BS/FO/76
BS/FO/76

Institute Of Personnel Management Sri Lanka

NAME OF THE PROGRAMME : - PQHRM - Stage I

TOPIC OF THE CASE STUDY : - Employee Services : Health, Safety Welfare

MODULE NUMBER :- 07

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Contents
1. Executive Summary 3
2. Briefing the Situation of Smiley Cookies 4
3. Importance of health and safety for a company 5
4. Manage the situation by concerning health and safety matters of employees 6  New Approach 6  Manage the situation 7
5. Increase the productivity without affecting workers health and safety conditions 9

Executive Summary

One of the leading manufacturers in the biscuits industry who have undertaken the business over 30 years has faced to the serious situation in the peek time of their manufacturing process of the year.
Small incident has become a serious matter to the organization due to lack of communication and attention to their employees. The situation is regarding the health & Safety of the employees who working near to the Ovens. They are suffering from high level of heat of the ovens and there workstation cannot be shifted directly to another place due to nature of their work. Management take the actions to eliminate the issue in the first place when the complaint comes but the issue was not eliminated And meantime they had to speed up the manufacturing process to constantly supply the high demand to the market.
Unions took sabotaging actions to respond to the situation because the management didn’t communicate about the speeding up the process and employees thought management neglect their matter of the first place.
There are weak points of the management because at least they had to behavior like they do care of the employees. They could be able to stopping Union actions by proper communicating with the employees regarding the in such a peek time of the industry. And it seems like they didn’t try to use a job rotating theory or something like that. Also Management didn’t communicate prior to speeding up the manufacturing process.
Health and safety is very important aria for a factory. Because factory itself is risky and lot of procedures and policies has to be implement to make sure the safety of the employees. Prior to the answering to the current situation it’s better to investigate the history of the matter if something like this happen before and if it is how did eliminate the problems then. Also it is a must, to investigate if any health damages are occurred due to particular matter. By Giving Leaves, short brakes, Job rotating, replace female workers with men and changing the employee attitudes management can be change the situation for good. Also Glowing the Cool Air, placing exhaust fans, and supplying enough water and if possible machinery has to be modified as per the work station can be shifted to far from the oven Or introduce automated process particular selecting process. It is a must to make win – win situation because company is reputed by the society and the workers are dedicate long life for the company

Briefing the Situation of Smiley Cookies

Smiley Cookies is a leading biscuit manufacture in Sri Lanka over 30 years. They are providing biscuits to the nation since 1983 with more than 2000 workforce. The majority of the employees are female with average of age a worker is 50 years. The company runs 24 hours in 7 days of the week. It only shut down for few days for a year for the maintenance purposes. They’ve got semi-automated Production system with few manual processes.
Mainly row materials had to be fed manually in to conveyor. Mixing process is fully automated. After the mixing process the mixture goes through cutting machine for the cutting process and after that the pieces go to ovens for the baking process. When the baked biscuits come out from the ovens, damaged biscuits have to be removed. This is fully manual work process. Last Step is packing biscuits and it’s fully automated process.
The people who involved in removing damaged biscuits are working close to ovens with very uncomfortable environmental condition due to the ovens’ heat. Workers complained about this to management about the heat and uncomforting situation. Company consulted an occupational health specialist from labor department with regard how to control the heat and subsequently company management has taken measures to control heat. Thermal environment has been improved to some extent but certain areas of the factory which are close to the ovens still existing with the high level heat.
Company makes high profit during festival seasons like April and December because of the biscuits demand goes high within the festival seasons. Therefore they have to speed up the manufacturing process to get more output to make sure the goods are goes to market on time. The average speed of their conveyor is 72 biscuits per minute. Thus top management decided to increase their productivity. As a result of that they have to increase the speed of the conveyor in to 76 biscuits per minute. They did this without getting any involvement of their workers or letting them know about the management decision.
After increasing the speed of the conveyor, the employees realized that they have to work hard than previous time and let more effort to perform their tasks. When they got to know about the management decision they started taking trade union actions, threaten to sabotage, skip their duties wasted time etc., during the selection process what they did was they picked good biscuits out and let damaged biscuits to go through for the packing process. Once the products got in to the market customers complaints became high due to poor quality of the products.

Importance of health and safety for a company Smiley Cookies is a leading biscuit company in Sri Lanka for more than 30 years. They have been doing their businesses with more than 2000 workers. To handle 2000 workers there should be a proper HR policies & procedures as well as proper health and safety processes within the company because it’s a company with a factory.
Health and Safety is not only important because of it protect employees but also it will increase productivity by keeping employees happy and healthy. Employee should ensure that their work place is free of hazard. Employer has to make sure that the employees are aware of the company policies and Procedures. By setting up training and awareness programs employee can be make it sure
Employee has to provide proper working environment to their employees and maintaining good housekeeping is a must. Work environment is like the second home to the employees because they are spend lot of time in their work station. It only cannot beat the time which he/she spend in the home.
‘Prevention is better than cure’

* Bullet Points for good Health & Safety policy

* Provide & maintain safe and healthy environment including safe procedures of work.

* Good housekeeping and maintaining the environment with go in line with safety standards.

* Take necessary steps to minimize occupational hazards also monitoring and evaluating the hazards.

* Reviving the safety impacts and takes necessary actions to rewarding and discouraging in practical actions of employees.

* Ensure an appropriate working environment with communicating employees to improve the environment.

Manage the situation by concerning health and safety matters of employees

* New Approach * Situation Summary refer Page 4

It is a must to dig the history prior to the solving matter if this situation ever happened before and if it is, what the solution was. Because it can be helpful for handle the situation. Then we have to interview the workers to get exact information regarding this situation and also to make sure about if they harm from any health issue. It’s better to get a medical examination for them to make sure they are okay. Also it is good to take a look back and identify the mistakes that management did. Because it will be helpful to avid from such a situation in the future.

* Identifying key Points

* Have not considered on putting proper grievance handling system in the company. This caused to sabotaging actions of the union.

* In this point the management took their decisions without getting involve their workers or their representatives. * There is no proper system which is to get involve employees when it comes to decision making regarding directly affective arias of their working life. * Company management does not appoint a health and safety officer for the company when an emergency incident occurred. * The management consulted an occupational health specialist form labor department to find solutions for the heat problem. But didn’t get proper feedback from the employees. * The communication system between the management and workers was very poor and there was no any proper system to communicate, that’s why new management decisions were not communicated to workers specially this productivity enhancement. * The factory runs 24 hours and it is a must to concern on workers’ health and safety conditions but there is no sign of proper health and safety procedure within the company. * The management implemented their new decision before solving the heat problem. This shows that the management is not concern about their workforce.

* Manage the situation

Situation has to be eliminated ASAP so as the immediate actions need to take in place, to get the employee attention back in to the organization. Because this is peek time of production and if company fail the situation it’s effect will be a risk to the future of the company as well. Whatever the action the management takes now directly it effect to company’s good will over 30 years

* Immediate actions

* Interview the workers regarding particular matter to make sure they are okay and get their suggestions. * Replace female workers with male workers especially in to busy working areas such as where temperature is normally high and heavy machines are placed in * An immediate medical campaign should be held in the company, because there can be surely physical conflicts among its workers. * Add blowing air condition in to the areas which the heat is high than normal level. * Increase number of ventilators and exhaust fans in area which ovens are placed in. * Ask workers to drink more water during the working time and put water filters close to workers.

After taking the immediate actions it need to eliminate the identified issues and give sustainable answer to make the situation better for long term scale and to make sure the same thing will not happen again.

* Awareness programs

Since the workforce is old I don’t recommended any kind of training for them regarding industrial health and safety But I recommend medical clinics and awareness programs for the workforce because training will not effective for them

* Change attitudes

Employee attitudes must be changed in to a good direction. They had to addressed by the company management and let them know that they are valuable for the company and company is concerned about the workforce.

* Handling grievance
To handle grievance of workers, HR department should appoint a person from HR department and that person should visit the factory accordingly to find problems which workers faced.

* Outside Investigation

The company has already consulted occupational health specialist form Labor Department. Management should let him to investigate the whole incident without involving company representatives. After getting the final report of the investigation it can be considered which are being suggested by the officer and put the best solution which could make both management and workers happy. * Short Brakes
Introduce a short break system to make sure workers are having a small break during the working time because the workers who do the hard works need to have a brake to avoid from heath issues. * Win-Win Situation
Making win-win situation is a must. Because both parties were suffered due to this situation. Management and workers must come to an agreement to have a period of one month to implement the final solution. Workers view about the company is a turning point because employees can be changed quickly against the company or towards the company

Increase the productivity without affecting workers health and safety conditions

After analyzing the situation with investigation report long term effective plan has to be implemented. Because short term plans will never be able to keep the productivity at good position for long period. Also the matter cannot eliminated without proper plan

* Introduce proper health & safety policy

Health and Safety is not only important because of it protect employees but also it will increase productivity by keeping employees happy and healthy. Employee should ensure that their work place is free of hazard. * Change the employee attitudes

Employee attitudes must be changed towards to the organization. They had to addressed by the company management and let them know that they are valuable for the company and company is concerned about the workforce * Introduce job rotation procedure

By introducing procedure employees can get more knowledge and new skills also boring and fed-up feelings will be gone away. So it will be caused to motivate employees and increase productivity

* Motivate employees

Gain employee motivation will effective directly to the Productivity. When employees are not happy to work their effectiveness will be automatically goes down also when they are motivated to do their jobs their effectiveness will increase to maximum level. Therefore motivating workforce will directly cause to increase the productivity.

* Implement a Proper Communication Channel

It seems company doesn’t have a Proper communication channel that is why union took such an action against company. They could make complain, yes. But it not proving there is good communication channel. Also management didn’t communicate with employees then it shows upward and downward communication issues are there.

* Matching machines with workers
Machines should be match with its workers. Management should investigate with the occupational health officer whether current machines and workers who work with those machines are matched or not. All the machines should be checked with recognized technicians.

* Aria Automating
The particular aria can be automated if it is possible with the technology. Machines are built for get the works done which people can’t do so the automating that process may be the cure for issue. But I recommend to follow this step as last step. Since this can be caused to demotivate employees because it is replacing people with machine and kind of overtaking job opportunities by a machine

* Introduce Earnings
Financial incentives will always work for the good. Allow employees to do overtime during the festive seasons will motivate the workforce. Also provide transport facilities for workers who work late night

* Outsourcing the particular process
This step is a slipping step after the outsource the process it will no longer 100% Company’s responsibility to take care of H & S like before. But speaking of humanity it is not that much good