HR assignment on: GS Plumbing
INTRODUCTION:
The case talks about a small company named GS Plumbing. With changing time the owner of the company Greg Smith expanded its business with sixteen fully equipped vans & contracts with various business houses. Alan Arrow smith is the HR manager of the company.
It employs 16 workers, out of which twelve staff members work full time and the rest four are part time workers. Greg Smith & Alan are always worried about the employee turnover as many of the employees have left their organization due to some reasons (James, B. 2010).
This case study deals with certain issues that are being faced by Alan & Greg Smith.
Some of the issues discussed in this case are regarding a formal audit to be conducted for the HR function, how to deal with unplanned absence of the employees, reasons why employees leave the organization, how to benchmark HR function at GS Plumbing, the issues faced at the senior management level (James, B. 2010).
QUESTIONS RELATED TO CASE STUDY:
Q1. So far GS Plumbers has not conducted a formal audit of the HR function. Why would this activity be useful and who should be involved?
Ans1. The Human Resource Audit refers to a systematic & a formal process, that
is intended to look at the policies, strategies, documentation, procedures, structure,
systems & practices it with respect to the firms human resource management (HRM).
It is an appropriate HR tool that evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, and develops a structure that meets the existing needs of the human resources from a wide spectrum of enhancing the organizational performance.
So far GS plumber has not conducted any formal audit of the HR function, but it would be advisable for the organization to implement the same.
The human resource audit is one of the most essential tools which should be implemented by any organization in order to respond towards the changing needs (James, B. 2010).
Human Resource Audits would not only help GS Plumber to sort out the routine works which are aimed at solving various problems. But, would also help the organization to have deep look into the relative causes which might create a problem in the near future.
The Human Resource formal audits at GS Plumbing would help the employees working in the organization, which would have a positive impact on the workers performance & morale, thereby, improving the overall productivity of the organization (James, B. 2010).
This system would also help the organization in order to focus, analyze the & improve the HR function which would further help to identify what all aspects are missing in the organization, how to improve & deal which such type of issues (James, B. 2010).
In this particular case study the team that must be involved in the audit process would be the organization staff members which would include the top i.e. Greg Smith, upper middle managers and Alan, Arrow Smith who deal with HR functions.
It would be suggested to GS Plumbing to do the required evaluation as in the present scenario & in such a competitive environment human resource management requires an ongoing improvement, rearrangement (Fitz – Enz, J. 1984).
Furthermore, there has been a great relevance for the formal audit in each & every enterprise. It is the employees working in the organization who contribute towards the accomplishment of the main objective or goal & thereby gives a competitive edge over the other. A proper formal audit at GS plumbing would help the owner i.e. Greg Smith, to look into the relevant policies, strategies to e followed or to revive it policies as and when required.
Q2. Unplanned absence of employees is a particular issue at GS Plumbing. Develop a process to address this issue.
Ans2. One of the particular issues at GS Plumbing is the unplanned absence of employees. Unplanned absence in an organization would lead to loss of productivity which is difficult to determine.
In such situations, the employers of GS Plumbing should take up some necessary measures in order to keep the employees motivated & resolve this issue in the best possible manner. Some of the most common ways through which an unplanned absence could be measured are as under:
Provide incentives: Providing employees with various incentive schemes in order to reduce unnecessary absenteeism would turn out to be very helpful. Such type of incentives would help the employee to be motivated & come up to office rather than sitting at home & relax for no cause (Eccles, R. 1991).
Develop an attendance policy: A proper attendance policy should be maintained in the organization which would help the owner, Greg Smith to intervene with the employee who is frequently absent. Instead of stressing on the fact that why he was absent, the owner should try to support & stay calm & try to figure out what is going wrong and where (Eccles, R. 1991).
Q3. What should GS plumbing be doing when employees leave the organization? How could such activities improve retention, recruitment & selection?
Ans3. In such a competitive environment, the employees tend to leave their present organization due to several reasons. This might create a problem for the organization in a long run. (Fitz – Enz, J. 1984)
GS Plumbing shall figure out all the possible reasons as to why the employees are leaving the organization. All the reasons would help them to retain more & more number of people.
Some of the possible reasons are listed as under:
- BOSSES AND SUPERVISORS
One of the major causes as to why the employees leave GS Plumbing would be due to their immediate supervisors. It is mentioned in the case study that Greg Smith had the habit of asking its subordinates to do as much as the demand for plumbing work was at a hike, but in return the subordinates were not paid the compensation which was at par the work done. He used to set difficult targets and never used to appreciate them for the work done by them.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AND ADVANCEMENT
Once the top officials i.e. Greg Smith, Alan & Arrow Smith realizes that constant good results are being produced by an employee, then, the worker should be given some financial benefits which would boost his morale & he would be willing to work with the same zeal.
If the results produced by the worker would be ignored then he will get an opportunity to look for some other jobs. If this is the situation, GS Plumbing would definitely lose some talented employees & potential leaders (Fitz – Enz, J. 1984).
It is evident from the case study that GS Plumbing was not able to meet up with the increasing expectations of its client, in addition to it the workers of the other organization was being given something extra under the head of non-financial benefit.
- MOTIVATION AND APPRECIATION
Lack of motivation, no acknowledgment for the work accomplished is another major reason at GS plumbing which leaves the employees of de motivated & low on morale.
Making the workers motivated & keeping their morale up is an inevitable procedure. Motivated workers are usually committed and happy in their work (Fitz – Enz, J. 1984).
- FEEDBACK
An appropriate & a planned response should be brought about for the employees in order to communicate in GS Plumbing. There is lack of communication in the organization (Eccles, R. 1991).
It must be noted that once the employee decides to fill its resignation it is a very tedious take for the organization to drop the decision. In order to avoid such type of repeated occurrences, GS Plumbing would be advised to conduct thorough exit interviews in order to make out, the related issues as well as concerns which would help the GS Plumbing to comprehend the basic requirements of the workers It is very important for the company be open to all types of changing trends & the benefits provided by its competitors.
In order to improve retention, recruitment & selection the top management should look into their system & try to solve all the possible discrepancies (Eccles, R. 1991). For example: it is mentioned in the case study that the long term staff members have been talking to Alan regarding their job allocation. The workers became frustrated & communicated that the work allocated to them is a routine work & should be given to the new staff. The workers were bored of doing the routine. This example states that at GS Plumbing, the top officials need to take into consideration all such issues or else the trained personnel would leave the job & they would have to search for some new workers and train them too (Eccles, R. 1991). High amount of cost would be involved in the whole process.
Thus, Alan being the HR head needs to take up all the reasons seriously & work upon them accordingly.
Q4. How could Alan benchmark the HR function at GS Plumbing? How could the process be conducted?
Ans4. Benchmarking can be explained as a contrast between the performances of two different organizations in the similar industry.
Benchmarking refers to a planned activity which aims at achieving nonstop development.
GS Plumbing should benchmark them against the market leader in that particular industry. The company should take into consideration the various business practices taken up by the market leader. A winning benchmarking needs to be done by careful selecting & manipulation of the similar events (Eccles, R. 1991).
The biggest benefit which GS Plumbing would attain by applying the benchmarking technique is to compare their firm with the other organization & take into consideration their direction of thinking.
Benchmarking would help GS Plumbing to improve upon their standards, the way of achieving their goals & objects, etc.
Alan being the HR of the company should benchmark the HR function as it would help her to serve various purposes & have an edge over the others. Some of the benefits are as under:
• The major benefit which would be achieved with the help of benchmarking is to get aware of the problematic areas in the organization which the workers are not able to handle.
• The another benefit is to locate who all are working hard in the organization to achieve its goals or targets. With this the HR, Alan would be able to fix up a definite target for the other workers employed (Camp, R. 1989).
• Benchmarking would help GS Plumbing to learn from its competitor’s successes. With the help of this tool GS Plumbing would be able to have an active learning environment where everybody would be open for any kind of feedback.
This would help the HR manager, Alan to focus on the crucial activities of the organization & have an edge over its competitors.
The process to be followed in order to practice benchmarking is described as under:
- Proto-planning: In the first step of benchmarking, the company would be required to see what it wants to benchmark & against whom it wants to benchmark the same. The company needs to identify the output required.
- Data collection: Data Collection would be the second step towards benchmarking. It would include Primary as well as Secondary research.
- Analysis: Core analysis is to be done in order to fill in the gaps between the outcomes produced & outcome required. Various reasons as well as factors needs to be taken into consideration in order to make the process more fruitful.
- Implementation: The key step in the benchmarking procedure would be to implement whatever is planned & see whether the changes made in the organization is giving them better results than before or not.
- Monitoring: The last step in the benchmarking process is to monitor the new changes, evaluate the data & see whether all changes discussed are being implemented.
Q5. Are there issues at the senior management level? Could the evaluation function assist here?
Ans5. Yes, there are various issues at the senior management level. GS Plumbing is managed by three employers i.e. Greg Smith, Alan Arrow smith & Gail. The top officials are unable to manage the work pressure as well as the employees working in the organization (Camp, R. 1989).
It is seen that most of the employees of the organization are leaving their job because of certain reasons such as lack of motivation, over burden of work, etc. The owner i.e. Greg Smith is advised to either increase the number of employers or the allocation of work amongst the employees should be done according to the capability of an individual (Camp, R. 1989).
The senior management should try to change certain policies & implement other strategies in order to satisfy their employees which would help them as well as the organization at large in the long run.
CONCLUSION:
It can thus be concluded that GS Plumbing should benchmark its HR functions as it would help the organization to have an edge over its competitors. Benchmarking would help them to learn new approaches, directions of performing things. It would also help the organization to learn from the mistakes of the other firms in the similar industry (Camp, R. 1989).
The company should also use another tool i.e. conduct a formal audit in the organization in order to see the rules, regulations, policy, strategies, etc whether they are being followed by each and every individual of the firm. If needed the officials would be free to change the policies & formulate, implement new strategies which would benefit the organization in the long run (Camp, R. 1989).
If you want HR management Assignment Help study samples to help you write professional custom essay’s and essay writing help.
Receive assured help from our talented and expert writers! Did you buy assignment and assignment writing services from our experts in a very affordable price.
To get more information, please contact us or visit www.myassignmenthelp.Com
