There is an insufficient human resource framework for Maple Leaf shoes to handle its workers since there is no structured structure in place. This disorganisation in the company’s human resources position leads to problems around the organisation, including financial hardship, low morale of workers, and union problems. If the company is to survive the competitive shoe market they are in, the company must revise its human resource functions, especially its recruiting process, training system and performance evaluation system. “Systems come and go; individuals are more important,” as the first owner said.
Problems and Cause: This issue potentially emerged when the company was taken over as there was practically no focus on revising the management team’s (company leaders’) structure or development,’ new equipment was built and most routine tasks were automated or otherwise mechanised to minimise costs. While attempts were also made to update management practices, in this respect, the business was sluggish.’ The company’s “modernizations” were focused on the production side, thus allowing the company’s leaders’ training and development to be placed on the “back burner.” “This lack of emphasis on the human resource function to support the company’s leaders has led them not to make intelligent business decisions about the emphasis that should be placed on the human resource function, “Management recognises that company’s human resource processes and structures are antiquated and need to be replaced; nevertheless, cost pressures and everyday goals have. Understandably, it is important to introduce costs, but costs that promote the internal purpose are those that need to be taken to make Maple Leaf a profitable company. A downside to business leaders not placing sufficient focus on the company’s human resource functions is that low employee morale has been generated, leading to a loss of productivity and thus affecting the company’s economic prosperity. Based on many factors, poor employee morale exists. “People such as Jane Reynolds in the human resource department feel that their job is unvalued in the company’s view, “Being in human resource management is either not considered important or very useful. We are regarded as an unwanted appendage by many people. -pg 82. While other staff in different departments feel low morale due to variables associated with their disorganisation and mismanagement as employees. The basis of this mismanagement and disorganisation resonates with the company’s three key unstructured human resource functions. The explanation they are unstructured begins with the review and documentation of out-of-date job analysis. This leads to an employee having an unstructured work identity, an unsuitable recruiting process, a training and development system and a performance evaluation system for the company.
“The findings of an internal survey “More than 75 per cent of workers feel either indifferent or negative about the evaluation method” indicate this link between the job analysis and performance appraisal, pg 325. Since there are no standardised work criteria to be tested against the appraisals, they are unreliable and do not elicit effective feedback. Finally, there are no training and development methods to help improve the skills and knowledge of internal workers even when an employee does not perform at par (which can not be decided at this point due to ‘cost-saving’. “Training has never been a high priority for Maple Leaf Shoes, as stated in the text, having always been seen as an item of expense, not an investment”
After induction and during the career of workers at Maple Leaf shoes, training and growth need to be discussed. Consistent training and growth would help vertically align workers to concentrate on fulfilling the overall goal and plan that the organisation has in place.
The company should introduce some work rotation of roles in the company to cross-train employees, especially in manufacturing roles. This not only gives employees flexibility in their jobs, but cross-training also helps the organisation with high transferability when holidays, absences, and resignations occur. This can assist workers who are described as “repetitive and boring” in shaping and cutting jobs to learn and acquire expertise in other areas of production that allow better use of their skills. The business should also invest cash in the growth and training of current workers, including management positions, along with work rotation. However, as seen in the text “the company tries to fill management positions through internal promotions and transfers,” this has meant that management preparation is more important than ever before. Their current concept that if “skilled workers are needed, Maple Leaf preferred to raid other businesses to save training costs” is a flawed approach that does not help the business as it takes the incentive away from its staff and reduces any growth. To run a profitable business, if the business wants them to be the units that make the business efficient, the internal workers must be the ones with the time, resources and effort put into them. In particular, managerial positions require attention to their growth since these are the company’s leaders. Without growth in the higher ranks of the sector, there can be no ripple effect on lower company levels. Not only for the company’s potential future cost savings but the overall morale of the workforce, the upfront cost of internal personnel growth will be more advantageous. “In this case, the importance of putting the employees first places a strong emphasis on what the company’s founder believes in “Systems come and go; people are more important.
Maple Leaf shoes must revise the existing performance management framework from the use of work appraisal and to instil the values of training and development. To date, the performance assessment framework is insufficient because it is only performed once a year is ambiguous, and does not provide workers with positive input (“What Are Incentive Plans?”, 2020). As explained above, “more than 75 per cent of staff felt that the evaluation system was either indifferent or negative” . Also, supervisors typically filled out the form quickly and did not take the time to discuss the results with the workers, as stated in the document. Instead, to help workers understand their responsibilities, priorities, aspirations, and performance success, a proper performance evaluation should be introduced at Maple Leaf. The performance evaluation should have defined performance criteria, be related to work and be valid and reliable in terms of content (Curseu, 2015). In the first phase of my suggestion -work review, knowledge of these benchmarks should be gathered. For example, for manufacturing staff, depending on whether they are cutters, shapers, assemblers or packagers, each should have a performance assessment specifically tailored to the role they have been assigned. For the production line, I suggest using the M-B-O (Management by Objectives) approach to measure employee productivity (Aminu, 2019). This method allows an employee and a supervisor to mutually determine future performance targets and the workers are then assessed for how well they have accomplished these goals. The effect of using this approach is that workers can receive the motivational advantage of a concrete goal to coordinate and direct their efforts when potential targets are set. This strategy would improve the morale of the employee by focusing their work efforts on specific targets, while these specific performance goals will help to increase efficiency. In this way, performance evaluations help to align workers vertically by assessing how much they contribute to the corporate plan and also horizontally by recognising what is required of them within their particular positions at the production level.
References
Aminu, S. (2019). Impact of Management by Objectives [MBO] on the Employee Productivity in Vodafone Ghana. TEXILA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 57-63.
Curseu, P. (2015). Team Performance Management – 2014. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 21(1/2).
What Are Incentive Plans?. (2020). Retrieved 10 December 2020, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/incentive-plans-1776.html#:~:text=Incentive%20plans%2C%20which%20are%20known,organization%20and%20encourage%20company%20loyalty.
