Thenawiri Company is a Miami-based cosmetics manufacturing and marketing company that has been in operation for the last eight years. The company has been growing rapidly over the last few years, adding new products to its portfolio. Based on the company’s annual financial report for the year ending 31st December 2019, it is worth more than $8 million and is continuing to grow its assets. Currently, the company has 102 members of staff, and the number is expected to grow to about 152 members within the next six months since a new production line for natural lip balms is coming up. Its growth and the existing HR policies are bound to result in various challenges for the organization.
Previously, the company has been facing certain challenges such as complaints regarding the male-dominated workforce, sexual and other forms of harassment among workers, and complaints regarding unfair wage setting and promotion practices in the organization. The complaints register at the company indicates that these are the most common complaints. The HR department, therefore, has a significant role in developing various policies in alignment with the growing needs of the company. A recruitment policy, promotion and wages policy, and an organizational policy on abuse are some of the major areas in which the HR department has worked on in preparation for the impending expansion.
Recruitment Policy
Current recruitment practices at Thenawiri Company are characterized by non-standardized procedures. The primary considerations made during recruitment practices at the company include the availability of opportunities and the fit of applicants for different positions. The most notable outcome of the company’s recruitment process has been a high percentage of men in operational roles, probably because the company does not include in its job adverts that it is an equal opportunity employer. The HR office has developed a recruitment policy based on a model of the recruitment process recommended by the SHRM Foundation (2009) to address this issue. The model states that the recruitment process should begin with the setting of the objective of the recruitment. Part of the information that has to be shared across all departments and with the public during advertisements for open positions includes the number of positions that need to be filled, the date to fill the positions, the desired number of applications, and the applicant characteristics (SHRM Foundation, 2009). The job performance goals and the expected retention rates for new hires should also be understood by the HR department before any hiring process (SHRM Foundation, 2009). The characteristics of the applications should similarly include features, such as expected education levels, interests and values associated with the position, the combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities relevant to the position, and the support for diversity (SHRM Foundation, 2009). Accordingly, the following section presents the new recruitment policy for the company.
Thenawiri Recruitment Policy Brief and Purpose
The company recruitment policy describes the process of employee attraction and selection for open job positions. The company is committed to equal opportunity selection at all stages of the recruitment process.
The hiring teams focus on ensuring that the recruitment process is well-planned and discrimination-free.
Scope
The recruitment policy is for reference by all the organization’s employees involved in the hiring process and is to be applied in recruitment processes for all potential job candidates regardless of the positions in which they are to be recruited.
The Recruitment Process
All individuals engaged in hiring should follow the following steps for the hiring process:
- Identify and confirm the presence of a job vacancy.
- Decide whether to hire or promote internally or externally.
- Review the job roles and compose a job description for the position.
- Define the ideal candidate’s characteristics, including the educational achievement; skills, knowledge, and abilities; diversity needs; and the values and interests required for the position incumbent.
- Check the available resources through which the opening can be posted and share the job posting through the preferred resources.
- Determine the stages of selection to be followed and the possible recruitment timeframe.
- Review the applications that are already in the company’s database and source for passive candidates from the external resources through which the position had been advertised.
- Shortlist candidates for interviews.
- Proceed through the other recruitment stages, including conducting interviews, running background checks, and selecting the most suitable candidate based on interviews and background check results.
- Develop and share an official job offer for the position.
While the first five stages are mandatory for every job position, the rest of the stages are variable depending on the specifications for the job positions.
For jobs posted internally, the following procedure should be followed:
- Setting a deadline for applications.
- Communicating the opening through memos, newsletters, and any other channels for employee communication.
Developing Job Descriptions
- All job adverts will be created based on complete job descriptions associated with each role. All adverts should be clear in representing the open positions and should include a description of the company, its mission and vision statements, a summary of the role objectives, a list of the responsibilities associated with the job, a list of the job requirements, and the application procedure for the job.
- Job adverts should also reflect the organizational culture and should be polite and engaging.
- The adverts should not reflect gender-specific language to avoid the perceived discrimination in hiring practices.
Providing Recruitment Feedback
Thenawiri respects the time input by recruitment candidates and endeavors to communicate effectively to all candidates regardless of the experienced outcomes. The following directions should be followed when managing feedback for the company’s recruitment process.
- All rejected candidates should be informed of the rejection; the company brand can be destroyed by leaving unsuccessful candidates in the dark about interview outcomes.
- Hiring managers should check with HR in order to confirm interview feedbacks before communicating with the unsuccessful candidates to avoid any scapegoat for legal action.
- All feedback should be respectful and job-related, as are the general rules for communicating feedback to interview candidates.
- In case a formal offer for a position has been revoked for any reason, an official letter should be drafted by the HR in collaboration with the hiring manager and sent to the candidate stating the legitimate reasons for the revocation. Some of the legitimate reasons include:
- The candidate has no approval to work in Miami, where the company is based.
- The candidate reported falsified references or was assessed based on fraudulent documents.
- The offer was not accepted within the specified timeline, as indicated in the offer letter.
- The candidates must be notified of the outcomes formally as soon as possible.
All individuals involved in the hiring process should be able to follow this recruitment policy strictly.
Thenawiri Promotion, Transfer, Demotion, and Wage Policy
Some of the complaints that have been reported at the company relate to unfair practices in promotion and wage assignment. According to Malik, Danish, and Munir (2012), the promotion practices of a company influence employee performance outcomes in terms of job satisfaction, morale, and productivity. For organizational promotion, transfer, and demotion practices to be considered fair, they should be considered legitimate and equitably executed across all departments and among all employees (Monks, & McMackin, 2001). The present practice at Thenawiri has been promoted by seniority, which sometimes results in having incompetent personnel in management and more qualified people at lower levels in the organization. The promotion, transfer, and demotion policy presented below describes standard procedures that will be followed moving forward. This policy will be particularly important, given that the intended expansion will result in the promotion of some of the staff to supervisory positions.
The wages have also been a cause of concern in the company, mostly because some of the members of staff working in similar positions are not paid equal wages. The employees have been previously complaining about the denial of equal pay for equal jobs. Employee wages and salaries influence organizational performance extensively. According to Iqbal, Guohao, and Akhtar (2017), employee retention is one of the outcomes of fair employee wages and salaries. The cost of losing employees and the subsequent replacement process justifies the need for implementing various approaches aimed at ensuring retention, key of which is to streamline the wage assignment process (Djabatey, 2012; Mabaso & Dlamini, 2017). In the developed wage policy, Thenawiri has created a stratified salary allocation and increment process that will be aimed at ensuring that equal wage is paid to equal tasks within reasonable limits. To ensure that the wages are competitive, factors such as the federal minimum wage in the U.S., the economic and political status of Miami as a city (because the federal law provides different salary scales for different regions categorized as rural, middle-urban and urban regions), industry category and revenue category are considered as recommended by SHRM (2018). Such considerations will enable the company to provide sufficient incentive to employees within limits of financial affordability.
Employee Promotion, Transfer, and Demotion Policy
Policy Brief
The objective of this policy is to provide directions for employee promotion, transfer, and demotion to ensure consistency and reliability of the process.
Policy Scope
The policy applies to all the permanent staff of Thenawiri Company. All the individuals working as casual laborers are not covered under this policy. It is to be implemented by the HR department in collaboration with the departmental managers.
Definitions:
In this policy, the following definitions apply:
Promotion – A change in employee assignment that leads to a shift to a position to one characterized by a higher authority and higher pay-rates.
Transfer – change in an employee assignment that results in movement to another position of the same authority and pay rating as the one in which the employee is (it can be a lateral movement across departments or locations).
Demotion – change in employee position resulting in a shift to a position of relatively lower power and lower pay rating compared to the one in which an employee is currently.
Policy Practice
- All the decisions implemented under this policy will be related to job performance factors, such as skills, work record, educational levels, and duration of service in the company.
- Qualified internal applicants will be given consideration for promotion or transfer before any other applicants as long as the consideration is within the confines of the company’s non-discrimination policy.
- All employees advocating for any such movements will submit new applications or update their existing applications to reflect the new position for which they are applying.
- Active corrective counseling actions or other disciplinary procedures, such as performance improvement plans, will be considered to determine eligibility.
- Eligibility for application is dependent on the duration that the employee has worked with the company- the minimum duration is six months except in cases whereby the new vacancy is within the existing department, the employee’s current position has been eliminated, the current position was temporary, or there has been a specific management request for change of employee position.
- Fair and equitable pay will be determined by the HR department based on various factors as dictated by the salaries and wages policy.
- The HR department will coordinate with other departmental managers to determine the start dates for new positions.
- Promoted, transferred, or demoted employees have to give notice to their current departments within ten working days before assumption of the new position- the current supervisor may allow the days of notice to be shortened but not increased.
Employee Wage and Salaries Policy
Policy Brief
The purpose of the employee wages and salaries policy for Thenawiri is to provide guidelines for the management of Thenawiri’s pay practices, to ensure that competitive and fair salary ranges are provided to the employees in consistency with the company image, to ensure that the company attracts and retains a competitive salary structure in the industry, to promote equity across the diverse organizational functions, and to develop a foundation for the organization’s performance-based system.
Policy Description
- The assignment of salaries in the organization will be consistent with its equal opportunity employment policy.
- All salaries and benefits will be consistent with the company’s job ratings and salary scales policy to ensure equality and fairness. All employees with current pay above the pay scale for their job classifications on the company salary scales will be frozen at the current pay until they are promoted or until the pay scale exceeds the employees’ salaries.
- All employees will be compensated based on individual performance, the required qualifications for different positions, the organization’s financial resources, and the market pay rates.
- Employees in the company will be paid wages that are determined based on the market values of jobs similar to their jobs, as outlined in the company’s salary ratings.
- Periodic reviews of salaries will be conducted with a minimum increment of 5% of each individual’s basic salary at the beginning of every year. Higher salary increments will be given based on various factors, such as performance, promotion, or expansion of roles.
- New hires in all positions will begin their roles at a minimum of the lowest salary in their respective grade levels but not above the mid-point of the salary scale to which they belong.
- Economic factors affecting the company will influence the annual salary reviews.
- All promoted employees will have their salaries set based on work experiences, the budget available for the position, and the market salary rates – any promotional increase implemented less than six months from the start of the new year will not be reviewed at the beginning of the next year.
- All employees who voluntarily accept or request demotions will have to anticipate a reduction in pay, the decrease of which has to be reviewed by the HR office.
- Employees who accept or request transfers may be considered for salary reviews depending on work experience, market salary ratings, internal equity requirements, and changes in responsibilities and positions.
- All salary adjustments must be made in consideration of the inflation characteristics of the country and the company’s financial status and projections at the time of adjustment.
Thenawiri Company Policy on Harassment
Workplace harassment is one of the issues that affect employee performance in various ways. According to Keplinger, Johnson, Kirk, and Barnes (2019), workplace harassment from customers or employees of an organization occurs in various forms, including gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and age-related links. These forms of harassment result in various negative outcomes, as employees feel discriminated against and abused (Keplinger et al., 2019). Currently, Thenawiri has been experiencing complaints of harassment, particularly due to age discrimination and sexual harassment. The anti-harassment policy below is expected to address the issues that have been of concern in the past.
Thenawiri Policy on Harassment
Policy Brief
The company anti-harassment policy communicates Thenawiri’s commitment to maintaining a work environment that is free from any form of harassment, and in which employees can feel safe and satisfied. All forms of harassment, including intimidation, humiliation, discrimination (based on gender, ethnicity, age, or any other factor), sexual harassment, and sabotage, are prohibited.
Scope
The policy applies to all employees, visitors, or customers in the organization. More detailed information on recognizing, reporting, and addressing sexual harassment are provided in the sexual harassment policy.
Policy description
- Harassment in the context of this policy refers to any practices that entail direct insults, intimidation, and malicious gossip, among others.
- All forms of harassment should be addressed through the HR department, department managers, or offenders themselves, depending on the extent of the offense.
- The disciplinary procedures for harassment are dependent on the severity of the specific offenses and may include practices, such as reprimanding offenders, counseling, suspensions, or even termination of employment. The measures for specific offenses are outlined in the disciplinary procedures document provided to every employee.
Evaluation of Outcomes
The developed policies are expected to result in positive outcomes in relation to the challenges that the company has been facing. The company keeps a record of disciplinary actions, employee and visitor complaints on any issue hence it will be relatively easy to determine the effectiveness of the policies in providing solutions based on the difference in the numbers of complaints received per month. A reduction in the number of complaints received per month on recruitment, promotion and wages, and workplace harassment will be taken to indicate that the policies developed are effective at resolving the issues.
Conclusion
The expansion of the Thenawiri Company implies that the scope of complaints that have been registered before will expand. The opportunities presented through expansion in terms of increasing employee population and opportunities for promotion requires the HR department to be actively involved in more strategic decision-making processes regarding employees. The policies developed by the HR department will help the HR function to perform more effectively and eliminate the complaints that have been in the company before.
References
Djabatey, E. N. (2012). Recruitment and Selection Practices of Organisations, A Case Study of HFC Bank (Gh) Ltd. Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration. https://www.dphu.org/uploads/attachements/books/books_5256_0.pdf
Iqbal, S., Guohao, L., & Akhtar, S. (2017). Effects of job organizational culture, benefits, salary on job satisfaction ultimately affecting employee retention. Review of Public Administration and Management, 5(3). https://www.longdom.org/open-access/effects-of-job-organizational-culture-benefits-salary-on-job-satisfactionultimately-affecting-employee-retention-2315-7844-1000229.pdf
Keplinger, K., Johnson, S. K., Kirk, J. F., & Barnes, L. Y. (2019). Women at work: Changes in sexual harassment between September 2016 and September 2018. PLoS One, 14(7). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218313
Mabaso, C. M., & Dlamini, B. I. (2017). Impact of compensation and benefits on job satisfaction. Research Journal of Business Management, 11, 80-90. https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=rjbm.2017.80.90
Malik, M. E., Danish, R. Q., & Munir, Y. (2012). The impact of pay and promotion on job satisfaction: Evidence from higher education institutes of Pakistan. American Journal of Economics, 2, 6-9. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259042720_The_Impact_of_Pay_and_Promotion_on_Job_Satisfaction_Evidence_from_Higher_Education_Institutes_of_Pakistan
Monks, K., & McMackin, J. (2001). Designing and aligning an HR system. Human Resource Management Journal, 11(2), 57–72. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2001.tb00038.x
SHRM (2018, January 12). Building a market-based pay structure from scratch. SHRM Organization. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/buildingamarket-basedpaystructurefromscratch.aspx
SHRM Foundation (2009). Recruiting and attracting talent: A guide to understanding and managing the recruitment process. SHRM Foundation. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Recruiting-Attracting-Talent.pdf