Task 1: Discuss the employers’ obligations and liabilities in respect to Alex’s ability to perform her job. You should make reference to health and safety legislation?
Task 2: Identify and evaluate HRM best practice strategies for managing alcohol and stress in the school. You should make reference to both formal and informal ways that employers might use to deal with this issue?
Task 1: The health and safety measures are crucial to any organisation. Although there are a few legislations in this matter, it is the obligation of the Employer to take care of the health and safety of the employees and the staffs that work under them. If an employee is failing physically, the employer is liable to answer (Chaudhuri, 2010). Also, the unhealthy practices of a single or few employees jeopardise the organisations security and structure. The employer must take immediate and deliberate action to remove the threat and solve the issue to bring back the organisation to its original health (Briscoe, Schuler and Claus, 2009).
Thus, the concept is discussed and understood through the case study of “Alex” a cook in a primary school, who is an alcoholic and has been found under the influence during her working hours. The wellbeing of Alex falls under the organisations responsibility, and her demeanour and drinking habits might have a dangerous effect on the pupils as she is a cook. She was a very well trained and skilled worker. Thus, there is a need to re-strategise the Human resource activities to understand the lacking and the procedures that must be taken to bring back the organisation to its old self (Fingret and Smith, 2013).
The employer has a duty to protect the organisation and the employees from any kind of harm while they are in the institution. In a primary school with a lot of children the management has got some extra responsibilities to see that the children are not under any kind of threat or harm. Hence, it is essential that they maintain a very stable and safe work environment and physically as well as mentally fit employees. These employees will provide the most efficient services but won’t jeopardise the organisation in any way. Hence, the obligations and liabilities of an employer in such a situation are dictated.
Deciding on who handles the health and safety measures. The employer must ensure that the human resource manager must take actions by informing, instructing and supervising workers to protect their health and safety. The human resource manager from time to time must remind and foresee the work environment and health status. It is essential that they monitor and regulate the activities and whereabouts of Alex to find out why she has been an alcoholic.
One of the most crucial activity stated under common law is providing competent and safety conscious staff. It is a serious obligation, and the failure to do so may lead to the employer being liable during any case of accident or injury (Hodgins, Williams and Munro, 2009). It is essential that the employer provides safe plant and equipment to the labour. Thus, it must be seen that the kitchen condition is completely safe, and Alex is not subject to any kind of harm from any kind of appliance. It is important that if the employer foresees anything unnatural, one should immediately report it and take actions so that harm is prevented. The employer has a responsibility to replace defective or faulty equipment and provide any kind of remedy to the employees. There are insurances that protect the employees against such liabilities. Thus, the main idea is to instruct and provide suitable situations to the employees to work. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992(WHSWR), is applied to these cases to modify the workplace to offer safe access and condition to the employees (Hse.gov.uk, 2015).
Stress at work is one of the factors that has lead to Alex’s deteriorating condition and bend towards alcoholism. It is a primary school and two of the other cooks are unavailable due to illness. There is too much pressure on Alex. There are no helpers and if any issues arise she is the sole person to take care of it. It is a law that the employers cannot make the employees work for excessive hours or put too much work pressure on a single person. It was also seen that the reason for such excessive pressure was insufficient staffing. The school has delayed recruiting of new employees which is essential to lessen the burden on a single employee. The school could assign different time slots to each new cook or put them as a helper to assist Alex with her job. This will not only lessen her burden but would also provide her with a friendly environment to work in (Hart and Fazaa, 2004).
Bullying is also one of the factors that put a person to stress and make them resort to alcoholism as a stress buster. Peer pressure is also a result of alcoholism. Bullying can put the organisation in a very negative light and so before anything goes out of hand, it is essential that investigation is undertaken to find out the miscreants and strict action must be taken against them. The Antibullying law is relatively new but is now often used in many cases and hence should concern the employers (Hill and Harris, 2011).
The Health and Safety Executive is the government portal that aims to reduce the work related injury, death and illness. Hence it would be effective if Alex herself or her managers take the issue to the council. Public Health England, drug and alcohol misuse section to deal with the issue. Thus it is essential that the School’s managing committee put Alex in a rehabilitation program. Also, action should be taken so that the motivation in the form of incentives or additional amenities is provided to the employees (Hyland, 2010).
Alex’s condition will have indirect effect on the School’s environment and student health. Hence it is needed that the governing body protect the students from the adverse situation by educating them on misuse of alcohol and drugs. Also it has to be made sure that Alex is not working under the influence of Alcohol; otherwise punitive actions would be taken against he (Nta.nhs.uk, 2015)r.
Thus the obligation of an employer is not bound to provide workplace safety and relief from stress and bully. Also make sure that the employees are aware of the Health and Safety regulations and are following it strictly.
Task 2: As the institution is a primary school, it is a huge responsibility. A School Business Manager has to find the right faculty and non teaching staff who will have a very positive and uplifting impression of the institution and on the children. The governing body chooses the faculty, but as non-teaching staff are the indirect and crucial factors, it is important that they are given equal importance (Linking human resource management practices and customer satisfaction on product quality, 2013).
These are the staffs who are involved with cleaning, cooking, accounting, keeping etc. The students are exposed to these employees and any condition they are suffering from affects the institution adversely. For example Alex’s alcoholism will affect the quality of food she is cooking as her concentration level will be low. Also, an alcoholic is often coherent in what he or she speaks and can behave rudely or offensively. This can put a mark in the student’s mind. Hence, parents will be anxious and will question the school authority or might take their children away from the school. It is thus seen that a single employees misdemeanour and health issues will have a severe impact on the School’s image and business. It is thus essential to employ Human Resource Management activities to execute effective training and motivation program to ensure that such issues does not arise further.
First of all it is essential that immediate actions are taken on the issue. Investigation has to be done to find out the reason behind Alex’s changing behaviour. She has to guide and counselling is to be provided by the HR manager on the issues she is facing and the ways of reducing alcohol abuse (Vogelsang, 2013). It if it is needed the Company should assign her to a rehabilitation facility. New cooks and assistants are to be recruited, trained and told about the workplace healthy and safety guidelines to make sure they follow it strictly. It has to be maintained that anybody who is failing to follow the guidelines and is resorting to alcohol or drug abuse would be released from their position.
Hence, a set of HRM best practice strategies for managing alcohol and stress in school are identified to guide the mangers as well as the employees in situations. This are the practices that outlines the best functional activities and strategies that enable the employees in providing better services and employers high profitability. In the field of human resource, the best practices include recruitment and selection, employee relations and the compensation or reimbursement. These define the best practices that are adopted to reap an attractive return on the investment in the human resource (Edmondson, 2010).
For a School that is affected by alcohol abuse, it is essential that the HRM defines a separate best practice guideline. Firstly, there is need to set up a Workplace alcohol policy which provides framework to manage the alcohol related issues. In order to consider the rate of abuse of the offender it is needed to judge the employee performance, the workplace safety, the financial considerations and the employee welfare. According to the findings, corrective measures have to be taken to remove the condition or the situation which drove the employee or employees to alcoholism.
The second activity is the act of recruiting and selecting of employees. It is essential that the employees who are being recruited do not have previous case of drug or alcohol abuse. They must be tested for health issues or addiction problems. It is because the institution is a school, and any kind of small or large issue can have severe or harsh impact upon the children. Thus, a fair recruitment policy has to be adopted which will guide the way the recruitment is to be done. The financial condition, work history, the general behaviour of the employees is too judged while conducting the recruitment (Werbel and Balkin, 2010).
Thirdly, training of individuals is an essential part of the recruitment and selection procedure. Training in-house or using specialists is an important criterion. A workplace health and safety consultant and the managers should provide important information on the effects of alcohol misuse in the workplace. The policy designed by the organisation and the legal actions that might follow are to be communicated. Also, the employees are to be told about their benefits and how they should conduct themselves. Training also includes help and support from the staffs and the managers in generals and lastly it will inculcate the skills among the employees. The main idea is to raise awareness and provide information (Subramony, 2006).
The fourth task is to provide compensation and reimbursement to the employees who would ensure that they strive harder to work for higher productivity and betterment of the institution. Offering attractive workplace environment and incentives for hard work are a general procedure. Thus providing specific holidays, a reasonable sum of salary and recreation options like, relaxation centre, free food or TV viewing options are significant options of informal way of managing employees (Reymond, 2008).
Testing of employees in a regular basis could be a hectic task and lead to offending the employees. But with an institution facing such an issue it is essential some kind of test is organised monthly (Wiley, 2012). If someone is found guilty, it will better to offer a helping hand by the manger. The HR should personally speak with the person and find the reason behind it. It should be dealt as a health issue than a crime and thus support in the form of treatment and rehabilitation must be provided.
Other informal way of enhancing employee skill or uplifting the work condition is taking insight into the personal conditions of the employees, and then rewarding of the best employees. Talent must be assessed and appreciated. Workplace bullying must be strictly handled and dealt with. Finally employees like Alex who showed talents for growth must be retained, through corrective measures and tactics (Snell, 2006).
Hence, in conclusion it could be said that Employee health issues and alcoholism has a great impact on the business scenario of an organisation. This conditions and issues arise due to the stress, bully, unhealthy workplace and various other reasons. It is thus essential that employers take these issues into account and take corrective measures to sort the issues. Also the legal aspects, like employer obligation and liabilities are to be understood and kept in mind when conducting HRM practices. Thus the best practices of recruitment, selection, training and policy making are to be done and corrective measures are to be taken to bring the organisation to health.
References
Briscoe, D., Schuler, R. and Claus, L. (2009). International human resource management. London: Routledge.
Chaudhuri, K. (2010). Human resource management. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House.
Edmondson, M. (2010). Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR.Strategic HR Review, 9(5).
Fingret, D. and Smith, A. (2013). Occupational Health. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Hart, K. and Fazaa, N. (2004). Life Stress Events and Alcohol Misuse: Distinguishing Contributing Stress Events From Consequential Stress Events. Subst Use Misuse, 39(9), pp.1319-1339.
Hill, R. and Harris, J. (2011). Principles and Practice of Group Work in Addictions. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.
Hodgins, D., Williams, R. and Munro, G. (2009). Workplace Responsibility, Stress, Alcohol Availability and Norms as Predictors of Alcohol Consumption-Related Problems Among Employed Workers. Subst Use Misuse, 44(14), pp.2062-2069.
Hse.gov.uk, (2015). Employer’s responsibilities: Workers’ health and safety. [online] Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/workers/employers.htm [Accessed 6 Aug. 2015].
Hyland, C. (2010). Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR.Strategic HR Review, 9(5).
Linking human resource management practices and customer satisfaction on product quality. (2013).Human Resource Management International Digest, 21(3).
Nta.nhs.uk, (2015). National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse – About us. [online] Available at: https://www.nta.nhs.uk/about.aspx [Accessed 6 Aug. 2015].
Reymond, J. (2008). Best practice techniques in vocational rehabilitation. Strategic HR Review, 7(2).
Snell, A. (2006). Researching onboarding best practice: Using research to connect onboarding processes with employee satisfaction. Strategic HR Review, 5(6), pp.32-35.
Subramony, M. (2006). Why organizations adopt some human resource management practices and reject others: An exploration of rationales. Human Resource Management, 45(2), pp.195-210.
Vogelsang, J. (2013). Handbook for strategic HR. New York: American Management Association.
Werbel, J. and Balkin, D. (2010). Are human resource practices linked to employee misconduct?.Human Resource Management Review, 20(4), pp.317-326.
Wiley, J. (2012). Achieving change through a best practice employee survey. Strategic HR Review, 11(5), pp.265-271.
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