Human Capital Concept Worksheet

Concept

Application of Concept in the Scenario

Reference to Concept in Reading

Human Resource Management Practices

InterClean uses a variety of human resource management practices that analyze where the company is currently and where they want to be in the future to be competitive with others in the same industry. According to Dreher and Dougherty, (2001, p. 51), one common practice is the pay policy in which the compensation department in HR through research, has discretion over whether to pay at, below, or above the average pay level offered by companies competing for employees with similar skill profiles.

"Being a pay-level leader should enable an employer to attract and retain employees possessing critical skill profiles." (Dreher & Dougherty, 2001, p. 51).

Training and Development

Though on a budget, InterClean is interested in implementing new training strategies. It has been proposed that the current managers will be trained to implement the changes among the employees. This change plan should be well thought-out before implementing because people are usually resistant to this type of change. According to Dreher and Dougherty, (2001, p. 124), "high-quality training and development systems are characterized by some form of systematic needs assessment." InterClean needs to take a broader organizational and environmental view of their situation because it may be that training is not the preferred solution to a particular problem.

"Good training systems are capable of ruling out a particular training intervention if all the conditions supporting such an intervention are not met. For any training program to be useful, it needs to affect outcomes that are congruent with the firm's business and tactical strategies. It also must receive support from high-level decision makers and must make good conceptual

sense given the organization's environment." (Dreher & Dougherty, 2001, p. 51).

Motivating Employees

According to David Spencer, the executives are determined to proceed in transforming InterClean, Inc.'s workforce in whatever way necessary to achieve the CEO's ambitious long range goals. The employee morale is currently low and management is concerned that employees will perceive the staffing audit and follow-up will be a way to let them go. To create a sense of security and confidence, Janet Durham thinks the audit process will improve if they can tell each department that no one will be harmed or let go by this transition. By doing this, she feels that they can maintain better morale, increasing motivation. InterClean should find methods that will get their employees to want to stay and not be worried about their jobs.

The motivation to stay and perform is determined by an interaction between the outcomes associated with the individual's interests and values and types of behavior.

"Managers can put into place practices that encourage employee motivation to perform important behaviors."(Dreher & Dougherty, 2001, p. 37).

Staffing Systems

InterClean wants to determine which gaps need to be filled with new hires, but finding the right person that will benefit the company most may not be easy. According to Dreher and Dougherty, (2001, p. 114), when attempting to identify individuals who will be motivated to perform at high levels, the goal is to find a match between the work outcomes that candidates want and value and the work outcomes that an employer is able to associate with superior job performance. InterClean should perform an analysis of their approach to staffing, focusing on the links between business strategy and various staffing decisions during their merger rather than letting people go. The threat of layoffs is one of the greatest blows to employee loyalty, a least from the employee satisfaction perspective. Merely the threat of layoffs will even affect those whose jobs are not immediately at risk. It will be the best morale booster to the company if InterClean tries retaining all employees in some role, while keeping the remaining employees' productivity high, thereby, increasing profits.

"Turnover is costly because replacements must be recruited, selected, and trained. A high voluntary turnover rate also can disrupt the social and communication patterns among stayers and increase stayer workloads and stress levels."(Dreher & Dougherty, 2001, p. 115).

Restructuring Process

With the acquisition of EnviroTech, InterClean needs to take into account the different organizational cultures. To avoid any miscommunication or misunderstanding, a new strategic vision should be created to form the InterClean corporate ethical codes of conduct and organizational culture, which takes time. According to Dreher and Dougherty, (2001, p. 118), restructuring is a complex process, involving early retirement and severance packages, typically used in conjunction with targeted layoffs to identify and retain the individuals who will be needed to take the new organization forward. Enormous challenges exsits that must be met while maintaining employee morale when the actions taken by management seem to suggest that people are expendable and requires extraordinary leadership skill.

"as companies restructure and become more and more efficient, there is a clear tendency for each employee to carry far more responsibility for the sales, assets, and ultimately, the value of the company than before the restructuring." (Dreher & Dougherty, 2001, p. 118).