Human Resource Strategy
Introduction
The human resource remains the most crucial and critical asset for any company in the contemporary world. Despite the growth of machinery and technology, many organisation cannot afford to underscore the impact of human resources in an organisation. Business goals, missions, and visions are directly related to the efficient management of the human resource function (Boxall, 2016). This, therefore, calls for actions to be taken in the situation of Bullman's Brewery Company Limited to enhance the ability of the company to achieve its goals.
Bullman's Brewery Company Limited today is faced with human resource challenges which may affect its possible growth. In the strategic plan, the company intends to revert the declining revenues and sales for the future good of the enterprise. The company is also looking forward to competing effectively in the existing market hotbed to warrant its profitability (Boxall, 2016).
In the past, nonetheless, the company has had a record of weak skill development, poor investment in new technologies, lacking employees, co-operation, loyalty, and engagement, poor recruitment leading to adversarial employer-employee relations, lack of functional flexibility, over-reliance on zero-hours contracts and low wages. These challenges have limited the coordination and alignment of the human resource function with the goals of the organization (Holborow, 2012).
Bullman’s Brewery Company Limited operates two main distribution depots at Warrington and Wigan both of which employs 175 employees. In its objectives to revert losses and enhance performance, the company's corporate wing has resolved to close the Wigan distribution depot while expanding the Warrington depot. This will mean the retrenchment of 75 employees working in the Wigan and employment of 20 employees in Warrington. In response to this, employees are reacting to these rumors by joining the Unite Union with the hope to secure collective bargaining and hence secure their positions in Bullman’s Brewery Co. Ltd. (Boxall & Purcel, 2011).
In response to these challenges and in the need to ensure a promising future for the enterprise, there is a need to adopt and embrace new human resource strategies. The proposed human resource policies will be aiming at responding to the direct proposal and the reaction to the new move and to avoid the spillover to the customers and the production in an organization (Dyer, 2014). The strategies will also focus on seeing a dependable human resource strategy that will enhance the future stability of the organization. The human resource strategy, therefore, looks forward to enhancing the participation, employees’ voice, and information-sharing platform between the employees and the employer while creating a reliable interaction between the parties (Boxall & Purcel, 2011).
From the above analysis structure, it is important to appreciate that Bullman’s Brewery Company Limited needs to deal with the existing gap between what there is in the current state and what the management expects from the company (Youndt et al., 2006). The objectives of human resources are to bring in the competencies needed in the company while dealing with necessary and unnecessary voices and politics in the organisation. The ongoing evaluation and proposition of the human resource strategies are thus working on the formula of aligning the visions, values, and goals with the human resource commitments (Dyer, 2004). It is proposed that this will only be possible through proper work designs, recruitment, performance management, learning and development, selection, rewards and recognition, HR information management, and the possible aggregation of these strategies.
Generically, there are two possible situations in the human resource function.
The first situation is what we have had in the current situation. It is due to the continued layoffs, low wages in the organisation (earning below the average of industry and slightly above ‘the living average), moderate training, and employment of zero-hours contractors (Boxall, 2008). This has led to a secondary situation of commodity workforce characterised by contingent, temporary, and low tenure situations. The customer value outcome has been slow since there is no commitment to give quality services to the employees. This has thus led to increased operations costs and the high difference between revenues and costs leading to lower profits (Guest, 2007).
The Human Resource Plan has adopted situation two as analyzed in the diagram above. The case will incorporate such strategies as internal value-based promotions, extensive training of employees, intensified development and rewards as an incentive towards non-union, increased wages, flexible work rules, and the creation of a family culture (Wright & Snell, 2008). Through extensive research, this is expected to bring in skilled, experienced, committed employees with high levels of participation and employees’ inclusion (Tyson, 2007). This will thence trickle down to high customer service levels with products that enhance high customer satisfaction. Achievement of this leads to increased revenue and decreased cost per unit a difference of which leads to high profitability (Morgeson et al., 2015).
The assessment of the depot closure and workforce reduction decision by the corporate management of the company is a necessary evil for the reorganisation of the company (Dyer, 2004). However, this strategy is expected to receive mixed reactions from the workforce. This has already been observed with the current moves of joining the union for collective bargaining. The human resource function has hence put into position generic versions for dealing with this situation. Some of these versions are proposed under the study of the High-Performance Work System (HPWS), commitment versus control generic strategy, and value matrix approach of retrenchment.
The HPWS is a system used by the organisation in view of best practices for the product of the company. The implementation of HPWS encourages performance in the organisation, by putting the employees on sales or metrics to ensure high performance and productivity. The application of this strategy will be fair in dealing with retrenchment (Morgeson et al., 2015). The process will be addressed through performance analysis. However, concern for the retrenched employees will be significant, and hence the human resource function may give them an opportunity to apply for the Warrington new position. The retrenched employees will, however, be given layoff allowances. This strategy, however, works better in the interest of the company (Dyer, 2004).
To enhance the best practice in retrenchment, the company will have to consider the various tasks in the company (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The level of participation by the employees, skills, and available training will also be a concern. This will help the organisation to retain highly skilled employees who have skills in critical areas (Noe et al., 2006). The Human resource, in this case, will clearly define the tasks and the job specifications in all the employment positions, perform employee performance assessments, and define the training requirement and schedules. The HR function will then lay off employees who may not fit in the set schedule. Moreover, it will be critical for the human resource to communicate the position of the business and its strategies and hence reduce the resistance (Noe et al., 2006).
This is a human resource tool to be used in retrenchment or promotion based on the value of an employee and the uniqueness of the services and skills rendered by the employee (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). With this, the employees will be assessed based on a commitment to organization value, performance metrics, compliance, and possible and existing partnership in the organisation. This assessment then categorizes workers as either strategic, core, support, or collaborative (Noe et al., 2006). The organisation pays attention mainly to the strategic and core employees and may decide to retrench some of the employees in the support and collaborative categories. However, even with the application of the value/ uniqueness matrix, it is critical to consider the future of the company, and hence the human resource function will undertake continuous training for the retrenched employees (Tyson, 2007).
Before the retrenchment of employees and assessment with the above strategies, the organisation will give equal opportunities to the employees. This will be necessary to protect the reputation of the brand as carried by the retrenched employees, and the creation of a relationship between the retrenched employees and the public among other reasons (Youndt et al., 2006). In view of equal opportunity, the company will undertake massive training for all the employees. The human resource will then enhance communication between employees and the management through continuous communication and openness giving the necessary information on upward and downward levels (Holborow, 2012). In making some decisions, information and statistics become highly critical to enhancing decision acceptance. Through these measures and strategies as discussed above, the management will then call upon the persons to reapply for the various position for formal recruitment, selection, and training to take new positions at Bullman’s Brewery (Guest, 2010).
Bullman’s Brewery Company Limited's efforts to increase product quality and quantity and profitability are at the heart of the human resource function. The realisation of these goals depends on strategy planning and implementation of the HR to utilize the available resources efficiently. It depends upon the balance of the organisation priorities and commitment towards the goals. The analyses of what is required are done through the balanced scorecard which gives the necessary combinations in the decision making.
The balance scorecard idea seeks to obtain a balance between the financial capability of the company, the customers in the company, the learning requirement of the human resources, and the processes required to ensure the balance itself (Kaplan & Norton, 2015). The balanced scorecard has four dimensions which are the financial dimension, the customer perspective, the learning perspective, and the process perspective. From the economic perspective, the human resource will be looking at the growth, sustainability, and harvest earned. In deciding on the increased wages and the review of the pay slips, the human resource will focus on revenue growth through Situation 2 as discussed earlier (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). However, the human resource function will continue getting ways to the sustainability of the company's finance. From a customer perspective, the human resource function will emphasize products and service attributes which enhance the consumption of these resources (Bamberger, 2014). It will focus more on relationships with the customers in building the reputation of the company brands. The human resource will thus recruit highly trained brand ambassadors to enhance sales. From the learning perspective, human resources have resolved to make efforts towards technological advancement and intensive training of the employees with a view of enhancing technical use and creativity (Holborow, 2012). The human resources resolve to strengthen employees' skills, work on performance retention of valuable employees, improve information technology, and align all the procedures for improved productivity (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). From a process perspective, human resources has resolved to reduce the cost while increasing revenue through the use of ABC cost analysis in the recruitment and training sector, enhancing quality and work on timely production and delivery (Kaplan & Norton, 2006).
The motivation of the human resource to perform given functions depends on the availability of necessary tools. Employees may not be able to be productive when there is poor alignment of the resource requirements (Bamberger, 2014). Bullman's Brewery Company Limited may also fail in productivity if it still continues to use outdated technologies and methods of production. It is thus important to equip the employees with the necessary technology for which to conform or exceed those available in the market (Kaplan & Norton, 2006). With limited resources, the human resource will conduct ABC/ Pareto analysis of the technological requirements of the employees. It will also consider the current product quality and the required product quality to determine the technologies necessary for production (Wright & Snell, 2008).
The need to introduce change, as proposed, will call for the evaluation of the pay structure. This will be important in avoiding employees to join the trade unions as well as motivating and rewarding them (Bamberger, 2014). Unmotivated employees will always produce poor quality outputs and hence reduced profitability. The human resource will thus continuously evaluate the financial position of the company, the wage bill rates in the industry, and the living standards to be able to structure the employees' payments (Kaplan & Norton, 2006). Job evaluation will be done under the new requirements, and tasks outline and hence determine the payments to be made. The human resource will with other departments to ensure financial sustainability in the organisation (Wright & Snell, 2008). This will be necessary for shaping the future of the company.
Conclusion
Implementation of the human resource strategies outlined is expected to improve the position of Bullman’s Brewery Company Limited. The report enhances commitment, engagement, and communication will be fundamental to the success of the proposed changes at Bullman’s Brewery (Tyson, 2007). The human, however, expects the high cooperation of other functions in establishing reverting the losses in the organisation and in enhancing higher market share for future welfare. The employees remain to be the critical assets of the company (Youndt et al., 2006). It must, therefore, be dealt with professionally and with due consideration. Otherwise, the human resource may ruin the position of the company.
References
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