Culture Change at Seaton Leisure Centre

Seaton is a medium sized town in a fairly wealthy resort area. Initially, Seaton Leisure Centre was a "non profit" public organization run by the local town council. That fact itself was a precondition for the lack of improvement and good management.

Generally speaking, any production process needs three major assets - land, labor and capital. Seaton Leisure centre has the land and the capital - enormous resources and facilities that can hold and support various sports activities, leisure and entertainment. What the center needs is better human resource management so that all those facilities would be run in a satisfactory way and would be attracting a lot more people. In my opinion the solution of the center's HRM problems will result in the overall improvement of the facility and will meet the recommendations of the Business Consultants. After all, people are the most valuable asset of every company.

Recruitment and Selection

This is probably the most important HRM issue for Seaton Leisure Centre. As we know, the staff turnover is high only concerning the lower positions in the organization. The management has been quite the same for the past decade. With the early retirement of three top level figures, John Anderson is faced with finding qualified specialists to take their places.

I think Susan Evans is the most promising current employee and she has the necessary qualification to take care of the recruitment and selection process. The focus should be mainly on external recruitment because the organization obviously does not have enough qualified specialists within its premises. Even though Seaton is not a large community, I am sure there will be plenty of good professionals who, provided with a developing work environment, will find it a challenge to become part of the business.

There are several main positions that need to be provided with fresh labor force. John must remain the general manager, having in mind his experience, qualification and motivation for development. The next step must be to find the right person to become the marketing manager of the company, the one to take care of the reputation of the center and to begin the long road of improving the facilities to meet the requirements of a wider range of people. Susan herself should be promoted to Human Resource Manager of the company since she is motivated and has the qualification and experience to be able to select the best current and future employees of Seaton Leisure Centre.

Training and Development

This is the next major step that needs to be undertaken once the management is in full count. The past experience of solving problems and making decisions in the local pubs, together with the lack of training and development programs, must be replaced by establishing a management council consisting of all the managers of the company.

Their first gathering should be aiming to determine the duties of each one of them, as well as of each member of the lower positions of the organization. They have to point out their own shortcomings that need more attention and qualification and provide the older members of the center with the opportunity to improve in order to meet the new higher requirements of now developing Seaton Leisure Centre.

The management also needs to establish suitable training programs for each job level of the company and implement a policy enabling the staff to develop and improve themselves and climb up the hierarchical ladder of the organization. That itself would make employment at Seaton Leisure Centre challenging and more attractive.

Employee Relations

The organization also seems to lack good employee relations and needs some work done in this aspect, too. It seems to me that there is not enough communication between the top level management and the lower level employees. That seems to be logical since the duties and requirements for the employees have been quite low in the past and quality of service has not been a primary issue.

I think that a more friendly approach among members of staff is a necessity for improving the quality of work at Seaton Leisure Centre. Together with the training and development programs, the management should also encourage team work and cooperation among all employees. That itself will make them feel effective part of the organization and will stimulate more effort on their behalf.

Appraisal and Performance Management

A major HRM issue at Seaton Leisure Centre is the need of appraisal and performance management of the employees. So far the organization has not needed to evaluate its staff because it has not aimed at improving or developing, but for every modern company this type of management is a necessity.

It is the management's duty to gather every once in a while, usually every six months, and discuss every employee's performance individually. That way if somebody has performed very well or has shown some additional qualification, he or she could be rewarded and/or promoted to a level at which he or she will perform better. That will be an advantage for the company, as well as for the individual, making his or her efforts worthwhile and motivating that person even more.

Payment and Reward

For quite a while Susan's salary used to be lower than the salaries of her managerial colleagues just because she had been employed by the organization for a shorter period of time. That makes me think that