Management
Retaining High Performing Employees
Employees leave organizations for various reasons. Wendy’s company has, therefore, come up with different strategies to retain their employees, especially the high performing ones, to make them feel valued and engaged so as to keep them. These methods of retention have a significant effect on the Wendy’s Company’s turnover rate.
Wendy’s Company offers training to their employees to reinforce their sense of value. Through training its employees, the company helps them to achieve their goals and make sure that the employees have a firm understanding of what they are required to do in their jobs, which continues enhancing their productivity (Plunkett, 2008).
The Wendy’s Company has also come up with a mentoring program combined with a goal-oriented system of feedback. They provide a structured mechanism for designing a good relationship within the company and also serve as a firm foundation for retaining the employees and helping them grow. With a mentoring program, one employee is paired with another one who has more experience with the aim of developing specific competencies and enhancing an individualized career development plan (Plunkett, 2008).
The Wendy’s Company also recognizes that communication is important in the process of building and maintenance of credibility. The company has, therefore, introduced a staff advisory council that receives the opinions and suggestions of workers and forwards them to the top management. The employees then feel appreciated and cared for, and thus have no need to look for that recognition or appreciation in another firm.
The Wendy’s Company also offers competitive salaries, bonus programs, and other compensations and benefits to show their employees that they are important for the organization. This factor has an impact on the company’s retention rate.
Voluntary and Forced Separation
Separation of employment is the process of the management of employment termination, whether voluntary or involuntary. The company has to ethically, rationally, and consistently handle the terminations as it affects productivity, retention, and recruitment of employees.
In voluntary terminations, it is the policy of the Wendy’s Company that the employees should provide at least 14 days’ notice of their intent to separate from Wendy’s. This allows the company a reasonable amount of time to arrange for transfer of uncompleted jobs. The employee is required to avail a written resignation letter. The human resource department is then given a copy of that letter to facilitate the returning of all company’s property and make a review of the post-termination benefit status of the employee. Employees who have security clearance are also required to clear with the security officer before their last employment day.
In involuntary termination, before any action is taken to dismiss the employee, it is the policy of the Wendy’s Company that the manager requests a review by the termination review board. The board reviews the situation and determines whether the dismissal is justified. If the termination board makes a recommendation that the employee should be dismissed, the manager and a representative from human resources are required to notify the employee.
If dismissal of employment happens because of the death of an employee, the manager should inform the benefits administrator after receiving the news of the death of that employee. The person in charge of the benefits administration is then required to process all the relevant beneficiary payments from the different benefit plans. The payment is then made to the estate of the deceased employee.
Assistance Programs
Wendy’s recognizes that employees may go through problems that may have a negative effect on their performance at work. The company has, therefore, come up with the employee assistance program to assist its workers who may be going through work-related or personal problems to have access to valued counseling services. Provision of counseling services to workers helps the company to eliminate distractions that prevent staff from reaching their full potential. It also helps the company to retain their employees, since provision of a good assistance program illustrates to the employees that they are valued by the company.
The challenges facing employees and that are availed to counseling services include drug and alcohol abuse, grief, abusive households, relocation, workplace stress, legal issues, child and elder care.
The Wendy’s Company also refers employees elsewhere for outplacement, health and stress counseling, and for handling poor performance. It may also use outplacement providers for those members of their staff who are losing their jobs. The providers of counseling services are skilled workers who have received training for assisting employees to solve their problems. Counselors may also refer employees to other trained and skilled specialists or volunteers in local societies
The Wendy’s Company encourages its employees to seek assistance programs and gives them assurance of confidentiality for any given referral treatment. The reason is that the company is aware that for the assistance program to succeed, the employees should have reasons to believe that the information they are sharing will be kept confidential. Taking part in the program is voluntary and never affects the chances of getting employed or promoted. To further encourage the employees to participate, Wendy’s provides the employee assistance program to its employees free of charge. The long-term treatment cost or rehabilitation service is set out in the mental and health care insurance plans. The employee assistance program is structured in such a way that it provides access to quality service providers that can give proper care when it is required (Kurtz & Boone, 2008).
Separation Policy Gaps
As Wendy’s continues to grow and change, the everyday operations may also progress away from the set policies, including the separation policy, which may create gaps. Failure to update these policies in order to address current and continuing organizational changes may lead to inherent gaps that may have adverse consequences, such as civil suits. Another gap in Wendy’s separation policy is that the worker is not provided with a copy of the written warning letters that eventually lead to their dismissal. The employee may claim in a court of law that they never got the letter, and, thus, the termination was unlawful (Jansen, 2007).
Protection from Litigation
To address these challenges, the Wendy’s Company ensures that all its relevant policies are reviewed together with procedures and guidelines. They include the language used in the policy, or the enforceable language items and relevant separation policy statements. During the review of separation policy and other policies, Wendy’s evaluates existing policy forms and makes comparison to best practice or any other compliance mandates. The company also makes a recommendation for changes that should be made to existing policies, including the separation policy and delineates any extra policies that ought to be executed. This helps the Wendy’s Company to make efficient preparations for future policy awareness activities. This will also prevent cases of employees who have been involuntarily discharged from work from taking legal actions against the company. The dismissed persons may also be made to sign a copy of the dismissal letter to prevent them from alleging that they never received the warning letters leading to their dismissal from work (Jansen, 2007).
Formal Discipline Policies
The Wendy’s Company has progressive discipline policy and procedures that are structured to avail an action process to enhance and stop repetition of undesirable employee behavior. It has been constructed in line with Wendy’s organizational values, employment laws, and best practices of the human resources.
Wendy’s offers counseling and verbal warning to an employee who may be wrong. A supervisor schedules a meeting with the employee to bring to attention their conduct or performance that is in question. The supervisor then discusses the problem with the employee while clearly stating the expected steps in order to improve performance or solve the problem (Kurtz, & Boone, 2008).
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The Wendy’s Company puts emphasis on early resolution of any disputes that may arise among its employees and other stakeholders. The company has embraced various mechanisms to solve the arising disputes. For instance, if the dispute regards an employee, the company tries to work things out with the supervisor or discuss the matter with the human resource department. Another alternative dispute resolution methods used by the Wendy’s Company include holding a conference with representatives from the worker’s solution program.
Wendy’s has adapted the policy statements set out by the Employment Commission in order to ensure that it resolves its disputes amicably without involving the courts. These statements provide that voluntarism, fairness, and confidentiality are considered when solving the disputes using alternative methods (Atlas, Huber & Trachte-Huber, 2000).
Mediation is another approach that the company applies for resolving disputes. It is specifically applied for the special instances where certain issues have arisen. Some of them include race, age, sexual, and other legal issues that cannot be solved by other proposed dispute mechanisms. Arbitration is also applied to support the three mechanisms of dispute resolution methods that the company uses. In this case, the party has to endure some expenses to finance the process. The approaches taken by the company to resolve its issues both at the management and subordinate level have helped the company to reduce expenses and save image. If the dispute relates to an employee, during mediation or arbitration, the employee does not need to hire a lawyer. If he chooses not to bring a lawyer, the company also takes part in the resolution process without a lawyer (Atlas, Huber & Trachte-Huber, 2000).