Melnokoff Personnel Role
PERSONNEL
NOTES
Introduction.
A successful company requires that all functional roles
are integrated and their contribution to the strategic decision making must be balanced.
Industrial Relations needs to be fully integrated into the company operations. Before any
negotiations are able to take place the company work-force and performance targets are
required, this in turn can be used to provide your objectives.
The work force may be considered as a business asset that
has to be managed in order to achieve the company objectives. In the simulation the
primary targets will be financial, these being achieved by imposing wages and conditions
or by negation with the umpire. It should be remembered that productivity deals can only
be achieved by agreement with the staff representative (IR. Umpire).
In order to plan effectively you will need forecasts from
Sales and Production of their requirements. Due to recruitment delays a minimum forecast
of three periods ahead is necessary.
Do not forget you will need to provide Finance with a
forecast of your expenditure for the next three periods to enable cash flow planning.
Team Skills.
A major factor in the success of your company will depend
on the effectiveness of the team organisation and dynamics, this needs to kept in mind
throughout the exercise.
If a glance at your table shows disorganisation, if
difficulty is found finding the "Right" piece of paper, if you spend more time
talking that "Doing" you may need to take some time out to consider the
"Team" and its effectiveness.
Staff
Production
In order for production to take place the factory
requires machine operators. As the factory works a two shift system two operators are
required for each machine. The machine output is only limited by the staff working the
machine, i.e. The hours worked and their productivity. Note. From quarter 5 overtime can
be worked to boost factory output.
Sales
In order to sell your product you need sales staff, the
number you require will depend on their performance and the number of units that are to be
sold. As a general guide each sales person may be expected to sell 250 units. This figure
of 250 units should only be regarded as approximation. The actual number sold will depend
on a number of factors such as ;- your prices and promotion vs. your competitors, the
total number of units being made and the areas you are selling. It might therefore seem
prudent to recruit less sales staff than the 250 figure would indicate, see the results
from your first sales, then recruit as necessary. Don’t forget redundancy does not
improve staff morale in any business!
Recruitment
Both sales and factory staff are recruited the same way; -
Direct Local advertising for unskilled staff and then
training them.
Agency Trained staff from an agency, no training required.
Losses
All organisation have staff leaving and need replacing;
However a high staff turnover may be an indication of discontent. You need to keep a
record of staff giving notice and recruit to replace these losses if the staff are still
required. Note. Due to recruitment delays the Agency is the only method that can supply
resources "Just in time"
Incentives
All staff need motivation and incentives may take many
forms, from pay through team spirit to free lunches. It is up to you to choose ingenious
incentives you may wish to offer. Don’t forget that many incentives cost money and
any costs will be charged to your accounts.
Productivity
Sales and production staff effectiveness is directly
linked to their productivity, initially this is set at 1. If your staff’s
productivity rises, then output from the factory will rise and also more sales should
result. More beneficial productivity increases are often achieved through positive
negotiation than a "Casual" approach.
Negotiation
The decisions for the next quarter of company operations
occur every hour or so, therefore game time compresses 3 notional months into hours.
However, IR negotiations still occur in "Real Time" thus taking up
proportionally a large amount of the available time. It is imperative therefore for this
combination of "Game Time" and "Real Time" be allowed for.
Personnel cannot commence negotiations until the
company targets are known, this can mean that time will be very short between company
targets being known and the next input deadline. A major problem for the Personnel is
therefore company communications. Unless the other functions provide the targets to the
Personnel sufficiently early to allow reasonable negotiation time the IR role soon becomes
that of "Crisis Negotiation" forced by lack of negotiation time. Hardly a good
basis to achieve effective results and secure objectives.
To sum up,
Make sure the you are integrated into the
company.
Communicate targets as early as possible.
Don't expect success if you are only given
a few last minutes.
Remember, time will be short at the end,
with more than one company negotiating.
If crisis negotiating is the style, poor
results will follow,
Poor results will affect, Marketing,
Production and all impact on Finance!
If they ignore you then their own function
will suffer.
Some Aspects of Industrial Relations
Negotiating.
When in a negotiating situation it is
important that the approach is considered.
i.e.;
PRO-ACTIVE REACTIVE
CLEAR OBJECTIVES MAZE APPROACH
CALCULATED IMPLICATIONS WING AND A PRAYER
FALL BACK ASSESSED UN QUANTIFIED
ALTERNATIVES
CLARITY OF AGREEMENTS I NEVER MEANT THAT
Before entering into any negotiations it
is necessary to consider what your targets are,
such as ;-
1) Maximise output, i.e. raise
productivity, hours of working
2) Minimise wages,
3) Reduce overheads, recruitment cost and
strikes.
4) Provide stability, Long term
agreements.
5) Obtain information.
You need to know the financial and
production targets of the company and need to have calculated the pay and productivity
targets.
Real Prices and
RPI
Unless the selling price of the product
has also risen in line with the R.P.I. then the company wage policy may not be economic.
In a composite situation;
Assuming that product prices follow THE
R.P.I. ;-
Considering that; Pay / Productivity is a
measure of Unit Cost
Unit Cost < R.P.I. your unit labour
cost are falling.
or
Unit Cost > R.P.I. your unit labour
cost are rising.
Summary
The aim should be to either to maintain or reduce unit
labour costs,
Therefore to summarise ;-
Ensure "Team" effectiveness
Know your targets
Be aware of industry and National trends.
Keep in mind any previous agreements
Calculate the targets and alternative strategies.
Be prepared to accept a compromise but be aware of costs
Aim for long term stability and attempt to negotiate
long-term agreements to give unit cost improvements.
Failure to negotiate could prove detrimental.
For any of the above to work you must make sure that the
IR function remains active in the team decisions and is incorporated into the decision
making and the target setting process.
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