There are various social shortcomings that H&M Company faces. Social issues are complex for H&M. one of the significant problems in H&M is the utilization of unregulated sweatshops that offer temperamental work unique open doors in a country like Bangladesh. As well as, staff feels the outcomes of the low wages they are offered, unfortunate working circumstances, and laborers’ privileges to weak individuals, particularly ladies and youngsters. The company takes advantage of young children between the ages of 12-17 who are employed. The company is violating the child’s rights, and to make it worst, these engaged children work more than twelve hours a day. These unfortunate working conditions in the stockpile chains require unique assets due to the intricacy of creating money with a poor correspondence foundation. For instance, representatives will be compelled to work in dangerous working conditions and climate for extended periods. In 2012 and 2013, awful fire and building breakdown events took many assembly line laborers’ lives (H&M, 2006).
A private enterprise is a financial framework wherein people or organizations own capital great given market interest on the lookout. This is known as a market economy. The ideal type of private enterprise is an unregulated economy private enterprise. This is in the same place as private people excessive and permits them to contribute, sell, trade labor and products at any cost they feel fit.
In 2013 Rana Plaza processing plant imploded in Bangladesh, yet little headway has been made to further develop work conditions for piece of clothing laborers. Since this horrendous occurrence, which is viewed as the world’s most awful piece of clothing production line catastrophe, numerous specialists have been found working in similar circumstances (Student, 2020). It very well may be found out that H&M has not respected its obligation to guarantee the wellbeing of its representatives in Bangladesh. Nonetheless, H&M has been considered the best entertainer in the inventory network on work and climate issues.
In 2010, twenty representatives kicked the bucket in a fire at H&M supply plant Garib and Garib, and this was a result of the absence of unsatisfactory fire exit and security components (Djogo & Morrison 2020). H&M has cooperated with Accord to revamp and make their industrial facilities in Bangladesh alright for their workers. H&M vows to amend difficult circumstances in its industrial agreement facilities yet, has still not done so. Brands are moving requests from different nations into the province, for example, Bangladesh, due to higher benefits. Bangladesh plants trade 85.9 percent making it the second exporter of a piece of clothing.
Solutions
One answer for H&M unregulated sweatshops is for the public authority to carry out regulations around a reasonable level of investment. This ought to guarantee no current servitude is training inside H&M association and set prerequisites for them to distribute articulations expressing what has been done or what is in progress to handle cutting edge servitude in their store network. Authorizing the Labor market regulation in all piece of clothing industrial facilities to survey social furthermore, ecological circumstances ought to incorporate fire wellbeing. Likewise, maintainable economic accords, review, and review should be done and stay straightforward.
Government should implement a policy on the age of workers employed in industries such as H&M Company to avoid child labor cases. Anyone company that violates the policy should face adverse consequences.
Working time should be regulated to 10 hours a day for any employee. Working for long hours makes one feel exhausted and reduces concentration at work, hence poor performance. Wages should also be increased to a reasonable amount to enable employees to sustain their family needs. Paid annual leaves should also be considered, as well as health leave.
Comparison
One solution that I would recommend for H&M Company concerns the employees’ working hours. Compared with the other solutions, working hours contribute to the total production of the company as well as the psychological health of the employees. Fire control and safety for the employees is a role of each company to protect their employees against hazards like fire; hence H&M Company is responsible for the safety of their workers. Since employees below the age of 18 would not provide quality work compared to adult employees, H&M should consider employing workers above eighteen years of age to get jobs done faster and efficiently. Therefore, reducing the working hours would be incredible since it affects both the production and psychological health of the employees. Moreover, paid and health leaves help improve the quality of work out. An increase in wages will enable families to get enough funds to gather for their children’s needs, hence reducing the rate of child labor occurrence cases.
However, there is a great urge to allocate resources to this area of implementing flexible working hours for employees within H&M Company. They are progressively well known in the advanced working spot and are increasingly more typical across various ventures. In any case, numerous organizations’ proprietors and directors have worried about the advantages of flexible working. That is why it’s critical to comprehend, assuming they are appropriate for your business and your representatives.
The worry behind adaptable it is reasonable to work hours. Numerous organizations trust it to be expensive and useless, with an adverse effect on the nature of work. Be that as it may, concentrating on what was completed in the most recent five years shows the inverse (Rana & Tajuddin 2021). They resoundingly highlight flexible working hours as the pointer for expanded efficiency and inspiration in the working environment.
Flexible working can take on many structures, whether flexible time, shift working, or occupation sharing, so ensure you know what you need to propose to your representatives and the connected advantages. This was a significant driver behind representatives driving Starbucks to change their booking strategy once again in 2014 (Djogo & Morrison 2020). Representatives need, and ought to have, a decent balance between fun and serious activities. The option to recuperate and re-energize their batteries permits them to perform better at work— cheerful representatives and more valuable workers. However, there is a need to urgently change this area in H&M to improve work efficiency and productivity.
Stakeholders
Board of Directors
Board of Directors Board of directors forms a significant part of an organization. They have interests in the company’s success and achievement of its goals. Therefore, with the change in working time in H&M Company to increase productivity and efficiency of work performance, this board has the required powers to initiate the difference for a better working environment and increased productivity within the organization.
Production Manager
due to the production department facing many challenges in the production of quality clothing and high demand for clothes exceeding those produced by H&M, the production manager would be a good stakeholder in ensuring that this initiative of change in working time is made possible.
Non-Governmental Organization
Different non-governmental organizations are fighting for human rights. A non-governmental organization like World Health Organization is a stakeholder that focuses on employees’ mental health within an organization. With the change in working time initiative, the organization would be interested in making the working hours flexible for employees within H&M to decrease the number of depression among employees. It would also support the wage increment and health leaves for employees in H&M Company.
Investors
Investors play a significant role in implementing an effective change since increased productivity and efficiency in H&M means increased profitability on their side. This group of stakeholders has power over the evolution of working time initiative for a better H & H&M. the success of H&M Company means their success in terms of profit level.
Team leader Employee
The employee is another crucial stakeholder who needs to be part of the working time change initiative. They are the ones who face the work pressure of working long hours with low wages. They get stressed due to long working hours with no health or leave allowances, hence crucial in taking part in working time change initiative.
Members of Leading Coalition
The leading coalition that would ensure a successful change of working time within H&M are namely:
- Board of directors
The presence of a board of directors would help change to flexible working time in H&M since they are interested in ensuring that the company is competitive in the market with sustainable production of quality clothes.
- Production Manager
The presence of a production manager would help change to flexible working time for employees since the whole company’s reputation depends on the efficiency of this department. With relaxed and stress-free employees, the company will be assured of fashionable and high-quality clothes and fulfill the available demand gap.
- Employee team leader
A team leader for employees would help change the working time initiative since they face the challenge of long working hours. The team leader will be responsible for explaining the in-depth challenge to the panel and the benefits the company would get when the change is implemented in terms of quality and increased production rate.
- Non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organizations like WHO are responsible for employees’ mental health within firms. However, their presence in the leading coalition would help fight for a decrease in working hours to flexible working time to reduce depression caused by stress, leading to increased mental health-related problems. The stakeholder will also battle for wage increment, health, and leave flexibilities.
Vision
To produce high quality and increased fashionable clothes in line with the increasing market demands and to create better working conditions for employees.
Communication to Stakeholders
We are emailing all stakeholders concerning the change initiative, attaching all necessary information from the gap existing in H&M Company and the significance of flexible working times. The report will also contain what flexible working times entail.
Force Field Analysis
- The change is expensive
- Increase in number of employees
- Increased production
- Quality clothes produced
Barriers to Change
- Lack of enough funds to increase employee wages
- Insufficient funds to make paid leaves for employees
- Employee resistance to change
- Lack of skilled labor
Recommendations
- Increase investors to get more funds
- Take a long-term loan
- Organize a workshop to educate employees and the whole company staff members about the change
- Employ highly qualified labor
Sustainable Change
Different players have to team up for a sustainable change to prevail within H&M Company. These players include the H&M leadership, who clearly state and remind employees of the change’s vision, making the change their routine organizational culture adhering to every aspect of the change. The company has to maintain the alignment of the company structure with change to ensure a sustainable change is achieved.
Conclusion
To conclude, despite H&M being successful in the fashion clothing line, it has different gaps that make it lag. These include child abuse through violating children’s rights, poor wage pay, poor working conditions, and long working hours of more than ten hours a day. However, these gaps can be solved by changing the culture within the organization. Flexible working time is one of the solutions towards solving the openings available in H&M Company. For this change initiative to be effective, stakeholders such as NGOs, investors, production managers, board of directors, and employee team leaders should participate in leading a coalition for a successful change to take effect. These stakeholders play a significant role in ensuring the interests of H&M are achieved. Leadership and cultural structure need to align with the difference for a sustainable change within H&M Company.
References
Djogo, N., & Morrison, M. (2020). Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M): Should Fast Fashion Slow Down?. The Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
H&M. (2006). The H&M way. https://about.hm.com/content/dam/hmgroup/groupsite/documents/en/hm-way/HM%20Way_en.pdf
Rana, M. B., & Tajuddin, S. A. (2021). Circular economy and sustainability capability: the case of HM. In Upgrading the Global Garment Industry. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Student. (2020, March 22). H & M and The Gap: Fashion Made by Children – Child Slave Labor News. Cslabornews.org. https://cslabornews.org/2020/03/22/h-m-and-the-gap-fashion-made-by-children/
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