Human Resource free essay sample

In this essay the issues of Incentive Rewards, safety in the workplace, employee benefits, and implementing compensation. Also included in the essay is interviewee research, a pre interview reflection, the interview questions, and the conclusion. Interviewee Research For this project I have decided to interview my cousin Chris Noring. Chris is one of the head executives for Aldi’s grocery store. He is the head of administration. Before he was in the corporate office, he was a Store District Manager for several grocery stores in eastern Iowa. His job included training store managers, hiring personal, and made sure all of the stores were run properly and up to federal regulations. Aldi’s grocery stores are a national chain of grocery stores that specialize in discount food items. â€Å"ALDI entered the U. S. market in 1976, with a handful of stores in southeastern Iowa. Now, over 1,000 U. S. ALDI stores are spreading the savings from Kansas to the East Coast. We will write a custom essay sample on Human Resource or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In its 2008 report, Supermarket News ranked ALDI 25th in U. S. grocery chains in terms of gross sales—a considerable accomplishment given our select assortment and low prices. (www. Aldi. com) The company’s philosophy is â€Å"Everything we do, from selecting suppliers to scouting locations to building and operating stores, facilitates savings substantial enough to impact your every-day living. † (www. Aldi. com) The company claims it is successful because of a simple motto. â€Å"Aldi’s is convinced that long-term business success can only be achieved if we additionally assume responsibility for people, nature and the environment. This belief is reflected in our CR Policy†. Pre-Interview Reflection My goal for this interview is to obtain firsthand knowledge and get a better understanding on what people who work with human resources do. What better way than to learn from a family member. I expect to learn about what the book say’s about the subject and actually apply it to real life situations. Some of the benefits are gaining knowledge strait from the source, gaining firsthand knowledge, and helping me make better HR related decision latter in my career. Some things that I should consider before I meet is my dress attire. It is essential to make a good impression (even if it is a family member. I should also consider asking him what other things I can do to help better my chances of getting a better career. Interview Questions Incentive rewards How do you set performance measures? What technique do you use? At Aldi’s we believe that the people are the most important part of the company because they provide the stepping stone for the organization. Our Store manager s and their employees use a standard hourly pay system while the store managers are mostly salary. Each store manager receives a bonus if they meet over a certain goal. Employees receive annual bonuses as an incentive. We set goals and standards that should be met by each store and if they do exceed expectations we feel they should be fairly compensated. Which pay system does Aldi’s use and why is it most effective? Pay by the hour for store employees while management starts off with a base salary with yearly increases. It gives managers time to work at their own time while still being fairly compensated and store employees can work their scheduled hours and still be compensated. What are the benefits and downturns off short and long term benefits? Short term benefits can only keep the employee happy for a short time, long term benefits are a great because it gives the employee a chance to have a 401k plan, pension plan, and a health insurance plan. We would like to keep all of our district managers for a long time. They make the company what it is today. Is it better to have group team compensation or individual compensation? What does Aldi’s use? Why do they use that method? We use individual compensation because we feel that each individual has a responsibility with the company and most of the branches in the company involve individual managers. What sort of incentive programs do you believe works the best for your employees? Long term benefits such as a retirement and health plan. It keeps the employee happy and it keeps them happy after their time at Aldi’s. We also offer a stock option plan for employees so if they would like to invest in the company they can. I personally like the stock option plan because it provides an income after retirement. Safety in the workplace What are the challenges of maintaining a safe work environment? Since we are a grocery store, we do have merchandise on high shelves. We emphasize to our store managers that the employee should seek assistants if they need help. We had a case years ago when an employee had a box of meat fall on her and she ended needing surgery. We try to emphasize safety first. We don’t want anyone getting hurt. How do you meet federal standards? The employee reads the employee handbook so the employee knows what the guidelines are. We also meet the food standards set by the USDA. Why is it important to have a safe workplace? We want to have everyone happy. We don’t want a bad reputation for Aldi’s grocery store so safety is first. How do you prepare your employees for a crisis in the workplace if one would arise? We have all of the possible scenarios in the handbook and during the training process we train the employee on each of the scenario. Employee Benefits What kinds of benefits does Aldi’s offer to its employees? 401k, health and dental, paid vacation, paid training How do you balance the benefit cost? This is tough, we try to balance our budget year and we rarely lay off employees. We tell our managers not to hire any additional help if they don’t need it. The employee picks their What are the challenges of having a large number employees with health insurance? When I first started at Aldi’s as the district manager back in 2004, the cost of health insurance has nearly doubled. As a result of having larger cost in health insurance we have had to budget more properly. We don’t want to lay off anyone, so we try to cut back on some unnecessary expenses that can be avoided. How do these benefits motivate the workplace? Having such good benefits, the employee wants to stay at the organization for the long term. The employee is happy with their job and it thus increases their performance. The company thrives Employee Rights How do you ensure moral practices in the workplace? By ensuring that every employee is properly trained on the subject. Part of our managerial training involves having every manager trained about moral ethics. We don’t want discrimination or other negligence in the workplace. Having discrimination causes other employees to not have a sense of security in the workplace. How would you handle a sexual harassment case? Aldi’s has a strict sexual harassment policy. The employee would be notified about the case and proper action would be taken. This can include suspension or possibly termination if the case is serious enough. How do you comply with federal regulations when it comes to privacy rights? We follow the federal guidelines by training our employees on what the regulations are and make sure that managers are enforcing the laws. What surveillance methods and monitoring do you feel work the best? We have general surveillance cameras, our goal is stop shoplifting and I feel it provides a sense of security to the customers knowing that they are protected inside the store. Post-Interview Reflection Incentive rewards According to Chris, after customers, employee’s are the most important part of any organization. He said, â€Å"At Aldi’s we believe that the people are the most important part of the company because they provide the stepping stone for the organization. † This is why it is it is important to provide an incentive for good performance. According to the textbook, â€Å"Incentive plans crate an operating environment that champions a philosophy of shared commitment through the belief that every individual contributes to organizational performance and success. The overall goal for Aldi’s and any other company is to lower labor costs, improve customer satisfaction, and expand product markets. To do this, each individual in the organization must contribute to overall success of the corporation. Chris has found out that long term incentive rewards work the best because it keeps the employee motivated to work their throughout their own personal career. Measurement is the key to the success of incentive plans because it communicates the importance of established goals. At Aldi’s, each store has a goal that they would like to see meet, if the store meets goal, or even exceeds it, they are given a bonus. Chris feels this is a great incentive reward because it keeps the employees motivated to work hard. If Aldi’s didn’t offer this reward, he feels the company wouldn’t be as successful. Most store employees are paid on a standard hour plan at Aldi’s excluding the managers. The managers are paid on a yearly salary with increases in pay every year plus bonus incentives. Chris feels this is the most effective pay system because It gives managers time to work at their own time while still being fairly compensated and store employees can work their scheduled hours and still be compensated. Employees also have the option of buying stock in the company. According to the textbook, â€Å"by allowing employees to purchase stock the organization hopes they will increase their productivity, assume a partnership role, and thus cause the stock price to rise. I feel this is the most effective incentive reward because it gives the employee a sense of ownership in the company and they feel â€Å"important† to the overall success of the corporation. Employee Benefits Another part of the incentive program which involves indirect compensation is employee benefits. According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, â€Å"By December 2010, benefit costs as a percentage of total compensation costs were 30. 3 percent. † And the textbook said that on average $21,527. With rising employee benefits cost, it is important for employers to balance out the benefits without putting a major financial burden on the company. Chris said this wasn’t part of his job but Aldi’s head human resource manager balances the budget by cutting back on some expenses such as fuel and payroll expenses. The textbook states that â€Å"The major approaches used to contain the costs of health care benefits include reduction in coverage, increased deductibles, or copayments, and increased coordination of benefits to make sure the same expense is not paid by more than one insurance reimbursement. Aldi’s offers it employees several benefits including: Health and dental (HMO) , 401k, paid vacation, and paid training. Having these benefits should try to recruit the best people for the job. Having such good benefits allows Aldi’s to have top personal in the corporate office and in the local stores. Chris say’s that the workers are happy with having such good benefits and it results in better sales and customer satisfaction. The textbook states that, â€Å"Creating a benefits program with a personal responsibility frameworks represents an economic opportunity for employers by lowering medical cost and achieving higher employer productivity and higher employer productivity and greater retirement readiness for employees. Safety in the Work Place Every year thousands of accidents occur in the workplace that could have been avoided. It is essential for HR managers to enforce the safety in the workplace that way injuries don’t occur. According to Chris, Aldi’s sends its store managers to seminars so they know the proper procedures. Since the store manager is trained on safety, it is essential that they train their employees properly to avoid accidents. Chris remembers an incident when he was a district manager where a lady hurt herself trying to get a box of food from the top shelf. The incident cost the company’s thousands of dollars in lawsuits that could have been avoided if the store manager had properly handled the situation. According to the book, â€Å"One of a supervisor’s major responsibilities is to communicate to an employee the need to work safely. Beginning with new employee orientation, safety should be emphasized continually. † It is essential that managers enforce safety guidelines because it cost 50 billion dollars to employers each year in compensation. Employee Rights Employee rights are a natural result of the evolution of societal, business, and employee interest. The books definition of employee rights is, â€Å"The guarantee of fair treatment that employees expect in protection of their employment status. Employee rights are a major concern for Aldi’s. Chris states that . We don’t want discrimination or other negligence’s in the workplace. Having discrimination causes other employees to not have a sense of security in the workplace. Sexual harassment is a major issue now a day’s and Aldi’s trains it employees about the subject so they are aware of the consequences. On some circumstances, Aldi’s has terminated jobs of violators of their harassment policy. I feel this is the appropriate measure to take because having that individual in the work places causes the other employees to feel uncomfortable while working. Aldi’s uses surveillance cameras in the stores for several reasons that include prevention of theft and monitoring the employees. In rare cases, surveillance cameras have been used at Aldi’s to discover that an employee had taken money from the cash register. If it hadn’t been for the cameras, the person may have never been caught. Other Once again I did learn a lot about the duties that an HR manager faces on a daily basis. I am thankful to gain this knowledge from a family member. It gives me a whole other perspective about his job that a textbook cannot teach. With my new knowledge that I acquired, I will use it for future references if a situation would ever arise. It is nice to know these things for the development of my career. I honestly would not have done anything different from the interview or give him advice on the company. Aldi’s is a very successful company because of the corporate office. I would tell him to keep up the good work instead. Follow-up I was very grateful interview Chris for this project because a day before I interviewed him, his wife had a baby and he didn’t have to help me out but he did and I am very thankful. I sent him an email thanking him for the time he took out of his busy life to help me out. Conclusion After reading this essay, we have learned what duties an HR manager faces on a daily basis. We have learned incentive reward programs, safety in the workplace, employee benefits, and employee rights and discipline. It is essential that an HR manager complies with the law while making decisions and make sure that every decision is moral. It is their responsibility to be fair and equal to promote wellness in the workplace.