recruitment exercises is translated into wasted man-hours. In the case of Lima Tire Plant, the line foremen are at the core of the operations of the plant. The foremen are a critical element of the manufacturing process and without them the production line can come to a standstill. Thus, the high turnover rate of foremen means that the production capacity of the Lima Tire plant is compromised. Ultimately, the low production will negatively affect the profitability of the plant. The other negative impact of the high turnover rate is reduced morale and motivation among other employees (Cappelli 2008). Humans are social beings and hence they are inclined to be in competition with each other. Also, the lower cadre employees look upon their immediate superiors as the motivators to encourage them in the course of their jobs. Thus, the high turnover rate can lead to the demoralization of other employees as they feel that the organization has problems. The foremen at the Lima Tire Plant are in charge of hundreds of hourly employees who work in the production line. These hourly employees have an ambition to rise to the rank of foremen in the course of their career. The high turnover rate may make them question their aspirations to rise to the position and thus demoralize them. Eventually, the demoralizing may spread out to other sections and departments of the plant and create a disoriented workforce. Recruitment and selection The process of acquiring new employees is a defining pillar of any organization. Simply put, an organization’s success or failure is largely determined by its employees (Fernandez-Aruiz 2009, p. 75). Hence, it is necessary for any company to lay special emphasis in their recruitment and selection processes so as to attract the best employees. According to the case study, eighty percent of the foremen at Lima Tire plant were sourced from internal promotions. Sixteen percent of the people selected for the position of foremen were young university graduates while a paltry four percent were experienced foremen transferred from other plants (Beckham and Skinner 2008, p.3). It is imperative to note that the recruitment of employees should be done from a large pool of capable candidates (Erikson and Gratton 2007). However, the Lima Tire plant has narrowed its candidate pool to mostly the hourly employees who have worked in the company. When a vacancy arises in the line foreman position, the Lima Tire plant management posts the announcement on the bulletin board in the plant as well as on the intranet. This has a negative impact on the quality of potential candidates for the position since it gives priority to insiders who may lack additional skills necessary for the job. Also, the selection process for the position of foreman lays emphasis on the practical skills of the candidates and their ability to run the production line (Beckham and Skinner 2008). In as much as these qualities are important, the position of foreman requires other skills such managerial and adaptability. Essentially, the role of the foreman involves working with people hence soft skills are indispensable. In fact, the candidates who are selected from the ranks of hourly employees lack substantial experiences in regards to managing people. Training and Development In order for employees to be most productive in an organization, it is necessary for them to be offer training and development opportunities. Training helps to impart the required knowledge and skills that can improve the performance of an employee (DeLong et al 2008). At the Lima Tire plant, new line foremen received informal training and this came at the discretion of the general supervisor or the area manager. In fact, the supervisors had the notion that it was upon the foremen to learn the ropes all by themselves. The new foremen are expected to quickly come up to speed on numerous specialty areas such as industrial engineering and dispute resolutions. It is imperative to note that the new foremen had a steep learning curve with little or no support from the management. The lack of training and support to the new foremen implies that they may have difficulties in adapting to the new job (Guest 1997). The sheer number of responsibilities that the new foremen are faced with may easily overwhelm them. As noted, most of the newly hired foremen were simply hourly employees with basic educational background. Thus, they may be unable to cope with the numerous responsibilities that come with their new appointments. The foremen may be unable to cope with the situations that arise in the course of their duties. Hence, they may be forced to step down or quit the job as it is beyond their capabilities. Performance evaluation The role of employee evaluation is to ensure that he or she meets the goals and objectives assigned to his role in the organization. Performance assessments are necessary to ascertain the productivity of employees by evaluating their performance against the set targets (Guest 1998, p.271). This is a critical aspect in an organization as it helps in ensuring that the organization is performing as anticipated. At the Lima Tire plant, the line foremen are evaluated based on their ability to meet or exceed the set targets and how they manage the hourly workers under their command. The assessment process was very informal with no set metrics to be used in the evaluation. The main interest of the general supervisors was to evaluate whether the foremen met the set targets and the working relationship with the union or management. It is evident that the employee performance evaluation process was not effective and comprehensive enough to capture the contribution of the foremen to the organization. For instance, if a foreman fell short on the set targets, there was no room to consider his other contributions and probably the factors that led to the poor performance. In fact, most of the foremen felt that the Lima Tire plant used them without necessary giving them an opportunity to air their grievances. Also, even top performing foremen remained stuck in their positions since their promotions depended on the availability of general supervisor’s position. Thus, long serving foremen may be forced to resign or quit due to stifled career growth within the company. The lack of clear and guaranteed career growth paths may have played a role demoralizing the foremen and increasing their turnover. Communication and employee relations According to the case of Lima Tire plant, departing line foremen expressed solid discontent with the plant and their job obligations (Beckham and Skinner 2008, p.4). The line foremen had issues with nature of relationship between them and the hourly employees that they were in charge of. The foreman lacked the authority to effectively manage the hourly workers under them. This inevitably led to frequent tensions between the hourly workers and the foremen. The foremen felt that they lacked authority yet they still had responsibilities. According to the foremen, their capacity to discipline hourly workers was greatly limited due to the fact the disciplined worker would often be cleared to resume work without the foreman being consulted. The foremen were not part of the disciplinary committee that handled discipline cases. This meant that their authority to enforce discipline and order in the sections was greatly undermined. The other issue that affected the foremen was poor relations with the management. The organization expected the foremen to exceed the set targets yet it did not put in place mechanisms to sort out the grievances of the foremen. For instance, the management expected the foremen to meet their targets despite difficulties such as absence of hourly workers and missing machines (Beckham and Skinner 2008, p.4). The lack of communication imperatively made the foremen to feel isolated and unappreciated in the company despite their contributions. Thus, the feeling of being undervalued and ignored may have also contributed to the high turnover rate among foremen in the company. Conclusions and recommendations According to Errickson and Gratton (2007), attracting and retaining top talent is the factor the separates great companies from merely good ones. Organizations that aspire to prosper must make it their top priority to attract the best talent and ensure that these top talents stay in the company. Therefore, recruitment and selection is a very important issue as it determines the kind of employees who join a company. The case study indicates that Lima Tire plant has serious shortcomings in regards to their recruitment process. The company majorly hires its foremen from within the ranks of its hourly workers. Fernández-Araóz et al (2009) argue that the first step in the process of recruitment is to anticipate the need of manpower which should be projected as the company plans for its goals and objectives. The human resources department should plan the career and skills development of a company’s current and potential employees in readiness for future job openings. This is important in order to ensure that the employees to be recruited into the positions are able to perform effectively. The company should also have a diverse pool of manpower that can be easily integrated to the company culture. In hiring new employees, a company should lay emphasis on the adaptive and job fit aspects of the potential employee (Errickson and Gratton 2007). Therefore, it is evident that effective recruitment and selection processes should not just consider the skills of the potential employee but also the ability to adapt into changing job descriptions for the position. Lima Tire plant should overhaul its recruitment process to be cognizant of the various skills that are required for the position of foreman. By doing this, the company will be able to hire competent and capable foremen who will not be overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the position. Talent management has been a topic of major interest in due to growing importance of employees within an organization. Presently, employees are considered to be the single most important asset that any company can possess. To ensure that the employees of an organization perform at their peak, it is necessary to implement effective talent management strategies. Guest (1997) indicates that organization should invest in employee training and development in order to increase productivity. The training of employees serves two purposes of helping the employee to add skills and also increase the competitive advantage of the company (Snell and Lepak p. 33). Hence, it is important for organizations to implement training programs for all employees. The case study of Lima Tire plant points out to a complete failure in the training and development of employees. It is imperative that human resources department should design a continuous training program for the foremen so as impart the desired skills. This will help to make the foremen more productive as they will have all the knowledge required for their job. Mentoring is also an important component in ensuring that employees develop and grow in their careers. New and young employees need mentoring in order to quickly obtain the required skills for their job and also benefit from informal guidance as they progress (Delong et al 2008, p.4). Employees who are offered training and development opportunities are likely to stay within their organizations. The Lima Tire plant should implement a mentoring program for its foremen so that they can be guided in their jobs. Outstanding managers and general managers within the plant should be assigned the role of mentoring the foremen in order to guide them through the challenging and difficult moments. Performance evaluation is essential in order to measure the productivity of employees within an organization. Bettis and Hitt (1995) pointed out that what cannot be measured cannot be done. This implies that evaluating employees is important to ensure that things get done. According to Cappelli (2008), the process of performance evaluation begins with the setting up of metrics that will be used in the evaluation process. The employee should meet with the management and clearly set the goals and objectives that must be attained within a given period. The goals should have timelines and the evaluation metrics should also be set out. To make the performance targets effective, both the employee and the management should agree on the rewards for success and the consequences for failure to meet the targets. Erikson and Gratton (2007) argued that performance targets cannot be set in a vacuum. Therefore, the organization must provide the employee with all the resources that are necessary to meet the set targets. The organization should also review the performance targets with employees at regular intervals to measure progress. This can help to ascertain the progress of an employee and put in place measures to correct any problems. The performance evaluation policies at the Lima Tire plant are not effective and beneficial to the company. The management has informal evaluation processes that consider only two factors. The human resources department in conjunction with the supervisors and management should set out clear goals for the foremen. Also, the company should avail all the resources and support necessary to enable the foremen to meet their targets. On top of this, the company should be able to offer clearly spelt out rewards for the foremen who perform exceptionally in order to motivate them and increase the working morale in the company. Guest and Conway (1998) pointed out that the work place is basically a social environment. Therefore, communication is a key element to ensure that there is harmony in the organization and promote productive interactions. Communication and organizational socialization are vital components that promote the free flow of ideas and help to increase productivity (Allen and Meyer 1990). Thus, an organization should adapt organizational structures that allow for open communication channels among all employees irrespective of their position or department. Open communication channels ensure that disputes can be solved quickly and there is no delay in the execution of duties due to lack of information. Employees who are able to communicate with their bosses directly can air their grievances and get immediate feedback. This is important since it helps to promote transparency and make employees to feel as if they belong to the organization (Allan and Meyer 1990). The foremen at the Lima Tire plant lacked clear communication with their superiors as well as the hourly workers that were under them. Due to the lack of communication with their bosses, the foremen felt isolated and ignored. In order to sort out this issue, the plant should implement an organizational structure that eliminates bureaucracy. The foremen should be given direct access to the management so as to voice their concerns and grievances. By doing this, the foremen will be able to articulate the challenges and issues that they face in the course of their duties and their way forward. For instance, the foremen felt helpless in terms of disciplining the workers that they supervised since the disciplinary committee had the authority to overrule them. As a solution to this issue, the management of the plant should incorporate some foremen to the disciplinary committee so as to make them involved in decision making. Employee relations are important since they define the modus operandi within an organization. Arthur (1994) indicated that organizations should have clear structures that define authority and responsibilities within an organization. Every position within an organization should have a clear job description that defines the role of the holder of the positions. Company regulations and code of conduct should clearly spell out the behavior expected at the work place from all employees (Guest 1997). The regulations act as the foundation for the rules of engagement within the company or organization. According to the case study, the foremen were adversarial relationships with their hourly workers. One of the reasons for the frosty relationship between the hourly workers and the line foremen is due to the lack of authority on the part of the foremen. Simply put, the foremen in the company lacked the power to execute their duties effectively and relate well with other employees especially the hourly workers. The solution to this challenge is an evaluation of the powers assigned to the foremen in the positions. The line foremen are in charge of their line production and the hourly workers under him. In order for the foremen to effectively perform their role and meet the set targets, they should be expressly empowered to discipline and manage the workers under them. There should be clear rules that indicate the disciplinary measures for any actions of the workers that can be imposed by the line foreman. 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Thomas, D. (2004). Diversity as a strategy, Harvard Business Review, Sept. Beckham, H. & Skinner, W. (2008). The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant, Harvard University Review, June Read More