Strategy and the human resource management - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Strategy and the human resource management. Answer: Introduction The company under study is Energex located in Queensland. It is among the largest electricity corporations operating within the boundaries of Australia. Furthermore, this is a government owned company operating under the provision of Government Owned Corporation Act 1993. The administration was transferred from Brisbane City Council to Government owned corporation on 1995[1]. They are responsible for distributing electricity from NSW border north to Gympie and west to the base of the Great Dividing Range. Current assets held by the company worth around $12 billion, which includes, 52,800 km of total underground and overhead lines, 670,000 poles, 355,000 streetlights and 48,500 transformers. Mission Statement The mission statement proposed by the company is Powering Lifestyle Forever. Powering stands for the technical capabilities of the company to maintain a sustainable growth in the industry that will ensure the other two components of the company. Lifestyles communicate the capabilities of Energex in supporting the range of customers with the variety of their needs related to the electric supply. Lastly, Forever stands for their promise to their sustainability of the network and corporation that will serve the population over years in the future. The company further holds six core values by which the company is bounded[2]. They are, Put safety first, respect and support each other, impress our customers, set a great example, be a team player and deliver balanced results. Employee Relation Strategy Energex holds a vision of forming a positive relation with their individual employees that will support them to increase workforce capability, workplace safety, staff engagement, and high performance customer service. They follow three principles to maintain the standard employee relationship that are positive leadership, working relationship and meaningful consultation. The company has based their employee relationship strategy on the four pillars. First, one is alignment with strategic direction that helps conforming the employee relation matches values and vision of the company. The second element is the governance and compliance. Governing body ensures the implementation of the policies set by the company for maintaining healthy environment in the company, whereas, the compliance stands for the two-way support. This seeks both the employee and the employer to perform their responsibility in an accountable way to ensure the transparency in the workplace[3]. The third is to focus on the business outcome, which facilitates in confirming the consistency in employee relation initiatives and business practices. Last but not the least; constructive workplace relationship helps the company in attaining the common goals of the company that are productivity, safety, quality, efficiency satisfaction, and career opportunity. This also involves the employees in decision-making and promoting issue resolution in the ground level. Recruitment and Selection Strategy Energex not only strictly follows their policy of equal opportunity in their selection process, but also takes necessary steps on the practices that discriminates and alters their stated policy against discrimination based on race, sex, age, relationship status, or what so ever. The only thing that is taken into consideration in the selection process of Energex is merit. The applicants are provided opportunity basing of the talent and the drive to join the corporation[4]. The selection process includes information gathering, interviews, and reference check. Furthermore, the company runs a simulation test and objective psychological to identify the ability or personality of the applicant positions offered as per company requirement. Employee Benefits of the organization The benefit in Energex is strictly based on the employee performance as the company believes in dedication recognition and reward. They have listed a number of rewards for the committed and dedicated employees who reflects the mentioned through their work deliverance[5]. Some of them are as follows: Well-being program for the staffs Performance pay scheme that enables salary hike for the deserved employees. Study leave for learning and development Leadership and career development prospects Salary sacrifice options on superannuation Flexible working conditions Outstanding remuneration Recreation activities and social clubbing Internationally benchmarked management systems Best safety reputation in the industry. Employee Safety and Well-being Key value of the company that states to put the safety prior to everything else ensures the safety culture in the organization for both their employees and the customers. The company has established a number of safety programs to attain the goal of zero injuries[6]. Energex conducts safety survey to identify the flaws if occurs in their principles of care, learning, trust and ownership. Proactive health and well-being initiative programs taken by the company seeks to train their employees and make them compatible for working under different environment and pressure.Energex have opted a number of strategies that includes the following: Program to target specific group of employees with coaching, auditing and system improvement activities. Provide risk assessment training to their employees to identify possible hazards and avoid them in time. Formulated a Safety Operational Committee for navigating across the system and identify desirables for ensuring safety in the workplace. Formulated a health and Safety policy to increase the safety of the organization and the employees are expected to work accordingly. Performance development training Energex has a performance development committee that is constituted with senior engineers and human resource specialists to guide the employees on the development program set by the organization. The role of the committee further extends to the review of the graduate employees working in the organization on a regular basis to ensure the relevancy of the program and maintain the standards. Energex also have a number of training program for nurturing and nourishing the possible talents that will possibly ensure the future success of the company. They have recently launched electrical apprenticeship, graduation program, and technical traineeships[7]. Apart from these on the job training facilities to their employees, they provide them the opportunities to undertake a series of postgraduate courses that will support their professional development. Employment Agreement, contract and Awards Energex have diversified types of employment options for hiring their employees. The types of agreement offered by Energex are full time, part time, job share, maturing workforce arrangements, fixed term and specified tasks, casual employment, individual flexible arrangement and alternative employment arrangement[8]. These different types of employment agreements and contracts serves to fill the positions offered by the company based on the job requirements. Award on the other hand is of two types in Energex. One is performance based and another is loyalty reward. The employees are provided bonus on the basis of the performance. It is incorporated in their culture and they recognize the effort put into by the dedicated employees and give them appraisal. The loyalty reward on the other hand is offered to the employees who had been with the company for more than 25 years. The employees are offered with gifts ad parties for the long service they provided to the company. Conflict and Negotiation Energex tries to solve all the issues that occur within the organization itself. They try negotiating with the employee and resolving the issue, which does not seem to happen every time. However, the employees will be bound to provide their service to the company until the time the issue is resolved. They have a number of strategies to solve the issues that might occur. They are: Workplace Resolution Process Conciliation Arbitration Appeal from decision of Fair Work Australia The above strategies are chronologically adopted on the failure of the previous one to resolve the issue that has occurred[9]. Diversity policy with Recommendations The company has strict policy against the discrimination. Their equal employment opportunity policy seeks to maintain equality in their workplace based on various factors. Diversity as stated in their policy address the extent to which the employees of Energex workforce is composed. This means that the employees working in Energex comes from a diversified range of backgrounds and every individual employee is treated equally regardless of their cultural background, ethnicity, religion, language, disability, age, gender or what so ever[10]. They have distinguished every form of discrimination based on the diversified characteristics and have stated actions for solving the issues that might occur related to these concerns. Work-life balance Energex promises to look after the employees work-life balance by providing them the opportunities that helps them in maintaining the same. They offer a number of paid leaves to each of their full time employees and the part time employees. However, the leave structure is different in both the cases. The employees are entitled of annual leaves, sick leave, concessional sick leaves, career leaves, parental leaves, maternity leaves, and many others as stated in the Energex union collective agreement (2011)[11]. This allows the employees to get socialize and spend quality time with their family members and friends. The company believes in the idea that it is necessary for maintaining a harmony between the professional life and personal life to get the optimum performance from the employees. These facilities provided by the companies ensure the same. The company further has overtime schedules for the employees wants to put extra effort. However, it falls under the companys responsibility to ensure the safety, hence limiting the overtime possibilities for an individual employee. Employee relation Risk management The employee relation strategy discussed above are successful in maintaining healthy relationship between the employer and the employee in the workplace in all level of the company. However, this can have adverse effect on the operation of the company. For example, companys employee relation strategy includes constructive workplace relationship, which incorporate employees in the decision-making at the ground level operations and shares information with the employees. Employees can easily misuse the information shared and take false decisions that might have significant impact on the company. These kinds of risks needs to be resolved by developing a committee who will be responsible for identifying the risk in employee relations. Moreover, the company can have policy to control such risks[12]. Review of HR facilities for Employees The company offers a number of benefits to its employees that have been mentioned in the above section. They discourage any kind of discrimination in the workplace and promote equality to maintain the healthy workplace environment. Moreover, they prioritize the safety of their employees. This led them to initiate different training programs and policies for ensuring the same. They also have transparent reward policy for the employees who deserve it. Moreover, they look after the balance in work life and personal life. The overall HR facilities provided to the employees are both transparent and ethical. However, some modification can always be made to improve and gain competitive advantage in the market. They can further motivate their employees by introducing earned leave facility in their organization[13]. The best performer will be eligible for claiming an extra leave for the following month. Termination and Disciplinary issues Energex have transparent termination policy for their employees on various grounds. The notice period that an employee have to serve depends on the duration of continuous service the employee is offering to the company. For example, employees the tenure of one year will have to provide service for one week after receiving the termination letter. Employee between one to three year, three to five year and above five year will have to serve 2 weeks, 3 weeks and 4 weeks respectively. Moreover, the employee can take one leave within while serving the notice period for avoiding any kind of salary deduction. Employee applying for leave falls under the same regulation. The company has the full authority to terminate an employee on the violation of companys policies stated on various grounds[14]. For example, if an employee violates the discrimination policy stated by the company and harasses any of their co-worker, he or she is likely to receive a termination notice from the employers end. Overall Recommendation and conclusion It is possible to conclude from the above report that the companys employee relation strategy are covered by specific rules that successfully ensures the safety of the company. They put tremendous effort in ensuring the workplace safety and equality through their strategies. However, it is possible for an employee to exploit the facilities provided by the company. Hence, the company requires an employee retainment policy to ensure the long-term relation with their employees, so that the amount of energy spent on an individual employee would be paid. References 'About Us - Energex' (Energex.com.au, 2017) https://www.energex.com.au/about-us accessed 11 December 2017 'About Us - Energex' (Energex.com.au, 2017) https://www.energex.com.au/about-us accessed 11 December 2017 'Benefits' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/your-career/ENERGEX-advantage---benefits.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011.Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan. Daley, D.M., 2012. Strategic human resources management.Public Personnel Management, pp.120-125. 'DIVERSITY AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/ce4be0aa-2569-4c90-92a6-e46188a28fb2/EEO--Diversity-Policy.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. Employee relation strategy (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/69023c90-625a-4aa7-87af-e23aaf58bb74/2-2_employee_relations_strategy.aspx accessed 11 December 2017 'ENERGEX Careers - About Us - ENERGEX Values' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/about-us/ENERGEX-Values.aspx accessed 11 December 2017 'ENERGEX UNION COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT 2011' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/08fc19be-6f58-410e-a83a-a5adcc63baed/EUCA-2011.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. 'Safety' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/about-us/ENERGEX-Values/Health-Safety---Wellbeing.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. 'Selection Process' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/apply-today/selection-process.aspx accessed 11 December 2017 'Training Development - Graduate Programs' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/your-career/training-development/Graduate-programs/More-Information.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [1] 'About Us - Energex' (Energex.com.au, 2017) https://www.energex.com.au/about-us accessed 11 December 2017 [2] 'ENERGEX Careers - About Us - ENERGEX Values' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/about-us/ENERGEX-Values.aspx accessed 11 December 2017 [3] Employee relation strategy (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/69023c90-625a-4aa7-87af-e23aaf58bb74/2-2_employee_relations_strategy.aspx accessed 11 December 2017 [4] 'Selection Process' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/apply-today/selection-process.aspx accessed 11 December 2017 [5] 'Benefits' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/your-career/ENERGEX-advantage---benefits.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [6] 'Safety' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/about-us/ENERGEX-Values/Health-Safety---Wellbeing.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [7] 'Training Development - Graduate Programs' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/your-career/training-development/Graduate-programs/More-Information.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [8] 'ENERGEX UNION COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT 2011' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/08fc19be-6f58-410e-a83a-a5adcc63baed/EUCA-2011.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [9] 'ENERGEX UNION COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT 2011' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/08fc19be-6f58-410e-a83a-a5adcc63baed/EUCA-2011.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [10] 'DIVERSITY AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/ce4be0aa-2569-4c90-92a6-e46188a28fb2/EEO--Diversity-Policy.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [11] 'ENERGEX UNION COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT 2011' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/08fc19be-6f58-410e-a83a-a5adcc63baed/EUCA-2011.aspx accessed 11 December 2017. [12] Daley, D.M., 2012. Strategic human resources management.Public Personnel Management, pp.120-125. [13] Boxall, P. and Purcell, J., 2011.Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan. [14] 'ENERGEX UNION COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT 2011' (Careers.energex.com.au, 2017) https://careers.energex.com.au/getdoc/08fc19be-6f58-410e-a83a-a5adcc63baed/EUCA-2011.aspx accessed 11 December 2017.