Judging Performance of Johnson Controls' HR Department - Research Paper Example

HRM315: Evaluating Human Resources Abstract Human Resources are the most important asset for every organization. It is impossible to have a successful organization without a productive and efficient workforce. Thus human resource management plays a vital role in the overall management of the organization. It is highly important for any HR department to assess what the employees aspire from the organization. They also need to investigate on the level of satisfaction of the employees. This forms the background of this research. This research will study the performance of the HR department and analyze their strength and weaknesses. This will also recommend the measures needed to solve the gaps identified. Introduction This report is an analysis of the performance of HR department at Johnson Controls Inc. At the first step a survey is carried out which aims to judge the performance of HR department on two grounds: a. The importance the employees give to various HR services b. The satisfaction they have with regards to each of these HR services. The responses to the survey are tabulated and an average score for importance and satisfaction is computed for each HR service. Based on that, the performance of HR department is gauged and the gaps are identified. Later, the report presents recommendations for fulfilling the identified gaps. Sampling Plan For this assignment, I plan to do my survey on Johnson Controls. Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) is a leading organization dealing with automotive experience, building efficiency and power solutions. The company provides innovative automotive interiors and energy optimization products and services for buildings. Johnson Controls has 140,000 employees in more than 1,300 locations serving customers in 125 countries. Founded in 1885, the company has its headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [1]. My aim for this research will be to judge the performance of the Human Resource department of the organization. The purpose will be to assess what the employees expect from the HR department and how satisfied they are with the current performance. Since it is a very tedious task to survey the entire organization, only a certain group of employees will be surveyed. Firstly out of 1300 locations, we shall select a subset of locations. In these locations, the employees will be selected based on random sampling method. Services Selected 1. Recruiting Process 2. College Recruiting 3. Wage and Salary Administration 4. Performance Appraisal System 5. Incentive Pay Program 6. Vacation/Holiday/Sick Leave Program 7. Healthcare Insurance 8. Flexible Work Schedule Results of Data Collection I had selected 10 locations for survey. In each of these 10 locations, 6 employees were selected for survey. These employees were given a survey form to fill. Thus the total number of survey forms distributed was 60. Out of these 60 forms, 55 were returned. This gives a return percentage of 92%. Out of these 55 forms, 50 were found to be correct in all aspects. Thus the correct return percentage was around 83%. The survey had to measure two areas: importance and satisfaction. Each respondent was asked to rank the HR services (1 – 8) according to the importance they gave to the service and the satisfaction they obtained. Following is the summary of the results of the survey. Table 1: Summary of Data Results HR Service Importance Average Score Satisfaction Average Score 1. Recruiting Process 6.74 2.51 2. College Recruiting 4.26 3.82 3. Wage and Salary Administration 6.93 2.13 4. Performance Appraisal System 4.10 4.87 5. Incentive Pay Program 5.82 2.33 6. Employee Counseling Service 2.13 5.52 7. Healthcare Insurance 6.17 2.86 8. Flexible Work Schedule 6.83 6.32 Analysis of Findings The above findings reveal several factors about the HR department’s connection with the employees. Firstly, the highest average score for importance is achieved by Wage and Salary Administration. Considering that people work mainly to obtain salaries and fulfill their financial needs, this is not surprising. The least importance score is achieved by Employee Counseling Service. This shows that employees do not consider counseling to be a great need. For satisfaction, the highest score is achieved by Flexible Work Schedule. This shows that the employees are satisfied with the work schedule and consider it to be flexible and comfortable. It could also mean that employees are allowed to work in their own timings and there is no pressure to obey attendance rules. The lowest satisfaction score is achieved by Wage and Salary Administration. This reveals that the HR department is not performing a good job when it comes to distributing salaries. It could mean that the employees do not get their salaries on time. It could also indicate that the employees receive erroneous salary figures or have unnecessary deductions from their salaries. Considering importance and satisfaction to be in the same frame, there does not seem to be much difference in the importance and satisfaction scores for Performance Appraisal System and College Recruitment. This means that the HR department is performing a pretty decent job in recruitment and is keeping up with the aspirations of the employees with regards to appraisal of work. The findings also reveal certain performance gaps in the performance of the HR department. The satisfaction values of Wage and Salary Administration, Recruiting Process, Healthcare Insurance and Incentive Pay Program are much lesser than their corresponding importance values. This reveals that the HR department is not successfully catering to the employees’ aspirations when it comes to salaries and wages. Employees are not getting their salaries on time or are getting wrong amounts. This also reveals that the employees feel they do not get proper compensation for the hard work they put in and that they are not rightly rewarded. Also, the HR department is not effectively recruiting new employees and training them. Another weakness is that the employees are not satisfied with the healthcare program and aspire for more coverage and benefits. Areas such as Employee Counseling Service have a high satisfaction level and a low importance score. This could mean that the HR department is focusing too much on these areas and this may be the reason they are unable to concentrate on other objectives. Recommendations The survey has revealed that there are certain areas where the HR department is able to meet up with the employees’ satisfaction. In some areas the HR department is unable to satisfy the employees to the level they want. In other areas the HR department is concentrating more than it should. Following are the recommendations I propose for the HR department in the mentioned areas [2]. Wage and Salary Administration The employees have given most importance to this service and there appears to be big gap between the level of importance and level of satisfaction. The HR department should ensure that the salary system is transparent and efficient. They should try to process the salaries within time and without errors. Also, time recording for wage-based workers should be accurate and reliable. Every worker should feel satisfied that he is getting the amount he worked for. This will ensure a satisfied workforce which is far more productive. Recruiting Process Recruiting is a very important area for any HR department. Since first impression on the employees matter a lot in their future interaction with the organization, the recruiting process is important in creating that first impression. There are a number of recruiting processes that any organizations can follow. However, whichever process an organization may follow, the process should be fair and transparent. It should give all candidates equal opportunities for selection. It should be unbiased and ensure no unfair treatment is done to any applicant. Moreover, the process should be extensive and should assess the candidates on the major skills required for the applied position. Once a person is hired, he/she should be given proper orientation and information about the organization and his department. He should also be assigned proper work descriptions and should feel comfortable in the organization. These are some of the recommendations Johnson Controls Inc can carry out to improve its recruiting process. Healthcare Insurance Healthcare has become an important concern for everyone these days. With rising rates of diseases and threats to personal and family life, employees have begun to express great concerns about healthcare insurance and consider it to be a major factor in comparing offers by different organizations. The healthcare policy of any organization depends on a number of factors. In companies where the employees are exposed to high risks of damage to health and life, such as manufacturing companies, a comprehensive healthcare policy is required. In case of Johnson Controls Inc, the employees do not seem satisfied with the current healthcare insurance policy. The company needs to revise it and make it suit the employees. It needs to first find out what the employees are actually looking for in a healthcare policy. Some of the measures it could take would be extending the healthcare benefits and coverage, and making the compensation and reimbursement system more efficient. Summary and Conclusions The survey of HR department of Johnson Controls Inc reveals that in certain areas the HR department fails to meet the desired level of satisfaction by the employees. It is recommended that they bring about a change in the recruitment process and healthcare policies. Also, they need to improve the wage and salary administration system and introduce incentive pay programs. Moreover there are certain areas which the company is focusing too much on and the employees do not regard such areas as being important. References 1. About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved August 18, 2009, from Johnnson Controls Inc: http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/about.html 2. SIMS, R. R. (2002). Organizational Success through Effective Human Resources Management. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. 3. HR Best Practices. (2009). Retrieved September 7, 2009, from http://www.hrbestpractices.com/ 4. Rubin, L., & Merripen, C. (2003, April 22). Best Practices in Human Resources. Retrieved September 7, 2009, from IGDA Business Committee: http://www.igda.org/hr/IGDA_Best_Practices_HR.pdf Read More