Analyzing HR Issues In 7-eleven, Providing Recommendations - Essay. (70 Characters)

Key Challenges in Strategic HRM

The present essay is focused to analyze the HR issues in 7-eleven, a chain of accommodation stores with headquarters in Texas. It is the largest operator of franchisor of convenience stores and operates in around 18 countries. The company is a part of the service industry; therefore, human resources are critical to the progress of the company. The company is facing several issues such as high attrition rate and low employee morale. The current essay will provide recommendations to address these issues.

7-eleven is a chain of convenience stores. It operates under franchise model, which means that the organization has opened franchise stores at different locations. Further, franchisee returns a share of feedback to the parent company. As a part of the retail industry, the attrition rate of the employees is very high (Katoch, 2017). Therefore, the company should adopt different strategies to address the issue of employee attrition.

The present essay will try to provide recommendation to uplift the HR strategies in 7-Eleven. It will also provide recommendations, regarding how HR can improve their performance at a dynamic workplace.

In the present section, the key challenges faced by the organization in the field of strategic HRM are discussed. The main issues are employee safety, employee acquisition, employee retention, employee recruitment, imitability and bad brand image of the organization. In the retail industry, the employee safety is crucial as they have to undergo physical activity in different operations of retail stores. Further, in retail industry, employee retention and employee selection becomes a challenge as the employee quickly leaves the organization due to lack of career growth and stress (TONNY, 2016). If the employees do not a good experience with the organization, they tend to leave the organization and bad mouth about the organization culture and policies. As a result, the company remains unsuccessful in retaining these employees within the organization.

The Schuler’s 5-P model is used to improvise the human resource practices of the organization. It is crucial in building a successful business. The present model is aimed at improvising the policies, culture, values and practices of the organization. The 5-P model states that the philosophy, politics, programs, practices and processes of the organization should be strategically linked with the operations of the organization.

The Human resource executives have an integral part in the operations of the organization as they are critical in recruiting the right candidate for the job profile and retaining them within the organization (Armstrong & Taylor, 2017). With this exercise, it was realized that there are several issues faced by the HR manager of the organization. The HR manager has to make compromise between the compensation packages and the talent or skill-set of the candidate. Several times, the candidate selected by the organization are not correct and cannot fulfill the given responsibilities. The behavioral aspects of the employees are also crucial in the organization performance (Director, 2012). If the behavior of the employees does not merge with the organization culture, it will create challenges for the organization. It will decline the team spirit of the employees. It has been realized that there are several strategies of the HR executive, which can be used to select and recruit the employees in the organization. It can be stated that there are several set of competencies available to the HR executives, namely, result orientation, strategic orientation, team leadership, ability to lead change within the organization, collaboration, developing organization capabilities and enhancing the functional competence of the organization (Mathis, Jackson, Valentine & Meglich, 2016).

Schuler’s 5-P Model

It is important that the HR analyze the key to motivation of the employees and use it to create a motivation and engagement strategy for the employees.  In the initial stage of employment, the employees are motivated by the financial incentives; however, in the later stage of employment, the employees are concerned about the reputation and employee recognition (Durai, 2010). Further, it important to show that there is career progression in the initial stage of employment. When the employees will see that they can grow their career within the organization, they will stick with the organization. They will also try to work more than the prescribed working hours to rise within the organization. I realized that employee empowerment is a unique strategy to increase the employee engagement within the organization (De Vito, Brown, Bannister, Cianci, & Mujtaba, 2018). The employee empowerment is the strategy to give autonomy to the employees. The high performing employees are independent, problem-solvers and enhance the skills of the company. The employee empowerment requires building trust with the employees (Njoroge & Yazdanifard, 2014). The employees feeling empowered and trusted will not leave the organization.

7-Eleven is a large multinational retain chain struggling with the different HR issues. The major challenge for the organization is extremely high employee turnover. The company recruits students and undergraduates for the maintaining the stores of the company. However, these employees frequently leave their organization for further education (Aryee, Walumbwa, Mondejar, & Chu, 2015). The students also find the job extremely stressful. Therefore, the HR executive must intervene to reduce the employee turnover. The organization should develop strategies for the career growth of these employees, so that they can see their future there (Jayaweera, 2015). Along with it, the organization can also offer flexible timings, so that the employees can pursue higher studies, without leaving the organization.

In order to deal with the issue of stress, the company should offer different benefits and flexible policies to the employees. It is important that the company offers attractive packages employee compensation and benefits. The organization should offer a combination of financial and non-financial benefits so that the employees remain attractive to the organization. The performance of the organization is dependent on the performance of the employees (Barrick, Thurgood, Smith & Courtright, 2015). Therefore, it is important to create a compensation structure so that the employees remain constantly motivated. The employees of the organization can be motivated by introducing performance-linked incentives.

Role of HR Executives

In order to enhance employee engagement and performance within the organization, the company can introduce the scheme of employee mentoring and coaching. The coaching and mentoring is a part of the people or employee management. The coaching and mentoring enable employee development and enhance the performance level of the employees (Bal, & De Lange, 2015).

The coaching is a management development program, which is implemented by the hiring manager to enhance the performance and the skills of the employees. Mentoring is a career development program, wherein an experienced person motivates and guides a young professional. The coaching is a capacity development program, in which the employees are provided training to improve their behavior and performance at the workplace. The employees can enhance their efficiency, job behavior and training needs to improve their performance at the workplace (Subramaniam, Silong, Uli & Ismail, 2015).

On the other hand, mentoring is a development activity, in which the mentor possess knowledge and experience and shares it with other persons. It is used to enhance the self-esteem and improving the productivity of the organization. Coaching has a vital role in the human resource development of the organization. In a business organization, all the individuals need supervision and support in the career progression and employment.

The strategic human resource management is strategic department of the organization, which is essential to support the business strategy of the organization. The HR department of the organization has to face several challenges in the implementation of the strategy in the organization. The strategy implementation encounters resistance as it is a new strategy. Several practical lessons were learnt during the exercise. It was analyzed that the HR department has to set performance target to achieve performance goals (Chance & Steaffens, 2009).  The company should conduct a clear analysis of opportunities and challenges in the business environment. These measures help the organization to create a future for the organization. The human resource KPI (key performance indicator) can be used to analyze the performance of the department. It should develop a vision, against which the success of the HR department should be analyzed. The company should analyze the performance and process targets and form action plan for the organization. Further, it is important for the HR executives to coordinate with other departments and establish trust for the upcoming stages of HR strategy implementation. The HR managers should create a complete workplace plan so that they can reach their business goals (Gregory & Levy, 2010). The company should also establish workplace planning so that they can meet the goals of the organization by providing adequate human capital.

Motivation and Engagement Strategies

Conclusively, it can be stated that 7-Eleven is a retail chain of stores suffering from various HR issues. In the present essay, several strategies and recommendations have been made so that the company can address the HR issues of the organization. In the present essay, several recommendations have been made to address the HR issues of the organization. The essay has provided recommendations to improve the individual performance, organization performance. It has also discussed various practical lessons, which can be derived from the activity. The company is a part of the service industry; therefore, human resources are critical to the progress of the company. The company is facing several issues such as high attrition rate and low employee morale.

References

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2017). Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

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Chance, P., & Steaffens, S. (2009). TEACHING SUPERVISION AND EMPLOYEE COACHING IN A REAL-WORLD SETTING: BEYOND SIMULATION. International Journal of Case Method Research & Application, 21(3), 201-212.

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Director, S. (2012). Financial Analysis for HR Managers: Tools for Linking HR Strategy to Business Strategy. FT Press.

Durai, P. (2010). Human Resource Management. Pearson Education.

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Katoch, R. (2017). Challenges In Human Resource Development (HRD): A Conceptual Perspective Of Tourism.

Mathis, R.L., Jackson, J.H., Valentine, S.R., & Meglich, P. (2016). Human Resource Management. Cengage Learning.

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