Colleague’s recommendation concerning HR issues

Dear colleague,

Being the new HR manager in your jewelry store company, your department will be an ally to some managers and a barrier to others; your position will require you to be at times a trusted counselor and guide at other times. If the policies, procedures and rules are not aligned with the company’s goals, they can negatively affect the organization’s success and on the other side, missteps can cost your place at the table. It was such honor for you to consult me; as an experienced and powerful HR executive at a company similar to yours, also, doubling as your mentor, here’s my presentation for you to consider.
The following are the steps that I would recommend you take in your HR policy review. The first step is listening to employees who have left the company. Listen to the complaints from former employees, contemplate on them and if the complaints are similar from employees from various departments of the organization, then it implies that there are ineffective ways that the company use to address the employees’ issues. An example would be loss of jewelry items and suspects are laid off without being given an opportunity to defend themselves. The second step is legal matters. The HR policy should revise the hiring and firing laws as stated on the local, state and federal workers’ laws using an attorney so as to deter any misunderstandings with employees. Third step is transparency to the management team. All employees’ concerns, from the lowest to the top level, should be addressed since employees who feel integrated into the process are more possibly to accept a novel policy than their counterparts.
HR procedure and rules review. Ascertain an attorney reviews the policy in the presence of the jewelry’s top officials and then arrange a company meeting or several meetings so as to inform the employees at every employee level about the policy. Use visuals and Powerpoint presentations so as to explain the various points and engage the employees in exercises to know the regulations. Direct those present to sign on forms after the reviews proving the policy was described to them and that they accepted it; also give addresses or ways through which the jewelry store’s representatives can be accessed so as to reply or address any asked questions regarding the policy.

The process will involve interviewing former employees, consulting with the other management team and hiring the expertise of qualified professionals such as attorneys and in-house Human Resource representative. It will also require cooperation from employees in all levels, that is, those in the lowest level to those in the highest. As you consider the HR policies, here’s a recommendation of how ensure that they are effectively aligned with the company’s goals. The policy should be posted in place, alongside the company’s mission and vision statements, where it can be seen by everyone and printed in various languages depending on the languages spoken by the employees; the post should also have contacts through which the complains can be reported to managers. In areas where policy revision is needed, here are the recommendations. Hire the services of qualified legal professionals, practitioners or scholars or any other persons who are knowledgeable and have experience in such matters to review the policies and offer their expertise on how and where revision is to be made so that they can align with the employment regulations as stated by the local, state and federal laws.

Your recommendations will be more likely be opposed. This is because in a company, there are those people that are opposed to organizational changes. The recommendations put forward by a HR manager may be openly objected by workers and other staff alike, may be ignored or in some extent, they may sabotage the plan of the manager (Greer, 2001). People’s perspective on change is that in most cases, change never brings forth anything better. Being in a HR manager position, people may fear that if you have hired or if they have sense of a consultants’ recommendation, several fears may arise such as being fired if the jewelry store company has excess employs. Opposing may also be met if some management team members feel threats to some vested interests in the jewelry store company such as shady deals carried out by them in collaboration with some employees. Also, the recommendations may be opposed if there is doubt on the way your recommendations are expressed such as failure to understand or if they if the members lose confidence in the recommendations.
To overcome any anticipated resistance, such as the aforementioned here is a presentation of considerations on how you can overcome that. As a HR manager, there are two techniques of overcoming opposition in an organization. One of the techniques is the three-step approach while the other one is force-field analysis. In the three-step approach, it involves three processes namely unfreezing, changing and refreezing.
In unfreezing, you as a HR manager you will be required to familiarize yourself with the what is driving for the change and the reasons endorsing and opposing the change. For the change process to be successful, I would recommend you unfreeze old habits, processes or structure of the company. Use group discussions and materials such as organizational newsletters, memos and reports to teach the employees and the management team in general about the pending change and ascertain they have seen the lacking things in the present situation and the importance of replacing. Then next process is changing; teach the employees and other personnel using novel behaviors and role models. After these changes occur, then implement the changes on specific targets such as people, structure or the way tasks are performed in the jewelry store. The third process is refreezing. This is done by propping up novel behaviors, albeit which are positive, or rewarding. To ensure that positive behaviors are repeated, they must be reinforced; it is good for you as a HR manager to be attentive on how the new behaviors are supported and the rewarding.
The second approach is force-field analysis which is a process for listing, debating and evaluating the factors that endorse (drivers) or oppose (resisters) a change that has been proposed. If both the drivers and the resisters are equal there is a status quo, which can’t be broken until the balancing of the forces is changed. Upon the introduction of change, there will be drivers and resisters factors. Thus, in the change implementation, you need to evaluate the change forces. This would involve doing away with the resisters so as to strengthen the drivers and the removal of the resisters will enable the behavior to change so as integrate the changes desired. As a HR manager, here are the recommendations if you opt to apply the force-field analysis approach. Learn about the status quo, that is, what is there instead of what should be. Know the aims that you want to achieve. Find a way of learning how the driving and resisting factors lead to the status quo. Study the forces and make a resolve so as to boost the drivers while suppressing the resisters. Make a comparison of the strategy that you have used in solving the status-quo with the changes in the status quo.
The following are possible outcomes from policy revision that will occur in the jewelry store company. One of them is that there be a culture change whereby the employees in the organization will be more participatory and the provision of better customer services. If you as the HR manager will be unfortunate to face some resistance in the implementation of the HR policies, that implies that only a handful of employees and some management team personnel will endorse your recommendations. If it comes to that what the organization will have is people change. If you opt to choose the three-step approach, when refreezing, if the positive behaviors are not supported such as by rewarding the employees, the employees may not repeat them. If the positive behavior is supported and rewarded selectively, that is by discriminating against other persons, the employees discriminated against may not repeat the behaviors. An example in such a context would be rewarding the management team in the high echelons while turning a blind eye on the common employees.
Sincerely,
Rose J.
Reference
Greer, C. R. (2001). Strategic Human Resource Management: A General Managerial Approach (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.