Analyzing HRM Issues in 7-Eleven, CFA, and Banks in Australia

This report investigates Human Resource Management (HRM) failures within three Australian organizations: 7-Eleven, the Country Fire Authority (CFA), and various Australian banks. The analysis of 7-Eleven reveals issues of wage fraud, underpayment of employees, and unethical business practices. The CFA is examined for cultural problems, including lack of discipline, bullying, and sexual harassment. The banks are assessed for misconduct related to financial services, sales-driven cultures, and failures in training and management. The report identifies key problems, analyzes HRM failures, and provides recommendations for improvement, including ethical business practices, fair compensation, improved leadership, transparency, and prompt response to issues. An AHRI model is also prepared to mention how such problems could have been avoided previously.

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KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
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1KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
Executive Summary
The aim of the report is to locate the human resource problems in three organizations namely,
the 7-Eleven, Country Fire Authority, Banks in Australia. The report initiates with the
identification of the key problems in each of the organizations, followed by the recognition of
the reasons for the failure of the Human Resource Management and lastly providing
recommendations that might help improve the Human Resource Management of the
aforementioned organizations. The report is concluded with the combination of the problems
identified in the organizations and an AHRI model is prepared to mention how such problems
could have been avoided previously.

2KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
7-Eleven.................................................................................................................................3
Country Fire Authority (CFA)...............................................................................................5
Banks......................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................12

3KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
Introduction
The report is concerned with the problems in the Human Resource Management in
three chosen organizations from Australia, namely, the 7-eleven, Country Fire Authority and
the Banks of Australia. Within the structure of the report there are three sections wherein
each of the organizations are analyzed thoroughly. The analysis of each of the three
organization begins with the identification of the key problems. This is followed by the
recognition of the areas wherein the Human Resource Management has failed and thereby,
certain recommendations are suggested to avoid any sort of repetition of such fraudulent
cases. The report also comprises of an AHRI model which helps to state ways in which the
organization could have evaded the problems in the first place.
Discussion
7-Eleven
Key problems in the organization
As per the case study, 7-Elevent workers and employees had faced ill treatment from
the company executives; they were underpaying the employees and even threatened the
workers and the employees of cancelling their visa if they complained about the work
conditions and wages. The wages giving to the workers and the employees were very low.
They have been running the business illegally for extra profits (Ferguson and Danckert 2015).
Failure of HRM policies, staffs and stakeholders
It has been analyzed that the 7-Elevent company has been running its business having
wage fraud. The employees of the organization are not being treated fair, which clearly
violates the Australian tenet of giving its citizens a “fair go” (Ferguson and Danckert 2015).
As per the investigations it has been researched and analyzed that 7-eleven stores run by Four
Corners and Fairfax Media has been offering systematic underpayment of remuneration and

4KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
wages and has been found doctoring payroll records of the country highest convenience store
chain. The employees and the workers of the organization are highly exploited and
intimidated, majorly of them being international students. As per the doctored time sheet,
store financials, rosters wage bills and documents suggests and provides further evidence of
mistreatment of workers and their under wage offers. The head office of the company has
been deliberating ignoring the systematic wage fraud. The experienced franchisees had been
mentoring the new franchisees the ways to falsify the remuneration and the ways to tamper
the records. Further, the company has been promising some of the workers that they will be
hired in the future, but eventually they were never hired. Furthermore, there has been treats to
the workers about cancelling their visa if they ever argued about the salary (Ferguson and
Danckert 2015). As per the investigations and research of the Fair Work, they found wrong
doing by the company. The dealing of the company was against the business ethics.
Underpaying the workers, who were mostly international students, is considered to be an
illegal behavior. This has led to the failure of the business and pulled down its reputation
(Ferguson and Danckert 2015).
Recommendations to resolve the problems and enable HRM effectively
It is recommended that 7-elements enable an effective human resource policies and
practices. The company needs to implement a compensation plan for the workers and the
employees. It must strive to be fair and equitable for the workers performance. They must
consider offering the workers with a fair amount which is impartial and honest. The
compensation and wage plan must be determined in an objective manner without any trace of
prejudice and favor. Having fair and equitable salary administration policies will ensure
satisfactory employees in the workplace, this would enable the company to gain employees
satisfaction and ensure increased production. It needs to consider running the business in an
ethical and legal way (Ahmad 2015). This will enable it to ensure long term success, growth

5KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
and profitability. The company’s salary and the bonus must be administered equitable and
fairly. The employees and the workers must feel satisfied with the benefits offered by various
HR programs. Apart from the wages and salaries, the company must also ensure that the
work environment is safe and healthy for the employees and the offer to them bonus,
incentives and other benefits and opportunity (Ahmad 2015). This will ensure better
productivity and long term profitability of the organization.
As per the case study, 7 -Eleven had imposed excessive pressure on the workers,
threatened them on the workplace and offered them lower wage. The company should have
carried out the business in an ethical manner. It illegal business practices had eventually
pulled down its reputation in the market and had suffered loss. This could have been avoided
by compensating the employees, offering them a better working place and ensure employee
satisfaction.
Country Fire Authority (CFA)
Key problems in the organization
As per the case study, Country Fire Authority (CFA) have been blamed for various
cultural issues, lack of proper respect and discipline, alcohol abuse, series of assaults and a
pattern of poor behaviour. There have been instances of bullying, sexual harassment and
endemic for the women employees as per the report. The women employees were harassed
apart from the fear of bullying and impunity (Bowden 2018).
Failure of HRM policies, staffs and stakeholders
There have been cultural problems, including a deficiency of discipline and respect.
This highly reflects the failure of the business mangers and the human resource executive to
effective handle the emerging situation. Failure of practicing discipline and respect in the
workplace has led to such a consequence (Bowden 2018). The incidents had let down by

6KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
significant leadership deficiencies. Lack of effective leadership style ad practices has caused
this situation. The cultural problems, lack of discipline inside the workplace of the
organization have not been addressed by the human resource managers and the other
executives in the organizations. As per the report and analysis, it has also been found that
there have been instances of bullying and sexual assault within the organization. This is a
serious misconduct caused and had violated the norms and ethics of the business
organization(Edwards 2017). Hence this was the failure of the business to address the issues
and problems in the first stage. Further, there has been lack of effective human resource
policies and practices within the organization, which is the reason why this has led to such
situations and major problems. The complaints about the treatment, alcohol abuse and others
were ignored by the higher authorities of the organization. The leaders and the managers of
the organization were inefficient in handling such serious crisis within the organization.
Recommendations to resolve the problems and enable HRM effectively
It is recommended that the organization must appoint a staff officer for reviewing the
values and ethics of the business. The company needs to collectively take a stand against such
serious misconduct and work together to warrant that it grows into an inclusive business
organization in the days to come (Ahmad 2015). The employees and the workers of the
organization must be offer training to behave in an honorable behavior and ensure respect and
values in the organization. There must be strict action taken against misconducts such as
disgraceful attitude and behavior towards other employees, prohibition of alcohol and
bullying. The employees complaints must be addressed immediately and actions taken upon
the employees accused of such misconduct (Lamba and Choudhary 2013). There must be
proper rules and regulations concerning the expected behavior and ethics within the business
organization. These rules and relations must be effectively communicated to all the
employees working in the organization. Violation of the rules and regulations of the

7KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
organization must attract a penalty and termination. Proper punishment and rewards must be
incorporated within the business organization. Discipline and respect must be simply
considered as a correction, which must improve the behavior of the employees of the
organization (Lamba and Choudhary 2013).
The company could have avoided such a situation if it had proper practices of
discipline and respect within the organization (Tyler, Carson and Reynolds 2019). It should
have been the culture of the organization to instill respect and discipline towards every other
employee on the floor. Strategies should have been implemented and corrective actions
should have been taken by the managers and leaders which could have avoided such
situation. Without proper discipline and respect in the organization, the goals of the
organization will not be achieved. Therefore, it must ensure equal treatment, discipline and
respect in the workplace.
Banks
Key problems in the organizations
The Royal Commission inquired several financial institutions in Australia for
misconduct in financial services, banking and superannuation (Ferguson 2017). The key
issues that were identified included lack of regulation by the Australian government, as the
financial institutions were involved in money laundering for drug syndicates, ignored both
statutory reporting duties and terrorism financing, as well as misconduct in foreign exchange
trading. Such manhandling of their duties resulted in the dissatisfaction among customers and
the reputation of the banks are also harmed in the process of these corruptive practices.
Failure of HRM
The Australian financial institutions emphasized more on the sales culture than the
custodial culture, which shifted their skill set to aggressive attitude to gain the profit margin.
As, such strategies are meant for short term achievement, the long term continuation of the
same strategies led to the fraudulent behaviour of the staff and the owners to gain their greedy

8KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
objective (Sheedy 2018). The areas where the Human Resource Management went wrong
were the training and management of the objectives set for the organizations. The procedure
of the training of the staff and the managerial attitude of the managers had to be organized
more effectively, keeping in mind the ethics that must have been inculcated in them. The
selection and placement process and the performance evaluation also were neglected and not
inquired upon before the promotion process. The leadership culture also failed as the leaders
themselves were engaged in the corruptive practices (Witts 2016). Overall the Human
Resource Management failed to identify such in-depth corruptive encroachments inside the
organization. A better regulation of communication between the varied departments should
have been maintained to avoid such drastic consequences.
Recommendations to resolve the problems and enable HRM effectively
In order to avoid such requirements of the Royal Commission enquiring into the
financial services of Australia, the following steps can be pursued:
 Transparency: The HRM must maintain a thorough level of transparency among the
various departments, the customers and the banks as well as with the higher
authorities. This shall enable the staff to understand clearly the needs of the customers
and the obligations, terms and risks involved in their duties and responsibilities
(Saleem and Khurshid 2014). The transparency between both the internal and external
facets of the financial institutions benefits mutual business relationships.
 Prompt response: One of the prime reasons for the development of such huge
problem was the delay in the identification of the fraudulent issues. The purpose and
duty of the HRM in this regard shall be a thorough regulation of the decisions and
actions taken by the various departments, as well as informing promptly if any
peculiar case or issues comes across. The HRM should also improve their

9KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
communication skills in order to understand the problems of the staff and the
managers, which must be resolved with promptness.
 Development of healthy work culture: The commission has identified that several
customers were treated with brutal responses and termination of their product life
without proper reasons. The motto that almost every other financial institution follows
that they put their customers first has become secondary. Herein, the HRM has to take
upon the responsibility of inculcating a healthy work culture within the organizations
that will uphold mutual respect policies throughout the institutions (Jain and Kaur
2014).
 Administer performance systems: The remuneration and incentive system of the
organizations are made attractive for the staff to work harder and thereby gain more
themselves as well as for the firm. However, such high incentive structure harms the
performance of the staff. In order to attain the proposed incentives the workers often
adhere to means that are illegal and fraudulent in nature. The intervention of the HRM
is necessary to look into the performance of the staff to avoid situations that might
arise corruptive purposes.
 Risk management: It is the duty of the HRM to ensure that the management of risk
and the other operations remain within the legal threshold efficiently resolving
customer issues and managing the competitive environment.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that there are certain areas wherein the Human
Resource Management could have performed better in order to avoid the problems stated
above. The AHRI model has been utilized to analyze the ways in which the organizations
could have evaded the mishaps in the first place.

10KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
Image 1: The AHRI Model of Excellence
With the aid of the AHRI model, it can be analyzed that the key functions of the
Human Resource Management within the organizational capabilities must be enhanced. This
can be ascertained with better management of the workforce design, the cultural and change
leadership and the stakeholder mentoring. The organizational context with reference to the
ethical practices of the staff and the shareholders should have been kept in check. The
strategies should have been checked to ensure proper production within the legal threshold.
The collaboration of all the departments are necessary for the better functioning of the

11KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
organizations. In case of the 7 eleven organization, the workers were treated badly resulting
in the poor performance of the organization. One of the key functions of the Human Resource
Management is to ensure employee satisfaction through various methods and initiatives. In
accordance with the AHRI model it can be ascertained that the organizational objectives that
the Human Resource faculties must adhere to, includes the strategic architect aspect (Malik
2016). Hence, it is the responsibility of the Human Resource Management to secure strategic
approaches such as justified wages, proper treatment and such other facets to implement a
work friendly environment. Secondly, in the Country Fire the instances of such indiscipline
among the workers and the lack of safety for women employees are of serious concerns and
genuinely a failure of the Human Resource department. In order to correct this lack of
discipline in the organization, the Human Resource department must undertake strict
measures against harassment of women employees and implement certain rules and
regulations that must be adhered to by all the sectors of the organization. As per the model by
being ethical in nature, the Human Resource management could have evaded such mishaps in
the first place. Lastly, in case of the Australian banks, wherein the Royal Commission had to
intervene due to immense fraudulent activities of the banks display the inefficiency of the
Human Resource Management in inculcating within the firm the values of discipline
(Montague, Larkin and Burgess 2016). According to the model, the Human Resource
Management had failed to be an ethically active body, thereby resulting in the failure of the
bank to conduct their business ethically. The case studies emphasize the significance of the
Human Resource Management in an organization, and with the implementation of the
aforementioned suggestions, the organizations can enhance their yields and prove to be
successful in the long run.

12KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
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sides to every story'
Ferguson and Danckert 2015. How 7 eleven is ripping off its workers
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13KEY CONCEPTS IN HRM
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