Managing Culturally Diverse Employees - ELIDI Energy - Case Study Example

ELIDI Energy- Managing Culturally Diverse Employees Name Course Institution Date ELIDI Energy- Managing Culturally Diverse Employees Introduction ELIDI Energy is a company that provides solar power energy for consumers in Australia. Its head office is based in Queensland, Australia. It also has other branches in parts like Western Autralia and Northern Territory. Its employee base amounts to about one hundred permanent employees and several others on short contract terms. About 95% of employees at ELIDI Energy are drawn from different countries other than Australia. It provides solar power for residential and commercial properties in different parts of Australia. A large percentage of its employees are sales persons, solar panel installers, and lead originators (Yang & Konrad, 2010). The fact that most of the company’s employees are drawn from different countries, they hold different cultural and ethical values that ultimately creates a culturally-diverse work environment. These employees need to make some adjustments to accommodate one another and coexist in the company. Studies indicate that a change of culture often affects the effectiveness of newly enlisted employees drawn from different countries (Prabhu, 2009). Cultural diversity in the workplace should be of concern for employers in order to protect minority employee groups from mistreatment, discriminatuion and institutionalized bias (Panda, 2010). Cultural diversity in organizations means that people from different ethnic, religious, gender and racial backgrounds work together with the aim of achieving a company’s vision, goals, and objectives (Holvin, Ferdman & Sands, 2004). There has been a significant increase in the cultural diversity of employees in most of the organizations across the world. This has caused the human resource department of nearly every single organization in the world to determine strategies that the company can use to leverage effectively the advantages of having a culturally diverse workforce and how to overcome the difficulties that may arise from the situation (Badea, 2013). This report will highlight the efforts that the human resource function at ELIDI Energy is making to maintain its culturally diverse workforce. ELIDI Energy has a culturally diverse workforce that requires an intricate balance by its human resource department to achieve managerial success. The organisation’s employees are about one hundred and they are drawn from different cultural backgrounds to fill the personnel needs of ELIDI Energy. The workforce meets the energy needs for consumers of solar power across Western Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory. Notable, 95% of the workers at ELIDI Energy are drawn from different cultures across the world. For purposes of this report, a questionnaire was administered through emails sent to the employee job mail contacts given by the human resource manager. The questionnaire intended to capture how ELIDI Energy manages its culturally diverse workforce, the policies put in place towards this end, and the notable challenges it experiences. The questionnaire that was administered to employees of ELIDI Energy is presented below. Questionairre SECTION A. (FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES ONLY ) Please take the survey below by responding to the questions based on your own intuition. Your honest opinion would be greatly helpful. The responses would help ELIDI Energy to improve its core values, opeartions and relationship with employees. 1. As an employee of ELIDI Energy, part of your job description involves handling matters of employee recruitment and termination. In your opinion, do you believe that a culturally diverse approach to personnel recruitment is beneficial to the company in the long term? Give reasons. 2. Do you believe that things can only be done right in one way, or that different valid ways can achieve the desired goal? 3. In your supervision roles, do you have some honest relationships with the staff members you oversee? What is your level of comfort during interactions with them? Can you describe what gets them motivated, their main goals and their preferred ways for recognition? 4. When making decisions on matters considered to be right or wrong in a culturally diverse workplace like ELIDI Energy, do you test your assumptions to establish their impact and consequences before acting on them? 5. As a human resource officer, can you give negative feedback to employees with a different culture from yours? 6. In the course of your duty, do you always make a point of orienting new employees to their department’s culture and helping them to learn the unwritten rules? 7. When making decisions on matters considered to be right or wrong in a culturally diverse workplace like ELIDI Energy, do you test your assumptions to establish their impact and consequences before acting on them? 8. How do you handle suggestions and criticisms fronted by employees that touch on proposals of improvingthe work environment? 9. On which occasions have you made good faith efforts to ensure that ELIDI Energy meets its goals for affirmative action on workplace cultural diversity? SECTION B. (FOR EMPLOYEES EMPLOYED IN DEPARTMENTS OTHER THAN HUMAN RESOURCE) Please take the survey below by responding to the questions based on your own intuition. Your honest opinion would be greatly helpful. The responses would help ELIDI Energy to improve its core values, opeartions and relationship with employees. 1. What’s your take on ethnic jokes and offensive language that your colleagues may direct at other employees? Do you think immediate action should be taken? 2. In there fairness at ELIDI Energy in relation to offering the employees from different cultural backgrounds opportunities for professional growth and personal development? 3. In your opinion, is ELIDI Energy having enough measures to contain discriminatory issues such as racism and ethnic bashing? What are your suggetsions for improvent? 4. What is your opinion on ELIDI Energy’s human resource policies, procedures and practices regarding their impartiality to different culture groups enlisted in its ranks? The responses got from the questionnaire administered to employees at ELIDI Energy exposed the existing human resource policies, procedures and practices in the company. It also brought out the efforts made by the company to improve, foster and manage a cultural diversity in the workplace. This report will analyse the various human resource dimensions of ELIDI Energy as implied by the responses given by the company’s employees - both human resource officers and employees working in other departments. Workforce planning As part of the human resource policy at ELIDI Energy, it endeavours to enhance diversity by acknowledging its dimension right from the planning stage in the employee attraction and recruitment stage. This way, the administration of the culturally-diverse workforce becomes much easier. Its recruitment policies rely on ethnocentric, polycentric, region-centric, and geocentric approaches in a bid to attract the widest pool of diverse employees. This also sets the company on the right path of globalization (Konrad, Yang & Maurer, 2015). The HR manager at ELIDI Energy employs these innovative strategies to attract and employ the most suitable and culturally adaptable personnel. Doing this ensures the success of any overseas assignment that the personnel may be assigned to carry out. The HR function at ELIDI Energy normally outlines clear requirements for job applicants to demonstrate the skills and ability to work effectively in a culturally dicerse environment. The employees running the HR function at ELIDI Energy are also expected to act in good faith to recruit a culturally diverse work force. ELIDI Energy uses panel interview committee that is as diverse as possible. This ensures that different human resource perspectives are represented in the selection process. In the long run, ELIDI Energy manages to eliminate unintentional institutional and cultural bias. Entrenching these values in the job expectations of the persons leading the HR function helps to stamp them in the lineage of the company’s operations. Attraction of employees ELIDI Energy rides on a non-discriminatory policy to attract new employees to join its ranks. Considering the technological skills required for most of the company’s job specifications, it is better placed by targeting the global labor market rather than relying on the local one. This would give it wider options to source employees. The HR department at ELIDI Energy has been seeking to position itself as a non-discriminatory employer by tagging an “equal opportunity employer” statement in all its job advertisements. Selection of employees ELIDI Energy is keen to sound appealing to workers drawn from various cultures whenever it seeks to fill job openings. The interviewing process is open enough and more job oriented. The general interview questions that ELIDI Energy relies on to select its employees do not touch on the current issues in the interviewees home country nor their religious inclination. This helps to avoid the institutionalization of cultural bias in the interview process. Motivation of employees The human resource team at ELIDI Energy relies on a policy of assessing individual employees carefullyin order to determine what motivates them and the rewards that mean the most to them. Consequently, it has designed frameworks for motivating and rewarding employees that is in line with individual employee’s cultural values and beliefs.ELIDI Energy also offers competent remuneration for all its employees, thereby increasing their overall psyche and building a positive work attitude. Employee retention It makes sense to devise strategies to retain the skilled employees in order to reduce employee turnover. In this regard, ELIDI Energy offers various packages to retain its employees, most of who are highly skilled and internationally outsourced. It also funds get-together parties every year to create a bond between its employees. This improves their team spirit and overall working relationship in the long run. Equal treatment of the employees is also a key principle followed by the HR department at ELIDI Energy, given its composition of diverse employees. The department is inclined to develop and retain a culturally diverse workforce as well as improve the cohesion of the workforce on a daily basis. Any culturally diverse company should exemplify the principles of equal employment opportunities for all (Tervonen, 2012). Conflict Resolution ELIDI Energy has put in place clear procedures for handling job-related conflicts that emerge between employees in the organization. Conflict is an important aspect of the HR department’s role in managing cultural diversity in the workplace. The HR department is mandated with establishing and maintaining a safe working environment. A safe working environment encompasses the physical and emotional safety of all the employees (Stevens, Plaut & Sanchez-Burks, 2008). ELIDI Energy’s HR department handles all job-related conflicts. It steps in when employees are engaged in unhealthy competition, especially if the conflict arises from the employees’ cultural differences. The HR plays the role of a peacemaker in case of any conflicts in its culturally diverse workplace (Combs, 2002). To avert any disputes or conflicts that may arise from cultural or background differences, the HR department has initiated monitoring programs for the employees. These programs are aimed at training all the employees about different cultures and promoting cultural awareness in the company. Cultural awareness ensures that all personnel are effectively integrated into the workforce despite coming from different cultural, racial and linguistic backgrounds. Through these mentorship programs, any conflicts can be solved amicably and quickly ensuring that business in the office continues to go on smoothly (Shih, Young & Bucher, 2013). Training and development The human resource department at ELIDI Energy promotes work cohesion by implementing diversity training every year. This is the most efficient method of influencing and facilitating behavioral change in a culturally diverse workplace like theirs. It also trains its employees on various skills such as first aid operations and fire fighting. All these are carried alongside the mandatory professional training that the company sponsors for fresh graduates and others in areas requiring high technical skills. Management of performance The Human Resource department at ELIDI Energy involves other departmental heads to draw up job desciptions for specific positions. They also draw up the job specifications that applicants must meet in order to be eligible (Nelson, Porns & Wolf, 2012). Through rigorous scrutiny, the job expectations are made clear for every employee. The remuneration and other benefits are also indicated to the employee at the time of enlistment. At ELIDI Energy, pay bonuses are extended to employees with exemplary performance. Career development At ELIDIEnergy , the employees are given an opportunity to develop themselves professionally. The company sponsors professional training for its employees so as to adapt competently to changes in the industry standards for solar technology. The job promotion system is also based on merit and experience. This way, a culture of job competence rather than cronyism is created, making the administrative work of the human resource function relatively easier and straightforward (Ayoko & Konrad, 2012). The employees know what to expect from the human resource department. Rewards management The human resource department at ELIDI Energy has devised some positive rewards management scheme tailored to meet the diverse culture of its workforce. This comes from the acknowledgment that different cultures have different reward systems that have implied importance to the members subscribing to the culture. The human resource department understands that some employees subscribing to conservative cultures may not want to be praised in front of others due to their cultural or religious beliefs (Karinsky, 2002). Job exits There is a comprehensive policy that guides the circumstances under which the employees of ELIDI Energy may leave their jobs. This policy complies with the industrial and labor laws applicable in Australia where the business has set up base (Robbins, Judge, Millett & Boyle, 2013). One may leave the job voluntarily by tabling a resignation letter. Alternatively, one may leave the job after attaining the retirement age in Australia, in which case he would be extended all his retirement benefits (Guillaume, Dawson, Otaya-Ebede, Woods & West, 2015). The other way may be after an employee gets incapacitated in the line of duty. One would be compensated according to the employment contract. At ELIDI Energy, an employee may also be dismissed if he or she fails to meet his contract obligations. This would effectively make the contract agreement null. Conclusion In conclusion, ELIDI Energy has made significant efforts to foster a positive attitude towards cultural diversity in the workplace. Through the various training programs offered to increase awareness on workplace diversity, the company has received several benefits associated with having a diverse workforce. Notably, the HR department at ELIDI Energy has also understood the difficulty in managing its culturally diverse employees. The mainfunction of the HR department now is to ensure that it attracts professionally qualified individuals from diverse backgrounds and ensuring that they fit in the workplace for the success of the organization. ELIDI Energy should also rely on recent research in this area to ensure innovative HR strategies are being utilized in building a strong organizational culture and the fulfilling employees’ expectations. References Ayoko, O., & Konrad, A. (2012). Leaders’ transformational, conflict, and emotion management behaviors in culturally diverse workgroups. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31 (8), 694. Badea, M. (2013). Cultural Influences in Human Resources Management. Review of General Management, 17(1), 179-186. Combs, G.M. (2002). Meeting the leadership challenge of a diverse and pluralistic workplace: Implications of self-efficacy for diversity training.Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 8(4), 1-16. Guillaume, Y., Dawson, J., Otaya-Ebede, L., Woods, S., & West, M. (2015). Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36 (6), 101-154. 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