Addresssing human resource issues at Utiliscan - Essay Example

? Addresssing human resource issues at Utiliscan Human resource issues at Utiliscan identified by the survey Paul, the former Director for Utilitiscan conducted a survey and th result revealed some troubling issue in the company that caused its employees to leave. The survey that Paul conducted reported that; Most employees view their job at Utilitiscan as career dead end. Meaning, most employees felt that their careers are not advancing in the company as Paul’s survey result revealed that 87% of the employees felt that there were no promotion opportunities in the company. 74% of the employees also felt that their pay does not increase even if they perform well. Employees were also complaining that performance appraisals were not done anymore. Some respondents commented that there were favoritism in the company. Most employees also no longer feel challenged by their jobs. This is corroborated by the fact that a resounding 89% of respondents also complaint that opportunities to grow and improve were rare in the company. 56 % of the employees felt that their non wage benefits were below industry standard. Only 55% of all employees felt safe working in Utilitiscan. Meaning, the other half or 45% felt that there is an occupational hazard associated with their physical environment and that safety is less than adequate. In sum, the problem of the employees at Utilitiscan was that they felt that their job is a career dead end without any prospect for advancement and non-challenging where there are no incentives to do a good job. The proposed conceptual plan as a solution to the problem Employees are leaving Utilitiscan, including the very person who conducted the survey which was Paul, because the company was perceived to be a dead end and that the jobs were boring thereby making employees not motivated to perform because there are no incentives available when they do a good job anyway. Thus, to address these issues, management has to; a. Make job interesting for the employees to engage b. Institute promotional plans for the career advancement for employees c. Provide incentive for good performance (including promotion) d. Perform performance appraisal to address the need for basis of incentive and to encourage high performance in the organization. These conceptual plan does not necessarily “breaks the bank” of Utilitiscan. Addressing the employees issue about their jobs as non-challenging by making their jobs interesting jobs do not have to cost the company a huge amount of money. This can be done through job-rotation whereby employees move through the various functions in the organization laterally doing functions other than they are accustomed to. This is consistent with the idea of a classical management theorist Frederick Herzberg that it is not only money that motivates people to work as what Taylor posits in his scientific management theory. Herzberg argued that it is intrinsic rewards such as challenging work and growth that gets employees motivated. True, pay can make people work better but they will only endure the drudgery of work until the next pay raise or promotion and will again be back to mediocre performance after taking the pay raise or promotion. This principle in motivating employees is corroborated by a more recent study conducted by Dan Pink. In his study, Pink illustrated how monetary rewards failed in motivating employees. It may sound baffling but the Pink experiment showed that the obvious does not always work. Giving monetary rewards as a basis for motivation on jobs that requires even the slightest cognitive skills such as the jobs of programmers and engineers in Utilitiscan do not always work. It can even be a source of demotivation as what Pink found out when he did the experiment of giving financial incentive to motivate people to do tasks that involves thinking. The same experiment was done in other countries and other cultures and the result are the same, money as an incentive is a demotivator to tasks that involves thinking. The moment monetary reward is dangled to encourage performance, productivity suddenly declines. Pink hypothesized then that to properly motivate employees that do cognitive tasks, just remove the worry from their tables and instead provide them the autonomy to do their job. Pink reasoned that this is so because people naturally wanted to excel or be good at something as he narrate why we pursue hobbies during weekends or engage in other social activities that do not actually pay. These findings of Herzberg debunked the old notion of Taylor’s classical view on scientific management that Utilitiscan may still be using that higher pay meant higher productivity nor Maslow’s hierarchy of need that people needs to satisfy their biological needs (remuneration) first (Sarachek, 1968). Implementation of performance appraisal Employees complained that they get the same pay regardless on how they perform because of the absence of a performance appraisal. Perhaps Utilitiscan did failed to appreciate the function of Performance Appraisal because it is no longer implemented. Performance appraisals do not only encourage performance that serves as a basis of any promotion or incentive but would also prevent favoritism that is becoming a problem among the ranks in the oganization. Performance appraisal can also become a basis for creating career plans for employees so that their complaint about non-advancement will be addressed. This will not “break the bank” of Utilitiscan since the effect of pay raise is not immediate but rather dependent on the growth of the firm which is at 15% annually. In addition, the costs saved in hiring and training new employees as replacement from those who left can instead be used for promotional pay. Performance appraisal can also be used as a feedback mechanism for Utilitiscan’s management to address issue among its employees before it gets out hand. This provides management an invaluable information that would prevent employees in leaving the company because of issues that were not adressed. In addition, performance appraisals are also good opportunities for management to immediately respond to any employees’ inquiries and/or complaints. Conclusion It does not have to cost that much for Utilitiscan to address the high labor turn over rate of its employees. By making the job interesting through job rotation, employees will find challenge and satisfaction with their job that also benefits the management because it makes its employees more well rounded. The reintroduction of performance appraisal to end favoritism and encourage productivity is not also costly to the company. The planned promotion for its performing employees will not necessarily incur cost for Utilitiscan in the immediate but rather along with its 15% growth making the additional cost bearable. This cost cost may even be easily defrayed by the reduction of labor turn over and the expected increase of employees productivity and performance because they are now motivated to work and committed to the company with the management’s initiative of addressing the root cause of issues that caused low performance and high labor turnovers that cost the company not only money but also valuable employees such as Paul. References Pink, Daniel. Full Interview: Daniel Pink on Motivation 3.0. (April 06, 2010). Retrieved at http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2010/04/full-interview-daniel-pink-on-motivation-3-0/. Sarachek, Bernard (1968). Elton Mayo's Social Psychology and Human Relations. Academy of Management Journal 11(2): 189-197. 1986 Read More