Hrm at Transfers Ltd.

Contents

1. Summary 3

2. Situation at Transfer Ltd before 1990 4

3. Hygiene factors 4

4. Motivator factors 5

5. SWOT analysis 5

6. Porter's generic strategies 6

7. Situation at Transfer Ltd after 1990 7

8. Recommendations 10

9. References 11

Summary

This report analyses the situation at Transfer Ltd before 1990's and in recent years. Transfers Ltd is an automated clearing house for the electronically transfer of funds between the high street banks and building societies. This report will analyze the difference of company's performance and its human recourse strategies used before 1990 and after. It will show the impact made to its human recourse management through the various changes in technology, market share, competitive market etc.

Situation at Transfer Ltd before 1990

Transfer Ltd was dealing with a very large volume of constant transactions between banks which demanded involving a huge amount (700 workers) of labour. The major part of labour were semi skilled workers who loaded and unloaded the tapes, checked data on the machines and supervisory staff who made sure jobs were done accurately and to it's standards. One of the workers, responsible for receiving and handling tape said "We do sweaty jobs. It's physical and boring and it's extremely well paid" (case study, part 2). This again proves the argument that "the best way to motivate people is to offer them more money" (Armstrong 1992). An overtime, bonuses, pension and retirement pay packages can be motivating for the employees. Transfer Ltd were paying their workers by results, "according to the number of items or units of work they produce or the time they take to produce them" (Torrington 1998).

Analyzing worker's satisfaction according to Hertzberg's two factors theory it follows like this:

1. Hygiene factors:

a) Company's policy was a culture of having 'job for life', so the workers felt safe and secure;

b) Wages were the most motivating factor, as well as rewards such as subsidized mortgage loans at low rates of interest;

c) quality of supervision was high, as company had many layers of supervision "to ensure that work at each level was monitored and checked for accuracy" (case study, part 2);

d) Inter-personal relations were based on long term employment, which helps to know the colleagues better and improve communication and inter-personal relations;

e) Working conditions were reasonable as well as workers "complied with strict operating rules and procedures" (case study, part 2);

2. Motivator factors:

a) there was an opportunity for advancement, based on individuals accumulation of experience in the company's operations, but as jobs were mostly considered to be one's for a lifetime, there wasn't a great motivation to 'climb higher';

b) Responsibility held by the workers in this company was limited by each employees work type. There weren't more responsibilities to take than you have to;

c) It's difficult to gain recognition in the company were your job is to load and unload the tapes. Internal promotion was available, although the motivation to achieve it wasn't particularly high;

Transfer's Ltd were concentrating on fulfilling their employees hygiene factors, to create satisfactory work conditions and high wages, but to motivate them to grow as individuals and achieve above average goals wasn't their strong side of management.

Employees at the Transfer Ltd were represented by BIFU (Bank, insurance and finance union) which was the main trade union in the financial services industry and had considerable potential bargaining power, because company's working success was related on its labour effectiveness. Considering company's strong situation in the competitive market, trade union wasn't an issue to Transfer Ltd managements, as increased costs would be passed to the clients.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis table 1.1 is a simple but powerful framework for analyzing the company's Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities and Threats it face. This helps to focus on strengths, minimize threats and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to the company.

Table 1.1 SWOT analysis

Strengths

-well known company

-customer loyalty

-loyal and committed workforce

-production quality

-good rates of pay Weaknesses

-lack of employee motivation

-employee training

-not related to possible future changes

Opportunities

-changing customers taste

-set up training department

-technological changes

Threats

- changing customers taste

- technological changes

-changes in government politics

-new competitors

Porter's generic strategies

Michael Porter (1980) argues that there are three main strategies which organizations can follow with success:

* Cost leadership strategy - This strategy emphasizes efficiency.