Workplace Culture and Culture

HR Scenario

The service provided by the HR component to the employer is a proactive approach to ensuring that workers are retained and job satisfaction levels boosted. This would help reduce turnover rates and keep the company from having to refill the same old positions every 18 months using a pool of mostly unqualified applicants.

The strategic advantage the HR component provides to an employer in the hiring and retaining of qualified employees is that it can distill the culture and environment that the company is trying to or needs to cultivate in order to ensure both that workers want to stay once they are hired and that the right kind of workers are being hired in the first place -- ones who are passionate about the job, willing to commit, loyal, and who embody the workplace culture of the company.

Three current practices used by the employer that can be improved are: 1) the promotion of a positive workplace culture, 2) incentives, and 3) promotion from within. The first is crucial: the right kind of workers will be attracted to the right kind of working environment; therefore, a company that wants to attract the best has to portray itself as the best and help bring that idea into reality through cultural support at the workplace. The second practice supports the first: employees want to be incentivized to succeed. Incentives can include anything from holiday pay to bonuses to monthly awards for goals met. The third practice -- promotion from within -- will satisfy workers who want to climb the corporate ranks rather than be stuck at one level their whole career; this will help the company be more hands-on and proactive about how it manages and controls the careers of its workers instead of reacting to workers wanting to leave and go elsewhere to achieve their dreams.

Two best practices that can be used to achieve the practice of improving the workplace culture can be to follow the example of Southwest Airlines: it set about making it a goal to make the workplace fun and stress-free; according to the founder's philosophy, work should be a place you want to go to -- and if it is that good feeling gets passed along to the customer, which keeps him coming back and keeps the coming rolling. Thus, establishing employee satisfaction is one key practice, and another is to hire the right kind of employ -- one who fits in with the overall aim and objective of the company (Gallo, 2013; Srinivasan, 2014).

The recommendation for the company to improve itself is to transform and improve its workplace culture so that the right kind of talent will want to come to the company and stay with the company. The right kind of positive culture, where workers are happy to be there and are incentivized to succeed, is one that will naturally draw new talent -- because that is the kind of place that new talent wants to go to.

The expected results of concentrating on improving the workplace culture are that turnover rates will be reduced and more new talent that is right for the job will start to apply, making it a competitive place once again. Improvement can be measured by making a culture plan and assessing implementation step-by-step to see that every factor is designed correctly and enacted efficiently.