PART TWO - CASE STUDY QUESTIONS GS Plumbing in Hot Water It has been a busy year for Greg Flush, owner of GS Plumbing. It seems that many people have adopted the 'stay, repair and renovate' motto despite community financial concerns, and this has been great for business. In recent weeks, takings have increased considerably. If only things were this simple, though. Alan Arrowsmith has been in the HR manager role at GS Plumbing (Greg's "right hand man') for two years. He was selected for the role largely because of his experience with small businesses. Although he has not trained as a plumber, he was a lecturer in the trades section of the local technical college some years ago. In this role, he taught mainly in the areas of occupational health and safety, risk management and auditing. Over the last ten years, GS Plumbing has expanded from Greg's one-man, one-van enterprise to being a six-day-a-week-plus emergency callout operation, with sixteen fully equipped vans and contracts with several building and maintenance companies. Greg has taken more of a hands-off role in recent years, although he worries about his business all the time and is always on the phone to Alan, checking on things. Alan often feels that he is "putting out fires" for Greg and dealing too much with administrative tasks such as payroll, which he finds very frustrating. Greg estimates that 30 per cent of his workload is planned tasks, such as plumbing installations for new homes, while the remainder consists of ad hoc and generally one-off work. Although there is often more money to be made from the unplanned work, the planned tasks provide considerable security for the company. Due to recordkeeping issues, though, Greg is not entirely sure of the breakdown of his workload. This was never his strength. GS Plumbing employs the equivalent of 16 full-time plumbers. Twelve staff work full-time, four work part-time while studying for further certification, including two who have job-share arrangements so they can manage their family responsibilities. Fifteen of the 16 plumbers are male, and the staff range in age from 24 to 58, with most of them having only been with the company for less than two years. In the last six months, five staff have left at very short notice to work with a competitor. Last month, one staff member, who was still on probation, having only been hired two months earlier, was asked to leave before being officially terminated. This was due to poor recordkeeping, overcharging customers, and several instances of receiving cash payments from customers rather than using the company billing system (although all money was banked properly). Alan could not decide if the issues they had encountered with this staff member were the result of poor selection practices; Greg was solely responsible for hiring new staff, and often relied on his mates for referrals. Alternatively, if the problems had occurred because they had never found the time to train the employee in their billing and payment process. Most plumbers work alone each day, although some jobs require two or more plumbers to work together. Greg and Alan are both concerned about employee turnover, although they have not spoken in detail about it. Greg's style is just to ask others to 'please sort things out', especially if the sun is shining and a round of golf is on offer. It seems that the increasing customer demand for plumbing work in the area has resulted in lucrative opportunities for staff, and GS Plumbing has been unable to match job offers (and in some cases, has not even been given the chance). Alan has heard that other companies are offering a little more in the way of hourly rates of pay, plus non-financial benefits that are often related to work and home balance. Alan is trying to achieve this balance for himself, but he has not been successful. Temporary staff have been excellent when he has taken some leave, but the expense and time needed to train a person for a senior role (as well as the attitude of some plumbers towards new senior staff) has made the task very difficult. Turnover is not the only concern. Although Greg does not have proof, he suspects that several of the staff are conducting cash-in-hand work after hours, using company equipment. When staff commence work, they are informed of the expectations in this regard, but Greg has not done more than this because of the risk to staff morale. He does not want to upset anyone else while things are so busy and he reminds himself that the business operates largely on trust anyway. Greg has not mentioned his concerns to Alan so far. Last week, four long-term staff members met with Alan as they were concerned about work allocation. They stated that they were being given routine plumbing tasks which should be given to newer, younger staff members who needed to prove themselves. Although the pay was good, they were becoming bored. They stated that they did not want to work elsewhere, but that they had not ruled the option out. The staff members were referred to Alan by Gail White, company receptionist. Gail is Greg's sister- in-law and although she initially suspected that people might be guarded in their discussions with her, she has found quite the opposite. She speaks with most of the staff at least once a day, and in recent months she feels that she has become quite a 'sounding board for them. Gail is responsible for handling most incoming client calls (an after-hours emergency phone service is used, with plumbers rostered on a rotational basis) and for allocating the work each day, in accordance with the process Alan had devised - no job is too big or too small for any individual plumber. His intention in taking this approach was to ensure all the boring and dirtiest jobs were shared around. With company expansion though, the task of allocating work has become much more challenging and time intensive, although improvements in technology have helped. Some days, though, Gail feels that there must be a more efficient way as she is forced to stay back to ensure all of her work gets done. The staff and customer complaints which occur from time to time only add to her stress levels; whilst Gail has taken on the role of sounding board for many of the staff, every now and then she is told about something she really would prefer not to know! For instance, the most recent complaint Gail had heard came from Suzy, GS Plumbing's only female plumber. Suzy had confided in Gail that the last time she was sent on a job, which required two plumbers, she had received some unwanted attention from Smithy, one of the firm's longest serving staff, who according to Suzy had called her 'love' and 'sexy' the whole time they were on the job, and who on several occasions had propositioned her, offering to sign off on her certification early if she went along with his request! Gail didn't know what to do! She had always had a soft spot for Smithy and didn't want to get him into any trouble. She knew his marriage had just ended after 20-odd years, and he'd been hitting the pub a little too hard with the boys after Page 6 of 9 work, but now that Suzy had told her, what was she meant to do, ignore it all? On the flip side, if she went to Alan or Greg with the information, and they fired Smithy, she was concerned that Smithy's male work mates would then try to get back at Suzy by 'ghosting her or worse! Jane Brown works alongside Gail, handling all billing and accounts. The offer of part-time work came at the right time for Jane, just after her third child was born. Although she enjoys her work and all billing is completed on time, outstanding accounts are becoming an increasing problem. There just weren't enough hours in the day to deal with them all with her being part-time. Jane adopts a businesslike approach to her work, but has little interaction with the plumbers, mainly because she arrives for work after the school drop-off and after the jobs have been allocated each day. She also comes in late on Mondays, meaning she misses the weekly staff briefing Greg, Alan, Gail and Jane consider themselves to be the senior management team. Unplanned staff absences due to sickness, injury or family responsibilities is a significant management issue that they have encountered. Monday and Tuesday have become real problem days. Staff members are required to telephone Gail to advise of their absence, and she transfers the call to Alan if he is available. Although Alan is mostly satisfied that the absences are genuine, some staff are calling in sick regularly, especially Smithy. Alan is also worried about the amount of annual leave that some staff have accrued (even though they have only been with the organisation for a short time), and he knows from speaking informally with staff that many feel well and truly in need of a break. However, the plumbing work does not just stop. It seems that workplace injuries are also occurring more frequently. Although, thankfully, there has never been a death, there have been some severe injuries over the years, including falls, chemical burns, and minor cuts and abrasions. They had even had a van written off recently, with Smithy hitting another car, as he sped to an emergency gas leak at one of their client's shops in the early hours of the morning. Alan is not sure why more injuries are happening this year. He is confused because the reporting of injuries is often less comprehensive than it needs to be, and he regularly needs to follow up for further background checks and details. He suspects that some staff are not taking the process seriously. Most of the staff at GS Plumbing belong to the local plumbers' union. The union is active in the region and vocal about issues related to staff wellbeing. Although no specific issues have been raised, Alan is concerned that there are issues behind the scenes and he wants to get on top of these. Each Monday morning, Greg and Alan lead a 20-minute briefing for staff. This is an opportunity to clarify the work focus for the week, to present information and to discuss areas of concern. All staff are invited to provide input, but few speak up. In view of the Monday attendance issues, staff turnout to the briefing has been less than ideal and it seems that GS Plumbing is becoming fragmented. CASE STUDY QUESTIONS: The Senior Management Team at GS Plumbing have recruited you as an external Human Resource (HR) Consultant. When you were briefed on your consulting task, the owner, Greg Flush, communicated that the firm's approach to human resource management had developed organically as the firm had grown, but that they were now at a point where they were experiencing challenges. As the HR Manager at GS Plumbing, Greg has directed you to conduct a review of the firm's human resource management (HRM) practices. Question 3. Outline the HRM problems you have identified at GS Plumbing, using evidence from the case to illustrate each one. Please type your response below... Question 4. Focussing on two (2) of the human resource management (HRM) challenges you have identified in Question 3 above, recommend changes to the HRM practices that may help to resolve these issues. Justify how your recommendations are suitable for GS Plumbing as a specific organisation. Please type your response below... Question 5. Recommend how the changes you recommend in Question 4 could be evaluated by GS Plumbing to demonstrate whether they have improved the Strategic Human Resource Management of the organisation. Please type your response below