Question

Watson Public Ltd Company is well known for its welfare activities and employee oriented schemes in manufacturing industry from more than ten decade. The company employs more than 800 workers and 150 administrative staff and 80 management level employees. The Top level management views all the employees at same level. This can be clearly understood by seeing the uniform of the company which is Same for all starting from MD to floor level workers. The company has 2 different cafeterias at different places one near the plant for workers and other near the Administration building. Though the place is different but the amenities, infrastructure and the food provided are of same quality. In short the company stands by the rule Employee Equality. The company has one registered trade union and the relationship between the union and the management is very cordial. The company has not lost a single man day due to strike. The company is not a pay master in that industry. The compensation policy of that company, when compared to other similar companies, is very less still the employees don’t have many grievances due to the other benefits provided by the company. But the company is facing countable number of problems in supplying the materials in recent past days. Problems like quality issues, mismatch in packing materials (placing material A in box of material B) incorrect labeling of material, not dispatching the material on time etc… The management views the case as there are loop holes in the system of various departments and hand over the responsibility to Employee relations department to solve the issue. When the Employee Relations manager goes through the issues he realized that the issues are not relating to system but it relates to the employees. When investigated he came to know that the reason behind the casual approach by employees in work is

> The company hired new employees for higher level post without considering the potential internal candidates.           

> The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of existing employees in the same cadre.

Questions; Q#1. a) Identify some of the core values mentioned in the above situation. Further, how do you related those values to the concept of “employee engagement”. Discuss.    

b) What employees’ wellbeing initiatives are being taken by the above organization? Describe.  

Q#2 :  a)  Regarding the problem mentioned in the above situation, the points rose by the Employee relations manager as reason for the latest issues in the organization is justifiable or not? describe.  

b)  How do you relate the problems identified by the employee relations management to the concept of “fairness” facet of employee engagement? explain.   

Q#3:  Being an Employee relations manager, how would you sort out the above mentioned issues. Relate your answers to the concepts you studied in the employee engagement subject.

Answer 1

Q#1. a) Identify some of the core values mentioned in the above situation. Further, how do you relate those values to the concept of “employee engagement”. Discuss.

Answer 1.a). A few of the core values mentioned in the above situations are Equality, Transparency, Empowerment, Empathy, Awareness, and Satisfaction. These are a few of the most critical core values for an employee working in an organization.

· Equality ensures everyone is treated the same irrespective of race, religion, gender, origin. The entire staff has the same dress code in the whole organization, therefore, the approach of an environment of fair treatment and similarity with simplicity is achieved through this initiative.

· Transparency builds trust and caring by the organization among the employees, the same catering area, infrastructure, and amenities to each employee without any preference and bias.

· Empowerment is ensured here by introduction of employee’s union and representing the demands and voices with the higher management through this arrangement.

· Empathy is ensured by hearing the voices and demands and taking appropriate actions in favor of employee benefits.

· Awareness is required in the firm to be attentive towards the factors inhibiting the growth and the obstacle of the progress for the firm.

· Satisfaction among the employees regarding work and responsibilities even though the salary is less but the incentives and perks give the satisfaction of working with a great firm.

b) What employees’ wellbeing initiatives are being taken by the above organization? Describe.

The initiatives taken by the above organizations for the employees are following:

Answer 1.b).

· To maintain a common cafeteria to provide similar services, variety of food, infrastructure to all of the employees.

· To ensure same dress code for whole firm from lower to higher level of the firm promoting equality among employees.

· To take up the initiatives of employees union to hear the voices and demands of the lowermost level of workers to be able to communicate with the higher management and administrative staffs.

· To provide other incentives and perks apart from their regular salary to make up for the lower salary and better opportunities for their employees.

Q#2:  a)  Regarding the problem mentioned in the above situation, the points rose by the Employee relations manager as a reason for the latest issues in the organization are justifiable or not? describe.  

Answer 2.a): The points raised by the employee relations manager are justifiable as the mistakes and improvements start from the lowermost level. Since the efficiency and accuracy issues have been a problem the organization, the employee relations manager has related it with the core values of the organization that the hiring and better incentives are the first right of the firm’s own employees. The hiring and potential candidates can be considered later for similar things. The firm who cares about the growth of their employees ranks higher on the employee satisfaction scale. Therefore, instead of hiring the higher-level staff directly from the open market of potential candidates, the internal employees should have been given the first priority, if they still couldn’t have found the right fit, they could have hired someone from the outside. The benefit of promoting the internal employees brings the same vision and mission of firm from their employees to higher management and it also promotes the loyalty of the employees.

b)  How do you relate the problems identified by the employee relations management to the concept of “fairness” facet of employee engagement? explain.   

Answer 2.b): It is not fair to entirely fill up the vacancies of higher-level positions from the outside as the new candidates require time and experience to match up with the core values of the organization and the trust of other employees in the team. However, promoting someone from the internally, it helps in boosting the morale of the employees, inspiring and encouraging them to work harder to achieve the higher posts and promote the values of the organization. There should be a balance between the ratio of hiring people from outside and promoting the employees inside of the organization. The outside hiring is also important as it brings the fresh approach, strategies, and mindsets in the team to facilitate the variety of competitive strategies to the firm management and administration.

Q#3:  Being an Employee relations manager, how would you sort out the above-mentioned issues. Relate your answers to the concepts you studied in the employee engagement subject.

Answer 3: First step would be to firstly fixing the ratio of hiring the outside potential candidates with promoting the internal candidates' pool. This would have given a balance between the fresh faces of the firm and the core leaders of the firm. Diversity always helps in the development of variety and vivid strategies of the business.

The second step would be to improve the salaries and incentives for the employees of the firm as the monetary incentives are one of the core drivers of extrinsic rewards and motivation system. Without the proper increase in salary and incentives, the employees lack in motivation, encouragement and the opportunities to work hard and efficiently.

The third step would be to introduce the employee training and inducting program to equip the new employees with the core values, mission, and vision of the firm. These training help the new employee to understand what is expected from their work, what they can expect by working hard and efficiently. The training programs also help them to feel valued and important for the firm.

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