7916EHR People Management Issues and Experiential Exercises

5.Ability to handle stressful working conditions, short timeframes and demanding customers.

Compulsory Questions:

1.Identify and briefly explain the HRM concepts and practices that you consider would be relevant to the case above. Explain their relevance and how they can be applied to this case. (Hint: when answering this question do not limit your answer to just one or two key areas - draw on the knowledge you have obtained across the course)

2.If you were Samantha, what should you have done over the period of time you were manager to help improve Barry’s performance and the performance of the team? (Hint: Your answer should demonstrate your breadth of understanding about HRM and the integration of its activities.)

3.Explain what strategies you would put in place for the recruitment of the position of Sales Manager. Discuss advantages and disadvantages of the attraction strategies and identify principle sources and techniques you can use. Assuming Taylors Catering Supplies has just purchased e-recruitment software, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the system for the recruitment of Sales Manager including reference to social media. 10 marks

4.Samantha in her brief exit interview said she “cannot cope with the stress and pressure”. What processes would you recommend Taylors Catering Supplies undertake to identify stressors in the business. Using both organisation and individual techniques, what prevention methods would you recommend.

Introduction 

Do to the growing contemporary issues in the HRM, it becomes essential for the management of an organization to manage the performance of the working staffs by applying the effective HRM concepts and theories to ensure a high performance culture and productive workplace. This report will analyze the application of the people management concepts and theories to the case study by answering the questions (Armstrong, 2011).

Main Body 

Q1. The HRM concepts and practices will be effective in designing and implementation of the effective HR planning, policies and strategies that could be applied to NSW store of Tailors Catering Supplies to manage the performances of the workforce toward the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. The HRM concepts and practices will include the components, such as recruitment and selection, retention, promotion, organizational culture and work environment, training and skills development, leadership and management, employee motivation and job satisfaction, employee participation and engagement, pay-off and performance appraisal, and feedbacks and awards (York, 2009).

The development of the human resource policies, processes and strategies will assist the organization of TCS at NSW store to reinforce the job performance, behaviors, attitudes and actions of the human resources toward the goals-accomplishment and meeting the corporate objectives. The motivational theory, like Maslow’s Hierarchy needs theory could be applied by the sales manager to enhance the motivational level and enthusiasms of Barry and team members by encouraging them for the achievement of the sales objectives and targets. This motivational theory will be effective to motivate the employees for the personal achievement and professional career development by fulfilling different needs, such as safety, physiological, social/belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization. The transformational leadership could be applied to the store case for transforming the leadership behavior of the store sales manager to cope with the organizational requirements and workforce behaviors and establish coordination and positive working relationship with them (Wilton, 2010).

The HRM practices will include planning the work, setting standards of performance, continually improve the performances and developing capacity to perform, flexible and learning work environment, high performance culture, periodically evaluating the performance and reward management system that could be applied to TCS store case for ensuring the productive workplace to attain the optimized productivity of the employees. Staffing process could be applied to the organization for analyzing the actual human resource requirements for performing the multiple store operations or job tasks at Tailors catering supply store. Along with this, the recruitment and selection process could be followed by the HR administrative staffs of TCS store for employing the best selected candidate for the designation of the store sales manager and other job posts after analyzing their skills levels, educational qualification, and competences for the different job tasks or multiple operations (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). The retention strategy may also be applied to retain the high-performing and experienced employees by offering them the high job posts with the promotion or salary increment in the pay grades. The job design and specification is an important HRM approach that could be applied to attain higher performances and better production outcomes from the workforce at the store by assigning their job tasks, duties, roles, and responsibilities.

The employee development is an important organizational HRM process that includes development/improvement of the current skills, technical and product related knowledge, capabilities, and customer service quality by providing the training and development programs. The workforce performance management is also an HRM concept that could be applied to monitor and evaluate the performances of the employees by the using the performance management methods, such as feedbacks, performance appraisal, balance scorecard and annual reviews for comparing against the set performance metrics or measures. The compensation and reward management will encourage the workforce to give the best performances toward attainment of organizational goals and objectives by providing them performance based monetary (pay-offs, bonuses, incentives, salary increase) and non-monetary benefits (appreciation and performance appraisal).

The integration of the human resource processes with the organizational strategy will assist in developing effective HRM plans and policies in line with the organizational strategy after assessing the external environmental impacts and organizational requirements (Truss, Mankin, and Kelikher, 2012). The use of the information and communication technologies (internet-enable applications, intranets, extranets, Skype, and team viewer) will be effective to create the high level of communication and interaction with the staff members. The innovation business model, advanced technologies, and internet-enabled software applications could be applied to enhance the technological competence, creativity and innovation, and capabilities of the staff members within the organization.

Q2. If I were at the position of the store sales manager in place of Samantha within the organization of NSW store of TCS, I will play my role, duties, and responsibilities effectively over the time period for improving Barry’s performance as well as overall team performance. I might have communicated the mission, goals and objectives with Barry and team members and set the sales targets for Barry and other team members. I should have provided a high performance and productive culture for attaining good production outcomes from the team members. Along with this, I might have focused on the group performance, team work, cohesion, and collaborative efforts for achieving the performances and production outcomes from Barry and other members.

I might have fixed meetings with Barry and other sales team members to identify the previous sales records of the company as well as define the further goals, action plans, and strategies for the next five years to achieve the sales targets and corporate objectives of Taylors Catering Supplies’ NSW store. I should have focused on the organizational performance with priority rather than personal relationship with Berry and other team members (Gray, 2010). I might have managed extra training session to Berry and other sales team staffs for enhancing their current product knowledge, technological skills and creative thinking, and customer service experiences. I might have advised Barry to enhance his competence in computer knowledge and use of online applications and software to cope with the business requirements and market demands.

I might also have convinced and committed Barry and other sales team members to understand and undertake their roles, duties, and tasks responsibly for meeting the corporate objectives and sales targets of the store. I should have committed them to attend the customers well with great communication and intended purpose of increasing sales revenues and establish positive and long-term relationship with them. I should have provided a collaborative and ethical treatment by convincing berry to improve his weaknesses rather than demanding the replacement of Berry because Barry’s working experiences and area knowledge of New South Wales could assist in boosting sales revenues by growing the catering supply business in the area. Along with this, the new recruited sales personnel couldn’t be expected to give the extraordinary performance in place of Barry.

I might have managed the sales operations for TCS’ product, catering supplies in the NSW area for the hospitality businesses (hotels, restaurants, clubs, hostels, apartments, bars, and marriage halls) by achieving the great interest and active sense of involvement of Barry other sales staffs to perform their duties in a responsible manner (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). As a store sales manager, I might have developed effective sales strategies and action plans for achieving the large sales revenues with profitable growth. I should have collaborated Barry and other team members for encouraging them acting on the identified objectives, strategic plans, and set targets in order to meet the store corporate objectives and goal of sales revenue maximization.

I might have provided a supportive and learning culture with good management support, learning environment through training and seniors’ support, high communication and interaction with Barry and other team members for enhancing their job performance and morale. I might have adopted an effective performance management and control process for having the strong control and supervision on the team performance. I might have asked them to regular reporting to me on regular basis for analyzing their sales performance and accordingly to provide them appropriate feedbacks on their performance for the further improvement. I might have recommended an adequate pay structure by including the sales performance-based compensation and reward system. I might have managed adequate pay-offs for their good performance along with monetary (bonuses, incentives, salary increment), and non-monetary rewards (performance appreciation/appraisal, and other welfare schemes) for the job satisfaction and high morale of Barry and team members (Crawshaw, Budhwar, and Davis, 2014).

Q3. At Taylors Catering Supplies, the effective recruitment strategies and techniques can play an important role in recruiting the skilled, potential and experienced store sales manager in place of Samantha for NSW store for managing the store team performance and sales operations effectively. The job attraction strategy, such as giving advertisement for the job post of store sales manager at NSW store of TCS organization in the newspaper, job alert websites, social media posts, and placement websites (LinkedIn, Monster, Orkut) will assist in finding the large number of applicants for the relevant job post. TCS organization can also use the principle recruitment sources, such as external recruitment agencies or online placement agencies to recruit the best capable and experienced personnel with the potential skills, talent, multiple expertise, and adequate job competences for the position with strong ability to perform the store operations effectively (Griffin, 2013). The HR administrative staff could conduct an effective recruitment process through the interviewing, documentation and skill aptitude test of the applicants for recruiting the deserving candidate for the relevant job post. 

The documents, like Job application, Curriculum Vitae (CV), Experience Certificate, and educational qualification documents will assist in getting an idea or data about the personal achievement, professional background, and experience level of the applicants to match with the job type, required skills and knowledge, and capability needed to perform the store sales operations. The interviewing will assist in screening the skilled and potential applicant for the post of the store sales manager at TCS’s NSW store by examining their skills, expertise, and current knowledge about the relevant work. The questions during the interview process will assist to inquire the communication skills, marketing abilities, area knowledge and customer handling activities. The skill aptitude test could he held to analyze whether the job applicants have required skills and job competences to perform the job related tasks and sales operations at TCS store. Additionally, the experience certificate and educational qualification documents will examine the professional work experiences, personal achievements, and qualification status of the applicants.

All these attractive recruitment strategies and techniques will be advantageous to the TCS organization in attracting top talents or screening of the selected candidates from the list or pools of applicants. These strategies will also be effective to employ the best candidate having the adequate skills, knowledge, and job competences for performing all store operations effectively (Jelinek, 2010). But, these strategies may be ineffective because of time-consuming and costly that will require the long time for the applicants waiting, finding, and checking the job profile and documents, and finalization of the interviewing. It may also be inappropriate for the employer of TCS organization to check the job related documents of all applicants.

TCS Organization has purchased e-recruitment software that will be effective to recruit and select the best candidate for the post of the store sales manager at NSW branch of TCS organization. This software will be linked to the social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest) to place the job advertisement on the social networks. This software is installed to find the suitable candidates on these sites through an online process for checking their educational qualification, professional work experience, and job competences through the attached documents, like CV, experience letter, and educational qualification details. The e-recruitment process may be effective for the organization to select the best and potential candidate because of less costly, less time consuming, and majority of high-profiling candidates (Jackson, Schuler, and Werner, 2011). The employer can create direct conversation through an effective communication process with the talented candidates that will assist to collect the large amount of data about their personal achievement and professional experiences of the applicants. It may also be inefficient because of the server problems, lack of effective communication, regular checking and up-gradation of the information on the sites, and sometimes unavailability of the applicants online or long waiting for the final process.

Q4. Samantha, the sales manager of Tailors Catering Supplies for NSW Store stated during his brief exit interview that there are lots of job stress/tension and pressure on her while managing the overall store sales operations because of management of the performance of the people for the achievement of the sales targets and store objectives. The job stress on him could be identified from the workload, depression and frustration, employee anxiety and grievance, conflicts/problems with coworkers, lack of communication, coordination, and teamwork, inability of the manager (Samantha) to manage the team performance (Barry and other team members), ineffective control process, and lack of staff commitment to understand their roles and responsibilities (Kumar, 2010).

According to my opinion, there are several processes that TCS should undertake for identifying and minimizing the stressors in the business. The organization should focus on conducting an effective recruitment and selection process through the documentation, interviewing, and skills aptitude tests for selecting the suitable and experienced candidate in the form of store sales manager in place of Samantha suited to the job profile and business requirements. Staffing is a process that will assist the organization to meet the HR requirements of the organization by employing the right candidates to the right job posts in order to reduce the stress and job pressure from the workplace.

The job design is an important organizational process that Taylors Catering supplies should undertake to assign the tasks, duties, roles, and responsibilities of the different staff members as per their skills level, knowledge, specialization and expertise. The job design techniques, such as job enlargement, job enrichment, and job enrichment will assist to prevent the job stress and pressure at the workplace by allowing the flexibility to the staff members by employing them new task, assigning new roles or transferring them to other store operations for minimizing the repetitiveness or monotonous of the tasks (Martin, 2010). The job specification is another approach to specify the job tasks or work operations matching the job profile, educational qualification, and expertise of the employees that will reduce the job stress/tension, high workloads and pressure, discontent, disinterest, and absenteeism of the employees from the workplace.

The performance management and control mechanism is an important HRM process that the organization is required to undertake to have strong control and supervision over the work of the employees by comparing their performances against the performance measures/indicators. Goals-setting is an important organizational process that could be carried out to communicate the organizational mission, goals, objectives with the organizational staffs for performing their tasks and duties responsibly as per the set targets and objectives. The team work, group performance, flexibility of shifting hours or working conditions, and high communication and interaction, management support and employee participation and engagement are such HRM processes that could be considered by the management of the organization for ensuring a productive workplace by reducing the job pressure and stress from the mind-sets of the employees.

By using the organizational and individual techniques, there are several prevention methods that could be followed in the NSW store of TCS to cope or reduce the job stress or pressure. The method, like overtime or assigning increased tasks or added responsibility causes for the high work stress should be avoided. The store manager, Samantha should avoid conflicts or disputes with the staff members. An ineffective control mechanism should be avoided for having good supervision and control on the performances of the employees. The unsafe working conditions should be avoided to win the confidence and loyalty of the staff members. Along with this, the undefined work processes, rude behavior, uninterested works or tasks or overloads should be avoided for reducing the work stress or tensions from the minds of the employees.

The team work, group performance, high communication and collaboration can prevent the excessive job stress. The supportive management, transformational leadership, and motivational theories will assist in motivating the staff members for enhancing the job satisfaction, morale, and enthusiasm of the staff members (Mathis and Jackson, 2010). The effective recruitment and staffing process will assist to prevent the discontent or disinterested employees by selecting the deserving candidates for the suitable job posts that will reduce the possibility of the job stress/tension and high pressure from the staffs. The supportive and learning culture, management support, job security, effective organizational pay-off and reward system, performance control process, and learning opportunities will be effective in preventing he excessive work pressure and high job tension at the organization of NSW store of Taylors Catering Supplies.

References

Armstrong, M. (2011). Armstrong's Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management. UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2011) Strategy and Human Resource Management: Third Edition. USA: Palgrave Macmillan.

Crawshaw, J., Budhwar, P. and Davis, A. (2014) Human Resource Management: Strategic and International Perspectives. USA: SAGE.

Gary, D. (2010). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management: Content, Competencies and Applications. Sydney: Pearson Education.

Griffin, R. (2013) Fundamentals of Management. USA: Cengage Learning.

Jackson, S., Schuler, R., and Werner, S. (2011). Managing Human Resources. USA: Cengage Learning.

Jelinek, S. (2010). The Impact of Management Practices and Organizational Structure on Firm Performance: A Cross Country Empirical Analysis. Germany: GRIN Verlag.

Kumar, R. (2010). Human Resource Management: Strategic Analysis Text and Cases. UK: I. K. International Pvt. Ltd.

Martin, J. (2010). Key Concepts in Human Resource Management. Canada: Sage Publication.

Mathis, R. L. and Jackson, J. (2010) Human Resource Management. USA: Cengage Learning.

Truss, C., Mankin, D., and Kelikher, C. (2012). Strategic Human Resource Management. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wilton, N. (2010). An Introduction to Human Resource Management. London: Sage Publication.

York, M. K. (2009). Applied Human Resource Management: Strategic Issues and Experiential Exercises. California: Sage Publication.