Human Resource Management
CASE: STARK ENGINEERING
Many different organizations in various industries have focused on safety and health for employees. STARK ENGINEERING, provides engineering, network, and infrastructure services to numerous communications industry firms. With 500 employees, STARK has emphasized safety to all managers and employees. The success of its safety efforts resulted in STARK’s efforts being designated “Safety Program of the Year” by an international safety forum. To emphasize the importance of safety, every STARK individual signs a safety pledge upon being employed. After hire, all employees are expected to identify any potential safety problems and assist co-workers as needed. A safety guidebook is posted on the firm’s Website, with a special section being set for safety training and information. A safety newsletter is posted every month also. The success of STARK’s safety efforts is evident. Compared with an industry incident rate of 9.6%, STARK’s rate is less than 1%. Recently, the firm had zero lost workdays in the year which is extremely unusual. The safety focus of STARK is paying off for the employees in terms of their personal safety, as well as maintaining low safety costs for the business. Having been in business for over 50 years STARK’ has experienced highs and lows in organizational performance. In the past decade, the firm has faced a dramatically changing business environment from competitors. Despite their success in safety, STARK’ was increasingly viewed by customers and analysts of the industry as lagging in its strategies for service provision. Even the compensation system at STARK’ was viewed as traditional and paternalistic in nature because it emphasized rewarding employees primarily for their length of service. Also, most promotions were made internally, which created a more static organizational culture.
Q1. Discuss TWO of the main Human Resources functions inside this organisation and their impact on employees. In your response describe and analyse responsibilities and tasks of individuals at different levels within the organisation that are likely to impact the safety initiatives at STARK.
Q2. There are a variety of employee types in STARK e.g. department heads, managers, trainees and a variety of support staff, both technical and administrative. STARK is suffering high employee turnover of their young managers and their clerical trainees in the administrative department. Using the context of the case, analyse what might be causing the staff turnover. Suggest how these two roles might be re-designed to reduce the employee turnover. Provide supporting justification, with examples, for the roles you design.
Q3. To improve the retention of staff at STARK, the HR team decided to develop their recruitment practices to find suitable department heads and management trainees to work at the organisation. Use the case and industry sector to research and explain clearly, the recruitment strategies you would recommend to the HR department to search for these two types of employees? Evaluate your own recommendations in terms of improving employee retention.
