in recent years the proof department of the XYz Company has had considerable dif
ID: 328808 • Letter: I
Question
in recent years the proof department of the XYz Company has had considerable difficulty with labor turnover, absenteeism, lateness, and low employee productivity. The company is located in a large city. The main function of the proof department is posting of cheques and other items against customer accounts. This means that items such as deposits, withdrawals, and cheques are credited or debited to the proper customer account as they are received by the bank. This work comes to the proof department from the bank's branches. The proof department is located in a large office building in the city, and there are over 1,500 employees in the department. The posting is done on a proof machine, and the working conditions are factory-like. Each operator is given work by a unit head and then using a machine, which resembles a keypunch machine posts the items. The work is quite simple, routine, and highly repetitive. For the last five years the operator job has attracted only female applicants, most of whom are married women and not the heads of households. They are young high school graduates ranging form 18 to 30 years of age. The new operator stays for an average of two years, although a few stay with the bank longer and these are usually made unit heads If they worked at full capacity, each operator could process 1,500 to 1,800 items an hour, but the average is 500 to 700 an hour. Mondays and Fridays are days when up to one third of the force may be absent. The Head of the proof department is aware of the problem, knows the work is boring. and realizes that a large majority of the workforce consists of minority group members who are young. The bank pays a competitive salary for this type of work, and its fringe benefits are similar to or better than most other employers in the city. Guide Questions Identify and explain at least two main concerns in the case. Explain if the dominant issues are related to any of the five major HRM areas and why. (5 marks) If you were a unit manager in this department, how would you try to increase productivity? Draw relevant recommendations in line with the concerns you have identified in question 1 (10 marks)Explanation / Answer
1. The major concerns in the given case include employee turnover, absenteeism and low employee productivity. The main reason behind all these concerns is that the management is not able to motivate the employees which make the repetitive work boring. These issues are related to the key areas of HRM which includes recruitment, managing employee relations and training and development for the employees. One reason for employee turnover is that the recruitment process is not able to attract male candidates and most of the employees are married young woman. This category posses more chances of leaving their job any time based on their family emergencies like spouse’ job change, pregnancy, child care and other family issues which increases the employee turnover. Another major area of HRM is maintaining employee relations and the management is not able to maintain a good relationship and motivate the employees through benefits and growth opportunities which lead to lower productivity and make their work uninteresting. Training and development is also a reason because employee turnover, absenteeism and low productivity has resulted from HRM’s failure to provide enough training and development programs which would have improved employee commitment towards the organization.
2. If I were the manager, I would increase employee productivity through the following ways.
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