Questions:
1. Analyse the different ways or methods in which Frishco’s HR department engages its employees.
2. Critically discuss the potential consequences of an organisations’ inability in addressing employee engagement issues including how it would affect their motivation.
3. Evaluate which methods you feel would create the most impact in achieving the highest level of employee engagement within Frishco.
Answers:
Introduction
In the current business environment, Human Resource Management has emerged as an important organizational function. The business leaders and managers have realized that HRM function could assist in strategic decision making and can provide the platform where the organizations can develop their core competency. There has been a transformation in the Human Resource Management function from a reactive function to a proactive or open function (Beardwell & Claydon, 2010). The large and small organizations have realized the power of HRM function. The objective of this report is to discuss the case study of Frishco. The management of Frishco acknowledges the fact that the human resources are its biggest assets. The report discusses the three case questions with various theories. The first question discusses the methods that are being used at Frishco to keep employees engaged. The second question deals with the potential consequences of an organisations’ inability in addressing employee engagement issues. The third question discussed the recommended method for Frishco to achieve the highest level of employee engagement. The secondary research is used to answer the case questions.
1. Different ways or methods in which Frishco’s HR department engages its employees
The management of Frishco realizes that HRM function is the key function in the organization with a focus to look for the employee benefits. Frishco has a strong focus to improve the levels of employee engagement. The management believes that high level of employee engagement would create a positive atmosphere in the company and it would increase the feeling of self-belongingness in the employees. The management changed the organizational structure to bring flexibility and reach. Today, the employees are free to reach out to managers for any concerns. The leaders have an important role to play to cascade the policy implementation to mid-level management and low level employees (Taras, 2008). The management realizes that it must have the support of employees to implement the policies. In fact, the change management would be effective in nature only when the change has the support from all the stakeholders within the organization. It can happen only when the employees are engage and they have a feeling of self-belongingness (Ackers, 2012). There are various methods and techniques that are being used at Frishco to keep employees engage. Some of the key methods can be discussed as:
Open communication channels: The HR department of Frishco has established a platform where employees can freely reach out to leaders and managers. The company believes in two way communication channel. The employees are encouraged to come up with new ideas and suggestions that could take the company forward. One of the reasons why Frishco is so successful today is that it gives its employees a voice for change. All employees are encouraged to give feedback on every aspect of how Frishco operates. The feedback and ideas from the employees not only keep them engage but also helps the management to brainstorm and come up with new ways to emerge as market leader (Greenwood, 2011).
Intranet: The Company has established an internal network where the employees can communicate and interact with other people. The presence of Intranet ensures that the information is not pushed upon the employees (Story, 2014). The employees can participate in various types of discussion that happens on the company portal. With the Intranet, the employees can chat informally with other employees and ultimately it keeps employees engage.
Quarterly employee forum and discussions: At Frishco, employees are considered as an integral part of the organization. The management of Frishco would arrange for the quarterly forums where the employees can share his or her feedback. It helps to develop a long term relationship between management and employees. This enables employees to present issues and contribute to company strategy. In addition to the quarterly employee forums, the employees can reach out to management at any time.
Continuous employee development: The management of Frishco believes that the employee development should not be a onetime activity but a continuous activity. Therefore, the company has a continuous focus on employee development. The management wants to employees to work with high level of motivation and productivity.
Effective HR connect: The HR department of Frishco has implemented several initiatives to establish a better connect within the organization. For example, the company has a policy of daily morning briefing for the employees. The morning briefing has the objective to inform shop floor teams about what is going on that day and the latest sales statistics. It generates a sense of professional commitment among the employees and they are able to contribute their 100% to achieve the organizational goals and objectives.
The above example shows that the organization uses Herzberg motivation theory to keep its employees motivated. Herzberg argued that there are certain factors that cause dissatisfaction for employees and these factors are different than the factors that creates satisfaction (Smith, 2013). Therefore, the organizations must focus on both satisfaction and dissatisfaction factors. These factors can be tabulated as:
Frishco has a flexible and agile culture in the organization which focuses on the satisfaction factors like achievement, recognition, etc. The management of the company also focuses on the hygiene factors like job security, salary and working conditions.
2. Potential consequences of an organisations’ inability in addressing employee engagement
The employee engagement not only keep employees motivated and productive but it also increases a sense of commitment among employees (Thornhill, 2013). With high levels of employee engagement, the employees can bring together their personal goals and their professional goals (Uysal, 2012). The absence of employee engagement or the limited levels of employee engagement can seriously affect the productivity level of employees. Therefore, it is important that the leaders and HR managers must understand the factors that impacts the employee engagement levels and the efforts should be made to eradicate these factors from the organization (Mondy & Mondy, 2011). Some of the major potential consequences of an organisations’ inability in addressing employee engagement issues can be discussed as:
Costly affair: The prime objective of any organization in business is to increase its profitability. In this era, the competition is all time high. The organizations have realized that the productivity can increase if the organization can keep the cost optimized. The cost can be minimized if all the employees work at 100% productivity levels. A simple example would demonstrate that cost would increase by 50% if half of the employees work at 50% producitcty levels. It means, if an organization has an annual cost of operations as £10 million with 100 employees then this cost would increase to £15 million if 50 employees work with 50% productivity level and the employee engagement is directly linked to the productivity level of employees.
Threat to customer satisfaction: In service based industry, the employees are the face of organization. The customer service and the corresponding customer satisfaction levels can go for a toss if the employees are not engaged in an appropriate manner. Take an example of a bank: the people or the bank customers may not want to visit a bank where their relationship manager does not speak well or keep the customer waited. It can happen if the employees are not motivated to serve their clients. Therefore, it is important that the organization should have a clear focus to improve the motivation level of employees and the motivation level of employees are directly linked with the employee engagement levels.
It is also important that the organizations should understand the factors or the key drivers that could act as a roadblock to keep employees engage. Some of the major factors that contribute to employee disengagement can be discussed as:
Leadership style: It has been observed that the employee engagement levels are high in the organization where the leaders have a democratic style as compared to the organizations where the leaders have the autocratic style.
Type of decision making: The employee engagement level can improve significantly if the organization has a proactive decision making culture. The organization where the decisions are reactive and the organizations where the decisions are made on the situation may not have the time to keep employees engaged.
Work life balance: It has been observed that the employees can maintain a high level of engagement level only when they can obtain a work life balance with the job. The leaders and managers should understand that the employees would not be able to work with 100% productivity level if they are not able to attain the work life balance.
3. Methods that would create the most impact in achieving the highest level of employee engagement within Frishco
It is important that the management of Frishco should continue to invest on the methods and techniques that can keep employees engaged, motivated and productive. It can be inferred from the case study that Frishco has a matured HR function that adds to the strength of the organization. Another positive thing about Frishco is that the Human Resource Management function is considered as a strategic function in the organization. However, it is important that the management of Frishco should continue to focus on the best methods that could help the company to achieve the highest level of employee engagement. The three key methods for Frishco for highest level of employee engagement can be discussed as:
Method 1: Intranet
The Company has established an internal network where the employees can communicate and interact with other people. The presence of Intranet ensures that the information is not pushed upon the employees (Price, 2011). With the Intranet, the employees can chat informally with other employees and ultimately it keeps employees engage. It is recommended that the company should continue to improve the Intranet channel and it should increase the reach of this channel.
Method 2: Regular connect with employees
The HR department of Frishco has implemented several initiatives to establish a better connect within the organization. For example, the company has a policy of daily morning briefing for the employees. It generates a sense of professional commitment among the employees and they are able to contribute their 100% to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. It is recommended that the company should continue to improve the employee connect (Hall, 2008). It would help Frishco to achieve high level of employee engagement in long term
Method 3: Two way communication
Frishco believes in two way communication channel. The employees are encouraged to come up with new ideas and suggestions that could take the company forward. All employees are encouraged to give feedback on every aspect of how Frishco operates. The feedback and ideas from the employees not only keep them engage but also helps the management to brainstorm and come up with new ways to emerge as market leader (Banfield & Kay, 2012). It is recommended that the company should continue to improve its communication channels. It can be said that the communication is the key to take organization forward in terms of employee development and employee engagement (Armstrong, 2010).
Conclusion
The above paper discusses the case study of Frishco. With the above discussion it can be said that Frishco has been able to establish a matured and effective HR function in the organization. The above report discusses the various methods and practices being practiced at Frishco. It is important that the company must continue to use the existing methods to increase the engagement level of employees. The above report also discusses the importance of keeping employees engaged. The employee engagement not only keep employees motivated and productive but it also increases a sense of commitment among employees. It can be concluded that the employees’ productivity would be hampered seriously if the employees are not able to work with high engaged levels. It would not only be a costly affair for the company but it would also compromise the service quality. Therefore, it is important that the organizations should realize the importance of employees’ engagement. The leaders and managers should create a culture where the employees can attain a match between their personal goals and professional goals.
References
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