Free Essay: Analysis of Negative Work Culture in the Staff with High Levels of Sick Leave and Poor Attendance

This report aims at identifying the leading causes for the high levels of sick leave, poor attendance, and negative work culture amongst the staff in The Imperial Hotel, London and the impact it has on the performance of the hotel. A negative work culture amongst the staff with high levels of sick leave and poor attendance is one of the problems that the Imperial hotel is facing. Employees with a poor attendance affect the performance of a company negatively. Absent employees are usually a burden to the rest of the staff and on the company as well (Gaudine, and Saks, 2001). In the Imperial Hotel, the employees cover up for their colleagues who are absent and hence increasing their workload. The high, poor attendance in the Imperial hotel have resulted in financial burden and lowering of the staff morale .The former manager of the Imperial hotel lacked the required leadership skills to help deal with the problem of the negative work culture amongst the staff with high levels of sick leave and poor attendance. The report will further discuss how the negative work culture amongst the staff with high levels of sick leave and poor attendance can be reduced by analyzing the different suggestions by Peter Farnsworth and also the various recommendations that the management of Imperial Hotel should undertake.

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The main causes for a negative work culture amongst the staff with high levels of sick leave and poor attendance in The Imperial Hotel are because most of the part-time employees are females who have other commitments, low levels of supervision by the management, little opportunity for promotion or bonuses, and overworking of the employees. Various recommendations will be addressed in this report to help The Imperial Hotel to address the issue of negative work culture amongst the staff with high levels of sick leave and poor attendance. These recommendations include collecting of attendance data, providing managers with training so that they can deal with the employees effectively, educating new hires about the policies of The Imperial hotel, working in shifts and giving the employees off days, and ensuring the managers are always available for consultation.

Analysis of the Problem

In this case, the Imperial Hotel has most of the part-time staff being females who have family commitments. This is one of the reasons of the poor attendance since they turn-up late for work as they have to perform their family roles and commitments as well and therefore the staff who arrived early are forced to cover up for those who come late to work. This result in some of the staff being overworked. Lack of proper planning by the management is one of the reasons as to why most of the part-time employees of The Imperial hotel are females. In this case, the employees should be distributed evenly in all the departments to avoid some employees being overworked.

The high levels of sick leave in the Imperial hotel have also been attributed by the staff having to work for long hours which result in the employees becoming fatigue. The high employee turnover rate in the Imperial Hotel result in the employees having to deal with a huge workload since they have to perform the duties of those who have left the Imperial Hotel. This also causes stress to employees who have been left behind since they have the pressure of finishing up the work. This results in the employees taking sick leave, and in turn, the performance of the hotel is negatively affected.

The negative work culture amongst the staff of the Imperial Hotel has also been as a result of the previous General Manager who was somewhat toxic. Authoritarian management discourages the employees from reporting to work on time due to the unnecessarily pressure the employees could be subjected to. Even when an organization is offering a good pay to the employees they may still opt to leave voluntary if the relationship they have with their managers is not good (BakerMcClearn, Greasley, Dale and Griffith, 2010). The poor work culture in The Imperial Hotel has been caused by the fact that the levels of the supervision of the staff have been minimal, and hence the employees go to work and leave at their pleasure since there are no consequences that follow for such actions.

Lack of motivating the employees is also the cause of the poor attendance of employees of the Imperial hotel. The Imperial Hotel offers little opportunity for promotion or bonuses to their employees which has resulted in the high rate of employee turnover. Lack of promotion opportunities or bonuses can lower the morale of the employee making them feel demotivated. Employees tend to feel undervalued and their effort not appreciated when they fail to receive any form of motivation and hence do not feel the urge to go to work early. Most of the employees want to be recognized and rewarded for the little efforts they make and for a job well done (Beauregard and Henry, 2009).

Comments on Peter Farnsworth Suggestions on How to Manage the Problem.

Peter Farnsworth suggested that to manage the problem the Imperial Hotel management should improve the standard and levels of supervision within all departments. The management of Imperial Hotel should ensure that they closely supervise the employees to ensure that they report to work on time and do not leave earlier than expected. I agree with Peter Farnsworth Suggestion of improving the levels of supervision within all departments. It will also help the managers to be able to work closely with the employees and understand some of the problems that they could be facing and could affect their health negatively to solve such problems before they get out of hand.

Another suggestion of Peter Farnsworth was that the Imperial Hotel management should improve a culture of collaboration and respect amongst colleagues. I agree with this suggestion put forward by Peter Farnsworth since it will help prevent a situation whereby some employees are bullied or harassed by their co-workers. In The Imperial Hotel, the implementation of this suggestion will play a great role considering that the Spanish staff and the in-house staff do not work coordinate properly while together and hence the Spanish staff prefers working together in their shifts with other Spanish staff. Improving the culture of collaboration and respect will help the Spanish staff and the in-house staff to put aside their differences and respect each other to work together as a team, and this will help improve the quality of services that they offer to the guests of Imperial Hotel. It will help the employees of Imperial Hotel to support each other and share with each other different skills and ideas (Kivimaki, Elovainio and Vahtera, 2000).

As an independent consultant, I also agree with Peter Farnsworth suggestion of regularly involving the staff in planning and problem-solving operational challenges. Involving of employees in planning and the process of problem-solving makes the employees feel appreciated in the workplace and also feel that their ideas are valued. This is possible through holding frequent meetings with the staff. When the employees are involved in planning and the problem-solving process they can discuss with the management on what is favorable to them and also give suggestions on what can be changed to improve their working conditions. This helps motivate the employees to go to work and avoiding unnecessarily absenteeism. This will motivate the employees to come to work. This will help provide the employees with the information on what they are expected to do and their responsibilities. It will also reduce the possibility of the management blaming the staff for work that has not been done which is not their responsibilities since such actions could discourage the employee to report to work (Arnetz, Sjogren, Rydehn and Meisel. 2003).

Peter Farnsworth also suggested that the staff should be rewarded for good customer service and good attendance. I agree with this suggestion of Peter Farnsworth since the rewards will help in motivating the employees and also improve their morale. The employee's morale affects the absenteeism rate of the employees greatly. The management of the Imperial Hotel has introduced different staff incentive schemes which include the rewarding employee of the month for the whole hotel and employee of the month in every department. The management of the hotel has also set an incentive scheme to reward the employees who consistently meet individual and performance targets in three months consecutively. This will help raise the morale of the employees to come to work and be ready to do quality work. Organizations and companies which have good strategies to improve the morale of their employees tend to record low-level of employee absenteeism (Mowday, Porter and Steers, 2013).

The final suggestion of Peter Farnsworth is providing better training of staff of company-wide standards and values. I agree with this suggestion as an independent consultant since it will help the employees to be aware of the objectives and goals of the Imperial Hotel. This will help reduce instances where the employee become depressed for not meeting the expectations of the management. Training will help the employees to be efficient in their work as it will equip them with the required knowledge and skills that will help them in providing the Imperial Hotel guests with quality services. Employees find it easy doing a job which they love and have the relevant skills and knowledge regarding it (Michie and Williams, 2003). To retain the employees, the Imperial Hotel should train the staff to equip them with new skills which will help them have new responsibilities in their various positions and also prepare them for future advancement. When employees are knowledgeable, they can handle the global challenges encountered in the hotel industry. This will reduce instances of the employees becoming frustrated with their work and seeking sick leave days.

Recommendations

The Imperial Hotel management should ensure that they outsource other professionals and leaders to come and train their managers and also the staff on a regular basis of at least twice in every month. This will help equip the managers with required leadership skills. This will help them to treat the employees in the right way. This will help the Imperial Hotel to solve the problem of having a management style that is dictatorial and authoritative.

As an independent consultant, I recommend that the Imperial Hotel management should ensure that the managers are always available for consultations to improve the employee's performance. This is possible by ensuring that the managers are not sent on long business trips. This will help also increase the supervisory levels of what the employees are doing and also keep track of the rate of employee's absenteeism.

I also recommend that the Imperial Hotel management should give their employees off-days during the week. This should be done in shifts to help the employees especially the females to also have time with their families and perform other duties at home. This will help deal with the problem of absenteeism of the employees without informing the management since the employees will be able to deal with the family commitment during their off days. Giving the employees off days and working in shifts will help deal with the problem of overworking the employees.

I also recommend that the Imperial Hotel management implement a strategy of collecting attendance data. This is possible by having the fingerprint of the employee recorded electronically the time they come and leave the work. This...