Question

Staff retention and staying power: Nissan builds on loyalty at Sunderland plan Some of carmaker’s earliest recruits are now among its most senior executives. Since the first Bluebird rolled off the production line in July 1986, the Nissan plant in Sunderland has grown from a £50m assembly operation into the UK’s biggest car production site. Now a £3.7bn investment employing 6,800 people, it is also north-east England’s biggest private sector employer, offering relatively good pay and secure work in an area with the UK’s highest regional unemployment. For these reasons, employees tend to stick around. Turnover of production staff is 3.66 per cent a year, against the UK average of 13.6 [per cent], according to the CIPD, the professional association for HR and some of the earliest recruits, identifiable by their low employee number, are among the most senior executives. Keith Watson, a 55-year-old production supervisor on trim and chassis line 2, joined in 1985 as employee number 179. ‘In the early days we were building four cars a day’, he says. News that Nissan wanted more did not go down well. ‘We were panicking, saying we will never get six a day. Now it’s 2,000 a day’ As it has expanded, some of the biggest changes in the plant have focused on ergonomics and technology to reduce strain on workers and accelerate the pace of production. Each of the plant’s 300 supervisors, responsible for more than 4,000 production staff, is trained in ergonomic assessment. Innovations include seat shuttles, developed by the in- house kaizen, or continuous improvement team, to allow operators to sit and be transported as they work on cars on the line, rather than having to duck and twist. On the line where the Qashqai and electric leaf are made, a height-adjustable skillet, resembling the middle section of an accordion, raises and lowers the vehicle to the height at which the operator needs to work. Robotics have played a part too, with the body shop moving from high levels of manual welding to 93 per cent automation. The new welding facility for the Infiniti, the luxury brand that Sunderland ADVANCED HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT © Regenesys Business School 6 has just begun producing, is completely automated with 141 robots. However, work on the production line remains intense and tiring; stamina is vital. ‘It’s still a hard job’, says Mr Watson. ‘Some operators are so fluent it’s unbelievable; it’s like second nature to them. They’re athletes in a way’. Mr Watson’s contemporaries in 1985 included team leader Trevor Mann (number 127), now Nissan’s chief performance officer and most senior European executive, based in Yokohama. Mr Mann says the early intake was a tight knit team with a desire ‘to be as good as the Japanese’. Colin Lawther (number 120), a chemist who joined in 1985, is senior vice-president responsible for manufacturing, supply chain management and purchasing in Europe. ‘We came from a fairly deprived area. we had this tremendous fighting spirit’, he says. Kevin Fitzpatrick, a paint shop supervisor back in 1985 (number 63), is the site’s most senior employee as Nissan motor manufacturing’s UK Vice-President. He says a culture of encouraging people to learn and try new things has helped keep him there. ‘In my previous company your only chance to progress was if somebody retired’, he says. of 4,305 production staff, more than a third are over 40 and late 50s is the site’s most common retirement age. But this is not always the end of the story. Barry Loneragan (employee 102) joined as a team leader in 1985 and retired as technical services manager eight years ago. Now, aged 67, he returns regularly, employed by an outside agency, to do plant tours. So do two other pensioners. Mr Loneragan is proud of what the early intake achieved. ‘We had to go out and prove ourselves. It was that togetherness; the will to succeed. The legacy lives on’, he says.

Question 4:

“HR management must support the organisation’s strategy, which flows from its vision, mission and strategic goals”. Critically analyse the statement with special reference to distinctive features of Strategic Human Resource Management in light of the above caselet.

Answer 1

HR management must support the organisation’s strategy, which flows from its vision, mission and strategic goals”

Strategy is a measurable, specific, achievable action plan for attaining organization’s goals. The Strategy of an organization stems from its vision, mission and strategic goals. The rhythm that exists between the vision and mission and strategy can be called as strategic rhythm. It is important to note that this strategic rhythm is maintained by one of the most important assets of the organization – Human Resources. Almost everything that is achieved by an organization is driven or designed by a human. Therefore, Human Resources plays a pivotal role in helping the organization achieve its goals by making policies and procedures that aid and maintain the strategic rhythm throughout the organization.

Strategic human resource management is not a new concept. It is a concept which was not given a name, but did exist in the past as well. Strategic human resource management is proactive management of people and people processes so that everything, from people to processes is in sync with the strategy of the organization. Eg: If the organization is focussing on rapid expansion and sales, the corresponding action by the Human Resource Department will be to recruit people and train them to take up new jobs. It could also entail promoting many people within the organization so that the hiring is done only for entry level positions.

Key features of Strategic Human Resource Management are a link between the HR Policy and practices and the organizational objectives, the second and most important feature is that the HR interventions will always be linked so that there is maximum outcome, and all these interventions in turn will be linked to the strategy of the organization. The third most important characteristic of Strategic Human Resource Management is that the management of employees is devolved, and supervisors and their immediate managers are responsible for their performance and growth.

In the given Nissan case, if we critically analyse, all these factors/characteristics are present. Namely, since the organization wanted to increase production it implemented tools and techniques ranging from chairs to others which helped save time and energy and hence improved productivity. Also, since the quality levels were to be maintained, the organization, stored the knowledge base by giving perks and benefits to existing employees who grew within the organization to take greater responsibilities and roles. Over period of time these employees have become expert I their fields and are continuously contributing towards the organization’s objective.