CASE 8 - HR Strategy and Planning, Ethics and Outsourcing

In this post for the blog, I will talk about what is the role of strategy and planning in human resource management. I will also cover ethics and outsourcing issues.

To maintain an effective Human Resources function, it need careful planning and building a strategy to rely on along the way. According to Mikko Luoma, the HR strategy should be drawn from the business strategy itself. And eventually, the HR strategy becomes an important part of the overall business strategy.

The HR strategy includes for instance general HRM decisions and priorities, development of the HR function, clarifying business strategy, creating competitive edge in business. 




Outsourcing HR function(s)

As a part of a Human Resources strategy, outsourcing can be one option to make the operations of a business more effective. When considering outsourcing the HR function in an organizations, there are both advantages and disadvantages that needs to be considered before making decisions.

According to Personnel Today´s article on HR outsourcing (HRO) - an in-dept guide, outsourcing the HR functions is an obvious candidate to outsourcing because it is a non-profit function of a business, so there is less financial risks involved in the outsourcing. Outsourcing this function can be done partially or by outsourcing the function as a whole. 

Some risks involved could be:
-loss of control and flexibility
-impact on the employer/employee relationship

-failure to deliver cost-effectiveness or benefits
-legal or regulatory requirements

Some benefits involved in outsourcing HR function(s):
-when freeing HR employees from the function, they can bring more value to other business functions instead
-reduces costs and increases efficiency
-access to HR expertise not available internally
-increase flexibility and speed of response

The possible risks and advantages of course depend on the individual cases and outsourcing should be considered carefully before taking action.

Also, considering a HR consultant is an option if a business wants to develop their HR function. According to Advisory HQ´s article "7 best Firms for HR Consulting, 2018 Ranking", the best HR consulting firms focuses mainly on employee healthcare and benefits, overall human capital including incentives and rewards, when merge or acquisition takes place and outsourcing HR function(s).

8A case

The case 8A told about a situation where child refugees in Turkey has been manufacturing clothing for companies like Marks & Spencer, Mango, Zara and Asos with under than the minimum wage. BBC undercover investigation interviewed the refugees at the factories, and one told them "If anything happens to a Syrian, they will throw him away like a piece of cloth." A spokesperson for Marks & Spencer stated that ethical trading is fundamental for the business and they will not tolerate such practices found in Turkey. BBC reporter spoke to many Syrian workers in Turkey factories, and states that the workers know they are being exploited but can do nothing about it. (BBC, 2016.)

In a clothing factory

A spokesperson for Mango says that a factory in Turkey was operating as a sub-contractor without Mango´s knowledge. Zara´s parent company also said that they conduct inspections on their factories and had found significant non-compliance in audit and gave the factory six months time to make necessary improvements. (BBC, 2016.)

I have heard and read before about cases like this in the fashion industry, so this was no new to me. My own theory in this problem manufacturing clothing in developing countries etc. is that even thought businesses like Mango or Zara try to monitor and audit their factories, the local factory supervisors or middlemen can work suspiciously without the business itself knowing about this. 
Even if fashion companies have responsibility to know where and who made their products and under what conditions, if might be so that it is not possible for them to know everything if for instance, the local factory owners or supervisors have illegal actions against the contractors orders. But since these kind of problems have occurred for a long time specially in this industry, the companies are aware that this kind of unethical working conditions in reality and if they can do nothing about it, they should consider manufacturing their products elsewhere. 



Sources:

Case 8A: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-37716463. Accessed 13.11.2018.
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/hr-outsourcing-hro-an-in-depth-guide/. Accessed 13.11.2018.
Picture 1: https://fr.123rf.com/photo_38515195_concept-coop%C3%A9ration-et-de-partenariat-%C3%89quipement-travail-d-%C3%A9quipe-team-group.html. Accessed 13.11.2018.
Picture 2: https://www.hradvisors.com/hr-advisors-inc/5-benefits-working-hr-consultant-grow-business
Picture 3: https://inhabitat.com/ecouterre/bbc-expose-reveals-child-refugees-making-clothes-for-british-high-street/. Accessed 13.11.2018.

CASE 7 - Exit Management

In this week´s blog post I will talk about exit management, considering layoffs and organizational communication. This topic´s cases were all about Nokia and their layoffs or shutting down factories or company sites all over the world. The cases 7 A,B and C consisted news articles between 2008 and 2012. 

Case A- Nokia closes plant in Germany

communicatinglabourrights.wordpress.com article told about Nokia´s plans to close a plant in Germany, and relocating the operations to Romania in order to improve their competitiveness in the markets. This would result to about 2300 employees getting fired in Germany operations. The article also includes information about issues concerning Nokia getting funds from EU, and the funds would have been considered as a unfair competition against other companies in the same markets.

The situation with German plant of Nokia was described "hostile" by Juha Äkräs, Nokia´s Senior vice president of human resources. Äkräs was designated to talk to the 2300 employees in German and address them the issue on layoffs. (Sucher and Gupta, 2018.)
According to Sucher and Gupta, there were serious consequences after the layoffs in Germany. A week after after the layoffs, 15 000 people protested at Bochum, Germany. Also German government officials launched an investigation about Nokia and demanded Nokia to pay back subsidies it had received for the plant. Another consequence was that unions called for a boycott of Nokia products. After all, the shut down of the German plant cost Nokia around 200 million euros.



From Nokia´s point of view, they thought they are doing the necessary thing to ensure the business keeps going and production is as effective as possible. Of course this situation was difficult for both parties, the employer and employees in Germany. Also, this kind of layoffs could make other employees in different countries think about their jobs and can they keep them.

In the case 7B, YLE reports about Nokia cutting 3500 jobs to ensure its profitability. Nokia´s Executive Vice President of markets, Niklas Savander told ''It is impractical to manufacture products in Europe when one has to fly all the components to Europe and then fly the ready-made phones back to Asia.'' 
I think this is well reasoned, it makes sense that if you make phones for Asian markets, it would be more effective what comes to the supply chain management to produce the products in Asia unless it would be a competitive advantage for some reason to manufacture products in Finland. It surely lowers Nokia´s manufacturing and transportation costs to make products in Asia.

In YLE´s article in 2012, it was stated that hundreds of former Nokia employees leave Accenture where they were outsourced earlier. Nokia had transferred 1200 Symbian developers to Accenture. Due to this move, some Accenture employees had so little to do, that there was no other option than letting go employees. Accenture provided the employees leaving the company with layoff packages. Also, the transferred employees have not been pleased with the new employer, Accenture.
This employee outsourcing could be considered not so successful in my opinion since there was not enough work at Accenture for the transferred employees too. It although good that the employer provided these packages consisting up to 15 months of compensation to the employees and employees have plenty of time to find a new job. 



Exit management includes many topics in organizations, such as employee relations and resourcing, health and safety, compensation, benefit and training and development. All these areas must be considered when making for instance layoff plans or other crucial decisions regarding employees. According to a presentation made by Elizabeth SanMiguel and Anita Pösö, there are different situations where exit management is needed. Employees could leave an organization for different reasons, for example when retiring, employer terminates employee contract or an employee decides to leave him/herself. These different situations need different approaches to handling employees leaving the company.

Companies do bad layoffs and for the wrong reasons or even both of these at the same situation. By "bad" layoff is meant that the they are not fair or have too large  negative effects on the business. The job cuts in Bochum resulted to outrage because Nokia had generated so much profit the year before, so people did not understand the need of the layoffs or considered it unfair.(Sucher and Gupta, 2018.)

How layoffs affect the organization?

According to Sucher and Gupta, shown in a study conducted by Deepak Datta in University of Texas, found that in a financial side, layoffs resulted companies to suffer declines in profitability and the drop in profits lasted about three years prior layoffs. Another study conducted by researchers in Auburn University, Baylor University and the University of Tennessee found that companies which have had layoffs are twice as likely to file for a bankruptcy compared to companies not having layoffs. Also, after layoffs the employees who kept their job suffered from about 20% decline in a job performance. Here was just some effects that layoffs can have in an organization. 

Collective dismissals in Finland and United Kingdom
When an employer needs to layoff people in Finland, there are some rules for collective dismissals. According to Tehy´s websites, collective dismissals have to be processed if an employer is considering layoffs because of financial or production reasons. Negotiations about this kind of dismissals need to be done if there is more than 20 employees in the company. Declaration of dismissal needs to be given to the employees as soon as possible. The negotiations about dismissals has to be done before any layoffs or decisions. Employer need to inform the employees five days before the negotiations in paper. In addition to the employer and employees, work placement trustee takes part to the negotiations.



According to gov.uk, if the employer is about to layoff 20 or more employees, the collective redundancy rules apply. There should be a consultation between the employer and a representative, such as trade union or and elected employee representative. The collective consultation must cover ways to avoid redundancies, the reasons for layoffs, how to keep the number of dismissals to a minimum and how to limit the effects for employees involved. If there is 20-99 employees involved, the consultation must start at least 30 days before any dismissals take effect and if there is 100 or more employees involved, the consultation must start 45 days before any dismissals. If an employee has fixed-term contract, the employees does not have to be included in the negotiations except if the employer would end the fixed-term contract early due to the collective dismissals.

There are always challenges depending on the situation and the case. I have been part of one collective dismissal before and I was not dismissed, but the situation affected the work efficiency and productivity quite a lot for many employees. In many cases, the employer must layoff people because of financial difficulties of the organization. In both countries, Finland and UK, there are certain rules to apply to the dismissals. This is in protection of the employees and also employers. There are stated in both countries´ rules that some one outside the company must be involved in the negotiations to ensure that the process is fair for everyone. Another benefit of these rules are that the employees must be informed early about the upcoming dismissals so that they have time to prepare themselves. In Finland it is sure that if you are dismissed, you can get financial support from KELA which is partly financed by the government.



Sources

https://communicatinglabourrights.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/nokia-closes-plant-in-germany-and-relocates-in-romania/. Accessed 1.11.2018

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/nokia_cuts_3500_jobs_to_ensure_profitability/5431070. Accessed 1.11.2018.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/hundreds_of_nokias_outsourced_symbian_developers_leaving_accenture/5252177. Accessed 1.11.2018.

https://hbr.org/2018/05/layoffs-that-dont-break-your-company. Accessed 1.11.2018 and 6.11.2018.

https://haagahelia.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/sites/globba/coursematerials2/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B6a4d3a01-c1c3-49ac-abc1-8e84d99737e3%7D&action=default. Accesssed 1.11.2018.

https://www.tehy.fi/fi/apua/tyosuhteen-paattyminen-ja-lomautus/yt-neuvottelut-tyovoimaa-vahennettaessa. Accessed 6.11.2018.

https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/consultation. Accessed 6.11.2018.

Picture 1: http://nokiamob.net/2017/09/24/nokia-plans-to-cut-597-jobs-in-france-by-end-2019-unions-strongly-against/
Picture 2: https://www.harpermacleod.co.uk/hm-insights/2016/march/can-demotion-for-gross-misconduct-amount-to-unfair-constructive-dismissal/
Picture 3: https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/6-april-collective-redundancy-reforms-why-three-little-words-mean-huge-confusion-update/

CASE 6 - Total Rewards and Employee Engagement

In this week´s blog post I am going to talk about motivation at work, rewarding and how employees can be engaged to work.

Motivation and engagement

Dan Pink speak about motivation and rewarding performance at work place in his Ted Talk in 2009. Dan refers to a researchers saying that if there are high cash rewards for performing well, it actually affects negatively on the level of performance in some cases. Pink talks about ´autonomy, mastery and purpose´ as a driver for motivation at work. Employees should have autonomy over their daily routines and work. This way employees are proven to be more productive and engaged to their work and happier about their employer. Pink also tells about some companies in the Northern America as an example where the employees can have a total ´mastery´ over their work. They can choose where to work, when, how and attend meetings if wanted. And a purpose is also presented as a very important aspect what comes to motivation at work. Employees want to feel that what they are doing, matters and that they are in control of their performance. (Pink 2009.)

Dan Pink´s idea of what is behind motivation

When I think of my own experience in working life, my conclusion is that employees are more satisfied with their work and motivated if they can control at least some parts of their job and make decisions on how they do things and when. I feel that I am motivated when I can choose how I do a certain task and If I feel that the task or a job is developing my skills and I learn something out of it. I do not feel good if I am used for doing too easy tasks, then I feel like my expertise and skills are not appreciated. 

I have been in a sales job where there was cash rewards according to the level of performance, and the rewards would be paid each month. In some months, there was also chosen the ´Most valuable player´ of the team, usually the one who made the most sales in monetary value. This system is motivating when the rewards are not too unrealistic to actually reach. But if the reward seems like way too hard to achieve, then performance could drop dramatically. There was also competition between employees in the same job and the would get bonus rewards occasionally. This is a well working system if all the employees are competitive in a nature. 

non-monetary reward

Kevin Kruse emphasis that making employees happy at work is different matter that making them engaged and being productive and profitable. The engagement at work means that the employees are engaged to the businesses´ goals and the whole organization. And this engagement means emotional engagement too. This kind of emotionally engaged employees do not work only for the paycheck but they care about the endeavors and goals of the company and really might think about how they could develop certain functions and their own work. According to Towers Perrin research, companies with truly engaged employees have 6% higher net profit margins and higher shareholder returns. (Kruse 2012)

Thinking about my own experience, I have seen both, employees who are not engaged in any level to their work, and employees who are very engaged to the company and their own work. As an employee and also as a fresh entrepreneur, work engagement is very important to me. When talking about working for someone else, I want to feel that I am doing my best at work and think how could I develop the organization and it´s actions so that my work also becomes more effective and enjoyable. I would not work for a company where I do not feel engaged, because it is no good for me or anyone else either. I don´t feel like wasting my time for work which I do not want to do. As an entrepreneur it is clear that I am 200% engaged to the company and would do anything to make it work, but it gets interesting when I would hire an employee. And when I would hire one, I want him/her to add value to my company, not just be in it for money.

Rewarding employees

A company can decide to give monetary or non-monetary rewards for its employees. Monetary rewards are tangible and non-monetary are intangible. Non-monetary rewards could be for instance more interesting or challenging assignments or public recognition or recognition within the organization. eBay offers for example golf lessons or dental services as a reward for employees. Those companies who emphasis monetary rewards, usually reinforce individual achievement but in companies providing non-monetary rewards, the focus is on the company as a whole and relationships within departments and culture. (Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R., 325.) In my previous work places there were monetary rewards, such as cash and also holidays to different destinations. Some work places did not have rewards at all. 

New trend in rewarding has been offering well performing employees for example holidays, trips or REI (recreational equipment) to have more engaging activities for employees. And for employees with family, reward could be working from home which creates more flexibility. (Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R., 326.)

My conclusion is that it always depends on the working environment, organizations´ culture and goal which way employers reward or motivate their employees. If the company wants to make great profit and gain global recognition for instance, they should invest in making a good reward system for the employees and hear the employees on how they want to do their job and why are they engaged or not. It is most likely very important to know your employees so that you know what motivates and drives them into better performances.



Sources

Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R. 2016. Managing Human Resources. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow. Accessed 23.10.2018.

Dank Pink ´The puzzle of motivation´ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation/discussion?language=en. Accessed 23.10.2018.

Picture 1: https://corporate-rebels.com/dan-pink/
Picture 2: https://www.trophiesplusmedals.co.uk/recognition-at-work-why-you-should-reward-your-employees/recognition-at-work-why-you-should-reward-your-employees/

Kevin Kruse ´What is employee engagement´ https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#10ec23ac7f37. Accessed 23.10.2018.

CASE 5 - Employee Well-being and Health and Safety at work

In this blog post I will study cases in employee well-being and health and safety at work. I will study two cases regarding safety and health issues at work.

The case 5A a 21-year old intern Moritz Erhardt died after working for long hours at bank Merrill Lynch. Erhardt also suffered epilepsia but he had not told anyone about his condition at the workplace. Allegedly the employees at the bank, and commonly in the same industry, had a competition with each other who can work longest hours. Erhardt was known as passionate, hard-working, humble and down to earth person. He was just a week away from signing a permanent employment contract at Merrill Lynch before he died. (Thomas 2013)

This case A shows that is can be hard to detect if the incident was due to the working conditions or not. In this case it was probably a mix of both. Erhardt was so motivated to work that he forgot his own health and limitations and was maybe under a social pressure to do longer hours at work. I think still the employer should take care that employees cannot work around the clock, set a rules for working hours. In this case the fatal incident did not happen at the work site, but at the intern´s home. The Merrill Lynch representative said that there is no procedure to monitor the working hours of employers, but I think it should be highly considered and taken as a common practice in the banking industry where these kind of incidents are stated to happen commonly (Thomas 2013).

Moritz Erhardt

The case A reminded me of a movie I saw a long time ago. The movie is called ´concussion´ and the movie addressed and issue in the football industry. Will Smith is acting Dr. Omalu, who examinated american football players who where suffering from severe and unexplained symptoms. Some players even died before getting the right medical treatment. Dr.Omalu confronted a previous doctor of the NFL (national football league) players and the NFL presentatives on the issues. Dr. Omalu found evidence on serious concussions in the autopsies he conducted on the players. Dr. Omalu states that the players are exposed to deadly concussion while on the football field. 
Here you can see a clip from the movie where Dr. Omalu talks with the former doctor. In the clip, the former doctor denies that he knows about the health problems of the players, referring to the football culture and its importance and how much money the NFL makes every year and donated to charity.

This movie shows as an example when the money is more important for the company than its employees or moral. NFL of course wants to keep up its reputation so that they can continue making business with their players life in danger.

An American football player injured

The case 5B tells about wellness programs at work and if they really make a difference at the workplace. Morgaine states that wellness programs provided by employers are more popular than ever. A wellness program could include giving employees discounts on their health insurance premiums, cash rewards, providing gym or other memberships free or charge or offering healthier food options at work. For companies the motive for providing such benefits is saving money for instance, when employees are healthier, they take less sick leaves and are more effective at work. Morgaine tells that the issue is that most employees do not participate the program, and few solutions are stated; making sure that employees are aware of the program, encourage employees towards it and even nominate a ´wellness leader´ who is close to the employees. (Morgaine 2018)

I have worked in the wellness and sports industry myself and it was self-evident that the employer promoted healthy lifestyle and keeping up a good exercising routines. The employer offered a gym membership for free and the gym facilities were also the area where I worked everyday. I did use the gym actively for a while, but when time passed, I felt that I did not want to stay to workout in the same building where I just had worked for eight or more hours. I also felt that my supervisor who I worked with daily, was not that motivating what comes to healthy eating and training habits. 

And my observation after working in the sports industry for years is that even if the employer and the whole company provides great facilities for taking care of oneself, there can still be a lot of sick leaves, illness, burnouts and lack of motivation. My opinion is that sports industry can be demanding and exhausting, physically and mentally, in such a way that it can even make harm for you instead of improving your life quality. Whether is it about a wellness industry or any other, an employees should always look after him/herself and be aware of employers´ responsibilities also to avoid harmful situations or misconducts.

Law and standards

There are certain laws which protect employees in the health and safety matters. For example in the US, the workers´ compensation laws at the state level and also OSHA (occupational safety and health act of 1970) in the federal level. The OSHA act includes different standards in safety, inspections, citations and fines, but it does not provide compensation when accidents happen. Employers are entitled to maintain insurance for the employees at the workplace, and those companies who have higher incident levels, have to pay for higher insurance fees. (Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R., 530.) 

Under OSHA´s provisions are stated that employers have as an obligation to provide safe and healthy work environment, comply with specific occupational safety and health standards and to keep records of occupational injuries and illnesses. For example, if employer does not provide written or electronic records in incidents and illnesses, employer can face fines and citations. Falsifying records can result in fine and six-month prison sentence.(Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R., 532,534)

Employees also have responsibilities in the safety and health matters. They have to comply with the safety and health standards regarding their occupation. Any injuries, conditions or illnesses should be reported to their employer as soon as noticed. Employees can file grievances or complaints if there occurs and issue at the workplace. (Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R., 534)


Conclusion

Referring to these topics discussed in this writing, it can be hard for an employer to detect if the incident was caused by the job conditions or other issues in some cases. In my opinion, the employer should anyways encourage employees to take care of themselves, physically and mentally providing a safe and trust-worthy working environment where employees feel safe and respected. Training and providing accurate information on safety and health is a must in today´s demanding working conditions. 

Sources


Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R. 2016. Managing Human Resources. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow. Accessed 9.10.2018.

Case 5A: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511911/Moritz-Erhardt-exhausted-Merrill-Lynch-intern-died-epileptic-fit.html#ixzz4RTj2xoP1 Accessed 4. & 9.10.2018.

Picture 1: https://www.georgianewsday.com/news/world/170823-bank-of-america-intern-moritz-erhardt-drops-dead-after-pulling-all-nighters.html

Case 5B: https://www.liveplan.com/blog/does-corporate-wellness-work-the-surprising-truth-about-employee-wellness-programs/ Accessed 9.10.2018.

Movie ´concussion´ clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59wvo9e2XQY

American football player picture: http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/american-groundlessness-grappling-with-the-nfls-concussion-crisis/

EU statistics on accidents at work https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Accidents_at_work_statistics

CASE 4 - Legal Compliance and Discipline and Grievance

In this blog writing, I am going to study legal compliance and discipline and grievance at workplace and how different situations can be handled. 

In the study I am going to use three different cases:

In the case A, a police inspector was charged with sexually abusing female officer in 2016 in New York. The sexual abuse was about touching, official misconduct and harassment which happened at the office of the suspect Keith Walton. The victim attempted to push Walton´s hands away and told him to stop. Walton although denies the allegations. Later, the inspector was relieved of his gun and badge and placed on a modified duty. Months later Walton was promoted as a deputy inspector. (Mele and Baker 2016.)

In this case what I think happened was that Walton made a deal with his supervisor or another employer of his to stay in the job and avoid any other consequences in addition to the charges. The victim, female officer, did not get justice or that´s what I made as a conclusion from the article. The case was kind of buried in favor of Walton.

The case B presented a situation happened at a restaurant in Denver. In a Mexican restaurant, a customer received a receipt which stated hate words written by the employee. This has not been the only case where this kind of insulting has happened. This kind of situations have killed careers, destroyed businesses and started lawsuits. And this kind of behavior goes both ways, also customers had offended employees, especially at diners.
Experts say that this kind of behavior is due to social media or perhaps, lack of training at workplace. In America, the jobs in the restaurant business can pay very low compensation, yet the job demands great professionalism in customer service and dealing with different kind of customers.  (McCarthy 2016.)

In the B case, I think that the problems are faced also because of the lack of training at workplace, but there just simply is people who cannot behave or leave things unsaid. And what I think about the social media impact on the situation is that social media provokes people to talk whatever they want and not face consequences. This does not work the same way in real life, it is not anonymous when for example a waitress writes offensively about his/her customer. So employees could be trained better and also trained about the consequences of inappropriate behavior (discipline). 

The case C described a situation where a family from Flint, Michigan discovered that there is a poisoning amount of lead in the tap water. Lee Anne Walters, as mother of her sons which both were diagnosed with lead poisoning, has been a spokesperson in the city about the problem. Later her husband, a sailor in US Navy, has faced harassment and mistreatment at his workplace due to his wife's advocacy in the water crisis. Dennis Walters have requested a transfer to another unit within the Navy. The Navy has not responded to any comment requests. (Kaufman and Ganim 2016.)

Protesters in Flint, Michigan on water crisis

This case regarding the water crisis in Flint was very disruptive to me, I do not understand why Dennis Walters was mistreated at his workplace when his wife was trying to defend the citizens´ rights. The case was left quite open because the Navy does not want to comment on the issue. One possibility could be that the Navy has something to do with the water being contaminated by lead and they wanted to keep Dennis Walters away from the case since he might reveal some details about the contamination. Or US Navy might use Dennis´ wife's involvement in the water crisis as an excuse to eventually discharge him if they have wanted to fire him for other reasons which are not adequate.

According to European Agency for Safety and Health at work, bullying can also be result in organizational culture, poor relationships between employees and supervisors, extreme levels of work demands and abrupt organizational change.

Employee and employer rights

An employee has statutory rights, meaning right to form an union and protection against discrimination. Specific laws are applied to these employee rights. Employees´ contractual rights include right to employment contract and contract with the union. These rights are controlled by law of contracts. Other rights employees have are for instance right to ethical treatment, free speech (limited) and privacy (limited). (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 458.)

Employment contract as a right of an employee

Employer rights contain right to run the business and to retain any profits that result and right to manage the workforce and hire employees. Also employer has rights to promote, assign, discipline and discharge employees. These rights are monitored by the discrimination law, for instance. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 462.) In conclusion, employer has rights to make decision affecting the business and workers within but limited by laws and contracts.

Discipline types and processes

There are mainly two types of discipline practices done by supervisors; progressive and positive discipline. Progressive discipline consists of series of management interventions, giving the employee a chance to correct his/her behavior. Positive discipline encourages employees to monitor their own behavior and responsibility is assumed to be taken by the employee on their actions. Positive discipline focuses on motivating the employee to learn from his/her mistakes and make a plan for correcting it. In positive discipline collaborative problem solving is the key to success. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 473-474.)

Processes presented by Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy (2016, 473-474)
In progressive discipline the process could be as follows:
1. Verbal warning given to an employee regarding his/her actions.
2. Written warning follows if the verbal warning was not effective as correcting the behavior.
3. Suspension can take place for a certain time if warnings are not enough.
4. Discharge is the last step if warnings and suspension do not correct the situation.

In positive discipline the process could be as follows:
1. Counselling session takes place with a goal to solve the problem occurred.
2. New counselling is required if the first one was not effective.
3. Warning of discharge and also time (for instance one day off) could be given to employee to come up with a solution to the situation.
4. Discharge, if nothing mentioned above works.

Employee ´discipline´ in action

Discipline standards

Before the employer decides to discipline the employee, he/she should consider few important things effecting the situation. The manager should consider the standards of discipline used for determining if the employee is treated fairly with the disciplining, if the employee has right to appeal actions of discipline, communication rules and performance criteria and rule awareness among the employees. In order to successfully discipline an employee, documentation of convincing evidence is important to that there are even grounds for discipline. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 476.)

Summary

From these cases we can learn that there can be many different kind of situations, even very complicated ones, regarding the legal compliance and discipline and grievance. And some cases will never be solved or justice is not served to the right people. There still are some tools the employers can use regarding discipline, and employees and employers have their own rights under employment. It is important as an employee to know one´s rights so that even difficult situations could be solved fairly in favor of each party.


References

Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R. 2016. Managing Human Resources. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow. Accessed 2.10.2018.

Case 4A: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/nyregion/new-york-police-sexual-abuse-of-officer.html?_r=0. Accessed 2.10.2018
Case 4B: https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/receipt-rage-why-food-is-being-served-with-a-side-of-hate. Accessed 2.10.2018
Case 4C: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/29/health/whistleblower-complaint-us-navy-flint/index.html. Accessed 2.10.2018

Case C picture: https://sites.tufts.edu/caitlinjosephcommunicates/2016/01/29/flint-mi-water-crisis-a-media-analysis/
Employment contract picture: https://www.allenlawaz.com/employment-contract-conflicts-new-az-employee-rights-law/
Employee discipline picture: http://karenlusby.com/three-reasons-self-discipline-fails/

EU OSHA Bullying at work: 
https://haagahelia.sharepoint.com/sites/globba/coursematerials2/Basic%20Courses/HRM1LF101%20Basics%20of%20Human%20Resource%20Management/Materials/Course%20Readings/EU%20OSHA%20Factsheet%2023%20Bullying%20at%20work.pdf?slrid=2482949e-8029-7000-5935-8eb3d0d17f49. Accessed 2.10.2018

CASE 3 - Performance Management

In the case 3, Jerry Bumgarner tells about his story about getting evaluated by his supervisor and it was not a pleasant experience. He felt that he had performed well during the years he worked for the company. At Bumgarner´s first day, also his new supervisor started his job. As a loyal employees, Bumgarner thought, he took many different tasks outside his real responsibilities. This way he thought he gained more professional development and new skills.

After six months in the job, Bumgarner got his first performance appraisal with surprisingly negative results. He was astonished and could not believe that his supervisor had not told anything to him earlier since their team work was seamless and performing well. 

After this hearing, the Human resource director in the company suggested that Bumgarner and his supervisor together with the Human resource director, would sit down and make a plan for Bumgarner´s future goals and development. After conducting this plan for next six months, Bumgarner felt much more motivated and even exceeded his personal goals.

Later Bumgarner even gained a promotion in the job and he felt that he learned a lot about how to align employee performance with the company´s own goals and mission. He states that when an employee has a specific goals for his performance, it is motivating for the employee and easier for the supervisor(s) to evaluate the performance when it can actually be measured. When the time comes for a performance appraisal, the situation is fair for both parties since the performance outcomes had been set for example months earlier and can be measured by the employee himself and by the supervisor.

In my opinion this case shows how things will go wrong when performance appraisal is not planned beforehand. Employers and employees can have different expectations on the meeting when performance appraisal is conducted. This is why is would help both parties to plan ahead what kind of goals the employee has in his/hers job and how they can be achieved and how they are measured fairly. 
For instance in one of my previous workplaces, the performance appraisal was done very rarely or not at all and this lead to lack of motivation by the employees because they did not know what kind of performance was expected from them and how it could be measured. 




Effective performance appraisal requires managers to measure and improve their employees´ performance so that they can develop themselves and meet common organizational goals. When performance management as a whole process is done correctly, it may enhance organization´s  profitability and overall performance. If this process is done poorly, it can lead to a situation where costs of conducting appraisal might exceed benefits gained throughout the process. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 233-234.) 

Performance management as a whole consists of three parts; identification, measurement and management. All starts with determining the areas of examination regarding job performance. In the measurement part all managers should maintain comparable rating standards and measures must be detailed and justifiable. In the management part the view of the performance management in heading towards the future setting goals and making sure employees keep on track. Also continuing giving of feedback and coaching is considered to be beneficial. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 233-234.) 

There are many different ways to measure performance. According to Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy (2016, 235), it is good to keep in mind that when measuring the performance of an employee, what is measured should be directly tied to what the business is trying to achieve. This way measurements are easier to explain in a bigger picture and why these tasks measured are important.

For example, commonly used method in measuring performance is relative judgement where the conductor of the appraisal compares employees to each other (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 236). I have experienced a lot if this kind of tactic. Our supervisor used this method to compare everyone´s sales performance to each other daily. He intentionally wanted us to compete with each other to achieve higher results. It might work in sales jobs but not everywhere. For us it worked, but also individual and personalized feedback would have been more than welcome.


Employers also use absolute judgement where judgement is made based on equal performance standards, like appraisal made with using forms. Absolute judgement can be problematic if employers would rate employees unfairly for example when employer X thinks that employee Z is doing excellent job, but another employer C thinks otherwise, this could create a conflict. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 236-237.) 

When measuring one´s performance, it should measure an employees traits, behavior or  outcome of his/hers accomplishments. When managers have accurate data about these and can justify where and how this data is formed, it helps when appraisal is conducted. This way the employee understand his/hers results on appraisal because it has information it is based on. For example the employer can keep count on how many sales the employee has done or how many deadlines he/she missed or was late from work. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 238.)

Some companies are making adjustments on their performance management patterns and appraisal conducts. According to Ewenstein, Hancock and Komm, companies are for instance collecting more objective data on performance through systems making automation

All in all, performance management and performance appraisal in practice are diverse and sometimes difficult matters to handle and carry out. I believe that when the employer really wants the best for his/hers employees and cares about the organization´s success, the employer(s) will put effort into performance appraisal and management. And employees should also engage the processes by giving improvement ideas about appraisal sessions and how they could improve their performance and measure it so that it all add up to his/hers motivation at work. When everyone in the organization work towards the same goals, the cooperation becomes much easier and rewarding for each participant.

References

Comic picture http://www.monarconsulting.com/consulting/2012/03/20/performance-appraisals-development-vs-administrative/

Picture 2 http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2016/01/25/how-to-achieve-more-effective-performance-appraisals/

Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R. 2016. Managing Human Resources. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow. Accessed 16.9, 17.9 and 18.9.2018.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/ahead-of-the-curve-the-future-of-performance-management. Accessed 18.9.2018

CASE 2 - Learning and development

In today´s working environment, employees have to learn and digest new skills all the time to keep up with the developing world and even demanding circumstances. Therefore it is very important for companies to build a training tools and principles for their staff to keep their competitive edge in the market.

Restaurant chains Nando´s and McDonalds have come up with their own ways to train their employees and keep them motivated. These companies clearly realize how important it is to have effective training strategies. Training the staff does not only improve their own motivation and performance, but it enhances the working culture and togetherness along with other benefits such as lowering the employee turnover and create more revenue.

Nando´s has four different staff training programmes which all have won National Training Awards. Pollitt (2013) emphasis the fact that Nando´s have been able to keep its ´family´ feel over the years despite the rapid growth of the business. Nando´s has different training programmes for managers and new employees. For managers, Nando´s arrange for example workshops and coaching sessions. For new employees they have created ten days long on-site training which focuses on Nando´s values, food hygiene, health and safety issues, using equipment and team building. (Pollitt 2013.) 

Since Nando´s started their training programmes, revenue has grown from £20 million to £90 million, 90 percent of employees states they enjoy their work and targets have been exceeded with average mystery-shopper and operational checks. (Pollitt 2013.)

McDonalds has utilised technology in training staff. Milne (2016) states in Diginomica´s article that McDonals has used gamification since 2011 first to train new employees to use tills when over 50 000 people used it resulting to reduce costs worth half a million £ when they haven´t had to use work force to train employees. 

McDonalds training game to use tills

I think Nando´s is a good example how corporate training is done successfully. They have clear training systems and Pollitt (2013) tells that management training has has a designated goals for training such as increasing self-awareness and learning to tolerance difference in other people. 

In my own career I have seen different ways to train employees, or what happens when training does not happen at all. I have noticed that having clear common rules and principles for training is crucial in larger companies. If there are not common rules for training or daily procedures, the staff and also customers will suffer. I have experienced situations where different managers have different rules for common practicalities inside the company and that makes employees feel like they are unequal compared to other employees. I have also worked in companies where the training has been neglected. As a salesperson this affected my confidence (because of lack of information and encouragement) in approaching the customers which then impacts the businesses profitability.

Today McDonalds uses gamification to train its managers through a virtual 3D replica of new restaurants. This training method´s goal is to challenge managers to think differently in demanding situations which require fast decsion making. In the game one can see immediate results of his/hers decisions and this way improve his/hers thinking. (Milne 2016.)

Using gamification has its benefits and disadvatages. Playing games for learning can also lead to a misuse when games are played just for fun and not for work purposes any longer. After misuse happened, Mark Reilly, UK head of corporate training in McDonalds tells that he has been inspired by author Dan Pink to improve McDonalds training methods. Dan Pink who introduced three main things that motivate employees to learn; autonomy as liking the feel of control, mastery as wanting to get better at things and purpose, feel of doing something that matters. (Milne 2016.)

How a successful training programme is built then? Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy (2016) different stages of a well structured training programme and its different dimensions. Training process consists of three parts; need assessment, delevopment and conduct of training and evaluations part. Each part has important things to consider when designing training. It also highlighted how important it is to see the relation between the training and work. Training should also be in line with the company´s organizational goals. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 265-269.)

In the need assessment phase questions that help to determine if the training is relevant are for instance; is training a solution to the problem?, Are the aims of the training clear and understandable?, Is training a good investment? (estimating what is the return of investment in training) and will the training work for the purposes expected? (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 267.)

Military simulation training

Development and conduct of training responses to question; what an employee will know, do and not do after training is finished? There are different approaches to implement training. Training can be done on-the-job or off-the-job meaning while working or outside the workplace. A few ways to present training material can be slides and videos, simulations and for example commonly used in military purposes, virtual reality tools. (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 272-275.) 
Then the type of the training is decided, is it for example commonly used skills training where new skills are acquired, retraining where already learned skills are improved or maybe crisis training when employees prepare for possible crisis situations (Gomez-Mejía, Balkin and Cardy 2016, 276-279.) 

Evaluation part is important because then the outcome of the training is measured. Success can be measured in monetary or non-monetary ways. When evaluating how successful the training was, it is good to go back and review the aims of training. If the training was measured to be successful, it increases motivation to continue training staff.

In my mind corporate training could be improved in many workplaces. For instance engaging employees in different stages of the process and coming up with more creative learning methods can be beneficial. Inbound marketing manager Simek (2018) states that about 23% of employees quit their job due to poor training and development opportunities. This shows how important it is to put effort into training, no matter if we are talking about new employees or older ones. Simek (2018) also roots for using gamification in training when the game could provide a reward when certain tasks are completed in time motivating to continue training. 

Simek also gives an example on Finnish company Supercell which is highly profitable. Supercell encourages all employees to take part in the whole process when for example building a new mobile game and they appreciate and use feedback given by the employees to develop their practises. Supercells´ CEO Ilkka Paananen believes that the game developers in the company should be the superstars, not the leaders. (Simek 2018.) 

I also believe that the employees are the superstars who can change the company, their profitability and other factors of success if employees feel appreciated, equal and heard.

References:

´Super-sized gamification for training-McDonald´s is lovin´ it´: https://diginomica.com/2016/06/08/super-sized-gamification-for-training-mcdonalds-is-lovin-it/

´Nando´s tastes success through training: Expanding restaurant firm retains a family feel´ : https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/09670730610656879

Gómez-Mejía L., Balkin D., Cardy R. 2016. Managing Human Resources. Pearson Education Limited. Harlow.

https://blog.userlane.com/5-innovative-employee-training-techniques-to-consider/

Nando´s restaurant picture https://www.west-quay.co.uk/dining/food-drink/nandos-south 

McDonalds game pircture http://www.elearningsuperstars.com/project/till-training-game/ 

Military training picture https://www.monch.com/mpg/news/simulation/370-i-itsec-2016-meggitt-training-systems-est-ii-and-fats-100e.html

Ilkka Paananen picture https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/13/supercell-boss-vows-clash-of-clans-maker-will-never-consider-ipo/