- Case study - Women on the Right Track at CP Rail
Women comprise nearly half of Canada's workforce, but over the last two decades, they have made no progress in obtaining senior management roles. This lack of success may deter younger women from entering certain professions and from learning from role models. Furthermore, research shows that a lack of diversity can affect retention, productivity, and innovation. Companies with more female senior managers have a higher return on equity than those with lower rates of female senior managers. With this research in mind, CP Rail undertook three initiatives to increase the number of women managers:
- Each department must have diversity goals.
- Mentoring programs for females have been established.
- Senior women discuss their careers in forums.
- Women on Track offers networking opportunities.
To date, the program has been successful, with the number of women in senior management doubling over 5 years.
Questions
- Compare CP Rail’s initiatives to advance women with the recommended six-step program for the implementation of employment equity.
- Review the list in Highlights in HRM 3.1 (retention strategies). What more could CP Rail undertake?
Here is Highlight H.R.M 3.1 ( retention strategies ) see bellow.
2. Case study “Fairmont Hotels and Resorts”
Corporate social responsibility through environmental sensitivity, among others, has recently surfaced as a pressing organizational issue. However, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has been one of the firms in the forefront with its Green Partnership program. The Toronto-based company initiated a chain-wide environmental program in 1990; it has now spread to more than 40 locations globally,, winning several international awards along the way. Fairmont became particularly interested in the initiatives because of its locations in sensitive environments such as national parks, biosphere reserves, and wetlands. The environmental pro-gram now includes eco-innovation projects at its hotels, such as turtleConservation in Mexico, coral reef protection in Hawaii, and whale adoption in Quebec. Empowered employees are vital to the success of the programs. Employees were first encouraged to buy in before implementation through involvement in the development of the programs and effective communication; new employees are given an orientation on the green programs; volunteer teams meet monthly and discuss how to improve on the green programs; and there is an incentive program for the green teams with the best results. Fairmont management claims that employees feel empowered because they have an ownership in the programs.
Questions
1. What arguments could be advanced both for
and against the use of employee empowerment?
2. Assume you are a manager at Fairmont. What
would you do differently to further empower employees?
3. Let us say that employees begin to resist the
changes and prefer to perform their traditional
duties. How would you manage such resistance
and at the same time sustain empowerment?
Case study # 3- Onboarding at capital power
Capital Power is an independent power producer, based in Edmonton, Alberta, but with operations across North America. It has an aggressive growth strategy with the goal of tripling its
generating capacity by 2020. With this strategy, Capital Power needs to increase its workforce of 950 employees and retain the talent that it plans to hire. Feeling that traditional orientation programs were not effective, the senior vice president of HR, environment, and health and safety designed and implemented an onboarding program called Strong Start. The features of the
program include :
• A new hire portal, which directs the new employee to content relevant to the position
• An e-learning module, Capital Power 101: The Basics, which outlines the organization’s design, vision, values, leadership team, major policies, and how the company makes money, as well as the growth strategy
• An e-learning module, Capital Power 102: Powering Up and Plugging In, provides the template for a 100-day developmental
plan that the new hire must create with the manager
• A day-and-a-half classroom session with other new hires, which includes a personality inventory (to increase self-insight);apresentation by an executive about the mission, vision, and values; and a plant tour
An assessment of the Strong Start program revealed that over 90 percent felt that the program leads to the engagement of employees, aligns employees with the culture of the company, and enables new hires to be more successful. A majority also felt that it will assist in reducing turnover. There has been a 30 percent increase in organizational knowledge among participants.According to a study by Alan Saks (University of Toronto) and Jamie Gruman (University of Guelph), structured onboarding tactics result in more engaged employees who believe that they fit both the job and the organization.
Onboarding programs, unlike orientation programs, create
opportunities for employees to develop a social network and establish where and how to get information.
Questions
1. Using the checklist in Highlights in HRM 7.7, compare the requirements for an orientation program to Capital Power’s Strong Start program. What are the differences?
2.Capital Power has evaluated its program. Using the four levels of evaluation, determine which levels were used. Prepare an evaluation program that will assess the goals of the program and the goals of onboarding outlined by Saks and Gruman.
See below HRM 7.7
Case study # 4 JUST-IN-TIME FEEDBACK
Critics offormal performance evaluation programs cite “timeliness” as the major disadvantage of the annualformalperformance appraisalinterview. This criticism is gaining force as more people become accustomed to instant dialogue on BlackBerries, Facebook, and Twitter. The second criticism of the traditional performance appraisal interview is the one-way nature of the communication. The Net generation wants dialogue, not lectures. They want instant feedback and information about everything. The traditionalprocess does not deliver what employees want: constant, timely, and interactive feedback. Daily feedback is more important and effective than
annualfeedback.Technology may be the answer. A Canadian
company, Rypple, has created a Web-based service to replace the performance review. Instead of waiting one year to sit down with a boss, employees choose some advisors who could
be mentors, coworkers, managers, or clients. These employee scan then contact the advisors with direct questions (How do I prepare gor the report to the board?) or career queries (How can
I be more effective on my job?). The advisors can respond quickly and anonymously to provide real-time, just-in-time performance feedback.
Questions
1. What are the advantages and limitations of
this kind of performance feedback?
2. Who would you choose as mentors in your
current job and why?
- What questions would you ask them?
Case study # 5 CANADA POST
Canada Post Corporation employs 67,000 workers, which makes it one of Canada’s largest employers. In 1997, it revised its job evaluation system for postmasters and assistants. The old system, which had been in place since 1976, did not take into account changes that had arisen
since 1981, when Canada Post became a Crown corporation.
An HR consulting firm, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, was hired to assist with the entire process. According to Linda Tremblay of Organization Planning and Development, Canada Post, the job evaluation system was revised to incorporate employee input, to be responsive to federal pay
equity legislation, and, most importantly, to reflect corporate culture and values.
The new job evaluation system measured the content and relative value of jobs. The system evaluated jobs according to their “typical” or “normal” components—that is, tasks that were done on a regular basis. These compensable factors were a function of the job itself, not of the performance of the person doing the job.Thefour factors considered and their relative weights were as follows:
A: Responsibilities—What type of responsibilities
does the job entail? 60 percent
B: Skills—What particular skills are needed to
accomplish the job? 25 percent
C: Working conditions—What working
conditions apply to the job? 11 percent
D: Effort—What amount of effort does the job
require? 4 percent
Total: 100 percent
An Example of An Item under C:
Working Conditions
This factor measures the surroundings or physical
conditions under which work must be done and
the extent to which they make the job disagree-
able. Consider whether elements such as those listed are present and the relative amount and
continuity of exposure:
Place a checkmark beside all those that apply
listed are present and the relative amount and
continuity of exposure:
Place a checkmark beside all those that apply:
• Adverse weather conditions
• Confined work
Dirt/dust
Fumes
Inadequate lighting
• Lack of privacy
• Noisy conditions
• Temperature extremes
• Verbal abuse/public harassment
• Other
Job evaluation criteria, such as in the above example, were used in each of the four areas and aresummerised below.
JOB EVALUATION CRITERIA
Compensable Factors Components
Responsibilities - Internal andexternalcontacts
Decision making
Supervision of employees
Responsibility for property maintenance
Responsibility for rural routes, suburban stage service
Points of call
Responsibility for contractor invoices
Responsibility for a till and/or authorized allowance
Skills - Knowledge areas (such as budget process, collective agreement,
- contacted services in mail operations or property management,
- financial practices, procedures knowledge, product knowledge,
- primary sortation, Final sortation, sales and customer service
- Job-related Experience
Working conditions - Physical work environment
- Travel
Effort -Physical effort
- Multiple demands
Employees completed the job evaluation questionnaire for their own jobs. The completed questionnaires were reviewed by supervisors, managers, and HR staff. Total points were then allocated to each job, which corresponded to one of six job bands. Collective agreement negotiations were used to set the rates of pay for each job band.
Questions
1. What type of job evaluation did Canada Post
use?
2. What are the advantages and limitations of
this system?
3. Is you were asked to review both the ques-
tionnaire and the process used to obtain the
job information, what recommendations for
changes would you make?
.
Case study # 6 JOB STRESS
Job fatigue and stress are significant problems faced by employees and their managers. Unfortunately, when a case of depression arises as a result, trying to resolve the problem may be difficult sometimes leading to conflict as this
case illustrates.
Donald Knolls was an air traffic control super-visor for International Gateway Airport (IGA), an airport serving a major metropolitan area. In 2011, Donald began to experience depression-related problems due largely to severe stress and fatigue
on the job. A few months later, he requested and was granted a disability leave for treatment of his illness. After eight months, his personal physician, an expert in depression treatment and a licensed consulting psychologist, agreed that he was suffi-ciently improved to return to his former position.IGA then sent Donald to the physician it had used when Donald first requested his disability leave. After an extensive evaluation, the doctor concluded that although Donald had made con-
siderable strides in overcoming his depression, he should not be immediately returned to his former supervisory position because the conditions of
the job had not changed and Donald was apt to find the stress too great. Instead, he recommended that Donald be returned to a nonsupervisory posi-tion on a six-month trial basis, with the case to be reviewed at the end of that time. IGA followed the advice of its doctor and did not return Donald to a supervisory position. Donald, angered by management’s decision, filed a grievance through
IGA’s alternative dispute resolution procedure, a procedure that could end in binding arbitration.
During several meetings between Donald and management, the employer maintained that it had the right to rely on the medical opinion of “a fair
and impartial” doctor who had determined that Donald should not be returned to the position that was the cause of his original stress-related emotional problems. Additionally, management pointed out to Donald that IGA’s disability leave
provision states that it “may require appropriate medical documentation if it believes an employee is not fit to return to his or her former position.”
Donald responded, through a lawyer he hired to represent his position, that the disability leave provisions were clear but, nevertheless, biased against an employee because they completely disregarded the opinion of his physician and psychologist. According to Donald, “Why bother to get expert medical opinions if they are dis-
missed?” He further noted, “I have never felt better. I’m really ready to get back to my job.” Finally, Donald’s lawyer contended that Donald was the victim of discrimination based on his former state of depression: “What happened to Donald would not have happened if his illness had been a more conventional physical injury.”
Questions
1. When conflicting medical opinions are presented, should the advice of a medical expert count more heavily than the opinion
of a general physician? Explain your answer.
2. Is the charge of discrimination presented by Donald’s lawyer relevant to this case? Explain your answer.
3. If you were presented with this case, what decision would you reach? Explain.
Case study # 7 "Improving Performance Through a Progressive Discipline Policy
Simon Ouellet, former president of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario, was recruited by Fantom Technologies to be vice president of HR. Fantom is a manufacturer of state-of-the-art floor care products based in
southern Ontario.
One of the first issues he faced in his new job was an unacceptable absenteeism rate. There were about 250 employees on the 3 assembly lines, operating 2 shifts a day. The average
employee was absent 13 or 14 days a year. The benchmark for other manufacturing sites was 8 or 9 days. Simon calculated that Fantom was employing between 30 and 35 extra people to
cover absences. This hurt the bottom line.
A related problem was punctuality. Employees were habitually 5 or 10 minutes late on their shifts. In a white-collar environment with flextime, this would not have been as critical. But tardiness in this situation meant that the assembly line could not operate and that the other employees on the three lines were forced to remain idle.
The solution was to develop a system of progressive discipline. Simon prepared a simple two-page policy. Page 1 dealt with culpable absenteeism—the behaviour in the control of employees, such as arriving late, leaving work without
permission, calling in sick but playing golf, and so on. Page 2 dealt with legitimate or innocent absences. Simon met with the unions and notified them that this policy would come into effect as of December 1998. All employees started at zero absences at this time.
The policy assumed that all absences were innocent. However, if an employee was absent 5 times in a 12-month period, the supervisor met with that employee to express concern over the absences and to identify any need for counsel-
ling or assistance. The goal of the meeting was to express
legitimate concerns, reinforce that the employee was needed, and ensure that the employee accepted responsibility for managing his or her own attendance. Following this meeting, if
the employee had fewer than two absences in the ensuing six months, the employee was no longer part of the program. However, if the absence pattern continued, the employee was counselleda second and third time. If no improvements
resulted, a level 4 employment status review was conducted. This was done on a case-by-case basis. For example, a frequently absent employee with 28 years of good service would
be treated differently from another employee with the same absenteeism record but only 2 years of employment.
The results were impressive. About 70 employees entered the program. Of these, 8 to 10 advanced to step 2, 2 to step 3, and none to step 4. The absenteeism rate dropped to an average of fewer than 10 days, and punctuality was no longer
an issue. Labour costs were reduced because itmeant that 20 fewer employees were needed.
Questions
1. “The policy assumed that all absences were
innocent.” What do you think this means?
2. Do you think the application of the policy would be affected if the absences were due to a disability as defined in the Human Rights Code?
3. The policy was active as of December 1998, and all employees were treated equally from that date, regardless of their previous absen-teeism records. Was this fair?