What is evident from the case study is that the facilities are in place, but there needs to be improvement with regards to management and staff, in this report an attempt will be made to try and resolve these issues using the knowledge we have acquired from Human Resource management. One of the major issues is the unfriendliness and lack of motivation from the staff, this could be addressed in various ways. When considering Maslow’s esteem needs, if we could heighten esteem and try and imply the staff as being the most important asset (Storey, 2001), the friendliness of the staff may increase as they feel more content in their roles. A way of ensuring the staff feel more appreciated is by making them feel more involved (Pfeffer) and giving them more responsibility. This could therefore heighten self-actualisation as the employee has more responsibility and could therefore feel like they are fulfilling their role in the workplace. If these issues were rectified, then the staff availability may be increased as they may become more inclined to participate in work and therefore reduce the number of frequently cancelled fitness groups. A way of doing this may be evaluating Pfeffer views on work and life balance as 60% of women found the working arrangement impractical when trying to juggle with their families. In this report we need to go into more detail on these issues and establish ways to resolve the problems raised.
2. Recommendations
In order for the ‘Old City and Sports Leisure Centre’ to operate efficiently, the managers need to create a work environment whereby the employees are motivated to work and are proud of their occupation. As identified in the source, “the main problem was inflexible and old fashioned HRM” which is most likely the cause for the other issues including ‘unfriendly staff’ and poor staff availability. In hindsight changing the HRM seems simple, however reconstructing the entire human resource management strategy is a difficult task. One way this could be done is through different motivation techniques. FedEx’s strategy has been very successful; ‘the company developed a philosophy that still stands strong today – People-Service-Profit’ (Human Resources Degrees, 2018). The idea is that in order to maximise profit a company must put the employees first. Upon further research it is evident that FedEx executed this by offering ‘an annual survey and feedback action program’, allowing managers to hear exactly what the staff want and therefore they can resolve any issues. One could argue that FedEx is taking Maslow’s theory into account; the company is treating staff not as a burden of costs but as a fundamental asset to a successful business. People have a need to belong, a social need as described by Abraham Maslow, put third in order of importance, it suggests that people need a sense of belonging in order to feel wanted – the same can be applied for the sports and leisure centre. Thereby, it is arguable that FedEx is embracing Maslow’s third need when asking for feedback from employees. This sparks the first recommendation for reassembling the leisure centre’s HRM – asking for feedback – something so simple yet very effective. The staff is their biggest asset and needs to be treated accordingly (Pfeffer). Peffer had some interesting views on how to treat employees. SAS institute was used as an example in his findings, an American company that retained a low staff turnover. ‘A fundamental value at the SAS Institute is “Make work fun and treat people with dignity and respect,”’ (Iveybusinessjournal.com, 2018). Not only did it keep staff motivated at SAS, they found that their costs significantly reduced – the capital they were spending on the training and recruitment of new staff can be put back into the business allowing growth. This can be applied for the Old City sports and leisure centre; more funds can go back into the business which will help with the upkeep of their good facilities.
Another recommendation which could be useful is promoting staff. The case elucidates how current staff are worried about keeping their jobs; ‘a majority of staff feared the impact of any HRM change on their job role and security’. This is detrimental as it means staff are demotivated and the morale is low – if an employee thought he/she was about to get fired, the employee will not want to work. However, if the managers promote the most committed members of staff, the effect will be the opposite. In Taylor’s theory of scientific management, he illustrated that employees should be paid depending on their level of output. He goes on to prove how ‘as a result workers are encouraged to work hard and maximise their productivity’ (tutor2u, 2018). Thus, a promotion package including a pay rise and employee benefits (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation rewards) will definitely motivate the other, less motivated employees to become more productive. This will work according to the ‘Expectancy theory’; people will behave depending on the outcomes they expect in relation to the work they put in (Vroom, 1964). Also, it is unlikely the centre has the resources to cater for external recruitment therefore it is easier to recruit from within. This will in turn hopefully solve the other issues they are facing such as ‘unfriendly staff’ and possibly staff availability. ‘Internal recruiting gives existing employees more opportunities within an organization, which can be motivating and help with retention.’ (Cameron, 2018). Even though this industry has a high labour turnover, employees who are there will still believe there is chance to grow and improve within the Old City sports and leisure centre. This will boost employee morale and motivation, staff will aim to be friendlier to customers which will then maybe lead to the retention of consumers.
As mentioned in the case study, women working here are facing difficulties combining family life and work due to inflexible working hours and arrangements. It is important to take this issue into consideration because women represent 60% of the existing total workforce. According to Herzberg’s two factor theory, not meeting hygiene factors, such as poor rota management will lead to the dissatisfaction of employees (Mindtools.com, 2018). In the case of the Old City centre this may have resulted in the ‘unfriendly staff’, causing ‘poor customer feedback’. It appears that the managers do not take into account their employees’ family lives, which according to Mayo’s Human relation of thought, managers should therefore pay more attention to the needs of the workforce and use them as asset. HRM should therefore give their employees a choice for when they work (Bach, 2012). Once Herzberg’s hygiene factors are met and Mayo’s motivational practices are put in place, the morale of the staff should increase leading to a happier, healthier working environment.
In addition, it is mentioned in the case study that a great concern ‘was the emergence of private low-cost rivals offering highly flexible staffing arrangements including zero-hour contracts’. This could be one of the reasons why the centre fails to attract new employees and could lead to existing employees quitting and working for their competitors. In order to prevent this from happening, the company has to make the working arrangements highly flexible by introducing part-time working and zero-hour contracts. It is significant for the centre to stay competitive – occasionally it has to follow the same policies of rivals to survive in the market. As Old City sports centre is costly to run and ‘struggles to retain staff’, HRM should introduce a policy of training staff to reach Maslow’s ‘self actualisation’ needs. This will reduce labour turnover and increase motivation as the staff will feel a sense of self fulfilment.
Challenges:
A challenge arises when looking at the Survey/Anyplace, 2018 research (6Q.IO,2018); survey response rate is directly correlated to survey length or duration, as evidence shows an average of 17% drop in response rate when a survey has more than 12 questions or takes longer than 5 minutes to complete (Survey/Anyplace, 2018 Research). Furthermore, employees and customers want feedback at moments of change, throughout the year. Doing an annual employee survey a month before the annual employee performance review period means that of course people will mark some responses, typically around motivation, differently than if they were asked at other times of the calendar year. Issues unfolded months before the annual survey are likely to not even be recalled, this results in survey responses you cannot put your trust in and disregards the use of the survey. Not only the link between the length of complex survey form and skipping through questions due to other time pressures, but also undermines the intention of the survey for managers who implement it. Therefore, for this recommendation to fulfil its potential, a few conditions have to be met. Primarily, the annual employee survey has to be concise, with carefully chosen questions. Said questions have to address creating a work environment whereby the employees feel motivated to work and are proud of their occupation. This may include asking, then improving, which aspect of implementing an HRM change on their job calls for fear of their job security and role. If asked correctly, there is a strong chance of implementing a newer HRM, to strengthen employees’ perception of job security. Therefore increase motivation in attempt to reduce issues including ‘unfriendly staff’ and poor staff availability.
An additional recommendation involves promoting current staff in response to fear complaints regarding job security and role due to the potential HRM adjustment. The initial response to deal with employees afraid of losing their job is to increase their sense of security by offering a more important job, encompassing increased delegation to trigger a sense of empowerment and more importantly, motivation. From the surface, this recommendation seems effective as the centre lacks resources to cater for external recruitment, however on second thoughts, it might not pan out to the centres’ favour. Primarily, this runs the risk of creating resentment among employees as others who were considered for a role could feel bitter if a colleague is eventually hired. Additionally, it will leave a gap in the existing workforce. Although the centre lacks the appropriate funds to even think about external recruitment, when an existing employee is promoted, their old position becomes vacant. This means that a series of promotions may ensue further disruption to the centres operations. Ultimately, promotion has a high chance of leaving the centre to turn to external recruitment in addition to the initial hire. Finally, internal recruitment may result in an inflexible culture. Internal hiring could result in a stagnant culture, where already lazy employees might get even more comfortable with the way things are done. Therefore, it is important to note that there are still effective ways of increasing job security and as a by-product, increase morale without promotion. For instance, it is key to understand that simple promotions aren’t the only way to recognise employees efforts or reduce their fear of job security. Offering training, job shadowing and job rotation keeps employees on their toes. Rewarding employees frequently for their good work can be just as effective, such as implementing appraisals and discretionary and non-discretionary bonuses. Hopefully, this method will extend as far as to push the employees to believe that one will receive a reward if performance expectations are met. This method of rewarding employees is most regularly seen at private sector service firms (64%) (BrightHR, 2018). This would be a more effective way to ease in an HRM change without scaring the employees on their job role, security, on top of reducing common complaints such as unfriendly staff and frequent cancellations due to staff availability.
The recommendation consisting of resolving female employees’ struggle with inflexible hours and arrangements, could be resolved through adopting a more efficient strategy. This stems from the knock on effect of dissatisfied employees negatively affecting the centre’s reputation through complaints including; ‘unfriendly staff’ causing ‘poor customer feedback’. The recommendation lacks the idea that implementing a new policy involving a group meeting, where employees can openly discuss and arrange who can work what days, would reduce any confusion with combining family life and working hours. If the policy was to be executed in an organised manner, it would significantly reduce the amount of cancellations as staff availability would be resolved.
A zero hour contract would provide a more flexible workforce, however the contract offers no minimum number of working hours (Emily Dugan, 2014). Women (60% of the workforce), who struggle to combine family life and work, would still need to provide an income for their family and therefore need to work a considerable amount of hours. However, on average, employees are provided with 12 hours fewer a week (Emily Dugan, 2014) on a zero hour contract. Therefore, issues would then arise when trying to provide a healthy income for their families, as there salary would decrease vastly due to the reduction in hours. In turn, this could reduce the staff retention further and lead to higher costs in terms of staff recruitment. A suggestion to retain staff, due to a level of high employee turnover, was to train the staff. Although, this may increase staff motivation due to a feeling of self-actualisation. According to national careers, your day to day duties are still extremely limited with responsibilities including cleaning, reservation and maintaining equipment. The worry is that the money being spent on training won’t actually be effective, and an alternative could be to provide incentives such as days off, group activates and reward systems. This could provide a lower-cost strategy than training and be more fitting for a low qualified job.
3. Conclusion
In conclusion, to ensure the success of Old city sports, we would firstly guarantee the staff felt valued by making them feel part of the business in accordance with FedEx. We believe this would increase the motivation within the workforce, we decided that using training even though it could increase self-actualisation, may not be the required step in this industry due to cost and results. Therefore, we decided that using incentives such as staff day outs and reward systems would be a better fit, in accordance with Mayo’s motivational theory. We also decided that an option to be part time would work best for the women who had to juggle family life and work. A zero hour contract can be a cause for controversy and we believed we needed to offer guaranteed work in order to keep staff content, while also being able to see their families. A way to cover addresses part time staff, could be by using students who are likely to be available at weekends when the staff with families would ideally be occupied with them. Hiring students would be a cheaper alternative than adults, and they would be more inclined to work less convenient hours.