Employment Relations - HRM Analysis Model - Business Report Assessment Answer

Employment RelationsBusiness Report Assignment

Assignment Task

HRM Analysis: Top Trucking Company

Introduction

This report is based on the analysis of Human Resource Management issues based on a case study of a company named Top Trucking Company which is a Transport company. The report covers the analysis of current situation and processes in the company in accordance with the newly appointed yard manager. His roles within the company including communicating with drivers and union leaders, handling issues in organization, implementing innovation and technology within the workplace, enhancing the workplace health and safety etc have been covered in detail. A scenario is later discussed which focus on the risks to Top Trucking Company in case if the yard manager / union delegate quit the job. Possible solutions and recommendations to the problems encountered have been addressed in the report.

Analysis of the Current Situation of the Top Trucking Company using HRM concepts and models

The Owners of the Top Trucking Company were not willing to make changes in their management and system which lead to various issues such as accidents, stoppages. Also, there was no unity among the management (manager and drivers and unions). This led to various problems in the management and the overall business of the Top Trucking Company and its yard was affected.

Later, the yard of Top Trucking Company was acquired by Big National Transport Group and the new owners planned effectively to completely transform the management and system of the Top Trucking Company yard so as to gain more popularity in the business and hence grab more number of contracts. Their step towards implementing transformation included cleaning up the yard premises, to make it a healthy working environment. Also, all the drivers working for Top Trucking Company were provided with new sets of uniforms. (Sincic & Poloski Vokic, 2007) Also, installation of a new computer system was done in the Top Trucking warehouse to manage the business and employee records. To enhance the management, a new yard manager was appointed. The yard manager possessed all the effective skills to handle the entire yard drivers as a team and he achieved this by effectively communicating with the drivers and their union representatives on regular basis. This helped him to keep updated himself with the issues faced by the drivers and in case of any emergency or problem, the yard manager ensured to critically analyse the situation and understand its root causes so as to solve the problem effectively and timely. This clearly showed that the new yard manager was very responsible in handling the employees’ (drivers and their union) team effectively by working in a group. (Martin, 2010)

The new yard manager also paid focus to work towards the enhancement of Occupational Health and Safety so as to provide a better, safer and healthier workplace to all drivers. Also, the new yard manager scheduled training process to the drivers which included both the technical training and as well as customer service training. Thus, it can be said that the new yard manager had best manager qualities and he effectively managed to critically analyse every possible dimension to enhance the overall working experience in the Top Trucking Company.

George Psaros, who was the union delegate of Top Trucking Company drivers, often had heated arguments with the new yard manager and did not agree to his implementation initially. But the new yard manager effectively managed to make George understand the significance of each of his steps and sorted out things. This depicts the effective way of communication possessed by the new yard manager when it comes to dealing with people. Though, the transformation initially was not very well accepted by the drivers, slowly they realised the significance of transformation analyzed and effectively implemented by the new yard manager. (Bernosky, 2015) The drivers started to like their new working environment, modified trucks and their uniforms and hence, they started to respect their new yard manager. Thus, this transformation within the Top Trucking Company showed the evolving new team work, effective communication and understanding between individuals. The yard manager ensured to discuss every single issue with George, who is a union delegate and both put equal efforts to work towards the improvement of Top Trucking Company image and their operations. Sharing all important information with drivers and their unions including the success and pressure, clearly shows the transparency between a manager and his employees and also effective communication between them. Success of Top Trucking Company which included high performance, new contracts, various visitors from head office and as well as from the other yards to observe their operations, effectively show the team work, dedication, workplace effectiveness and safety etc. Thus, it can be concluded that the new yard manager was an important individual to effectively change the organizational structure of the Top Trucking Company yard and also managed to solve the issues related to employment relations dynamically. Thus, the new workplace practices implemented by the new yard manager complemented one another. (Gilley, 2005)

Risks to sustain the transformational changes in the Top Trucking Company if George or Yard Manager moves on

George and the new yard manager had successfully sorted out all their issues and problems and worked together as a team to bring out effectiveness in the Top Trucking Company operations and its associated business. Also, the new yard manager was successful in managing the drivers and also their union representatives by effectively managing them as a team and also communicating with the drivers on regular basis to understand their problems and help them with solutions. George also supported the new yard manager to analyse the problems and both worked towards improving the business and company operations. In case, if the new yard manager or George quit (move on from) the Top Trucking Company yard, there will be serious issues again in the management of Top Trucking Company.

The newly appointed manager or the union delegate (in place of George), may entirely change the work atmosphere of the Top Trucking Company. He might not understand the transformational changes made by the yard manager and George and tend to implement his own change management within the company. By doing so, the drivers and other associated people with the company may not feel comfortable and thus, it affects the entire team management. Communication, business implementation, work balance, safety and health all will be put under high risk. In other words, it can be said that the entire management will be put at stake which on the whole will have adverse effect on the operations and business of the top Trucking Company. Not only the inner management, important clients of the Top Trucking Company might also find it difficult to get adjusted or acquainted with the new manager and his processes implemented by him. This is yet another risk to the Top Trucking Company, as they may lose their important and regular clients.

In case of change of union delegate (in place of George), it will take a significant amount of time for the members of the Top Trucking company union to get adjusted or accustomed to the methodologies / frameworks and processes followed by the new union delegate. There has to be scheduling of several meetings and discussions for union delegate and the members to get into a common understanding as to what policies and processes need to be followed for creating a healthy working environment in the Top Trucking Company. This in turn will have a compound effect on time consumed for the above agreed policies and processes to be implemented.

Recommendations or solutions to maintain the changes made at the Top Trucking Company

Transfers within the company to other branches or quitting the job are quite a common cycle in any type of organization or industry. But, transfer or job quit by an individual must not affect the process or a team that is intact within the company. Thus, proper solutions must be analysed thoroughly and must be effectively implemented within the company in order to ensure smooth operations, business and processes. These solutions must be analyzed and implemented by an expert team who are pioneers in organizing and providing training sessions within the company.

Considering the case study of the Top Trucking Company yard, in case if the yard manager or George quit the company or get transfer, effective solutions must be developed in order to ensure smooth functioning of the Company operations without having the adverse effects of the new manager / the union delegate. To achieve this, the top management people of the Top Trucking Company (CEOs, Stakeholders, and Managers etc) must schedule a meeting with an objective of maintaining the processes and operations intact irrespective of the manager who is at work in the yard premises. The first and most effective solution is to conduct a session for the newly appointed manager / the union delegate which will be called as – “The Knowledge Transfer” session. The significance of this session is that the current manager (old) or the current union delegate will be providing an effective training to the newly appointed yard manager or the union delegate. Generally in the knowledge transfer session, all the current policies, procedures, operations, processes, background to the company, important clients and other significant topics that are necessary for a manager to understand and carry out his job roles will be explained. (Tsai, 2001) The newly appointed manager / the union delegate must ensure to effectively understand the knowledge transfer session provided to him and follow the rules accordingly, failing which he will be forced to discontinue from work. It is important that the higher authorities monitor his work accordingly on a regular basis to ensure smooth functioning of business of the Top Trucking Company.

The second - most effective solution to ensure proper functioning is the implementation of “Process – Only” policy within the Top Trucking Company. In this policy or procedure, the aim is to define the entire organizational process by the top management team considering the resources, current functioning and business. Implementation of the “Process – Only” policy is that: (1) the new manager is not allowed to apply his own managerial skills and modify any kind of processes or operations within the Top Trucking Company. (2) Operations and processes can be maintained and managed accordingly irrespective of the manager – on site (3) uniformity in the business is achieved easily. (4) Frequent change management is avoided.

Comparison and justification of private transport unions and public or service sector transport unions

According to me, private sector transport unions are more effective and engaged towards the implementation of change in their work places or organization when compared to public sector or service sector transport unions. Because, private sector transport unions have more number of resources (technology access, feasibility, innovation etc) and also highly dynamic union members are mostly found in the private sector transport unions. Change management, implementation and operations analysis etc are more carried out in private sector as they are more prone to competition in markets. Also, another factor to consider for the changes in work place is the funding factor. Public sector transport unions do not get access to more funding when compared to the private sector public funding. (H. Anderson, 2011) Due to availability of resources (such as experienced employees, technology, funds etc) and competition, private sector transport unions are more engaged in the work place changes.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded from the case study of Top Trucking Company that the managers play an important role in achieving change management within the company and also to identify and resolve any real – time employee – related issues that arise in company. Effective communication, transparency with the employees, encouragement, motivation etc are some of the highly appreciated managerial skills. It is very important for a manager to form a dynamic and competitive team so as to make them perform their roles within the company and improve the company’s processes and operations.