HR Case Studies UPS Management

The author of this report will be answering several questions relating to compassion and proper management skills in the workplace whilst using UPS and their CIP as the prism through which the topic will be assessed. There are a total of four questions that will be answered including whether compassion is something that can be taught in a training program, whether the CIP program can help better manage work/life conflicts, what negative outcomes could result from the CIP training and why only 50 of the 2400 managers with UPS are included in the training. While compassion in the workplace seems to make sense and thus should be used, it can create additional and bigger problems if not wielded and used properly.

Questions Answered

An associate "learning" compassion in a training seminar is a bit of a stretch. Either someone has it in their proverbial DNA to use compassion or they do not. Indeed, there are reasons why compassion is perhaps not the best thing to use or exhibit in the workplace and the author says this for a couple of reasons. First, rules exist for a reason and letting an associate off for a long period of time like that in contradiction of the rules sets a precedent and this could be a precedent that others want to see realized as well for their own pursuits and personal reasons. While a sick family member would seem to be a good reason to diverge from the rules, there would be other reasons for absences that are much less clear, at least to some, such as the birth of or for bonding with a child, a vacation and so forth. Also relevant is how long the person has been with the company and what their attendance and performance records have been like to date.

This segues to another reason why it may not be the best idea to grant exceptions like this as some workers will abuse the policy or squawk when they don't their own special exceptions. In a perfect world, people would not be so reflexive puerile but there are going to be situations where such questions might be warranted. This leads to the third reason it might not be the best idea and that is what "compassion" is and what is actually be inequitable or too inconsistent. Answering this question is important because UPS making a profit and keeping their continuity of operations is the most important they deal with, even if some disagree, because the business will not persist and continue to exist if that dimension is ignored too much. That all being said, the CIP program can make it clear that even though the rules should normally be the standard whenever possible, there should be some exceptions when they are called for. For example, if a person gets snowed in at the airport when they're on an approved vacation and they cannot get back for their scheduled shift, that is not the fault of the employee and they really should not be punished for missing work as it was not their fault and they made a good faith effort to be back on time. On the other hand, someone who repeatedly concocts reasons to take days off, paid or unpaid, that they are not entitled to should be given a little more scrutiny. In short, the CIP could be very effective if the lines of what is acceptable and what is not are defined clearly and followed by everyone. Of course, negative outcomes of this policy could include less retention or even lawsuits stemming from disparate treatment, no matter how noble, under the policy and discord between employees in general. Lastly, the fact that only 50 out of 2400 managers, barely two percent, do the training is concerning because they should either all be doing it or none of them should, so as to be consistent.

Conclusion

In the end, UPS has their heart in the right place as they surely want to make it clear that while business objectives and performance matter, people still have personal and family lives and they matter as well. However, the workplace landscape has become so litigious and contentious that such policies and changes might create more trouble than benefit over the long haul even if UPS is trying to do right by their employees. It is as if UPS is damned if they do and damned if they do not and that is unfortunate.

FirstMerit

The second case study reviewed by the author of this report pertains to FirstMerit and they plan they implemented to increase accuracy while at the same...

Prior, the employees all made $9 an hour and absolutely no one remained more than two years at the job. This meant that a 100% turnover (if not more) of the employees occurred every two years and the amount of errors and the overall performance levels were unacceptable. The questions to be answered for this case study include the type of compensation that FirstMerit was using, the intrinsic rewards that might have been used to increase performance in the check processing department and whether the same results could be achieved by a lower base salary and a piecework plan. While a base/piecework plan might have been somewhat successful, there has to be a dual focus on quality and quantity and a piecework-only plan would take away from quality and focus too much on quantity.
Questions Answered

The type of plan that FirstMerit implemented, as stated within the case study itself, was a pay for performance plan. Indeed, FirstMerit made it clear that both accuracy and quantity were important and paid accordingly. They achieved this balance by going off of keystrokes per hour rather than amount of checks processed or other measures. Of course, the amount of actual keystrokes is a more accurate measure of how much work is being completed. At the same time, employees were not all paid the same amount per hour like before. As such, so long as their keystrokes were at a high level, their pay would be as well so long as they performed well with the keystrokes they logged. This new program is the very definition of an intrinsic reward as they are now performing at a higher level, are being paid commensurate with their performance level and they are not being treated the same as someone who is performing at a lower level. A salary base with piecework plan could have done alright as well but would not have performed as well as the pay-for-performance framework mentioned in this report as piecework and keystrokes are not at a 1:1 ratio. As such, the pay should be based on the latter rather than the former because actual time spent working correlates more to keystrokes rather than the amount of items processed. Given that, the pay-for-performance plan used by FirstMerit is absolutely more effective and that makes perfect sense.

Conclusion

In the end, the pivot made by FirstMerit was absolutely the right one. Employees can basically choose how much they make based on the quality of their work and the effort they put in. This makes the system much more equitable and removes a lot of the roadblocks that used to cause burnout, frustration and turnover. To pay employees based on what they do (or do not) bring to a company in terms of performance is a much better proposition than paying everyone the same hourly wage yet not rewarding people who perform better than the minimum. When someone keying 5,000 keystrokes is being paid the same as someone that does 10,000 keystrokes, then that is patently unfair and unwise.

Tesco

The final case study up for review pertains to Tesco and their recruitment/selection process for new hires. The questions to be answered include the definition of recruitment and selection and how those processes allow Tesco to find the right person for the right job, the description of how job descriptions and personal specifications are helpful in the selection process, how well Tesco is performing at attracting and recruiting candidates and evaluation of the benefits of using both interviews and assessment centers in the selection process. While there are ways for the recruitment/selection process to go horribly wrong or at least be inefficient, Tesco is actually doing a lot of things right and they should keep up with the way they are proceeding and behaving.

Questions Answered

Recruitment is the general practice of finding and attracting people to apply for work at a firm. Selection is when individual people out of that group of applicants are selected for further review or even hire. While that may seem basic enough, the processes used for both can vary a lot and some methods work better than others. If used properly, Tesco is able to attract a good pool of moderate to strong candidates and they can then pick the best people out of that group based on prior work experience, previous educational attainment and so forth. The second…