Human resource management can be referred to the overall procedure of controlling, managing, designing and directing activities of the employees, who are working in an enterprise. As the employees are the key to success for any business, it is immensely crucial for the firms to maintain flexibility at the workplaces. There are consistent changes in the business environment and the firms are required to change in accordance with that. However, at times many businesses fail to understand the importance of proper human resource management and end up losing their credibility. It also has the power to malign the reputation or image of the company (Hendry 2012).
Sainsbury’s is the chosen company for this report, in order to throw light on the human resource management issues or policies. However, it is highly important to mention that Sainsbury’s is one of the largest businesses in the retail sector of USA. Founded in the year 1869, the company has employed numerous employees till now and presently over 181,000 employees are working there. The firm has adopted a number of techniques in order to maintain their flexibility (Sainsburys.co.uk 2018). However, in recent years, the company is facing some issues in relation to the human resource management policies. The report discusses in detail, the importance of health and safety measurements, which the company’s employees are facing currently.
There are some issues that are affecting the human resource management practices of Sainsbury’s, across the sectors. However, one of the issues that are impacting the practices of Sainsbury’s is the organizational culture. The organization culture is affecting the human resource management policies of the company. The employees of the organization are facing some issues related to their health and safety. The culture of Sainsbury’s is highly affecting the way the human resource managers are performing the recruitment as well as selection procedure. In addition to this, the employees are offered with several benefits and incentives in order to give them a secured life (Cascio 2018). The company has offered a large number of job opportunities to its employees but however, it has failed to manage the health and safety issue.
The health and safety issues do not always occur in the human resource management policies. It has to be closely monitored by the company’s leaders and managerial heads. The human resource management of the company must comply with the significant amount of the legislation. This is where, the human resource management policies come into function. However, the human resource managers of the Sainsbury’s have failed to provide a safe and secured working environment to its employees. Employees have revealed the fact that they have to work for extra hours, without getting paid (Karim, Huda and Khan 2012). They have even complained the senior authorizes but nothing worked.
The fact that came into notice is Sainsbury’s employees are not getting adequate leaves as mentioned in the company guidelines. The health and safety policies are also not given adequate attention. In addition to this, the women workers are not getting equally paid, as compared to the men employees. As per the company policies, the employees are required to work for eight hours per day. However, some employees are even requested to work eleven to twelve hours per day, without any extra payments. Moreover, the company does not have any safety measures within the work environment (Van Gordon et al. 2014).
The employees are highly dissatisfied with the working conditions of the company and even complained against the human resource policies to the senior authorities. Moreover, the pregnant employees are not getting paid maternity leaves. Employees are not getting sick leaves, emergency leaves and other life insurance benefits as well. These factors of the company are highly affecting their credibility and image. The employees are not getting any benefits from the health and safety policies incorporated by the company (Mullan et al. 2015). The policies should ensure the fact that the organization is maintaining some standards for the employees during the time of recruitment and working life.
In addition to this, the employees must be given adequate time to balance their work life as well as personal life. Moreover, the company needs to ensure that the employees as well as the human resource policies fulfill the requirements, which are stated in the guidelines. The company does not have health and safety requirements like fire extinguishers, fire suit, uniformed security men, a proper health and safety team and others. The real job of the fire team includes the risk assessment jobs, fire precautions, organizing several courses like training the employees regarding safety subjects like fire safety, instructions, first aid, manual handling and others (Vickerstaff and Phillipson 2012).
The whole health and safety issue have had a serious impact over the Sainsbury’s Company. The employees have started dropping their resignation mails, as they are not happy working there. Interaction with one of the employees has revealed the fact that they do not get time to maintain their social life, working there. The company does not even provide any recreation or leisurely activities to its employees. The staff members of the organization are totally against this harsh working environment and started resigning due to such issues. This whole thing is causing severe impact on the organizational culture. Managing the welfare of the employees is a crucial part for each and every organization (Cartwright and Cooper 2014). The employee relation team, along with the human resource management is equally involved for managing these issues of the employees.
The health and safety of the employees must be considered to be a major part of the organizational management system. It should cover the planning procedure, accidents, ill health prevention and others (Bowden et al. 2015). However, the ill management system of Sainsbury’s has affected its reputation to a large extent. It has invited media’s attention as well, which in turn has marred its popularity. The company is facing some serious issues in recent times. Therefore, it is high time the company starts introducing some changes in its policies and implements those, in order to regain its popularity and image.
Some organizations view health and safety policies of the employees as an additional investment. However, poor management of the health issues can cause serious consequences for the company’s reputation. Common workplace health and safety hazards can be easily solved by incorporating proper measures and Sainsbury’s should start taking these into consideration for regaining its popularity. Employees’ safety and welfare must be the major concern of the employers (Black 2012). Therefore, the organizational leaders and managers of Sainsbury’s need to ensure that the employees are feeling safe, while working there. In addition to this, it is highly important for the organizational leaders to conduct training sessions on employee safety and management.
Workplace violence, discrimination, accidents and others can lead to severe consequences. However, this falls under the responsibility of the human resource managers, who should ensure proper safety within the premises. The employee should feel safe while working there. None of the employees should be discriminated on the grounds of their race, gender, color, ethnicity, origin, sexual orientation and other factors. Moreover, the women employees should be paid equal wages as that of the men employees (Vickerstaff and Phillipson 2012). In addition to this, payments for extra working hours must be made in order to keep the productivity level higher.
For smaller organizations, ensuring the safety policies of the employees can be a challenging job. Limited resources, cost concerns, difficulty in meeting the regular requirements, worker’s compensation and others, can pose a greater problem for smaller business. However, Sainsbury’s is a large organization with huge production and profitability. Therefore, organizing these stuffs for the welfare of the employees will not be a major issue for the organization. It is high time, the organization adopts certain measures in order to retain its employees and enhance its production level (MacDonald, Kreutz and Mitchell 2013). If these steps are not taken in an appropriate manner, the organization will never regain its reputation.
The organization’s managerial department has decided to look into the factor and take necessary steps. However, the organization has managed to implement some new policies within their policies and guidelines. The employees will be given training in accordance with that. The human resource manager of the company is instructed to design a new set of rules for maintaining the health and safety standards of the employees. The new set of work health and safety policies of the company clearly demonstrates the organizational management’s full commitment for the employees’ health and safety. It shows the employees that the business performance and safety performance are compatible (Ganster and Rosen 2013).
Moreover, the employees will be getting paid extra for serving overtime and both the male and female workers will be getting equally paid, as per their skills and achievements. In addition to this, the employees will be getting protection within the working environment and no violence and discrimination will be entertained as per the policies. Severe actions and steps will be taken against the employees, who will violate the rules. The development of the organizational health and safety falls under the responsibility of the organization managers, leaders and human resource managers (Kelloway et al. 2012). Therefore, taking these factors into consideration can help the company succeed, on the long run.
In comparison with the contemporary theories, Sainsbury’s is adopting all the modern health and safety measures in order to ensure the welfare of the employees. The organization will be interacting consistently with the business environment, in order to grow and sustain in the market. The contemporary theory considers the organizations as an open system. It mentions the importance of gaining employee feedback for the enhancement of the organizational policies (Nielsen and Daniels 2012). Sainsbury’s should start monitoring the employee performance and take sessions, where the organizational leaders can gain necessary feedback from the employees regarding the health and safety issues.
The modern organizational theories emphasizes on the employee safety and security. It is important for each and every organization to maintain employee safety. In addition to this, the employees should be motivated and encouraged by the organizational leaders to share their issues and opinions, for the betterment of the company. The employees must also be approached for setting up the organizational goals and objectives. This will make them feel special and a valued part of the organization (Van De Voorde, Paauwe and Van Veldhoven 2012). These small steps of the organization can help in earning huge.
In addition to this, the Sainsbury’s Company should also introduce rewards and recognition systems in order to motivate and encourage the employees to perform better. There should be direct and indirect benefits as well. The direct benefits should include incentives, bonuses, reward money and more. The indirect benefits should include insurance policies, health insurance, leaves and others. The women employees must be provided with paid maternity leaves. Therefore, undertaking these contemporary theories can prove to be beneficial for the company on the long run (Robbins, Ford and Tetrick 2012). This will, in turn, increase the profitability and bring back its image as well as reputation.
Conclusion
To conclude, the human resource managers of any company are responsible for the welfare of the employees. Taking the case of Sainsbury’s, it can be said that the organization lacked proper management and leadership, for managing its employees’ safety. Moreover, the company was not being able to provide its employees with a balanced work life and personal life. This was a major issue of the company, which invited media’s attention as well. Sainsbury’s started losing its reputation and image, which in turn, proved to be disadvantageous for the company itself.
However, the company applied some modern contemporary theories of managing workplace safety for the employees. This proved to be beneficial for the company itself. The employees are happy working at Sainsbury’s, which has managed to provide them with a better working environment, without any discrimination or violence. More than 200,000 workers are currently working for the organization. Along with healthy work life, Sainsbury’s has also introduced some indirect benefits for the employees.
References
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