HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, LABOUR RELATIONS AND ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES $202[100]$

QUESTION ONE:

PepsiCo relaunches flexible benefits to meet employee requirements By Nick Martindale $9$th December $20154$:$35$ pm

Pepsico$-$Product$-2013$When food and drinks manufacturer PepsiCo looked to relaunch its flexible benefits scheme in $2015,$ it was keen to introduce a new benefit and so undertook a series of questionnaires and focus groups with employees.

Kajal Mistry, total rewards officer, says: It had been two years since a new benefit had been introduced so we wanted to select one that would be popular with employees and generate some excitement and engagement.

One of the top requests was for leisure travel insurance, and this was implemented with the option of extending cover to family members, as well as employees.

Alongside this, working with consultant Like Minds, PepsiCo set about redesigning the flexible benefits website, with the aim of reflecting the five pillars of the global organisations total reward strategy: pay; health and insurance; healthy living; retirement; and work$-$life balance, and promoted this through a variety of channels, including emails, e$-$cards and plasma screen televisions, along with messages that appeared on the screens of employees desk phones.

The employer decided to maintain its previous approach of having a four$-$week enrolment window during April and May. It fits in well from a business perspective and its also just before the summer starts so employees can also think about the benefits that could support their work$-$life balance with school holidays such as childcare vouchers, and cycle$-$to$-$work vouchers with brighter mornings and evenings, Mistry adds.

$1\mathrm{.}1$ Total rewards is the combination of benefits, compensation and rewards that employees receive from the organisation.

Explain the total rewards programme at Pepsico. $(10)$

$1\mathrm{.}2.$ Performance$-$based compensation systems are underpinned by theories of motivation and relate an employees performance directly to his $/$ her remuneration $($Grobler et al$,2011$: $416).$

Critically discuss the performance$-$based compensation system in relation to PepsiCo.

$1\mathrm{.}3.$ It is important that performance appraisals are implemented as part of a greater organisational performance management system. As the HR consultant you are tasked to provide PepsiCo management on a process model of performance within an organisation.

QUESTION TWO

According to R$.$L Mathis and J$.$ H$.$ Jackson $(2010)$ several roles can be fulfilled by HR management. The nature and extent of these roles depend on both what upper management wants HR management to do and what competencies the HR staff have demonstrated. Using the case study above describe the three roles the HR department at PepsiCo play.

QUESTION THREE: $[25]$

Which provisions apply?

An employer of about $200$ people in a niche financial services business approaches you for advice, about steps it can take to minimise what the employer believes to be abuse of leave by employees. For example, a number of employees take a full days sick leave to visit a doctor or clinic just to collect medicines. Others demand extension of their annual leave when they fall sick while on vacation. In one instance an employee who was absent for $14$ days on her return to work produced a medical certificate issued by a traditional healer. The certificate was in the form of an unsigned handwritten note from someone who claims in the note that he is qualified as a traditional healer. It does not bear any stamp, signature or even a date. Just before coming to you, there was yet another instance of someone who had adopted a four$-$year$-$old child demanding three months parental leave.

On the basis of your expert knowledge of employment law, provide the employer with the following:

$3\mathrm{.}1$ Detailed information about employees right to leave in the instances mentioned.$(10)$

$3\mathrm{.}2$ A draft leave policy that it can present to its employees that covers each of these instances. $(15)$