Human Resource Management Final Exam - Case Study Example

Human Resource Management Final Exam I. Ethics Case Q1. What should Greg Johns do? While firing an employee on disciplinary grounds could be one of the most justifiable reasons that employers may have, it is dependent on a number of factors that both ethical and business decision making processes ought to consider. Whereas indiscipline should not be condoned, particularly regarding stealing or embezzling an organization’s most needed resources, firing should be conducted at the most appropriate time and strategy. Just as hiring, firing is a very important organizational decision that must consider a number of factors as mentioned above. Employees’ behavior in terms of delivery of their services to the organization is a very complex business consideration in today’s business environment. Bearing in mind the above highlighted managerial positions, it is important that the appropriate decision taken by Greg regarding the firing, disciplinary action or retention of Pollack as an undisciplined employee will be dependent on the following considerations. Modern employment issues surround employees’ satisfaction in terms of needs and the support that the employment offers to them. In case the employment environment is not conducive enough, the employees might be forced to engage in undesirable conduct, such as the one Polack engages in. in view of the circumstances of the case, it would be appropriate for Greg to establish if his organization is offering the appropriate support to Pollack in terms of finances. Investigations should be done to reveal if the work carried out by Pollack coincide with the current market offers in order to establish if he can meet his labor delivery costs. A review of his pay package could be a consideration worth making if it ends his desires to meet such costs not enabled by his employment remuneration. Other employee welfare issues would be worth a follow-up in order to establish whether the environment is conducive. Q2. Why should he do it? Without making the above mentioned decision making considerations in order to give the best business verdict, Greg would be making wrong management decisions regarding modern human resource perspectives. Modern human resource perspectives are a huge departure of the old personnel management which was less sensitive on the employees’ affairs. Greg will therefore have to make the above considerations since it is the most advisable approach in human resource management to handle employee welfare in a sensitive manner. There are several employment movements nowadays that deal with employment issues and they have a number of arbitration tools that can be used by employers to handle indiscipline. While such a grave misdemeanor may not be tolerated within the organization, it would be important to check if the employees’ unions and organizations have measures to deal with such mistakes before handling it at a very strict level. By involving employees’ solutions to common disciplinary actions such as theft could be one of the best approaches in order to harmonize employee-employer relations without creating an impression of excessive harshness. Maintaining a good working environment through motivation among the employees is an invaluable internal strength that the employer would want to maintain and nurture. In the event the action of the employer regarding instigating a punishment would go unwelcome among the rest of the employees, it would be detrimental to the delivery of services from the whole group. It is therefore a matter of organizational, legal, ethical, economic and logical interventions deemed appropriate by the employer during the determination of the necessary action to take on an errant employee. Q3. How should he handle it? It would be important for instance to carry out investigations regarding life work balance issues facing the employee, which could be a major contributing factor for the errant behavior. A case follow-up in this line could be ensuring that the employee has some support from his family regarding his work. Arranging for his family time fully supported and financed by the organization could be an investment worth making. The availability or lack of job leaves and time offs could be a contributing factor for some errant behavior. Besides, the employee could be facing more pressures from his life outside the employment other than his family life to such an extent that it affects his spending patterns resulting in looking for extra means to finance such activities. Social life and leisure time issues are important interventions that the organization can target by offering counseling and promoting upright approach to personal etiquette and observing employment regulations. Firing may be contemplated on if the organization has enough prove of negligence and improper conduct. However, firing should be done on such grounds as would be economically viable for the organization. If Pollack’s services can be retained for such a time as a disciplinary warning duration would take, it would be appropriate for the organization to adopt a retention strategy that monitors the employee and maximize on his services. If he doesn’t change within such disciplinary warning duration, replacement procedures should be arranged to avoid the spreading of the vice. In case the improper conduct materially infringes on the productivity of the organization, it would be advisable to consider instituting legal proceedings for the organization. II. New Incentive Plan Q1. What are some of the difficulties that Lisa will have to overcome in designing such a plan? Remuneration planning is perhaps one of the most sensitive parts of human resource management due to the difficulties encountered during its design and review. Among the commonest challenges that Lisa will encounter as the human resource manager will include a number of performance evaluation and economic valuation of services at the most updated instance at all the time to coincide with this objective. While modern employment approaches focus a lot on the performance of the entire organization as the basic objective, it is necessary to establish how each employee contributes to this success. Employee performance evaluation and appraisal is a huge challenge that the human resource manager must come to terms with before engaging into the actual remuneration plan that might appeal to the management. To attach the necessary evaluation mechanism in place is a process that might not find the desired cooperation from the employee due to the exposure that such processes give to individuals. While group performance and teamwork benefits may appear to be internal strengths enjoyed by employees in the current remuneration and operations regime, it would be difficult to ensure that such benefits remain tapped and introduce individual performance analysis at the same time. The credibility of employee appraisal is usually deemed to have some level of risk that cannot be easily overcome. In order to ensure that the employee appraisal and evaluation is accurate and as updated as possible, the employer must place a lot of emphasis on the organization systems that detect the accuracy levels. Bias and incorrect detail may be relied on to make decisions on appraising employees which is a major challenge for the employer. Besides the appraisal problems, the cost to take care of the vigilant system is expected to be very high. It would be difficult to ascertain if the extra cost elements are worth to be met. Q2. Give examples of at least 3 measurable criteria for each employee group: front desk employees, housekeepers, and concierge employees. Appraisal criteria for the various employee groups are different since the engagements are differentiated into different levels of involvement. In order to develop the appropriate remuneration packages for the various employee categories, it is important to identify them with their remuneration criteria. Depending on the various job requirements that the various employment packages demand, it is possible to formulate a remuneration plan. To identify the various input levels that employees make for them to be used in the remuneration metric system, there has to be distinct criteria from which reliable remuneration package is made. Front desk employees have a range of employment tasks from where their performance can be assessed. In the circumstances of the delivery of employment duties, the manner in which the delivery is made is usually assessed to determine the effective remuneration. Usually, the front desk employees must be polite and welcoming enough to the customers in order for the organization to achieve its objective. Without the appropriate politeness features from these employees, it would be difficult for the employer to meet the obligation of retention of customers and neither will they facilitate the attraction of new customers. Retention and attraction capacity of the employees will therefore be used as among criteria needed in the highest paid front office employee. Secondly, the front desk office employee must demonstrate vigilance at the desk in order to enable the organization to provide consistent services to the customers. Punctuality will be included in the criteria needed for an employee to meet higher remuneration category. Thirdly, orderliness at the front desk will ensure that the organization depicts the appropriate image to first time customers while old customers will be attracted to the business. It follows that the manner in which an employee at the front desk arranges the desk will impact directly to the main objectives of the organization in productivity. Housekeepers will be assessed for remuneration categorization purposes in a number of ways. Firstly, it must be demonstrated by an employee in this class that cleanliness is among the highly valued personal attributes that can be tapped for organizational productivity. Keeping the entire premises tidy must come from personal commitment to cleanliness and orderliness. Secondly, punctuality must be of essence in the higher ranked employees in this category. It must be possible for every employee in this category to ensure that customer get their services in good time before they find better places in terms of hygiene. The hospitality industry deals directly with human health in some segments such the hotel segment and compromising the cleanliness aspects at the premises is a very serious problem that can adversely affect the profitability of the organization. Thirdly, this class of employees must demonstrate their high competence in assisting customers in various ways while in their line of duty which is more direct than most other office employees. It is important for these employees to act in accordance with internal policy of customer retention by assisting customers to find their way in and out of the hotel. Acting in good faith while cleaning the rooms and changing the laundry must be a high score area of appraisal. Where employees have cases such as stealing from the customers and being rude when asked for directions, such employees infringe on the fundamental obligation that keeps them in the organization. By missing in such integrity attributes, these employees are likely to severely damage the objective’s realization strategies that might be in place elsewhere. In the determination of concierge employees’ appraisal and evaluation for use in the establishment of how their remuneration package is going to be, design will attach a lot of emphasis on their delivery. Without the concierge employees, the entire organization would come down on its knees. The general employee in this category must have the required management skills that can save the managerial level of their rigorous management duties. Through such a devolved arrangement, the entire hotel management is distributed to the workers and the responsibilities are shared thereby making the productivity plan achievable. In the event of complications in the systems and the other weaknesses within the organization, it can only be the role of such a devolved system to detect and correct the hitches in a timely manner before the arrival of high level managers. This class requires teamwork which implies that this category of remuneration will be determined by team player’s attributes. Finally, a keen eye is required on this class of employees since performance in this category can only be guaranteed if the official is watchful and keen. It therefore means that remuneration will be tied to the actual performance in these and other qualities that make the concierge employee an all round figure. Q3. How will Lisa’s plan tie into performance appraisals and how frequently should these be held for the plan to be effective? Depending on the efficiency of the performance appraisal, Lisa can attach remuneration categorization on a competitive basis. Creating a clear policy on the reviews included in the remuneration plan will enable Lisa to translate appraisal results in the actual payment programs. Due to the difficulties in ensuring that the appraisal is as efficient as possible in updating and accuracy, it is important that the various review programs are publicized among the employees in order to attract support and cooperation. It is important for the manager to motivate the employees to follow the payment package since it can act as a promotional tool in terms of pay when a lot of input is made in the specific areas of operation. Performance appraisal results will be used as the blueprint of remuneration which implies that the remuneration officials must be supplied with the details of the appraisal and an efficient system of translating the appraisal on the pay slip be introduced. Remuneration plans that will focus on the other benefits enjoyed on higher performance should be made popular among the employees than the current remuneration regime. By ensuring that the two systems are in tandem with performance objectives, employees will respond positively since they will feel more appreciated for extra effort put in their service delivery. It is important to outline the benefits of the program to all employees as well as ensure that the system is sustainable. Ensuring sustainability works in enhancing progress under the new regime and the objective will be met easily. III. Discuss the issue and how a company can prevent this from happening or how they should handle it now or in the future. 1. A member of your staff is about to retire, taking with him all his knowledge, leaving your business utterly devoid of a key capability. Prevention In order to ensure that a major retiree does not deprive the organization of some vital human resource element, it is important to ensure that there is a progress plan to absorb such information for continuity among the junior staff. It can be done through a retirement preparation where useful skills are imparted on the remaining team for such a time as would expand the knowledge among many employees besides making the skills better through further training on the same. Hiring the retiree to oversee the capability being improved through training is a major strength that can also be considered. Handling in the short term Hiring the retiree to oversee the capability being improved through training is a major strength that can also be considered for the short term, in case it happens without prior preparation. Handling in the long run It is perhaps important to develop retirement evaluation to detect how much is lost in terms of human resource through retirement. It is important that the program is maintained for a long period of time to ensure that departures do not incur losses. 2. A number of your employees are threatening to move to a competitor because you haven’t kept your eye on salaries in your sector. Prevention It is important to know the grievances as they develop in time to quell them through the most admissible compromise between the employer and the employees. Ensuring that the employment service offered at the organization is above any other competitor is the best solution in terms of prevention of such a scene. Handling in the short term In case such an employment scene occurs, use of diplomacy between employees’ representatives and the management could offer the immediate solution. Negotiating for an improvement of the needed services in parts is a deal worth considering. Handling in the long run Implementing a conducive environment with free expression among the employees can act against such conspiring.it is important to be vigilant all the time to ensure better employment package is in place. Read More