Transworld Manufacturers Limited is a global company that specializes in manufacturing and exporting building materials to different countries. While the company's headquarters are based in the U.S, most of its manufacturing plants are scattered across Europe and Asia. The company houses over 8000 employees in all its factories and in-house retail stores. The firm began production in the late 1970s, and over the years, it has expanded its operations and market segments, taking on new acquisitions and mergers. At Transworld Ltd, diversity is integrated into its vision and mission, and the top-level management understands the significance of promoting diversity within its operations. Additionally, the company embraces technology and has set in motion strategies to invest in research and development to improve its overall production. Due to its diverse products, the firm recorded an estimated $84 billion in revenue in 2018. However, due to the current coronavirus pandemic, the company had to reduce its operations, especially in areas most affected by the pandemic. Regardless of this setback, profit margins relatively remained the same. Recently, the company has experienced a number of human resource (HR) challenges that are impacting its processes. This report will highlight these challenges and provide recommendations to mitigate them.
HR Challenges at Transworld Ltd
In this competitive edge, organizations strive to create better employee relations, align them with their vision, and set goals. According to Bulińska-Stangrecka & Bagieńska (2021), the current coronavirus pandemic and changing workplace environment impact employees' well-being and mental health. As such, organizations are boosting their employee relations strategies to ensure employees remain motivated and engaged. Moreover, with reduced operations due to high mortality and morbidity rates, performance and productivity have been adversely impacted. While the pandemic could be blamed for many HR challenges, technology, cross-cultural communication, and the recruitment process are also other contributing factors to the company's underlying issues.
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Social Media Abuse at the Workplace
Over the past several years, technology has simplified communication and enhanced how companies operate. The rise of social media and its use in communication and networking has seen it move into the workplace. However, the current trend depicts how employees spend most of their time on social media rather than working. In the article Cyberbullying victimization at work: Social media identity bubble approach , Oksanen et al. (2020) outline how cyberbullying in the workplace has been propelled by social media use among employees. While Transworld Ltd and other large corporations are making strides to prevent such occurrences, much is yet to be accomplished. A defining factor in this HR challenge is that Transworld Ltd has no social media policy to guide the use of such platforms within its premises. The overuse and misuse of social media by employees have seen the company record lower performance metrics, impacting its overall productivity.
The lack of a fair and transparent social media usage policy has far-reaching implications for the company, its reputation, and its employees. While social media usage within the workplace is appropriate, the lack of appropriate guidelines is challenging. Arguably, social media is highly addictive. People who tend to use social media all the time tend to be absorbed by it. A recent internal audit on Transworld's internal processes revealed that most employees spent much time on their social media pages. Babiker (2017) believes that employees fail to realize the impact social media misuse in the workplace impacts their productivity levels. More so, it does not satisfy any feeling of self-fulfillment that most people imagine. Rather, it encourages unproductive behavior.
Recent reports demonstrate how employees and employers have used social media as a tool for spreading bullying and harassment. When misused, employees can use these platforms to air out their grievances about the managers, other employees, or the workplace environment in general (Oksanen et al., 2020). Transworld's HR department has recorded more than 30 claims of social media harassment and bullying in the last year alone. While the organization encourages employees to air their views on different issues affecting their well-being and productivity, the use of social media to do so is demeaning and uncontrolled. For instance, last year, an employee made a complacent post about another employee in the firm. The post was discriminatory and affected the mental well-being of the accused. In addition, cyberbullying in the workplace through social media can create an unconducive atmosphere for the rest of the staff, resulting in mental issues, a toxic workplace culture, and deteriorating employee relations (Oksanen et al., 2020). Despite these cases of cyberbullying within Transworld Ltd, the management and human resource have done little to address the issue.
Social media misuse at Transworld Ltd has also led to negative publicity and brand reputation. As earlier noted, the company has received several complaints from the public on employees making or posting discriminatory comments on their social media pages. Since the named people also identified with the company, their online behavior has been linked to the lack of Transworld's ability to monitor and train its staff. In the long run, such behaviors are a reflection of the company's atmosphere and professionalism. Babiker (2017) warns that companies that fail to monitor their employees` actions on social media platforms will attract negative reviews if stakeholders and customers witness such demeaning practices. At the same time, employees demean their identity and character as others will view them as overly needy. An overlooked challenge in the social media misuses is engaging in non-business activities using company resources.
Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges
Communication plays a vital role n any organization. In the spirit of employee relations, leader and their subordinates need to constantly communicate and share ideas on how to improve the overall business. At Transworld Ltd, the management recognizes the need to improve its communication channels and embrace modern technology to foster performance, productivity, engagement, and better decision-making. However, as the company operates in different geographical regions, cross-border communication and cultural diversity have become a major challenge in its quest to streamline its business processes (Arifin & Abuisaac, 2018). Each organization employs a unique culture that defines its values, direction, and beliefs. Transworld Ltd is focused on providing a conducive work environment where each employee respects one's cultural beliefs, personal preferences, and viewpoints. However, reports have emerged of conflicts within the firm.
Discipline is a necessary factor when developing a working cross-cultural business environment. However, the same initiative will not function if effective communication is not upheld. Last year saw several cases where expatriate managers failed to resolve conflicts between different cultural groups in their premises. According to Arifin & Abuisaac (2018), managers must be wary of the seriousness of disciplinary issues arising due to cross-cultural differences. At the same time, management backing in resolving cross-cultural conflicts has been a downside to the human resource challenges Transworld Ltd is currently facing. Culture acts as a lens through which people view the surrounding. As such, while the prospects off working with people from different cultural backgrounds is exciting, conflicts are common due to the different viewpoints.
Additionally, the complexity of cross-border business practices exposes a lack of knowledge in promoting employee rights. For instance, 2014 saw one of the company's Asian branches faced with a court case over infringement in employment rights in that country. Several employees were unlawfully fired after engaging in a fierce conflict and bullying another staff member. While the employees were under a union, Transworld Ltd did not adhere to the union's rules through its representatives in that country. Similar to the Supreme court's ruling on NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc. case, preventing employees from having union representation in their lawsuit is against labor practices (DeCenzo & Verhulst, 2019). The need to have strong employee relations is paramount to creating a supportive work environment that fosters engagement and satisfaction. However, these cases, including employee dismissals, have created a bad reputation for the company and its human resource management.
Although advances in technology have simplified communication between different companies and branches globally, the current generation of employees at Transworld Ltd are culturally incompetent. Human resource management has failed to educate its staff on the need to be aware of cultural, language, and social differences encompassing modern workplaces (Arifin & Abuisaac, 2018). While the problem does not stem from employees alone, managers are also becoming culturally incompetent to lead a diverse workforce. As such, conflicts become common within the workplace. Barriers to culture and diversity inhibit effective communication. These barriers can further lead to dissatisfaction among employees and impact the overall productivity of the firm.
Recruitment Challenges
Today, Transworld Ltd and other global companies are looking to recruit multilingual employees willing to relocate to other countries and head international markets and businesses in these regions. These companies are looking for qualified candidates from different regions due to their knowledge and expertise and other soft skills, and flexibility. From a global perspective, companies are rushing to create teams that understand the needs and demands of international consumers. Arguably, a diversified workforce is beneficial to the company, including increasing global competitiveness, a wider talent pool, and possibilities of entering new markets (DeCenzo & Verhulst, 2019). However, Transworld's HR management has experienced many challenges when seeking to hire new employees in its many branches.
Leaders are the face of the company and must show exceptional skills and knowledge within a given field. A recent leadership appraisal program revealed that most employees in several branches were not satisfied with their executive leaders' approach in running the company. These challenges stem from the inability of the HR department to hire a competent leader who is qualified and culturally competent (Ekwoaba et al., 2015). A significant factor to the hiring challenge is the need to make a speedy hire. Undoubtedly, the HR department has acknowledged its shortcomings in having the right tools to recruit a qualified candidate within the shortest time possible. As such, the firm ends up hiring a person who does not fully possess the skills and expertise they seek. In addition, due to competition for talent and with many companies rushing to fill positions, the HR department complained that they have limited time to assess potential candidates before making the final decision appropriately.
Additionally, resource availability is another challenge that impacts the recruitment and selection process at Transworld Ltd. According to an internal report from one of the Asian branches, the HR department noted that the management did not provide enough resources to conduct an extensive recruitment drive for a prominent position. The department failed to use advanced advertising strategies and drives to attract potential candidates. Instead, they had to use free online services to pitch their adverts. In the long run, the position did not receive enough attention as they had expected. As such, the department received few applicants, and a majority of them were underqualified. In their study, Sekiguchi et al. (2016) note that most companies fail to attract better talent due to their nature of advertising and inadequate recruiting technologies. Therefore, they cannot exploit the ever-expanding digital media.
Over the past few years, Transworld Ltd has not recognized the power of recruitment agencies and management consulting firms. According to DeCenzo & Verhulst (2019), these consulting firms are a great source to acquire skilled employees and advertise for available positions. However, from a global perspective, recruiting top-level executives is still challenging. Finding the right candidate who possesses the necessary skills and expertise to run a foreign business requires extensive resources and advertising. In most cases, HR managers find themselves in a position where the applicants are either few or underqualified. As recruiting is becoming an all-too-common problem, especially for global companies, the competition for top talent will always remain a challenge. At the same time, the HR managers at Transworld Ltd reported that they had trouble using human resource information systems and other recruiting technologies the company has managed to implement. Making sense of al data collected through these systems has been challenging.
Recommendations
After a careful analysis of the challenges that impact human resource management at Transworld Ltd, there is a need to put in place measures, strategies, and policies to mitigate them. A thorough audit of the company's human resource management process revealed that it lacks fundamental policies to guide social media use, cross-cultural communication and discipline, and the recruitment process. This section will discuss several recommendations necessary to improve the HR management process.
Social Media Use Policy
After the surge of social media misuse cases reported last year, Transworld Ltd needs to implement a social media use policy to address its use by employees while at work. This policy recognizes the need and benefits of social media in the workplace. At the same time, the company is aware of all the employment acts and related laws that protect employees from supervision and monitoring of online activities within the work premises. The policy proposes several strategies to ensure employees remain satisfied and continue to improve on their performances. The policy will integrate guidelines on the use of company equipment for work and personal use. For instance, the employees will only be allowed to use the company internet and computers to access their social media platforms during lunch breaks. During the rest of the day, they will engage in work-related activities. Simultaneously, no employee will be allowed to use work email to access or register for any social media site.
Additionally, the policy will provide procedures of how employees should handle themselves and clients alike. In essence, cyberbullying and harassment are prohibited at Transworld Ltd. The management is keen to remind all employees that since the company is privately owned, most employment laws on social media users do not apply to them (DeCenzo & Verhulst, 2019). As such, any misconduct related to social media misuse can incur punishment or dismissal from the company. Furthermore, the company expects all employees to uphold its name and brand image when using social media, and they should similarly treat clients. The company is also committed to providing security and safeguarding employees from external threats and data breaches. In conjunction with other data protection policies and guidelines, the social media policy will ensure that employees understand the extent of their actions while using company resources.
The HR department is committed to ensuring that any conflicts arising from social media misuse or indiscipline by an employee are resolved amicably. As part of the existing disciplinary committee, training sessions will be formulated to educate employees on the new guidelines and policies regarding social media use and overall discipline. Both Babiker (2017) and Oksanen et al. (2020) agree that curbing any negative behavior by employees through disciplinary action will go along way into creating a conducive environment and employee relations. DeCenzo & Verhulst (2019) believe that supplementing a discipline policy and social media use guidelines with a performance improvement plan (PIP) will help align employees` goals with those of the company.
Leadership Development and Cultural Awareness Programs
Transworld's vision for the future is creating a workplace environment that encompasses diversity and fosters cross-border communication. The HR department should implement a series of development programs that create cultural awareness for both leaders and employees. Creating employee relations and building strong relationships among different cultural groups will mandate adopting different communication styles, utilizing active listening skills, and incorporate other perspectives in every situation. Since leaders are at the forefront of culture promotion, Transworld Ltd must empower them through leadership development programs. These programs will be conducted once every six months and will educate all leaders on the benefits of culture and diverse teams.
Bridging the cultural divide within the company will offer better opportunities to improve performance, overall productivity, and competitive advantage. This will entail training all employees on the need to respect and embrace one's culture and beliefs (Marquis & Raynard, 2015). These training sessions will allow employees to face one another and share their views without prejudice. Moreover, these meet-ups will connect them through shared goals and behaviors, allowing for effective collaboration in the workplace (Marquis & Raynard, 2015). The HR department at Transworld Ltd should conduct employee training sessions at least once every six months, and they should be done across all branches globally. Cross-border cultural awareness programs can also be implemented to promote employee relations. For instance, the HR department and the top-level management for each branch can create video conferencing for employees to share their experiences and cultural practices from different regions. In the long run, the HR managers will break down any cultural barriers being experienced in the company.
Simplifying communication is another recommendation that will help Transworld Ltd mitigate any cross-cultural communication challenges. This will involve creating a communication policy that stipulates the guidelines employees should follow when communicating with their peers, clients, and management—according to Johansson et al. (2019), mapping out a communication policy mandates outlining principles that govern communication and linking them to the organization's vision and values. Additionally, the company should train their employees on how to communicate effectively and follow the right channels. For example, a human resource management report found out that employees were unwilling to express their views or new ideas for fear of prejudice or harassment by other leaders. As such, the communication policy will lay grounds for two-way communication and feedback. Through the training sessions, employees will have the chance to express their concerns to the managers present. Moreover, they will share ideas and strategies on mitigating such issues and improving their performances and overall productivity.
Using Recruiting Agencies and Consultation Firms
As earlier noted, Transworld Ltd has never used a recruiting agency for recruitment purposes. However, since the company operates in different regions, using such agencies in foreign regions can help it add excellent and focused employees to its collection. In essence, recruitment agencies help employers identify potential candidates to fill in positions in their firms. While traditional business practices involved tasking the HR department with researching and finding qualified individuals, this process could sometimes prove costly. Therefore, enlisting the services of a recruitment agency can bear excellent results (Van Zyl et al., 2017). In addition, recruitment agencies help eliminate time constraints on the HR manager since the hiring process requires a time commitment. Moreover, the benefit of using a recruitment agency is that it will introduce the company to a pool of talented candidates immediately, allowing for a speedy hiring process.
Currently, there are many recruitment agencies and consultation firms globally. As such, Transworld would quickly and effectively find talent in foreign regions without wasting valuable time. These agencies have a wide knowledge of the company's target market and will provide the best candidates that fit its needs and preferences. More importantly, the external recruitment agencies are more suitable to tailor the company's job adverts onto the market (DeCenzo & Verhulst, 2019). Since most people often stay up to date with job-seeking information from websites and social pages of known recruitment agencies, using them to tailor job adverts will attract more candidates. As such, the company will have a wide variety of potential candidates to interview and select.
Transworld Ltd can also implement modern recruitment and selection tools and software applications to help acquire qualified candidates. As the challenge was analyzing the data collected through existing tools the company implemented, there is a need to train the HR managers on how to interpret and utilize these tools in the recruitment process. Van Zyl et al. (2017) assert that companies should develop a firm recruitment framework to help guide their talent acquisition process. This framework will ensure that the company hires employees who fit its culture and operational principles. New employees, especially leaders, must quickly integrate with the existing teams and work together to accomplish their duties and responsibilities (DeCenzo & Verhulst, 2019). During the advertising, the company should articulate its mission and vision to help potential candidates understand its culture and environment better, allowing only the candidates that match such descriptions to apply for the job.
Conclusion
Human resource management challenges can impact an organization's productivity, employee performance, and job satisfaction. Transworld Ltd is facing a myriad of challenges impacting its ability to expand to other new markets globally. A recent HR audit report revealed that the company is experiencing cases of social media misuse in the workplace, recruitment issues, and barriers to cross-cultural communication. The report further found out that employee relations have deteriorated due to these challenges, and organizational performance has reduced significantly. Despite the impact of the current coronavirus pandemic on the company's revenues, the HR department needs to implement several strategies to mitigate the challenges being experienced. These recommendations include creating a communication policy, using recruitment agencies for hiring, and formulating a recruitment framework and social media policy guideline to ensure employee engagement and satisfaction are achieved. Implementing these recommendations will require collaboration and training for all managers and employees. The training will enable the employees to air out other concerns impacting their performance, engagement, and job satisfaction. Additionally, the sessions will help strengthen the relationship between them and the managers, forge new communication channels, and foster collaboration in shared decision-making.
References
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