International Human Resource Assignment help: Fast food concept 

Fast Food concept has been originated from US. Today Fast food companies have been managing its brand image globally by operating with franchise modes. The examples of fast food companies like MC Donald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC have  been successfully operating in different countries  by employing youths who are being paid less amount of wages (Word Press Admin     2011). These fast food companies have been choice for kids, youths and families because of their designed outlets, working culture, services given by their employees and timely delivery. The elements like Trade Unions, Government, employer and labor policies have been integrated with smooth functioning of the business. It is important for Fast food companies to understand labor and government policies before entering into particular country (Franchise Direct  2003). Companies have been at the same time exploiting their employees by paying them less than the minimum standard rates. Majorly youths are hired because they have a desire to work on flexible basis along with their studies.

The main elements of Industrial Relations with respect to Australia are Trade Unions, Government/Law, Processess, Employers & Employees (John Wiley & Sons Inc    2012). Trade unions have been defined as the association of employees formed to protect their interest and the working conditions at organizations (Farlex Inc   2012). In 1904 Unions in Australia were being favored by employers to protect the interest of employees under the union registration Act. Unions were being empowered to represent their employees. It wanted awards in terms of fair wage rates, standard hours of working, overtime rates and resolving the issues arising at work place. The Australian Council of Trade formed on 1927 looks after the smaller unions. Centralized unions have being observing the cases frequently with respect to fair wage determination.  Government/Law is defined as the rules and regulation which every individual, business house and other institutions should follow. It is being enforced by the Government of particular country. Previously conservative parties dominated the centralized Government. It has been observed that Law has been used for intervening the labor market and social contract. Cheaper imports were charge higher Tariff values. It was introduced to protect the employment of emerging Labor. Social equity theory is much more preferred. Processess relates to sequence of activities that needs to be carried out for the successful completion of the work (ITS    2012). The introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA) had helped to protect from antistrike and the destructive activities at workplace by the Labor. Their business is generated by employing below aged and cheap Labor. Previously employees were hired with low wages. Employees were not rewarded on the basis of their performance. From 1^st July 2009, new system called Fair Work has been implemented for the welfare of employees at Australia. It explains unfair dismissal process, protection of workers and community services. It was conveyed by employees that when they get older they are given less pay and work in Australian Labor party has been much sympathetic in their approach. Due to Globalization employers are focusing on supplying more with least cost. Technologies have been changed from time to time. Employee’s involvement schemes have been used to show the cooperation among the labor and management. Trust is being developed by the employer to their employees. It is believed by the employers that unions should be brought when the issues are not being handled by management and its employees.

Fast Food companies have been facing much challenge because before operating their business in any country they must be aware of the law, labor availability, its policies, culture, and scope of business. In some countries like Australia they are operating without any HR Department. It has been observed that weak HRM practice that resulted in weak services as an output in different countries. At Australia MC Donald’s did not have any HR Department for their employees (Commonwealth of Australia    2012). The issue was that the performance of Labor was not related to any monetary incentives. Employees were offered a discount after performing so much of work. Bonus payment was linked with the fringe benefits. Employee relation Manager was not appointed there to look after the employees issues. Operations Manager and Corporate Area Manager looked after the HR related activities like IR, Recruitment and Training to the Labor. Station Observation Checklists is used at a process to measure the performance of the employees. Few employees knew about the Job Descriptions and employment policies of MC Donald’s. Employees are being selected observing their personality, smile and appearance of the youths. Students got opportunities to earn money along with the work by being flexible, anyone can get the job easily, people gained competencies related to team work, planning and organizing skills. The elements which worked against the standardization process of HRM are biased recruitment system was there because they hire youths who were students. The employees promoted within also did not get better salary. They need to work more by reducing the cost. Employees are trained for three days after being recruited without any pay to check whether they are right candidates or not. This has promoted the business but they are still being paid less as compared to Australian standards. In Germany Cooperative structure of Industrial Relation is followed. Work councils represent the interests of Labor in Germany. The rights are being provided for the Workers and management. Industrial relations in Germany can be classified into four principles like employees can represent to the Board, free collective bargaining process, institutions representing their constituencies, coordination of policies. Work council is there to held the elections between blue collar and white collar employees, at times it cannot call for strikes but can sue management for breach of rights. It was identified by the President of MC Donald’s at Germany that collective agreements and unions would obstruct them in exploring their business. Employers association was not been joined by MC Donald’s. The challenges faced were unions criticized management’s decisions and wanted elections to be held. It was stated that employees joining the unions should not be hired. MC Donald’s originated employer’s Federation. It could have joined (German Hotel and Guesthouses Employers’ Federation) but Mc Donald’s did not have good relationship with them. Management found difficulty in working with framed work councils after some time. MNC’s wanted non union activities to explore their business. Fast Food Industry had its origin from America that valued friendliness approach. In America Balance of power system was used to maintain the healthy relations. Hand books are offered to the employees before they were asked to work. Previously tight Labor Policies have caused problems in finding and retaining the labor for the organization. The corporations have control over the franchised dealers. Very less unionization process is there and employment at will is preferred. Workers are fired for involving into illegal activities. Federal and state laws are there to provide some restrictions related to minimum wages, limiting working hours of the children, kinds of work, and maintaining the safety measures. The challenges faced by MC Donald’s in US are Young people join it because for fast food industry they do not require any experience and it is easy to quit the job. The fast food companies have adopted the routinization and automation process. Managers have been minimizing the labors and idle time cost. There is a process of scheduling the hours to have control on their activities. As a culture, Job hopping is more there in fast food industry in US to get more and more wages. Many fast food companies are compatible to have lower their attrition rate and give bonus to the employees who stayed for the longer duration. Fringe Benefits were also being given for the welfare of the Labor. A hand book was distributed which explained how to serve the customers with fun. Mostly the young women are recruited for the fast food sector in America. The wages of the youths are set by the employers in absence of Unions.

The similarities between Human Resource and employment relations strategies adopted in Fast Food Industry in US, Germany and Australia are explained in this Paragraph. The objective of management is to supply more in such countries by lowering the wages and hiring the young youths. Management did not want to have interference of the unions for their business. Certain checkpoints like Stations Observation Checklist, hand book in America were used. Human Resource Management role was very limited in these countries. All the planning was done in corporate office and decisions were being followed in those countries. Mc Donald’s tried to position itself by freeing itself from the illegal activities of the labor at their outlets. The employees were trained to offer the best customer service with minimum cost. To show and value themselves in the eyes of different countries government they tried to associate with different institutions as per their suitability in countries like US, Germany and Australia. The differences noticed in these countries are in US maximum numbers of young women were employed. Performance of Labor was not linked with the promotions and incentives in Australia but in US the employees who stayed for longer duration were being promoted and bonus was also given. In Australia Labor was not aware about their employment policies whereas in Germany they were much more aware about their rights and policies of the employment. MC Donald’s in Australia followed biased recruitment system where as this was not in case of Germany and US. In Australia centralized union approach was used, in Germany there was collective bargaining, and in US balance of power system was used to maintain healthy employment relations. MC Donald’s tried to maintain the local culture of those countries by hiring the employees of those countries, and following the law of that country. They supplied their products in same manner as they were doing in US. They got registered with different institutions for maintaining the global leader’s image in Fast food industry.

The lessons learned from this comparison of attempts made by the fast food industry to develop a workable environment model of HR/ER for national country settings are explained in this paragraph. Companies who want to grow globally needs to understand the mindset of the host countries government, institutions, law and people. Human Resource managers must be hired for the smooth functioning of the business by following the standards. They will provide insights for solving the issues related to the work and Healthy employment relations can be maintained. Employees must be paid fairly according to their work (Black well publisher Ltd    2001). Some time the business gets clashed with the international integration process. The workable environment model of HR/ER for national country is shown below.

                                              (Victoria University of Wellington   n.d)

To maintain sound relationships the management of global companies should have an appropriate HR department who can coordinated well with the unions ,work committees and national bodies of the country for the smooth functioning of the business. First of all the work force planning should be done before recruiting the employees/labor for an organization. It will help to analyze the local availability of labor in the market. Proper Job analysis can be done. There will be clarity for hiring the skilled and unskilled workers as per the industry practices. Second step is to have a transparent recruitment system and hiring should be done by following the organizational and government standards. The under aged youths should not be hired because that comes under child labor Act. The recruitment should be done fairly by giving advertisement and postings. Labor

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must have knowledge about why they are being hired and how they are being hired. They can be hired for part time or full time employment basis. Employment relations can be maintained if HR managers work along with the different committees, if interests of labor unions are understood properly and they follow the law and standards of those countries. Certain issues like inadequate wages, tedious working conditions, and unstructured performance appraisal system results in low motivation & dissatisfaction among the workers resulting in strikes, protests against management and lockouts. It will certainly hamper the productivity of the organization. Time to time government must have the supervision whether the companies are manipulating the labor policies as per their requirements. Standard rate of wages for the skilled and unskilled labor must be decided by the government. Compensation and Payroll will include whether the employees are given incentives for their better performance or not. They should be given the medical, lunch, and other facility during their working hours. The HR managers must be knowledgeable enough to explain about why deductions have been made in employee’s salaries, and the different benefits they can avail from the company. Unethical practices must not be followed by the companies. The employees who work overtime should be given overtime wages and safe environmental conditions should be there for developing healthy working environment. The employees/Labor must be explained about the benefits of training and development process which they should implement during their work (International Human Resources Ltd 2012). They must have knowledge about their Job Description, roles and responsibilities. Proper communication must be there between the labor and management. In Mc Donald’s during training period wages was not given to the Labor which is not fair and should be stopped. Therefore training & change management process by the HR should be properly explained to the Labor. Technology should not create fear among the labor that they might be replaced with it. Rather Hr Manager should deal with the cooperative approach. Centralized policy must operate but it should be handled by the proper HR department in various countries. Employers and employees must deal with proper negotiations by providing win-win situations for all the parties. Proper career design of employees should be planned and linked with the promotions and their each level of performance. The pays of the labor must be decided on the basis of external market. It is a challenging task for the HR managers to maintain a proper culture by removing the cultural differences and removing the illegal activities. The legal differences between countries must be properly understood in terms of religion, types of governmental bodies, the economic conditions and etc. Globalization has offered a challenge for the companies to create new HR polices to enter into the international markets. Therefore a balanced and healthy relationship is a requirement of every global Organization.