Human Resource Management In Context Of Canning Foods Limited

Background of the Company

Discuss about the Human Resource Management in context of Canning Foods Limited.

Human resource management is a management process of the human resources involves in maximizing the performance of the employees. However, a proper human resource management enhances the selection process by recruiting the skilled employees and make the balance between the requirements and the organizational practice. HRM is associated with the strategic management during the workforce that maximizes the working efficiency of the employees as well as the organization. Job design includes job enlargement that refers to the enhancement of the job task in order to cope up with challenges (Brewster& Hegewisch, 2017). On the other hand job rotation allows the employee movement with various tasks and job enrichment motivates the employees by satisfying them through their work. However, such job designs are the vital areas of HRM. This study deals with the different aspects of HRM practices. As for example, technological perspectives, diversity in the employment practice, working nature and HRM planning will be described in this section in the context of Cannings Foods Limited, which is a well known retail sector of Trinidad and Tobago.

Cannings Foods Ltd. is a popular retail organization of Tobago and Trinidad having many branches in the world wide. Dairy products and the soft drink are the main products of such organization and they have a good HRM system in their organization. The mission of such organization is to provide good quality food product in the market that possesses high standard in the international market.  Therefore, to provide satisfaction to the stakeholders through their service is another aspect of their HRM. There are 300 staffs in the management team and 200 staffs in the non-management team in such organization (“Cannings Foods Limited”, 2017). However, Job enrichment is their current system in order to satisfy the internal stakeholders by motivating them in their work. Hence, job enrichment will motivate the employees in this organization by enhancing their responsibilities. This can be done by offering them higher ranking in their performance that will maximize their performance level. As argued by Dean Lee et al., (2017), job enrichment often causes discrimination between the employees through the favoritism. This may affect the entire team performance of Canings Food Ltd.

Routine and non-routine task

The routine tasks of the Canning Food Ltd. are to check the production result, marketing and communication process, managing the partnership and recruitment process. However, such tasks are carried out by such organization on daily basis and weekly basis. As commented by Van Wingerden,  Derks, & Bakker, (2017), routine and non-routine tasks are associated with the business growth of an organization. Cleaning process like cleaning in the manufacturing area as for example boiler cleaning is an important non-routine task of Cannings Foods. Therefore, monitoring the safety process of the workplace is another non-routine task of such organization.

Technological Aspects

Organic vs mechanistic structure

Organic structure is more flexible organizational structure and it focuses on the open communication and contribution in the task. This structure is easy to change and able to maintain the management and the employees in an organization. According to Rothenberg, Hull & Tang, (2017), in the mechanistic structure, the employees work separately and poor interaction occurs between the managers and the employees. However, in the context of Cannings Food organic structure will be effective for their organization to maximize the relationship with employees while mechanistic structure may hamper the value sharing process and the decision-making process of HRM. On the other hand, uses of WhatsApp, skype calls are effective in the business sectors as it makes the proper interaction between the employees and management if they are not able to present physically.

Working nature

Issues in the leadership style, change management, and time investment affect the hierarchy level (Oke, 2016). In this context, the director is able to reach to every employee and distributes more tasks to the employees. Despite this the hierarchy of the organization is affected may be due to the poor management style and the lack of proper time investment. Hence, for this reason, the employees fail to solve their issue regarding work as they are not able to get proper time and guidance. As a result, they feel uncomfortable in the working environment (Kavanagh & Johnson, 2016).

According to the given scenario, due to the rapid changes in the technology, the need for the assistant manager in the context of Cannings Foods Ltd has gone. Hence, the director of such organization will be able to make a direct connection with their clients by using the advanced technology that is beneficial for such organization and it will enhance the relationship between the clients and the organization. As argued by Marchington et al., (2016), technological advancement has both positive and negative impact on the organizational performance. As for example, the person below the assistant managers fails to get promotion as an assistant manager as he has no formal training qualification, which is required to access the electronic system. Hence, it can be said that changes in the technology are associated with the advantages and the disadvantages that hamper the organizational performance in the context of Cannings Foods Ltd. However, this electronic system save the operation and labor cost of such organization however, it creates issues for the employees in getting promotion due to lack of technical qualification. This may cause employee turnover in this organization.

Employment Practice and Diversity

Employment practice and the diversity

Top down approach and the bottom up approach are the two processes of benchmarking in the international country. In the top down approach benchmarking is done by the central management agency by introducing the competitive pressure. However, in the bottom up approach, the individual organization develops their own bench marking process. Performance indicators are used in the benchmarking process where the actual performance of the organization is compared with the result of benchmarking (Oke, 2016).

The impact of Hofstede’s culture dimension theory in Cannings Foods Ltd.

Hofstede’s culture dimension theory is used to understand the employees’ value within an organization as it focuses on the cross cultural communication process (Murphy, 2016). Power distance index, individualism-collectivism power distance, uncertainty-avoidance are the four major cultural dimensions. Such cultural dimension allows the business organizations to understand the different cultures, which is important to understand the choice of customers. As for example, Trinidad gives priority to the customers that can be done by following the Hofstad’s culture. This dimension theory will enable the Cannings Foods Ltd to make diversification among the customers by providing value to their choice through offering them quality products. However, Trinidad tries to make the contingency plan for Venezuelans refugee by using the advanced technology. Hence, the factors of dimension theory are fulfilled in this section.

Changing power of balance

According to the scenario, the managers are not well paid according to the calls that they have to attain in their work. However, the trade union is associated with the benefits of the employees within an organization. However, trade union acts as the representative for the employees in the context of the legal matter, compensation, and working related issue. Such trade union involves in maintaining the employee right in the working sectors (Murphy & Barrath, 2016). In the case of Cannings Foods Ltd. the managers are facing issue related to their compensation, hence, the trade union can be helpful in this situation. However, the trade union can arrange the conference with the management team in order to solve such issue. The trade union has the power to provide protection to the employees in such organization. Proper salary structure according to the work is the moral right of the employees. Hence, in this case, the managers are not well paid according to the work hence; this issue can be solved by the trade union as they are the representative of the employees to express their issues in the hierarchy domain. The trade union can organize the meeting regarding such issue, which bring the concentration of the hierarchy regarding such issue. However, the trade union is a media between the hierarchy and the employees to lead any issue to the authority of the organization in order to develop proper solution regarding such issue (Pencavel, 2016).

The Impact of Hofstede’s Culture Dimension Theory in Cannings Foods Ltd.

The major problem faced by the HR would be certain loss of tenured employee, to replace company’s asset it takes time and would take a lot of resources to put the eligible man for the job, which can be done in two manners that would be either promotion from the existing employee or hiring new candidate for the job role. Promoting someone within the organization boosts the morality of the existing employee and they see the potential growth in the company and would be willing to work hard for the same. However, hiring the right candidate could be tiring and also costly and it will take much time for the candidate to get accustomed to the new environment. This can hamper the production and can also be a bitter experience for the existing employee. To easily avoid the similar situation it is necessary to give chance to the existing employee and to provide special training that is suitable for the role to make him ready for the new profile (Sotgiu & Gielens 2015).

Say for someone who is only training the new and old recruit in the organization, they would have an elaborate knowledge about the process and can be effective in the case of quality as well as auditing to remunerate the existing situation of the employee.

Goal setting of the organization is necessary as it determines the important aspect of the organization that is its future prospect in the market. Once the goal is set it is now to the HR to implement the desired changes in the organization to benefit from the market. Strategic planning needs a disciplined effort. Successful strategic plan sets focus, priorities, resource, and energy, strengthens operations, it also ensures that employees and stakeholders are working toward common goals. Prior technological advancement in the organization it was seen that the organization was taking a huge hit in term of excessive man power and stagnant productivity, as well as man power, has its own set of drawbacks. To cut cost effectively it is important to use technology say for example previously it was human labor to check every trial and error and it could be ineffective at times but now use of bar codes and bar code reader have enabled to track each product individually and it doesn’t even take time to arrange and calculate the price. However, it has also been the major reason for the downsizing and is taking a huge toll in the aspect of employment. Use of new technology has given the organization to downsize and lose the cost but it has seen the rise in productivity per capita and also seen the rise in profitability. The new technology has given the organization the versatility to be flexible and also help them to expand and will keep each prospect in mind. This technology advancement has helped the HR to forecast, manage, prepare and implement new plans (Salar & Salar, 2014).

Changing Power of Balance

Strength: The strength of the company would be the retail demand of packaged food industry that is cheap and it will flourish with due course of time and will see the rise in demand in near future. The other strength will be financial backing and access to the bank loan. It will provide versatility to the consumer to shop (Nagendra & Deshpande, 2014).

Weakness: The huge competition in the market has seen the sharing of the profit pie and geographic location will play a major hunchback for the organization. Weak brand image can result in lower footfall, week customer service (Alfes et al., 2013).

Opportunity: Both sales force and market research can determine and unfold the opportunity of the retail industry, filling consumer need and wish to gain brand loyalty, small retail outlets to help increase the market share (Nagendra & Deshpande, 2014).

Threats: Threats can be ranged from a wide spectrum of problems include the decrease in consumer demand, a recession or increase or price wars in the competition. Change in shopping habits can also be a major threat (Hübner, Kuhn & Wollenburg, 2016)

Conclusion

Use of advanced technology in Cannings Food Ltd is an effective approach for the HRM system. However, incorporation of the electronic system in the operation management makes the business operation fast and it also reduces the labor cost within the organization. Therefore, the technological advancement has also the negative impact on the organization and the employees. However, it has been said that the old employees who are eligible to get the promotion are not able to get it due to lack of their technical certificate. On the other hand, use of rapid technology in the organization is a big reason for employee turnover.

 The employees are not paid well according to their work pressure. That is the big issue of such organization needs the concern of the trade union. Therefore, electrical operation system in the selected organization highlights on the implementation of modern technology in this organization. However, implementation of on job training program and good communication need to be considered in the HRM system of such organization.

• Implementation of the training program within the organization to make the employees technologically advanced.
• Involvement of the employees in organizational decision making will be beneficial to motivate the employees towards their work.
• Establishment of proper communication between the management and the employees in order to understand the issues related to the payroll of the employees and issues regarding the working environment

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