Industrial Placement Report as well as Human Resource Practices in the Organization - Case Study Example

Industrial Placement Report Introduction This report is intended to learn the problems and issues existing in the selected organisation and to reportthe problems to the top level executives for rectification. The area of study selected is human resource practices in the organisation. Human resource is an equally important aspect along with other resources that aid the success of any organisation. Human resource involves all the employees working inside the organisation. "The objective of Human Resources is to maximize the return on investment from the organisation's human capital and minimize financial risk." (Human Resources. 2007). Active and efficient working of human resources in the organisation accelerates the productivity of the organisation and thereby results in more profits. This clearly implies that poor performance of the human resource is hazardous to the organisation. One of the major human resource issues faced by most organisations is the high rate of employee turnover. Problems arise in many organisations as a result of unethical practices of the management towards the employees. This leads to more employee grievances and, in turn, affects the smooth functioning of the organisation. Increased rate of employee grievance is also a cause for high employee turnover. A good human resource management can help to solve the human resource issues of an organisation. Initially it was the personnel department who dealt with the employees in the organisation. But the personnel department only dealt with the technical aspects of the employees such as staffing, remunerating etc. Later on, human resource management became a separate department to look after the welfare of the employees at the work place. "Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with employment law, and handling related tasks. Human resources, on the other hand, are responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources that contributes to the success of an organisation." (N. Madison. 2007). The terminology changed from personnel management to human resource management when the significance of the human resources in an organisation's success was identified properly. The fact that human consideration has to be given to the employees paved way to the formation of human resource departments in the organisation. The main functions of the human resource management include recruiting, selecting, placing, controlling, remunerating and motivating the employees of the organisation. Though human resource management's function includes all the activities beginning from recruiting the staff the main objective of human resource management is to provide a good working environment for the employees so that the employees feel good at work. The employees should be provided with sufficient benefits and allowances apart from salary, on the basis of their performance and as per the statute governing the employees' welfare. Human resource management in an organisation is mainly based on the concept that the employees in an organisation are human beings and they are unlike other resources. Employees will have their own problems and difficulties at their workplace arising as a result of the problems in their personal life. And also human resource is a factor whose behaviour cannot be predicted by any means. This study is aimed at identifying the human resource issues existing in the hotel giant Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. The study is conducted in Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers located in New York City. Sheraton is one of the oldest and the best hotels in the world. Currently it has very good market share in the hospitality industry. The final report is addressed to the top level human resource executives of the company for helping them to resolve the problem. Objectives of the report The main objective of preparing this report is to study and analyze the major human resource issues existing in the organisation. The study is routed to some of the areas which were found to be unsatisfactory from a primary observation. The core focus areas of the study can be enumerated as follows: 1) To analyze whether the employees are highly satisfied on the human resource practices. 2) To study the employee grievances existing in the organisation. 3) To study whether the employees are treated equally irrespective of class and gender. 4) To study whether the employee grievances are appropriately and timely rectified. Above are the major objectives of the research report that focus on the grievance oriented areas of the human resources in the organisation. The initial observation of the organisation and the discussions held with the employees has shown that human resource issues exist in the organisation. The first objective is aimed at understanding whether the employees in the organisation are satisfied on the policies framed by the Human Resource Department for their welfare. Analysis of the second problem is aimed at learning the grievances of the employees in the organisation. Some organisations discriminate the employees on the basis of their gender and overlook the aspect of parity. Male employees are given more preferences than the female employees. The third objective focuses on studying whether any discrimination issues exists in the organisation. The final objective is aimed at analyzing whether the grievances of the employees are properly heard and rectified by the employer in time. Literature Frame work Company Background Sheraton hotels and resort is a brand of Star Wood Hotels and Resorts. Sheraton hotel was founded by Ernest Henderson and Robert Lowell Moore in 1937. The hotel was formed after acquiring Springfield hotel in Massachusetts. It started its expansion internationally in the 1950's after purchasing two Canadian hotels. In 1968 the Sheraton hotels was acquired by ITT and there from it was known as ITT Sheraton. Later on the group adopted high branding strategies while they implement their expansion process. Sheraton faced another expansion process in 1998 when the hotel was acquired by Starwood hotels. "One of the leading hotel companies in the world, Starwood's other brands include Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton Hotels, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, The Luxury Collection, Le Mridien,W Hotels, and Westin Hotels & Resorts." (Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. 2007). Sheraton hotel is the first hotel to list in the New York Stock Exchange. "At the end of its first decade, Sheraton had proven so popular and had become such a relied-upon brand that it was the first hotel chain to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange." (Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. 2007). Sheraton was the first international hotel chain to start operation in China. The organisation selected is the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers located in the New York City. Now Sheraton has its hotel branches in 400 cities in 70 countries. Human Resource Management Human Resources are considered as the most important resource in any organisation because it can function only through people. Human Resource Management is concerned with the people's dimension in organisations. Human Resource Management is a management function that helps managers to recruit, select, train, and develop members for an organisation. The main functions of human resource management are coming under two heads such as Managerial Functions and Operative Functions. Managerial functions include Planning, Organizing, Directing, Co-coordinating, and Controlling. Operative functions include Procurement, Training and development, and Compensation. HRM provides suitable job to suitable person and it will help to have psychological and social satisfaction to the employees. It also helps to provide reasonable compensation to workers, while leads them to have a good standard of living. HR management is the key player in balancing the healthy relationship among employees. The primary objective of management is to ensure that every employee makes his fullest contribution to the achievement of objectives of enterprise. Job Evaluation is done by Human Resource Management. Job evaluation is the orderly and systematic process of determining the relative worth of the various jobs within the organisation so as to develop one equitable wage and salary structure. Salary or wage is one of the most important factors for developing and maintaining good employer - employee relationship. The compensation is calculated by considering the facts such as nature of the jobs undertaken, the relative value of the job, and the realistic worth or ability of an employee in performing job. The main steps included in the employment processes are HR planning, Recruitment, and Selection. Human resource planning is the process of forecasting an organisation's future demand and supply of the right type of people in the right number. Recruitment is the process of searching the required qualified persons and stimulates them to apply for jobs in the establishment. The main processes of recruitment are; identification of different sources of labour supply, assessment of their validity, chooses the most suitable sources, and invites application from the prospective candidates. Selection is the process of choosing the most suitable persons out of all applicants. It starts immediately after recruitment. Managing Grievance: In an organisation all employees may express their dissatisfaction, or a difference of opinion in the work assignment or in terms and conditions of employment. The grievance may be presented by an employee or group of employees or by the union. The international labour Organisation (ILO), clarifies a grievance as a compliant of one or more workers with respect to wages and allowances, conditions of work and interpretation of service stipulation, covering such areas as overtime, leave, transfer, promotions, seniority, job assignment and termination of service (Understanding Grievance Procedure in Human Resource Management. 2007). Discrimination based on skin colour or religion or sex is illegal. Illegal discrimination involves treating someone not suitable only because of their sex, age, race, religion, family status, disability. HR Management Challenges: Globalization of economic forces leaded to economic and technological changes. Here the major changes happen due to the shift of jobs from one industry to another industry. It result, some organisations have had to reduce the number of employees, while others have had to attract and retain employees. The availability of human resources and their quality are also a major issue to HR management. Many organisations need more educated and efficient workers in the coming years indicates that the shortage of skilled workers. So the HR management has to take necessary action to continue the existing employees and make training for future jobs and skills available for employees at all levels. Demographics and diversity are other issues faced by the HR management. The balancing of employees based on age or income and people of different races or cultures are critical to an organisation. Most of the organisations are experiencing an aging of their workforces. Cultural and sexual differences are sensitive and it will make many problems to the organisation. Organisational Restructuring is the issue faced by the HR management. Restructuring of the organisation may be take place by merger and acquisitions or eliminating several layers of management. These will help the organisation to improve productivity, quality, service and reducing costs. As result, jobs are redesigned and it will affect the workers. (Changing Nature of Human Resource Management. 2007). Research and analysis The sample size selected for the study was 50. The employees were selected randomly selected from the organisation. The information gathered was analyzed using simple percentage. Opinion of the respondents gathered by the use of a questionnaire is as follows. 1) 56% of the respondents have been working with the organisation for 2-3 years, 15% for 0-1 years and the rest 7% for above 6 years. 2) 76% of the respondents were satisfied with the working hours where as the rest 24% were not. 3) 82% of the respondents were satisfied with the working hours. 4) 89% of the respondents were of the opinion that gender discrimination exists in the organisation but the rest 11% replied positively. 5) 62% of the respondents said that they get sufficient holidays but the rest 38% replied no to this. 6) 61% of the respondents were not satisfied with the current pay scale whereas the rest 39% were satisfied. 7) 57% of the respondents were not satisfied with the present job. 8) 53% of the respondents said that they were looking foreword for another job. 9) 65% of the respondents said that the management does not assist them personally for redressing their grievance while the rest 35% replied that the management provides sufficient assistance. Findings: The research based on the human resource aspects in Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers has drawn the following major findings based on the information gathered from the respondents. 1) Unsatisfied employees: The analysis of the opinion of the respondents' show that 57% of the employees are not satisfied with the present job. The rest 43% are satisfied. This major figure of unsatisfied employees is a crucial issue to be considered for improvement. 2) Increased rate of gender discrimination: 89% of the respondents have replied that there exists gender discrimination in the organisation which is really hazardous. Increased gender discrimination can also increase the rate of dissatisfaction for the job. 3) Unsatisfactory pay scale: 61% of the respondents were not satisfied with the present pay scale. Poor remuneration can lead to an increased employee turnover. Extra work of the employees should be properly compensated. 4) Good working environment: 86% of the respondents were satisfied with the office layout. This shows that the working environment is good and the employees are highly satisfied about the working environment. 5) Poor line of communication: only 35% of the respondents admitted that the management assists them personally for redressing of grievance. This clearly shows that two-way communication is absent in the organisation. Recommendations The following recommendations are drawn for the improvement of the negative situations prevailing in the organisation. 1) Ensuring two way communication: a good understanding between the management and the employees is an important factor in the success of an organisation. The findings of the study show that the employees are given less opportunities for upward communication. An employee can communicate his/her grievance to the top level only when a two way communication is entertained. A well set up two-way communication will help to solve the problem as the employee grievance can be met in time and also employees are sometimes the source of valuable information. 2) Maintaining equality: The employees at the work place have to be treated equally irrespective of the sex, class, race and religion. Employees should be rewarded on the basis of their ability. The discrimination based on the sex found in Sheraton is not a fair practice. There can be very efficient and creatively thinking employees among the woman workers. Those persons have to be identified and given required status. The discrimination based on class and race in also not well for an organisation though it was not found existing. 3) Proper remuneration: The remuneration policy of Sheraton is found to be unsatisfactory. Providing proper remuneration for the work done is an important factor in retaining the employees. Continuing with low remuneration policy can lead to increased labour turnover. Increased workload must be compensated with sufficient increase in the pay scale. 4) Proper measures for grievance redressal: Grievance redressal is highly important for motivating the staff at the work place. Highly motivated staff smoothens the working and performance of the organisation. Conclusion: The research report has shown that the employees are not fully satisfied with the human resources practices of the organisation. Employee grievances of certain kind do exist in the organisation which range from low salary to discrimination. This report has aimed to bring out and analyze the problems existing in the organisation regarding the employees. Questionnaire method was adopted to conduct the study. A questionnaire with required number of questions was circulated among the employees. The filled in questionnaire was taken and analyzed for drawing out the percentage. Sufficient number of findings was drawn out from the analysis. There were many unfavourable findings about the Human Resource policy of the organisation. Discrimination on the basis of gender was found to be the major negative practice. This is really a sort of backward thinking and should be wiped away from any workplace. Unsatisfactory pay scale is found to be another major issue. An unsatisfactory pay scale directly relates to the employee turnover in an organisation. On the basis of the necessary findings appropriate recommendations were drawn, and these are expected to really help the organisation to overcome its poor human resource practices. Modifying the HR policies on the basis of the recommendations can help the organisation to retain its existing employees for long. Appendix Questionnaire Name: 1) Gender: Male Female 2) How long have you been working in this organisation 0 - 1 year 2 - 5 years above 6 years 3) Are you satisfied with the working hours Yes No 4) Are you satisfied with office layout where you work Yes No 5) Is there any gender discrimination existing in the organisation Yes No 6) Do you get sufficient holidays Yes No 7) Are you satisfied with the current pay scale Yes No 8) Are you satisfied with the present job Yes No 9) Are you looking forward for another job Yes No 10) Does the management assist you personally solving your grievances Yes No Works cited Changing Nature of Human Resource Management. (2007). HR Management Challenges. [online]. 4shared. P. 4-10. Last accessed 25 October 2007 at: http://www.4shared.com/file/21550136/ee090cbe/HumanResourceManagement-9Ed.html Human Resources. (2007). [online].Wikipedia. Last accessed 25 October 2007 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources. MADISON. N. (2007). Is there a difference between human resource and personal management [online]. Wise Greek. Last accessed 25 October 2007 at: http://www.wisegeek.com/is-there-a-difference-between-human-resources-and-personnel-management.htm Sheraton Hotels and Resorts. (2007). [online]. Sheraton History. Last accessed 25 October 2007 at: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/about/history.html Understanding Grievance Procedure in Human Resource Management. (2007). [online]. Managing Grievance. Last accessed 25 October 2007 at: http://www.management-hub.com/hr-grievance.html Read More