HRM 3375 Auburn University Main Campus Business Case Study

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Business Finance

HRM 3375

Auburn University Main Campus

HRM

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Carter Cleaning Centers has traditionally provided only legislatively required benefits for its employees. These include unemployment compensation, Social Security, and workers’ compensation (which is provided through the same insurance carrier that insures the stores for such hazards as theft and fire). The principals of the firm—Jack, Jennifer, and their families—have individual, family-supplied health and life insurance. Jennifer can see several potential problems with the company’s policies regarding benefits and services. One is turnover. She wants to study whether similar companies’ experiences with providing health and life insurance benefits enable these firms to reduce employee turnover and perhaps pay lower wages. Jennifer is also concerned that her company has no formal vacation or paid days off or sick leave policies. Informally, at least, it is understood that employees get 1 week’s vacation after 1 year’s work, but in the past the policy regarding paid vacations for days such as New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving Day has been very inconsistent. Sometimes employees who had been on the job only 2 or 3 weeks were paid fully for one of these holidays, while at other times employees who had been with the firm for 6 months or more had been paid for only half a day. She also wonders whether it would be advisable to establish some type of day care center for the employees’ children. Many of them have no place to go during the day (they are preschoolers) or have no place to go after school; she wonders whether a day care benefit would be in the best interests of the company. Questions 13-12. Draw up a policy statement regarding vacations, sick leave, and paid days off for Carter Cleaning Centers. 13-13. What would you tell Jennifer are the advantages and disadvantages to Carter Cleaning Centers of providing its employees with health, hospitalization, and life insurance programs? 13-14. Would you advise establishing some type of day care center for the Carter Cleaning employees? Why or why not? Being in the laundry and cleaning business, the Carters feel strongly about not allowing employees to smoke, eat, or drink in their stores. Jennifer was therefore surprised to walk into a store and find two employees eating lunch at the front counter. There was a large pizza in its box, and the two of them were sipping colas and eating slices of pizza and submarine sandwiches off paper plates. Not only did it look messy, but there were grease and soda spills on the counter and the store smelled from onions and pepperoni, even with the exhaust fan pulling air out through the roof. In addition to being a turnoff to customers, the mess on the counter meant that a customer’s order might actually become soiled in the store. Although this was a serious matter, Jennifer didn’t feel that what the counter people were doing was grounds for dismissal (partly because the store manager had apparently condoned their actions). It seemed to her that the matter called for more than just a warning but less than dismissal. Questions 14-18. What would you do if you were Jennifer, and why? 14-19. Should a disciplinary system be established at Carter Cleaning Centers? 14-20. If so, what should it cover? How would you suggest it deal with a situation such as the one with the errant counter people? 14-21. How would you deal with the store manager? On visiting one of Carter Cleaning Company’s stores, Jennifer was surprised to be taken aside by a long-term Carter employee, who met her as she was parking her car. “Murray (the store manager) told me I was suspended for 2 days without pay because I came in late last Thursday,” said George. “I’m really upset, but around here the store manager’s word seems to be law, and it sometimes seems like the only way anyone can file a grievance is by meeting you or your father like this in the parking lot.” Jennifer was very disturbed by this revelation and promised the employee she would look into it and discuss the situation with her father. In the car heading back to headquarters, she began mulling over what Carter Cleaning Company’s alternatives might be. Questions 15-14. Do you think it is important for Carter Cleaning Company to have a formal grievance process? Why or why not? 15-15. Based on what you know about the Carter Cleaning Company, outline the steps in what you think would be the ideal grievance process for this company. 15-16. In addition to the grievance process, can you think of anything else that Carter Cleaning Company might do to make sure grievances and gripes like this one are expressed and are heard by top management? The New Safety Program Employees’ safety and health are very important matters in the laundry and cleaning business. Each facility is a small production plant in which machines, powered by high-pressure steam and compressed air, work at high temperatures washing, cleaning, and pressing garments, often under very hot, slippery conditions. Chemical vapors are produced continually, and caustic chemicals are used in the cleaning process. High-temperature stills are almost continually “cooking down” cleaning solvents in order to remove impurities so that the solvents can be reused. If a mistake is made in this process—like injecting too much steam into the still—a boilover occurs, in which boiling chemical solvent erupts out of the still and over the floor, and on anyone who happens to be standing in its way. As a result of these hazards and the fact that chemically hazardous waste is continually produced in these stores, several government agencies (including OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency) have instituted strict guidelines regarding the management of these plants. For example, posters have to be placed in each store notifying employees of their right to be told what hazardous chemicals they are dealing with and what the proper method for handling each chemical is. Special waste-management firms must be used to pick up and properly dispose of the hazardous waste. A chronic problem the Carters (and most other laundry owners) have is the unwillingness on the part of the cleaning/spotting workers to wear safety goggles. Not all the chemicals they use require safety goggles, but some—like the hydrofluoric acid used to remove rust stains from garments—are very dangerous. The latter is kept in special plastic containers, since it dissolves glass. The problem is that wearing safety goggles can be troublesome. They are somewhat uncomfortable, and they become smudged easily and thus cut down on visibility. As a result, Jack has always found it almost impossible to get these employees to wear their goggles. Questions 16-15. How should the firm go about identifying hazardous conditions that should be rectified? Use checklists such as those in Figures 16-6 and 16-8 to list at least 10 possible dry cleaning store hazardous conditions. 16-16. Would it be advisable for the firm to set up a procedure for screening out accident-prone individuals? How should they do so? 16-17. How would you suggest the Carters get all employees to behave more safely at work? Also, how would you advise them to get those who should be wearing goggles to do so?
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Case study
Case study one
13-12. Draw up a policy statement regarding vacations, sick leave, and paid days off for
Carter Cleaning Centers.
Vacations, sick leave and paydays off should be given to the employees since it can motivate
them to work and increase the rate of how the company gets profits from the customers and
this can lead to the increase in the employees' salaries since the company will be running
smoothly.
13-13. What would you tell Jennifer are the advantages and disadvantages to Carter
Cleaning Centers of providing its employees with health, hospitalization, and life
insurance programs?
The advantages of providing health, hospitality and life insurance program is that the
employees can find it easy to pay for their hospital bills and also live a healthy life, but the
disadvantage is that some employees may try to misuse the privileges given to them by taking
advantage and pretending to be sick since they know that the insurance will cover all the
bills.
13-14. Would you advise establishing some type of daycare center for the Carter
Cleaning employees? Why or why not?
Providing ...


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Just what I needed…Fantastic!

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