Introduction
Communication must be free-flowing for an organization with several departments and high interdependency. All the departments comply with each other’s needs to avoid discrepancies in the day-to-day manufacturing operations. Here, the objectives of each department must be aligned so that no such situation is created where the office corridor seems like a fish market.
Concerns and Diagnosis
As an HR manager, you stand a significant responsibility to ensure the perfect mobility of labor between the departments as they make the company a considerable resource. Currently, the corporate sales have ordered an increment in production level by 50%, whereas the machinery is operating non-stop throughout the year. On the other hand, the rate of absenteeism is also increasing in different departments, reducing the number of employees available for production at one time. With the increased demand for production, managers find it challenging to utilize their current workforce efficiently. This forces the employees to work overtime. To the employees, it is an exhaustive work with the same monotonous routine with maximum effort utilization. This results in a high turnover ratio for the company. Consequently, it can cause two major problems to the organization: firstly, it can cause a significant threat to the running of the production unit, as their two primary resources, labor, and capital, are over-utilized; secondly, it can completely collapse the system, if de-motivated employees abandoned the company or get unionized. In addition, there seems to be a noticeable communication gap between the departments, as the production goals are not in line with the staffing goals and current production machinery available.
Suggestions
Such problems require the high involvement of upper-level management to win over employees’ hearts and make them feel like hard rocks, soft cotton. Eventually, the execution of management policies and flexibility in their implementation holds the primary key to success. As an HR manager, you need to ensure the even mobility of employees into the department and flexibility in choosing their work hours. It is better to manage current resources than to deploy more. So it is recommended that with an increased production target, workers’ hourly wages be improved so they get better value for the effort they put in (Armstrong, 2004). Employees should be provided extra incentive to work overtime, and their optimum performance should be continuously monitored so that better employees be differentiated and well praised (Samson & Daft, 2008). To get optimum output from current machinery, employees’ motivation is essential.
Moreover, the targets should be realistic, challenging, time-bounded, and achievable. To set such targets, departments must be aware of each other’s limitations so that no unrealistic target is aligned. To overcome the communication gap associated with the flow of information, the company should deploy a new web-based portal, which interconnects all the departments to one interface so each manager can communicate whatever he has to in the minimum possible period. Lastly, the company needs to invest in their capital resources, deploy more efficient machines, and for this, they must win the investors’ confidence who expects higher performance from the company. (Armstrong, 2004)
References
Armstrong, M. (2004). Strategic Human Resource Management: A guide to action. 1st Edition. UK: Kogan Page Limited.
Samson, D. & Daft, R.L. (2008). Management. 3rd Edition. Australia: Cengage Learning Australia.