Personnel Management Case Study

Personnel Management Case Study

1. managers complicated decision when evaluating the personal requests

Managers do expect employees to be productive motivated and fit which are the aspects thatenable them to carry out their jobs well. Trade unions expect managers to treat their workforcefairly and to give them a chance to adequately participate without compromising their generalwell being as well as their family commitments. Providing employees with a flexible workingschedule is one of the best ways that organizations can ensure that the staff members have awork-life balance.

Though the provision of work-life balance according to the legislation requirements has beenseen to be of benefit to organizations, mangers experience challenges concerning the provisionof workplace flexibility. This is I the kind of dilemma that Janis Blancero the Marketing director ofAdobe Consulting Services (ACS), faces. Adobe company   offers highly attractive benefitspackages that include the provision of friendly and family   flexibility of work schedule for elderand child care assistance, adoption assistance, parental leave and counseling services.

The company has however experienced a major backslash in its life or policy as more and moreemployees are requiting for reduced working hours as well as extensions of maternity leaves.The main reasons that Janis has been given by the employees include a time to care forchildren, undisguised personal reasons, accommodation of training schedules and extension offamily leaves. These special privileges that the employees are requesting for clearly pose achallenge to their productivity in the workplace and also failure to adequately meet with thecustomers demands. This therefore means that the organization is facing a hidden tensionconcerning the program dealing with the provision of flexible work hours. This arises due to theincreasing workload and the business growth of the company as well as the constant demandsfrom customers (World at work research 2009).

Many managers like Janis are constantly in pressure to deliver the desired outcomes expected

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Personnel Management Case Study

by the organization and may face a much greater challenge concerning the demands posed bya wide range of flexible working arrangements that are available in the organization. They  haveno  problem  with working flexibility requested  by  two  to  three  employees but when they increase, how then will they be able to deny the rest?. One thing that mangers have tounderstand is the imperative of the business to flexibility. The provision of flexible work arrangements has many benefits such as in the retaining and attracting employees and  givingthem an opportunity to be productive since they will feel committed, motivated  happier andfocused  to the job they do to enable them achieve work-life balance.

Making decisions on whether or not to provide the requests from employees have mademanagers to show resistance because it implies that they have to manage more employeeswhich become more work to them. Further work schedule flexibility requested by employee’sclass for additional requirements of equipments needed in the implementation of the desiredwork arrangement such as remote cases. Further, the work unit of an employee will beimpacted such as the employees’ supervisory activities and issues of coverage.

The managers are also faced with conflicting requests from various areas which makeaccommodating their requests to be difficult. Another challenge that the managers faces is thedifficulty and complexity involved in effectively trucking the work time of the employees. Productivity is also likely to reduce due to the short duration of working hours or theunavailability of employees to carry out the tasks that they had been assigned. Such as forthose who extend their maternity leaves as for the case of Susan Woolf in Adobe ConsultingServices (ACS), case.

Those preferring to work at home may result to; low productivity, increased distractions and itblurs the boundary between personal time and work time. Further, difficulty in decision makingconcerning the request made by employees for a much more flexible schedule adhering to theirrequests means a reduced time for one to one contact and this leads to lack of cohesion withina given unit. The managers cannot have a direct observation of the employee’s performanceand work. due to the need to work within the budgetary requirements allocated by the company,Adobe company may not be able to offset the direct costs needed for teleworking schedulessuch as through for communication, and furnishings. They all contribute to the complexdecision-making  processes which  managers have to consider  in  considering the  personal request made by  each  individual  employee.

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Personnel Management Case Study

2. the need for Adobe establish a policy for granting flexible work schedules

Yes, it is important for Adobe to establish a policy dealing with the provision of   flexible workschedules, flexible working arrangements include the ability of an employee to work from home,flexible hours, working part-time and the sharing of jobs. Employees at the time of recruitmentshould be informed on issues concern work-life balance that already exits and being used in theorganization.

The mangers of Adobe company as well as the other members of staff should be aware of thesuccessful working practices that other organizations use.  This gives the employees anopportunity to ask for specific provision and on alterative arrangements for working. The  highlydiverse  workface in modern day has shown a  strong movement  towards non-traditional hourssuch as  part-time work,  job sharing , telecommuting, and  flexible time of work so as to meet both the organizational and  personal needs of the  employees (Reilly, 2001).

Another reason as to why Adobe should  establish  flexible  work schedules is the nee to takeinto account the current legal trend s being applied in many organizations nationwide  as  well as the practices conducted  by the human resources concerning employee relations. Due to theidea that the laws of the states vary and have different legal requirements, it is important for themanagement team of Adobe to be fully familiar with these laws. The desired policy  for  adobefirm it to develop working hours required by the needs of the dependents who are the staffmembers, staffing requirements and the work load in the company. There is need for Adobe todevelop efficient human resource management (Mathis and Jackson 2010)

Adobe company has to look into ways of developing positive relations with the trade unionsbased on agreed upon policies.  This means that the company’s managers can wall work withthe representatives of trade unions without any kind of conflict the provision of work life balanceto employees is one of the crucial areas that has seen many employers get into conflicts withthe trade unions. There is a great opportunity for Adobe managers to cooperatively work onissues concerning work-life balance on organized scheme and benefits that are beneficial toboth the employer and the employee.

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Personnel Management Case Study

The provision of flexible work is one of the best ways which the organization can offer its staffwith work-life balance. Being a steward of the union, enables adobe to be at a much  better position  compared to relying  on the management in identifying the needs of employees andestablishing policies which are consisted to the  Union’s requirements. This means that the mainrole for the managers is to target “fit for purpose” policies on flexible working programs.Generally, the policies should focus on  supporting the  employees need  to balance both theirwork and to maintain their careers while ensuring that they are fulfilling their homeresponsibilities, getting involved in the local community, pursing  interest out side work and taking care of their personal wellbeing (Ministry  of  business innovation and employment, 2012)

3. If I was Blancero,

If I was Blancero, I will first have to acknowledge that change doesn’t take place instantly and Iwill have to consider seeking support and guidance from the other heads of different departsand the company leaders. This enable I to get the commitment of the senior management andthe human resources heads to consider ways in the introduction of    good   modes of workingand in creating new policies. The main aspect that I also have to consider is to create a workbalance or a program that is within the budgetary constraints. However I have to consider thatnot all working flexibility programs all suitable to all the kinds of work in the organization but to acertain degree. I will consider talking to the team members where by they can discuss thevarious forms of working that is most suitable to all (Venkataratnam 2004).

Some employees such as Teresa Wheately as a valued employee of the company, theprovision of a flexible work program are justified since she is a single mother of two children ingrade school. However the duration for her being off on Fridays and shorter working hours isproblematic. I would consider is for her to be available on Fridays and she also has to comeearly at the normal hours of 8 am, but leaves early. Further I would offer her a supportive staff toassist her in account management. Also I would require all employees to give full details of theirreasons to deserve a more flexible schedule that they request.

This should be in the form of a written letter clearly showing the reasons as to why theemployee deserves the working program.  This is because some would misuse the flexible

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Personnel Management Case Study

working program by giving irrelevant excuses and end up being not of better economic benefitto the organization.  This can be seen in the case of Dorothy McShee who declines to offer thepersonal reasons that she has for her to deserve the 4 day work.

In order to avoid such a situation would include these requirements writing the policy onhome- work balance program. Juan Batista deserves the flexible work schedule. Further, Iwould not have given Susan Woolf an extended maternity leave, due to the idea that policies donot require people to extend their holidays. Generally, the main idea to prevent challenges andcomplexities involved in making decisions concerning the management of flexible workschedule requested by employees within and organization (Unison, 2011).

Reference

Unison (2011) Flexible working making it work. Retrieved from

http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B4097.pdf

On July 17, 2012

World at work research (2009) flexible work arrangements for nonexempt employees. Retrievedfrom

http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimLink?id=33622

On July 17, 2012

Reilly P (2001) Flexibility at Work, Balancing the Interests of Employer and Employee. PublisherGower Publishing, Ltd., p 89

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Personnel Management Case Study

Mathis R and Jackson J (2010) Human Resource Management Publisher Cengage Learning, P 124

Ministry of business innovation and employment (2012) identify the possible solution. Retrievedfrom

http://www.dol.govt.nz/er/bestpractice/worklife/makingitwork/guide03.asp

On July 17, 2012

Venkataratnam (2004) Personnel Management and Human. Publisher Tata McGraw-HillEducation, p 171

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