Human Resources Policy Merger Plan

One area of concern in the merger of the both companies is human resources polices. In order for the merger of the both companies to be successful, we must look at polices and procedures of human resources of the both companies and establish a uniform guidelines for both companies. In order to achieve this goal, we are going to analyze and identify policies that are potentially conflicting with each other and propose a method for merging or synthesizing the disparate policies of both companies.

Analysis

With the merger/acquisition of Millard's and Mergers Inc. underway, it is important to note that two different Human Resources Departments are about to become one. This means that the policies shared by each company will now be shared as a single organization. When evaluating the policies, it is implied that Millard's, for the most part, takes a more systematic, conservative approach, whereas Mergers Inc. is more liberal.

There were a number of policies that were reviewed. For example, if a conflict may occur, such as a merger, an employee may wish to file a complaint. With Millard's, this is done through a Traditional Grievance Process, allowing the employees to use the step-by-step judicial process. However, Mergers Inc. is currently using the Peer Mediation Process to handle such problems. This allows employees to speak their mind to other peers in order to find a resolution.

Another policy that was examined looked at the number of hours worked in a week. Millard's chooses to be slightly more laissez-faire by using flex-time with their employees. This allows the employees to work whatever hours are best for them. For example, if they have children who get the bus at 8:00AM, they may choose to work from 9:00AM until 5:00PM rather than 8:00AM to 4:00PM. They also may choose to work later Tuesday's and Thursday's, in order to get home earlier on Monday, Wednesday's and Friday's. Mergers Inc., however, uses the traditional work schedules/shifts, which forces employees to punch in by using a time clock or by turning in a weekly time-sheet. This way is more restrictive because it forces employees work specific hours rather than work certain hours to suit their schedule.

The third policy that was looked at deals with pay ranges. Millard's uses the Pay Administration Policy. This policy is an organized way to pay employees. It may, in many cases include a pay band or pay scale. For example, if Millard's is in the process of hiring a manager for the Ladies Apparel department, they would be offered $24,000 as their starting salary, with the ability to make $30,000. However, Mergers Inc. is currently using a more liberal way of paying employees. They are not using any set ranges for employees. For example, if they were hiring the same manager for the Ladies Apparel department and she had three years of previous management experience, they may offer her $26,000 because she had prior experience.

The fourth policy that was reviewed deals with rating systems. Millard's uses a different rating system for performance. For example, performance evaluations are performed bi-annually, which allows an employee to receive a raise due to their performance during the last six months. Mergers Inc., however, does not use a performance rating system. They may rate employees on a number of different issues such as years of service or amount of over-time worked. Once again, Mergers Inc. is taking the more liberal approach.

The next policy that was evaluated dealt with benefits. Millard's believes in only giving benefits to full-time employees. Whereas, Mergers Inc. believes that both full and part-time employees should receive benefits. Although both of these approaches are neither right nor wrong, giving all employees the ability to receive benefits does help with job satisfaction.

The last policy that was observed looked at background checks for employees. Millard's, not only performs the traditional reference checks, they also believe in looking into the employee's past history, including convictions of crimes, etc., along with drug testing each future employee. Mergers Inc., however, uses more of the honor system method, by only using the traditional reference check. When using this method, they contact previous employees and listed references to determine the behavior and ability of the prospective employee.

Pros and Cons

Now that the conflicting human resources policies have been outlined, there should be discussion of each of these policies. In this discussion, we will point out the pros and cons of each policy. This is critical since the merging organizations are going to consider the 'expectancy' theory as a possible theory of motivation (Robbins, 2001, p.118). The expectancy theory's premise is that the way individuals act will depend on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and the attractiveness of that outcome. This theory consists of three elements: attractiveness, performance-reward linkage and effort-performance linkage. In making decisions on the above listed human resource policies, the first element, 'attractiveness', should be the focal point.

The first conflicting policy deals with the way the two companies handle complaints filed by their employees. Millard's uses a traditional grievance process. The benefit for the organization to using the traditional grieving process is that this process creates consistency in handling complaints. The larger the organization becomes, the more critical it becomes that there is consistency in the organization. The draw back to this process is that it can take longer to reach a resolution due to the many layers of the chain of command that exist. Mergers Inc. uses a peer mediation process in dealing with complaints. The benefit here is that employees seem to be more accepting of the outcomes since employees are involved in the decision making. The negative with the peer mediation lies in the lack of a consistent outcome to similar situations. It is difficult to maintain consistency due to the make up of the mediation groups changing frequently. This will be more difficult to achieve when the organization gets larger.

The next policy involves Millard's use of flextime available for their employees as opposed to Mergers Inc.'s approach of a traditional view of scheduling. The benefit that Millard's argues is that this produces a higher attendance rate by helping associates balance work and home. The argument for the traditional work shifts that Mergers Inc.