HRM textbook

570 PART 5 EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
The bottom line is that both Jennifer and Mel feel quite
strongly that they need to do something about implementing
a health and safety plan. Now, they want you, their management
consultants, to help them do it. Here s what they
want you to do for them.
Questions
1. Based upon your knowledge of health and safety matters
and your actual observations of operations that are similar
to theirs, make a list of the potential hazardous conditions
employees and others face at LearnInMotion.com.
What should they do to reduce the potential severity of the
top five hazards?
2. Would it be advisable for them to set up a procedure for
screening out stress-prone or accident-prone individuals?
Why or why not? If so, how should they screen them?
3. Write a short position paper on the subject, What
should we do to get all our employees to behave more
safely at work?
4. Based on what you know and on what other dot-coms
are doing, write a short position paper on the subject,
What can we do to reduce the potential problems of
stress and burnout in our company?
CONTINUING CASE
CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
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 highpressure
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
1. How should the firm go about identifying hazardous
conditions that should be rectified? Use checklists such
as those in Figures 16-5 and 16-8 to list at least 10 possible
dry-cleaning store hazardous conditions.
2. Would it be advisable for the firm to set up a procedure
for screening out accident-prone individuals? How
should they do so?
3. 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?
TRANSLATING STRATEGY INTO HR POLICIES & PRACTICES CASE
THE HOTEL PARIS CASE
The New Safety and Health Program
The Hotel Paris s competitive strategy is To use superior guest
service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to
thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and
thus boost revenues and profitability. HR manager Lisa Cruz
must now formulate functional policies and activities that
support this competitive strategy by eliciting the required
employee behaviors and competencies.
Although hazardous conditions might not be the first
thing that comes to mind when you think of hotels, Lisa
Cruz knew that hazards and safety were in fact serious issues
for the Hotel Paris. Indeed, everywhere you look from the
valets leaving car doors open on the driveways to slippery
areas around the pools, to tens of thousands of pounds of
ammonia, chlorine, and other caustic chemicals that the
hotels use each year for cleaning and laundry hotels