Uber HR Department: HR Challenges In Uber Australia

Employee Retention

Question:

Discuss about the Human Resource Practices for Uber.

On 30^th June 2017, the Business Insider Australia reported that Uber was settling unfair dismissal cases. Also, The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported that Uber does not recognize drivers as employees but contractors.The Rideshare Drivers Association of Australia filed an unfair dismissal case on behalf of a driver who was deactivated. After negotiations, Uber Australia settled for an undisclosed sum. Kamal Farouque, the Maurice Blackburn principal, told Fairfax media that rideshare Uber was compensating employees to avoid their relationship with drivers as contractors being tested by the authority (Tan, 2015). Another driver advocacy group, Rideshares Drivers United, initiated an investigation to find out whether the driver's conditions meet the federal industrial relations laws. The group then claimed that the situation was "a classic sham contracting arrangement." From the news stories, a number of human resource issues show up in the rideshare company.

The hiring of employees for an organization is not the only challenge affecting companies but retaining them is more problematic (Mita et al., 2014). Retention of workers is vital to minimize employee turnover. Uber experiences challenges of maintaining provisional workers. Contingent workers include work-at-home employees, part-time and temporary contract. Keeping such employees in the company is a challenge because they are less attached to the company (Gandel, 2015). So it, it a major duty of HRM to make such employees feel that they are a part of the company to retain them for a long term. There are unfair treatments of employees in Uber which kills their morale and has resulted in employee turnover. The dismissal of drivers by the Uber Company Australia not only raise the eyebrows of the trade unions and legal federations but also risk the potential of the organization to retain its employees and the possibility of getting new ones (Kossivi, Xu & Kalgora, 2016).Therefore, there is need to develop proper human resource management strategy for dealing with employees who are found to have committed illegalities rather than dismissing them dishonorably.  

Moreover, the growing demands for experts employees’ is a great threat to Uber. Workers with inordinate proficient and technical knowledge are greatly needed in the job market as such employees possess the ability to keep their organization ahead in the race (Hassan, 2016). Such employees are precious assets for any company and HRM should focus on maintaining them. To realize this, the organization is obligated to create a favorable working environment to keep such valuable workers (Mita, Aarti & Ravneeta, 2014). Basing on the news story of Uber, the incident of dismissing workers may increase the risk of losing employees (Allen & Shanock, 2013). This is evident in an incident of an employee, Ms. Susan Fowler who worked as an engineer for the organization left the rideshare company.

Unfair Treatment of Employees

Uber lack effective conflict resolution measures. Uber has faced many conflicts with their drivers. The company ended up deactivating some of their motorists without a right of reply leading to piling of cases of unfair dismissal against the organization. To avoid conflicts with the drivers, the organization ought to have clarified to them through job analysis and description process (Johansen, 2012). Therefore, Uber can effectively manage its employees through clarifying performance standards required. For instance, Uber should have elaborate requirements regarding its drivers as this will ensure that only those who meet the needs are hired so that conflicts concerning performance are minimized. Again, Uber has failed to come up with a means of setting up performance standards for its motorists (Gandel, 2015) such that anyone who applies can join and register as a driver something that is risky to the company.

Uber should also clearly establish employees’ duties and responsibilities. Before workers are considered for the job, they must be informed of what they are expected to do. As an employer, uber ought to educate their drivers on what they expect of them. Misunderstanding can also be established by developing appropriate relationships with the employees to facilitate transparency in all undertakings (Nikpour, 2017). Uber should lay down rules and regulations regarding the conduct of their drivers and their relationships with both the company and the clients. Ideally, being accountable on any undertakings will also reduce conflicts which may be caused by employees. As a company, there should be well-formulated strategies of holding the person responsible for accounting for the mess. This will ensure strict adherence to rules and regulations and hence reduce cases of conflicts.

Furthermore, job analysis and description will enhance legal compliance and classification whether individuals hired qualifies for the position. Since Uber Technologies Company was secretly compensating the drivers who had filed unfair dismissal cases, it implies that the organization did not follow the job description process promptly. By so doing, they were trying to avoid legal actions against them which reveal there is no apparent procedure put forth to handle such problems.

Compliance with federal and state labor laws is vital for any organization looking forward to success.The company is fully responsible for ensuring duty awareness regarding safety, working hours, wages and employee benefits and conduct (Nikpour, 2017). It is an obligation of the management team of an organization to fix the compliance issues and ensure that they are fully implemented (Anwar, Shahzad & Ijaz-ul-Rehman, 2012).The company is obliged to demonstrate that the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) requirements are met and ensure that accurate and up-to-date information is given to the employees. Uber failed to stick to the compliance requirements when the rideshare giant deactivated some of their drivers without notice.

Ineffective Conflict Resolution Measures

Corporate culture is the beliefs and behaviors that determine the manner in which employees and management of a particular company interact and how they deal with outside business transactions. It can be depicted through dressing code, working hours, the setup of the business and the character of the people hired by the company. According to Buller & McEvoy (2012), the corporate culture of uber Australia is below standard as a result of how the organization interacts with its employees. This premise is evidenced by the incidence when the rideshare company dismissed some its drivers. Also, a former employee, Ms. Susan Fowler reported that she was sexually harassed by one of the managers of the organization while she was working as an engineer (Johansen, 2012). Uber can, therefore, enhance its corporate culture through the following ways:

Create a culture of collaboration. Managers are at their pre-eminent when the company’s culture embraces collaboration. Motivating individual achievement is essential but not enough (Solkhe & Chaudhary, 2011). The culture of collaboration will enable Uber to have effective leaders to catapult the organization towards success. Also, Uber should provide training to employees to develop their communication skills. We may expect our leaders to be good communicators, but too often it's not the case. Communication styles vary widely; what may work for one organization may not work for another; therefore, this is appropriate in developing a corporate culture.  Uber is supposed to set the bar high for communications skills, provide management training to its employees (Bidisha & Mukulesh, 2013). Consequently, good communicators enhance formation of effective teams and trust; nonetheless, poor communicators create uncertainty in the organization.

Conclusion

 Uber Australia has had its performance and relations with employees under scrutiny. The company which has over 60,000 drivers in Australia faces many unfair dismissal cases from drivers who were deactivated - barring them from accessing the company’s application. Although Uber does not consider drivers as employees, it went on settle the drivers whose cases were filed by The Rideshare Drivers Association of Australia (RDAA).The argument of drivers as reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman was that the ride shares company was considering them as self-employed or rather contractors yet the organization controlled everything. They further complained that the drivers earned below the minimum wage set by the contractors’ law. The news story raises important human resource issues that include but not limited to risking employee retention, inappropriate conflict resolution strategies, compliance requirements and poor corporate culture.Uber Australia has failed to address these challenges resulting to its raw with the employees.

 Following the news stories that have been going viral on the business media, it is recommended that Uber Technologies Company Australia ought to:

• Adopt legal policies of dismissing their drivers whenever they suspect or confirm them to have committed an offense. This strategy can be implemented through complying with legal imperatives regarding labor while dismissing unproductive employees.
• Device proper and effective strategies for resolving conflicts between the company and its employees. Uber can pursue this through establishing a relevant body to be addressing any issue that arises between workers. It can further encourage its employees to embrace peaceful conflict management approaches such as mediation and others.
• Embrace effective and satisfactory means of communication in resolving issues with employees. This strategy can be implemented through establishing effective and clear communication channels.
• Implement laid down rules and regulations to comply with the requirements of the labor and industrial laws. Uber can achieve this by complying with international regulations regarding employment. Doing this will ostensibly help to avert potential conflicts with workers.
• Create a culture of collaboration between the management and the employees and will be implemented through soliciting for their opinion before formulating various decisions.

References

Allen, D.G. & Shanock, L.R. (2013) Perceived Organizational Support and Embeddedness as

Key Mechanisms Connecting Socialization Tactics to Commitment and Turnover among New Employees. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34, pp. 350-369.

Anwar, C. M., Shahzad, K., & Ijaz-ul-Rehman, Q. (2012). Managing conflicts through personality  management. African Journal of Business Management, 6(10), pp. 3725.

Bidisha, L. D & Mukulesh, B. (2013) Employee Retention: A Review of Literature.  Journal of Business and Management, 14, pp. 8-16.

Buller, P., & McEvoy, G. (2012). Strategy, Human Resource Management, and Performance: Sharpening Line of Sight. Human Resource Management Review, 22, pp. 43-56

Gandel, S. (2015). Here's What It Would Cost Uber to Pay Its Drivers as Employees. Fortune.Retrieved Sep. 25, 2017, from https://fortune.com/2015/09/17/ubernomics/

Hassan, S. (2016). Impact of HRM Practices on Employee’s Performance. International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 6(1), pp. 15-22.

Johansen, M. L. (2012). Keeping the peace: Conflict management strategies for nurse managers. Nursing Management, 43(2), pp. 50-54.

Kossivi, B., Xu, M., & Kalgora, B. (2016). Study on determining factors of employee retention.

Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4(05), pp. 261.

Mita, M., Aarti K. & Ravneeta, D. (2014) Study on Employee Retention and Commitment.

International Journal of Advance Research in Computer Science and Management Studies, 2, pp. 154-164.

Nikpour, A. (2017). The impact of organizational culture on organizational performance: The mediating role of employee's organizational commitment. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 6(1), pp. 65.

Solkhe, A., & Chaudhary, N. (2011) HRD climate and job satisfaction: An empirical investigation. International Journal of Computing and Business Research, 2, pp. 1-20.

Tan, B. (2015). The Rise and Rise Of Uber In Australia. Retrieved on 25 sep. 2017 fromhttps://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/01/the-rise-and-rise-of-uber-in-australia/