Contemporary Leadership Culture

 

The objective of this assessment is to apply what you have learned about people, human
resources and organisations to your selected organisation and make some clear
recommendations of HR initiatives/practices that you believe will increase employee
engagement within the organisation.
You are required to answer the following question:
Using relevant theories and appropriate research write a report that evaluates an
organisation’s people practices (HR practices) and employee engagement levels and
recommend strategies or initiatives that aims to improve employee engagement.

 

    1.0 Introduction 

 

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Healthy Human Resource practices and defining HR policies is one of the crucial task of the business so that it can retain its employees and reduce employee turnover rate. This is because human resource are the active part of the business and they are the ones that carry out every activity in the business. This, requires that the Human Resource of the company is kept happy and motivated towards their work by offering them safe and good place to work in. however, the human resource practices differs from industry to industry depending on their operation needs and workplace structure. The only similarity is that positive HR practices leads to healthy workforce among every entity irrespective of what it is engaged in. 
Mars is one of the leading manufacturers and distributors of consumer products across Australia and has been on the news for its best HR practices. This has helped the company to prosper and become successful in the way it is today. The report analyzes and evaluates the HR policies and employee engagement practices of Mars Australia (mars, 2018). It further analyzes the employee engagement policy that is necessary for sustaining the employees in the business with some recommendation on the ways to achieve it. 
2.0 Discussion 
2.1 Overview of Mars Australia 
Mars Australia was started in 1954 with just one products that is the iconic Mars bar chocolate. Slowly the company started to expand and in 1965 it introduced more of its products such as Pal and Whiskas which led to the growth of the company. The business first started in Australia and the first factory was opened in Victoria in 1996 and since then the business just saw its growth all around the world (mars, 2018). The growth was not only in its reach to various geographical locations, it also expanded in its product range as today the company has number of brands such as Mars pet care, Wrigley Confectionery, foods and drinks to offer to its customers. With its recent turnover of $1 billion it has been able to become the biggest supplier and seller of consumer brands in Australia serving both the local customers and the exporters with its products such as chocolates, food, gum, pet care and others. today it is ranked at 288 out of 2000 companies in Australia (mars, 2018). 
    The vision of the company is looked through the five principles that it maintains in its business and products such as quality, responsibility, mutuality efficiency and freedom (ibisworld, 2016). This is done to meet the mission of best organizational culture and product quality. 
    The mission of the company is to do best to accomplish and fulfill all its five business principles by maintaining the best operational functions and best human resource practices.
    Mars Australia presently has more than 2000 employees in their business from every branches as associates and are involved in various activities of the organization (ibisworld 2016). The branches of Mars Australia is spread all across the world in which the business serves its products. Present the company has six manufacturing units in Australia and New Zealand and most of its sales also takes place in Australia and New Zealand. However, the business exports its good in 30 countries globally (mars, 2018). Thus, Mars has its stores selling all its product in every corner of the world and it also offers its products to third party dealers to sell its products. 
2.2 HR Strategy of Mars
Mars is termed as one of the best place to work in Australia and also as the best medium for large employers. This is because of the secrets it hold in its HR strategies. The first strength of Mars working environment is that it is still a family owned firm. Other than this the mission of the company has always focused on company’s culture (Middlemiss, 2015). This is defined by the five principles of the business that clearly states the value the company holds for its human resources.  The main aim of the principles are responsibility, freedom and mutuality which forms the main HR strategies of the business. The mutual principles of the company focuses that both the client and the business benefit from it. This is the strategy that it follows in the entire business departments where the stakeholders needs to work on a mutual basis (mars, 2018). Other strategy of HRM are strong communication, cultural exchange practices and great leadership at Mars. 
2.3 Evaluation of HR Practices in Mars
    The HR strategies stated above designs the regular HR practices of the company at every level. The first and the most important part of the practice is that every person in the organization needs to know and practice each of the five principles in their everyday practice (Middlemiss, 2015). This means that working mutually, offering freedom of choice and words and be responsible towards the work is important in Mara. The company practices an egalitarian culture which means employees have the freedom to talk to any managers or any employee in the office. Other than that the employees are free to share their feedback if they find anything inappropriate in the system and that needs modification (mars, 2018). Such lack in hierarchical barriers in the business has helped in building strong communication among employees and department. Such a communication system has helped in maintaining employee engagement in Mars. In defining their cultural aspects as one of the HR practices, Mars has always followed the cultural practices of other companies to design their own. Other than this the HR department of Mars has other jobs as well such as to define the development and communication of the business, designing remuneration, trusting environment and others. 
2.4 Employee Engagement in Mars
    Employee engagement is one of the most important practice of HR department in Mars. This is seen from their communication practices of the HRM in Mars as they follow a no hierarchical communication strategy. According to this strategy the employees of the business has the freedom to communicate with the managers and colleagues directly without any restriction. They can share their issues and problems in the team directly with the management. Such a strategy has helped in the development of employee engagement in the business (Middlemiss, 2015). Other than this the company also organizes regular brief meeting between the employees and the manager that increases the engagement between them. This shows that Mars has well developed HR strategies and offers great importance to its employees. 
2.5 Plan to increase Employee Engagement 
    Even though the company follows regular engagement strategy in their business environment, yet there are others steps as well that Mars can take in order to increase employee engagement rate in different ways. One of the common engagement strategy that the company follows is conducting weekend fun in the office premises in which different activities and game can be organized. Every employee are required to take part in the game from various teams (MacLeod & Clarke, 2009). This will not only help in engagement of employees within the team, it also allow employees from different teams to interact with each other. 
    Other than this the company can also follow shuffling strategy in which members of one team from same department can be shuffled with members of another team in a monthly basis so that everyone gets the chance to work and know each other in the office. 
    These two strategies will help Mars in developing the best employee engagement strategy for the employees that can help them reduce the employee turnover rate. 

 


    3.0 Recommendations

 

rategies and practices which has been the main reason behind their success, yet there are certain loopholes in the strategies that creates certain problems in the business. Thus, certain recommendation are needed for Mars to cover up these loopholes as well.
The first recommendation is that the business needs to take up better strategies for employee engagement. These strategies should not only focus on problem solving and business related matter. It should be some fun based and social gathering which can keep them motivated in their work. 
Secondly, the HR department of the business should also focus on modifying their business structure in a hierarchical manner to some extent as absence of hierarchy leads to confusion in some cases. Thus, there should be hierarchy for the top management level at least. It will help the business to run in a systematic manner. 

 


    4.0 Conclusion 

 


From the above scenario it can be deduced that Mars has been successful in its business mainly because of its HR principles that it follows. HR practices of Mars is something that other companies of Australia look up to. The main strategy of human resource department of Mars focus on employee communication and business culture. This is because these two forms the best way to keep the employees happy. However, it is necessary that Mars built up business environment in a way that everyone can enjoy and be motivated in their works. Moreover, there should be initiative taken to reduce the confusion in Mars. 

 

References 

 


ibisworld. (2016). Mars Australia Pty Ltd - Retail. Ibisworld.com.au. Retrieved 13 April 2018, from https://www.ibisworld.com.au/australian-company-research-reports/manufacturing/mars-australia-pty-ltd-company.html
MacLeod, D., & Clarke, N. (2009). Engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement: a report to government. London: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Mars. (2018). The Five Principles of Mars. mars. Retrieved 13 April 2018, from
Middlemiss, N. (2015). Mars shares secret ingredient for HR success. HRD. Retrieved 13 April 2018, from https://www.hrmonline.co.nz/news/mars-shares-secret-ingredient-for-hr-success-208528.aspx
Bibliography 
Briscoe, D., Tarique, I., & Schuler, R. (2012). International human resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.
Buller, P. F., & McEvoy, G. M. (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), 43-56.
Gruman, J. A., & Saks, A. M. (2011). Performance management and employee engagement. Human Resource Management Review, 21(2), 123-136.
Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Hu, J., & Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal, 55(6), 1264-1294.
Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), 366-391.
Kompaso, S. M., & Sridevi, M. S. (2010). Employee engagement: The key to improving performance. International journal of business and management, 5(12), 89.

 

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