HRMT11011 | Management | The Importance Of Policies And Procedures

You are required to investigate current HRM-related issues in the workplace.  You are to conduct research into a workplace of your choice, identify the most contentious issues, and develop solutions.

1. Select an Australian workplace for research.  It may be your current workplace, or that of a colleague or relative.  It is recommended that the organisation be a small one.
2. Determine the mission and vision, and the value statement of the organisation.  Create a questionnaire that allows you to gather further information about the firm and its employees.  e.g. Number of employees, whether it is a franchise or sole trader, and nature of the business and current performance. You may attempt to determine the cultural, gender or generation mix in the workforce, as well as information regarding the owners of the business.  You may wish to supplement your findings with observations (websites, reading material) and conversations with employees and employers of the firm.
3. Analyse the information you have gained and summarise your findings.  You may choose to place your findings in categories.  e.g. Gender mix etc.
4. Identify any HUMAN RESOURCE RELATED issues that have emerged from your investigation.  e.g. gender imbalance, excessive overtime, a dominance of casual /part-time staff, sub-contracting, lack of promotion etc.
5. Consider and develop solutions to the issues you have identified.
   HRM practice and HR strategy? How you could have implemented an alternative HRM strategy? Which step would you take implement HRM strategy and practice?

Answer:

Introduction

In today' s competitive world, there has been a lot of pressure on corporates to utilize the resources, people and processes up to the most in order to perform outstandingly in the market.This report will give us clear idea about the type of challenges and issues that are being confronting the organization.This report will also brief the importance of policies and procedures as it helps out the organization in resolving their day to day issues related to human resource management (Daley, 2012).In addition to this, it will also give the idea about the research methodology that is being used to analyse the issues and challenges. In the last section of the report, recommendations will be suggested in order to help the organization in solving the issues amicably.

The scope of the Research

It has been noted that an organization cannot function effectively until and unless it does not have effective Human Resource Management. Now day’s scope of Human Resource Management has not limited up to selection and recruitments. It has been playing a very crucial part in the success of the organization by developing policies and strategies so that the organization can confront any situation. Earlier, all expect of the business were being handled by the owner of the Global Export House. With the extension of the business, a management department was created in order to handle the employees along with resolving the issues intelligently. In order to meet all the challenges, the Global export House has decided to conduct a research analysis with a motive to find out all the issues and challenges being faced by the HR manager. The scope of the research has been limited to Global Export House up to its employee. Issues and challenges that have been cropped in the organization can be considered the topical scope of the research. Recommendation of solutions to the issues due to Human resource management has been well-thought-out as the functional scope of the research (Lewis,(2015).

Research Methods

Researches can be defined as a systematic investigation which has been done in order to collect more information and data in order to get more effective and improved results. The present report has been dealing with the analysis of HRM-related issues and its solution at the Global Export House. In this analysis, a questionnaire has been developed in order to collect the information by obtaining answering from the employees of the export house.  Questions have been developed on the key issues that need to be discovered in this research project.

Analysis Undertaken

Human Resource management has addressed various other issues like absenteeism, job satisfaction, safety, grievances etc. which may directly affect the performance of the organization (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Hence in order to handle the challenges, these questions have been developed. While interacting with employees through e-mails, it has been noticed that various HRM related issues and challenges that are being cropped are related to gender imbalance, excessive overtime and promotion issues among employees. On the other hand side cultural diversity, employee engagement, training programmes have been the positive aspects of the Export Global House which has been giving the employees happiest workplace to work. All the questions have been developed in such a way that the

Report on Analysis

Global Export House is an Australian based proprietorship firm which has been exporting the wheat in various Asian countries like India, Pakistan etc. It is a small organization having around 100 employees in its office. It has been established in 2015 with a motive to supply quality wheat in the International Market in best optimum condition. The organization has various departments like procuring department, sales department, marketing and human resource management (Aycan, 2001). All of them have been handling their department individually with a motive to export quality wheat.

Vision

To come among top five leading exporter of Australia in next 10 years by providing a harmonious and motivating workplace for employees so that best output can be obtained.

Mission

Global Export house is committed to emerge as best supplier by supplying quality wheat to our customerat appropriate time with transparent business approach.

Value StatementWorkers are working together with mutual respect which helps in growing professionally and individually.

Interpretation of the Analysis

As a part of primary data, a questionnaire was conducted among the employees of the Global Export House in order to gather the information about the companies, company’s policies and procedure, company’s outlook toward following Human resource practices etc.Set of eleven questions were sent to employees via emails in order to maintain privacy. Results that have been received from the survey was that out of 100 employees 50% of employees considered that stretching hours of work is an issue in the Global Export House which need to be resolved. According to employees, this excessive overtime has seriously affected their health and productivity. It has been noted that due to stretched working hours, employees remain stressed and tired which has increased absenteeism (Hohenstein, Feisel, and Hartmann, 2014). This leads to an overload of work on others. It has been concluded from the reverts of the employees that management gives no incentives for overtime. It has become a self-perpetuating problem. It has been noted that the organization has not developed any overtime policy for the employees (Heilmann et al., 2011).

Another issue that has been confronting is gender inequality. The term gender inequality can be defined as unequal treatment of an individual due to its gender.From the survey, it has been concluded that out of 100 employees 30 per cent of the employees felt that gender inequality is being followed in the office. Gender inequality has been the issue that has to be mostly faced by women only but sometimes mean has also faced the wrath of this challenge. Women are being paid for the same work as compared to men(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

The third issue that has come up to the surface is that the organization is not following any policy for periodic promotion. It has been concluding from the survey that out of 100 employees 60 percent employees has been supporting the above-mentioned reason. It has been determined that the organization has not given promotion to any of its employees from last year. This has led to job dissatisfaction and depression among the employee which is not a good sign for a good team (Bansal,2014).

Employee Retention is another issue that has been identified during the analysis. Due to the issues prevailing in the company, employee retention has become a challenge for the management. It has been calculated from the survey that due to the company's poor policies has forced around 10 employees to leave the company last month. Again it is not a good sign for an organization (Harrison, 2014).

After identifying the issues of the Human resource management, some of the positive aspects of the organization have come out in the analysis. It is like employee fruitful training programmes have been planned at regular intervals which help out an employee in their professional learning. Secondly, the organization has been encouraging employee’s engagement while making decisions(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

Recommendations

Employees should be considered the organization's best assets because employees turnover has become expensive.it may impact negative effect on the growth as well as the reputation of an organization. In today’s competitive world, it has become mandatory to identify the common HR issues that are disturbing the environment. This Analysis has been conducted with the single motive to identify the issues and challenges that are prevailing in the working environment Right Policies and procedure has to be developed so that identified issues and challenges can be resolved amicably. This analysis has revealed that Employees of the global export house has got dissatisfied from their job. It can be concluded from their reverts that employees are more stressed and turnover intentions are on the higher side. Now it has become high time to improve the organization's human resources practices and to implement them at the right place at the right time so that all the grievances should get zero(Dashper, 2018). Starting with a wrong practice that has been followed in the organization is gender inequality. In order to solve this issue, the organization hasto develop a clear policy about the same that is every employee irrespective of its gender will get the equal pay at the same time. It should be clear among the management that women should also be awarded equal no of promotions as well as the opportunity to do challenging assignments.  Another issue that has been identified is Excessive overtime. It has been noted that this issue will get resolved automatically when employees heath should be kept at priority.Excessive overtime should be by choice, not a compulsion. Flexible hours should be provided to the employees so that adjustment can be made accordingly. Secondly, the organization must have developed transparent policies regarding overtime so that there no issues prevailed. One off a week

should be made mandatory for the employees so that they can spend it with their families (Brewster &Hegewisch, 2017)

Another issue that has been determined is periodic promotions. Periodic promotions should not be considered as a right of the employee. The employee should be aware of the fact that promotion comes with higher responsibility. It should be considered as a reward given to the employees for their best efforts that have been made by them to achieve the organization’s objectives (Head and Alford, 2015). It should be a combination of merits and seniority. In order to avoid any conflict, it is recommended that an organization should develop a promotion policy. This policy should be known to employees so that there should be no confusion regarding the same.

As discussed above issue of employee retention has to be resolved. This is a challenge where management can put its best efforts to retain its valuable employees but cannot be stopped fully. The first rule of the employee retention is to hire selectively and initially only make them aware of the organization's policies and procedures. Employee retention is playing an important part in creating a positive environment in the workplace. Employee retention strategies help in buying the employees commitment toward the organization. It should be noted that employee retention becomes a challenge when an employee quotes for the exceptionally high amount.  Except all of the above exit interviews must be planned to know about employee grievances. This gave you a clear-cut feedback about the policies of the organization regarding HRM practices. This feedback can help out in improving the policies and strategies further (Brewster &Hegewisch, 2017).

It should be noted that all the issue and challenges can be resolved by a Human Resource manager but the support of the management and employee of the organization. All these strategies can be implemented only when top management want it to be implemented

Conclusion

It should be noted that all the issues and challenges can be resolved by a Human Resource manager but the support of the management and employee of the organization. All these strategies can be implemented only when top management want it to be implemented effectively in the organization (Uchida, Kaneko, and Kawa, 2014). Today with the changing time it has become tough to manage employees. An effective team of HR can only handle the same and issues can be resolved. It can be concluded from the survey that the success of any company can be calculated by the performance of the employees. Best strategies need to be formulated for human resources so that the organization's objectives can be achieved. It should be noted that only formulation of strategies and policies of HRM will not work out. Proper employee attraction is mandatory in order to know about the strength and weakness of the organization.

References

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice.Kogan Page Publishers, 45 Gee St, London EC1V 3RS, UK

Bansal, S. (2014).Employee retention strategies. International Journals of Research Management and Social Sciences, 22, 62.

Brewster, C., &Hegewisch, A. (Eds.). (2017). Policy and practice in European human resource management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey. Taylor & Francis.

Brewster, C., Mayrhofer, W., & Morley, M. (Eds.). (2016). New challenges for European resource management. Springer.

Daley, D. M. (2012).Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management, 120-125.

Dashper, K. (2018). Challenging the gendered rhetoric of success? The limitations of women?only mentoring for tackling gender inequality in the workplace. Gender, Work & Organization.

Head, B. W., & Alford, J. (2015). Wicked problems: Implications for public policy and management. Administration & Society, 47(6), 711-739.

Hohenstein, N. O., Feisel, E., & Hartmann, E. (2014). Human resource management issues in supply chain management research: a systematic literature review from 1998 to 2014. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 44(6), 434-463.

Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), 473-475.

Uchida, M., Kaneko, M., & Kawa, S. (2014). Effects of personality on overtime work: a cross-sectional pilot study among Japanese white-collar workers. BMC research notes, 7(1), 180.