HRM101 Report: Issues in Workplace Safety and Employee Retention

This report, an analysis of HRM practices within Tuck Construction, addresses key challenges including workplace safety, recruitment and selection, and employee retention. The report begins with an executive summary and company profile, followed by an overview of a questionnaire used for primary research. The core of the report explores three major issues: workplace health and safety, detailing accident occurrences, financial impacts, and labor turnover; recruitment and selection, focusing on time-consuming processes, reliance on gut instincts, and limited resources; and employee retention, emphasizing its importance, and the factors affecting it. The report provides recommendations to mitigate these issues, such as the development of safety programs, improved recruitment strategies, and initiatives to enhance employee satisfaction and communication. The research utilizes both primary and secondary resources, drawing on information from company employees and online literature to support its findings and recommendations.

Introduction to HRM

Executive Summary
Human resource management deals with several issues in regards to employee recruitment and
retention, then employee safety, gender imbalance, etc. The paper discusses the several issues
that the company Blach Construction deals with regularly. The paper mainly focused on the
issues related to workplace safety then recruitment and retention. The paper also provided some
eminent recommendations to overcome these issues. This construction company believes in
teamwork and maintenance of string relationship among all levels. This is a small kind of
business. So many times it faces certain challenges in regards to HRM. This report also provides
significant knowledge regarding culture, working environment and welfare programs needed for
the employees. The research process which is encompassed for conducting this report assessment
is from the secondary resources and primary resources. The information has been gained from
employers and employees of the organization to provide evidence to findings.
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Company profile......................................................................................................................................3
Questionnaire..........................................................................................................................................3
Research......................................................................................................................................................3
Issue 1: workplace health and safety of staff...........................................................................................3
Issue 2: Recruitment and selection issue.................................................................................................5
Issue 3: Employee Retention...................................................................................................................7
Solutions......................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion and Recommendations..............................................................................................................9
Reference...................................................................................................................................................10
Appendices................................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
The activities related to the Human resource are usually considered as a staff function rather than
a line function. This study would enlighten the learner with various issues of human resource
department. Tuck Construction Company was selected for identifying the prevailing issues that
this particular company is dealing within the market of Australia. Being a small scale enterprise
the firm would have to deal with various types of issues in terms of recruitment and selection
programs, the welfare of the employees and their low retention rate .These issues would facilitate
the learner with the understanding regarding the necessary approaches through which they could
mitigate these issues. The questionnaire was made for conducting the primary research which is
identified as a survey. Moreover, the data is also obtained from various websites and research
articles. The online literature was also referred to conduct this report assessment.
Company profile
Tuck construction is a construction based company. This believes in maintaining commitment
and teamwork. The company had started 13 years ago with ownership of Karl Tuck. The main
focuses of this industry are the unique projects. This brings exclusiveness in their work profile.
They work reliably and communicate regularly with the clients to understand their needs. The
company has few employees but they are eminent and skillful (Tuckconstruction., 2018).
Questionnaire
 How much would rate your workplace in regards of organizational health and safety?
 How much would you rate your company’s recruitment and selection department?
 How good is your company in retaining skilful workers or employees?
 How much you will rate your company in regards of maintaining gender equality
internally and externally?
Research
Issue 1: workplace health and safety of staff
Health and safety are very important within a working environment. It is very important to
continue activities by maintaining safety. Workplace health and safety should be maintained by
both employee and an employer, especially in the construction industry. One of the huge issues
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in the construction industry is said to be workplace health and safety. Workplace health and
safety plays a major role in staffs daily activities. In several construction industries, there were
fatalities and injuries. The nature of the construction industry defines itself that it is a place of
high risk. This leads to a high degree of fatalities and workers compensation claim in Australia
(Employsure, 2015).
Similarly, in the case of Tuck Construction, they have also faced a massive situation in terms of
workplace health and safety. It is very impossible to remove risk from the construction industry.
Certain things could be carried out by the HR department for removing the risks while working.
Sometimes it becomes complex situations for the HR to keep track and implement HR related
policies. The issues that were faced by Tuck Construction company regarding health and safety
in the workplace is illustrated below:
 A serious accident in the construction site of Tuck Construction has harmed the workers.
This has lead to a delay in the entire work. Further, the productivity level has also
decreased to an extreme point. This is due to low morale among the workers.
 The company Tuck Construction has faced major crises in financial conditions. As the
entire costs are associated while dealing up with the accident of Staff.
 Due to the occurrence of accidents, the problems that have aroused is the disruption in
industrial relations. These types of issues may create serious problematic situations for HR
to deal with.
 Moreover, the risks regarding accidents may further increase as the workplace is always
changing. A frequent change in the construction site may lead to creating a major
accident.
 Apart from that, the high rate of labor turnover has resulted in miscommunication in the
workplace. The high labor turnover has restricted the workers to know other weaknesses
and strengths (Linkedin, 2015).
 HR is the appropriate person to develop certain safety programs for their workers. The HR
department of Tuck Company has to develop certain safety programs for their worker's
Safety.
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 The construction company has been struggling with a situation called labor shortage. For
the accident-related issues, many of the staff is avoiding this industry. A large amount of
skilled workers has also left the job from this company.
 Apart from that Tuck Construction at some pint of time hire non-skilled workers
especially those have no experienced in this arena. This has lead to the occurrence of
severe accidents in the construction site. It was the Tuck Construction company
responsibility to supervise those unskilled workers. If they have taken care of them
properly then massive accidents would not have taken place.
 The most important thing is that while starting the project they should have held a safety
meeting with their entire employees and contractors and subcontractors (Fitforwork,
2017).
A Human resource is responsible to provide their employees with all sorts of benefits apart from
recruiting and selection of employees. He is the person who takes care of the performance of
employees, compensation, benefits and also workplace health and safety of their employees.
Thus, it can be said that Tuck Construction Company HR department has lacked in providing
their employees with the proper PPE (personal protective equipment). Managing of HR strategy
in the construction company like Tuck is a serious challenging and risk tasks. These types of
issues are quite diverse. A properly skilled workforce in the HR team will simply boost the
company. It will enhance the working conditions of workers too by hiring a perfect, skilled team.
Also, a good trainer is necessary for providing required training to the onsite labors of Tuck
Company. Lastly, the health and safety team of the company must try to practice the best rules to
limit the number of accidents (Jones, 2018).
Issue 2: Recruitment and selection issue
Human resource management mainly associated with strategic planning through which the
members of the organization could able to operate proactively. The objectives of the organization
could be attained more proactively. It also means that the organizational results and objectives
are highly emphasized from a broader perspective. Therefore every employee needs to have a
personal commitment towards the aims and objectives of the company. For bringing this level of
commitment towards the organizational goals refers that employee communication, education,
and involvement need to be put more emphasized which the company lacks. Empowering is
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considered as the mutual influence which is also identified as creative power distribution.
Empowering the employees is considered as a shared responsibility which is very fundament.
Empowering mainly enables the individuals to make effective usage of their capabilities and
talents, develop effective relationships and boost accomplishment (Rakowska & Babnik, 2015).
The decision which was made by the human resource professional of the organization was very
time-consuming. This is identified as self-inflicted issues within the processes of recruitment and
selection. The job seekers in today's modern world were not having much patient level to go
through multiple rounds of recruitment and selection. On the other hand, it is also observed that
this small scale business mostly relies upon the gut instinct. The owners of small businesses also
rely on the references for making their hiring decisions. These are some of the good approaches
to start their recruitment procedures. But the turnover of the employees is still a costly issue for
the employers. Whenever a salaried individual is replaced then the business has to incur almost
six-month salary of that person to train a new employee. For example, the employee is getting a
salary of $4000 per month then the replacement cost of that employee would be almost $24000.
Moreover, the range of resources was also limited to the professionals of the human resource
department. Limited availability of the resource is also identified as one of the main issues for
conducting successful recruitment and selection processes. The human resource department of
multinational and large organization mainly provided with huge budgets for attracting more
competent candidates. Due to this reason the small scale industries such as Tuck Construction
Company is not able to put huge funds in the recruitment and selection procedure (Rohini I &
Keerthika V, 2018). As a result of this, the Tuck Construction Company has to make use of
traditional recruiting channels. This is identified as one of the prevailing issues to get the most
qualified candidates. The professionals of the human resource department of Tuck Construction
Company mainly stuck when they are not receiving any resumes from the candidates that have a
very strong background. This can be one of the biggest issues which have been identified in
Tuck Construction Company is that the company is unable to attract talented applicants.
Therefore the professionals of the human resource department of the company need to go
through several hardships for finding skilled job seekers. This is one of the most common issues
that many of the professionals of small and medium enterprise mainly experience. The newly
hired candidates should be capable to integrate themselves into the team along with getting
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accustomed in the organizational environment or else the HR manager needs to start the
procedure of talent acquisition again (Smallbusiness, 2018).
Managing workplace diversity is also the responsibility of the human resource professional.
Managing diversity of individuals that has the potential to bring innovative ideas is very essential
for the future success of the company. The company could be able to respond very rapidly to the
business opportunities with a diversity of talents in respect of their cultural backgrounds, ages,
lifestyle, and genders. The risk that is involved in the diversity of the workforce is their limited
retention. The company is unable to make an effective environment where every member of the
organization can communicate freely without any hesitation. The working environment plays a
most important role in managing a diverse workforce. The local professionals also need to ensure
that the foreign professionals were not a threat to their career development. There is a need for
cultural based training programs which facilitates in enhancing the employees' ability and also to
motivate them (Virtualhr, 2016).
Issue 3: Employee Retention
The holding back of the employees is a very important aspect, especially for the construction
company. As the finding of the skillful employee is one of the main problems of the human
resource department team. The company should decrease the employees turn over for its
development. It is being said that employee retention is the symptom of the greater kind of issues
that were not being resolved in the company. Those issues can be related to employee's job
satisfaction, absence of communication among all the levels, lack of recognition to the
employees (Randstad, 2018). A proper distinction should be done between the low performing
employees and the employees who perform well. Accordingly, the management should do efforts
to retain those skillful and dedicated employees. Especially in the small business, employee
retention is very much essential as the workforce in small industries is limited. To understand the
employee retention related issue the management should understand the loop holes for which this
aroused. The work-life balance is immensely related to the employees' not staying in a particular
firm such as Tuck Construction. The small business usually deals with over timing aspect and
that ultimately leads to the destruction of the personal timing of the employees
(Managementstudyguide, 2018).
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There are various challenges which are involved in the retention of employees. One of the main
challenges is salaried dissatisfaction. Every employee needs a higher salary, and it is one of the
main reasons behind the higher turnover of employees. The organization has a specific budget
for employee salary that could be increased for minimizing the turnover of the employees.
Another challenge is identified as higher job opportunities. In this global world, the level of
competition is very severe which attracts competent candidates from the market. Therefore when
the employees get such lucrative offers then the retention of employees for a longer period
becomes a challenge. The third reason behind the turnover rate of employees is identified as
employee’s unrealistic expectations (Warner, 2018). When the expectations of the employees
were not met properly then they seek to change their job. Lack of job rotation can be also
identified as one of the challenges. Any employee can get bored when they continue to perform
one job or duty years after years. The job that they are performing needs to be interesting during
the starting phase, although it can turn out to be monotonous. When the employee gets tired of
performing the same duty over the years, then in this particular scenario the management needs
to go for job rotation. This would provide new opportunities to the employees and could again
interest them (Dickson, 2015).
Solutions
The company could solve these problems by taking proper steps towards improvement. Strategic
contingency theory could be practice for minimizing the impact of these prevailing issues in
Human Resource Management operations. This particular theory focuses upon the various tasks
in Tuck Construction Company that need to be conducted in such a manner that the prevailing
issues are resolved. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory could be also practiced in this context.
This particular theory focuses on the various requirements of the employees which include job
security, health, and payment. When the members of the organization know that the organization
cares regarding their health and their job security then they would be very much committed and
loyal to the organization. This theory could be taken into practice for minimizing the rate of
employee turnover. This theory could be able to motivate the employees towards attaining
organizational goals and objectives. By making this theory base the organization can offer
financial rewards and competitive benefits packages (Recruiterbox, 2017). Another theory which
can be illustrated in this context is identified as DR William Haddon’s Theory which helps in
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preventing damage that has been caused by an accident. The chain concerning accident-causing
events could be suppressed through various strategies. This theory suggests three strategies. The
first strategy is to create an environment which does not contribute to injuries or damages. The
second strategy is managing and prevents inherently harmful energy. The third strategy is the
production of curative measure towards workplace injuries (Tijgersi, 2018).
Conclusion and Recommendations
The report has emphasized on the issues related to HRM. In this case, a company called Tuck
Construction Company has undertaken for the accomplishment of this project. Issues such as
employee retention, recruitment and selection, and workplace health and safety are considered. It
has been found that this company has undergone several issues in terms of workplace health and
safety, recruitment and selection and employee retention. The possible solutions as stated above
could be provided to this company are conducting site inspections to limit the accidents numbers.
Apart from that establishment of the safety and health rules and everyone should try to follow the
rules. The most important things are that irrespective of new or existing the employee should be
provided with proper training. However, coming to employee retention is said to another major
issue in Tuck Company (Fogarassy, Szabo & Poor, 2017). This could be mitigated through
proper maintenance of job satisfaction.
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Reference
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