Concept Of Human Resource Management Practice

Abstract 

This assignment will focus on the concept of human resource management practice in Subway CKAF restaurant. The objective of this assignment is to relate the models of human resource management strategies with Subway CKAF and summarising human resource management activities like, motivation and rewards ending with an appropriate suggestion for a recommendation that can improve the human resource management strategy and operations within Subway CKAF’s restaurant in order to enhance the employee’s motivation and help the company to achieve increased organizational performance. 

Introduction 

The purpose of the Assignment is to provide a better understanding of human resources practice at Subway CKAF restaurant, throughout the assignment I will concentrate on the Human resources management approaches to motivate employees. 

Scenario 

CKAF is a small franchisee company created in July 2016, the company operates subway stores, at the moment the company has three stores located between Bracknell, Wokingham, and Reading. Line manager does the human resources tasks, the CKAF provide work flexibility for their employees, also the store has a program to help employees if they are planning to open their store, they have ongoing training and development opportunity that can be done online through subway partners or can be done by field consultant, they have self-service systems where the staff can manage and retrieve their data and documents, there are also staff benefits that team gets with the welcome pack when they start working with the company. The employees are feeling demotivated with their job due to, high staff turnover and the team are feeling under stress in the workplace as they have been covering shifts over shifts for the team that keep calling sick, and they are feeling depreciated as no one recognizes their effort. They are often overloaded with work and to cover the absence they need to do long shifts, on top of that they sometimes they work by themselves opening or closing staff, this brings fear as the probability of robbery is high if the staff is working alone or if there is an accident there is no one to help immediately. There is a lack of communication between the man agent team this is causing poor employee relation. 

Company Background 

Subway is an American fast-food restaurant chain that sells sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor’s Associates, Inc. 

Mission Statement 

Is to provide the tools and knowledge to allow franchisees to compete successfully in the Fast Food industry worldwide, by consistently offering value to consumers through delivering great-tasting food that is good for them and made the way they want it while reducing our environmental footprint and creating a positive influence in the communities we serve around the world. 

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on providing direction, guidance, managing recruitments, and employee relation. (businessdictionary.com) Subway CKAF Human Resource Practice is based upon two approaches: Hard HRM Model and Best Practice Approach Hard HRM model: is an approach to human resource management that involves treating employees simply as a resource of the business. The best practice approach claims that certain bundles of HR activities that if used in an organization would produce the best outcomes regardless of the organizational setting or industry (Redman and Wilkinson 2009). Subway CKAF increase the productivity of the workforce by lower costs per example they salary is based on the national minimum, is more focused on achieving the company goals and targets, they have low commitments with the employees, as they have a lot of policies like zero-hours work contracts and lonely working agreements, where the staff agrees to work by themselves sometimes example: They schedule more hours for the employees when the company has a high volume of sales, when the sales drop they cut the employees hours, they pay rate is according to the national minimum wages, there is limited on staff delegation and team working and is autocratic leadership, the managers decide and employees have to follow even disagreeing. There are many levels from the top management level to the operating level that leads Subway CKAF to a tall structure, the top managers like human resources and directors and the managers have the power of decision making and act when there are any issues, the staff and the team leaders are not allowed to decide anything without the consent of the top managers, also the human resources or the manager could promote employees to management positions if there are any vacancies and human resources is able to groom employees for future moves into acquiring Subway stores. 

Limitations of the Hard HRM Model and Best Practice Approach The Subway CKAF tall structure has been weakening the communication between top management and staff, when it’s come coordinating staff, they usually are unclear of what to do, and the employees do not have any power when there is any issues example when there is any customer complaints employee must contact one of the managers regarding the issue before taking action. If his manager is not available, the employee must move up the chain of command until reaching someone with authority to give them approval. Most of the time by the time they have approval from managers the issues have escalated. There is also high absenteeism result of the hard HR practice, as there is always short staff, human resources are obliged to recruit staff sometimes without using the correct audit for staff recruitment, these lead to less successful recruitment, and increase the staff turnover, making the remaining staff working harder and as the managers are failing to recognize the staff effort this is leading to employees demotivation. How does HRM motivate and maintain their employees at Subway CKAF? In HRM motivation refers to an individual’s need to work to their full potential to carry out a specific job or task (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). There are two different types of motivation, these being intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation is an autonomous motivation; this is when people become engaged in an activity because they find it interesting. In contrast, being controlled includes acting with a feeling of pressure or a sense of having to engage in the actions (Deci, 1971). Extrinsic motivation is when an individual’s behavior is influenced by the values and benefits of action (Ryan and Deci, 2000) Subway CKAF uses the Motivational Theory X style from Mc Gregor’s scientific management and Victor Vroom Expectancy theory Theory X motivation theory focuses on the importance of employee supervision. Employees at Subway CKAF are trained to work in order to achieve the company goals, the managers monitor the employees even when they are not in the store, each manager has an app and can supervise what the staff is doing at any time, the reward is done only if the employees achieve the targets, most of the times the only time the employees have feedbacks is when something goes wrong, example if the store fails the evaluation. As mentioned before, HRM managers practicing an autocratic style of leadership tend to make decisions without consulting any other members of the team, the positive impact is that some situations, such as dealing with the restaurant’s suppliers require the managers to being quick decision-making, but when referred to the employees this often ends up making them feel unappreciated and undervalued as their opinions aren’t taken into consideration. As a result, the company has been experiencing higher turnover rates with their staff. Victor Vroom Expectancy theory state that people are motivated when there is any reward involved. How this is used at Subway CKAF? 

The rewards at Subway CKAF are linked directly to performance, as the reward is given if the employees deserve it. the HR implement reward program that the store needs to outperform on productivity and pass the monthly evaluation and not have any customers complaints if all these topics are met the team is rewarded if they failed they are not rewarded.

Limitations of the Motivational Theory X style from Mc Gregor scientific management and Victor Vroom Expectancy theory 

The impact of theory X is that most of the time the employees do not feel encouraged to do an effort as they are aware that they can’t reach the target set, the goals set are clear but not reachable, the reason the goals are not being reached is due the high level of absenteeism and resignation these two issues are results of lack of motivation. 

Suggestions for improvements 

In order to successfully motivate employees, Subway CKAF should implement effective HR approaches and motivations programs. The soft HRM approach is an approach to human resource management that involves treating employees as one of a company’s most important assets. Implement the soft HRM approach will certainly will help the Subway CKAF to value their employees, this will give human resources tools to encourages and engage employees to give maximum of their performance, that will increase productivity by decentralizing company structure and it will workforce to gain competitive advantage within the company competitors also it will help the human resources to turn the work to a better place and minimizes stress that may interfere with the employees wellbeing, it will enable better communication and collaboration between employee and management team, it will encourage employees to do a better teamwork and it will bring democratic leadership within the team, this will empower staff to decide quickly and effectively when there is an issue and the managers are not in the store, and it will also resolve the turnover issues, the soft approach has some limitation as well like increased costs for resourcing talents to the company, that why HRM must be flexible and try to use the hard and soft approach in order to run an effective organization 

Best Fit Approach:

This approach is known for developing HRM policies according to business strategy HRM (Sparrow and Hiltrop 1994) Implementation of the best fit model is overall will be more persuasive and easier to implement when motivating the employees, the best fit model will give HR better strategic advantage as it is easier to make policies changes progressively and it will also bring more dynamic to the team 

Theory Y, from Mc Gregor Scientific Management:

Theory Y focuses on employee rewards and recognition. 

How this can help Subway CKAF to improve its motivation program? Implementing the theory Y Subway CKAF could help to distribute authority among employees example the senior staff could resolve the complaints as soon they have it, this could help to avoid escalating issues when there is no need, this will give them a sense of responsibilities and help them gain new skills like solving problems. Giving the employees room the participate in the organization decisions it will help HR to keep them motivated this method will lead to higher productivity and boost the employee’s performances, meaning that could help the employees to like the work and get self-satisfaction from the job duties and want to stick with the company, this could help the HR to retain staff. 

Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy 

This technique was developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow in the 1940s. He focused on the needs of the human being. This theory is divided by the hierarchy triangle of needs. He believed that all humans have needed to satisfy one need before moving to another one. ttps://the-happy-manager.com/tips/maslow-motivation-theory/ How this can help Subway CKAF to improve their motivation program? Physiological Motivation: This could help to schedule enough staff for each shift, pay a salary rate that allows workers to buy life’s essentials. Safety Needs: Provide a working environment that is a safe example of having at least two people opening and closing, relative job security like changing the zero-hours contracts. Social Needs: Reinforcing team dynamics by improving employee relations Esteem Motivators: Recognize achievements, assign important projects, and provide status to make employees feel valued and appreciated. Self-Actualization: Offer challenging and meaningful work assignments which enable innovation, creativity, and progress according to long-term goals. HR should keep in mind that not everyone is motivated by the same needs each employee will be motivated by completely different needs. It is imperative that HR recognize each employee’s needs currently being pursued. In order to motivate their employees, HR must understand the current level of needs at which the employees are, this way they will have a range of ideas about how to keep the workplace motivated. 

Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory 

The Motivation-Hygiene Theory or the dual-factor theory was done by Frederick Herzberg in 1959. Herzberg’s study revealed job satisfaction depends on two kinds of factors, he believed that certain characteristics of a job are consistently related to job satisfaction, while different factors are associated with job dissatisfaction. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/359302876516754987/ How this can help Subway CKAF to improve their motivation program? Eliminate Job Dissatisfaction To improve employee motivation.HR should first eliminate the issues that the company is having are having like: Fix poor and obstructive company policies. In this case, Subway CKAF HR, could start looking up and evaluate their policies and try to change some of them, example of policies that they could consider change is the Lonely Work Agreement, this agreement has been making employees feel unsafe to resolve this HR should start to schedule at least two employees to open two employees to close the store, this will help them to improve the health and safety as well, some reward policies could be changed as well, the HR could consider setting goals that are easily achievable, this could help to incentive employees to feel motivated to work harder in order to achieve the goals. Provide effective, supportive, and non-intrusive supervision: this helps staff to feel a freedom to improve and to act as soon that there are any issues, and they could do the chores with their own initiative. Ensure that wages are competitive, maybe HR could start considering offering a more competitive salary, and this could help to retain employees, also motivate employees to be loyal to the company, plus could help to improve the employee performance. Provide job security: In theory, zero-hour contracts could be mutually beneficial for the company and employees. However, the employees are feeling the company use these contracts to exploit them, they feel that if they refuse to fill the gap left by absent or leaver employees they will be punished by cutting their hours, the HR could work out these issues ensuring the employees that their job position is secure, falling that they will lose most of the team to the competitors. Create Conditions for Job Satisfaction To create satisfaction, HR needs to address the motivating factors associated with work issues that the company has, the HR should evaluate and determine what rewards to introduce and how this could help to motivate the employees, they should consider: Providing opportunities for achievement: as mentioned above, HR should set small, measurable goals and provide tools for employees to achieve it, example it’s impossible not have customers complains when there is only one employee in the store, the customers are going to get upset or leave this means that the company is going to lose sales, and the team is not going to achieve the sales targets, knowing that there is short staff the HR needs to set realistic targets for the team. Recognizing people’s contributions: One of the most important factors in employee motivation is how often their hard work is recognized, The HR could start for implementing the informal recognition, as simple as saying thank you and please to the employees could boost their motivation, and this also can encourage the employees to do more efforts to help the company productivity. Creating a rewarding program that is suitable for the organization: The HR should implement Continuous Feedback, the moment the HR only provide feedback when something is wrong, they could take the opportunity to provide feedback more often letting the employees aware of how they are doing, and how their performance is affecting the company, example the feedback can also encourage the employee to reach the targets, as feedback can update them on where they stand relative to those goals. feedback can definitely work as a motivator factor if the HR is specific and positive, if HR gives negative feedback this is going to be ineffective and could make the team feeling down, The recognition should be made in private also in a public way, the more recognition the employees receive the more probabilities they have to repeat the same actions and this should be something the HR needs to do make sure that this is a continuous process, if they manage to do it just for a certain time, they can go back to the same situation of employee demotivation, and then they need to start all over again. 

Conclusion 

Motivation is an important part of the entire process of effective management. If HR fail of implementing a proper motivation program may keep the employees away from showing their best performance, this can lead the company to lose their employees and this can cause financial loss to the company as well Proper motivation and effective utilization of the motivation techniques can help the company to achieve their targets or goals. According to all the motivation factors described in this assignment, we can ling the term motivation with the employee needs, as explained by the Maslow theory of needs like physiological, security, social, esteem and self-actualization also motivation is driven by special factors like money, positive reinforcement, participation and job enrichment. Subway CKAF uses some motivation techniques but is ineffective at moment, there were suggestions of motivations techniques that human resources can be implemented to help to boost employee motivation and helps them to move forward and to be more effective and productive.