Managing human resources in any business organization is one of the most essential tasks, notably because it ensures the performance of the business remains high at all times. The overall outcome in organizational performance is attributed to effective and efficient human resource management, which entails having good communication channels, appropriate training, and motivation, significantly influencing individual employees’ performance. This paper aims to analyze and discuss the human resource management scheme of Throwback Brewery in New Hampshire, a partnership between two businesswomen. The main focus will include the robust system of managing its human resources that successfully beat all odds in New Hampshire with a commendable turnover rate of 5% against that of all businesses at 76%. According to the case provided for the Throwback Brewery Company, the efforts in managing human resources seem to work well and efficiently. Given the statistics on employee retention, general satisfaction, and motivation on the employee’s end, the human resource department led by Annette and Nicole is indeed performing adequately. However, the operational part of human resource management must be changed so that the functions of the leaders become properly defined. This paper will also consider designing a new human resource management system for Throwback, providing recommendations for the company to improve its performance management and appraisal system.
Efficiency Assessment in Human Resource Management at Throwback Brewery
Having observed the existing human resources management system for Throwback Brewery in its wholesomeness, it is undeniably true that the system has achieved a significant milestone given the overall company’s outcome. First, it is essential to acknowledge the hierarchies within the organization and how they function. Looking at the organizational hierarchy, Annette and Nicole respectively represent the Director and the President, two of the highest individuals in the company; based on this form of organization, Annette as the Director and Nicole as the President seem to have equal power within the organization since there is no one above them in the hierarchy to whom they are required to report. The power equality at the top level of the organization also spells a sense of equal responsibilities, and therefore, both Annett, the Director, and Nicole, the President, are equally important to the business as they carry out the essential management roles in Throwback, including managing the other subordinates (Amayah & Gedro, 2014).
The functions of the top officials at Throwback Breweries observed from a transactional standpoint, seem to illustrate a responsible leadership and management body led by the founding partners. As in other large business organizations, the transactional part of human resource management is managed at Throwback Breweries at the administrative level. Through the devotion and dedication that Annette and Nicole have for their employees across the board, they can ensure that all transactions that are responsible for the company’s survival are seriously addressed. For example, it is reported in the case study that salaries are always paid on time, and sometimes, when increments of financial benefits become necessary, employees become surprised to find out that their wages have increased even without explaining why they received more pay. This is a sign of the concerns that the top management on the daily operations that the company performs, such that all tasks and routines are conducted properly and are maintained in a consistent manner, resulting in stability that the company seems to have (Anwar & Abdullah, 2021).
Human resources management at an operation level, Throwback Breweries, through its Team Leads, performs exceptionally well, and the strategy they employ seems to be working very well. The Team Leads is the second class management level in the hierarchy of the company’s management. Notable recognized staff at this level include the Head Chef, the Head Brewer, the Lead Farmer, and the Lead Server. Following the leadership and management hierarchy in Throwback Breweries, the Team Leads must report to the top managers, notably Annette and Nicole. The Lead Team is responsible for carrying out the operational management tasks of the company to ensure its continued development and advancement by focusing on achieving mid-range goals, which also set the pace for the long-term operational development of the company (Salas‐Vallina et al., 2021). In this section, the Team Leads, although answerable and supervised by the top managers, are left alone to exercise their functions with some degree of autonomy to make critical decisions that might directly impact the status of Throwback Brewery. The Team Leads, with the four selected leaders, one from every department serving for over three years, led the charge on and performed tasks including offering assistance in training new employees and basic scheduling.
The most important role in human resource management where Throwback top management is at the strategic level, where Annett and Nicole understand that their decisions and actions could have long-term consequences and, therefore, objectives must be set right. According to the case study, the top managers, Annette and Nicole, hold on to the most essential operational functions that could affect the strategic goals of their business. Although they have delegated some roles of training and making essential schedules to the Team Leads, the most critical functions remain under their watch, including conflict resolution, employees’ compensation planning, development of employees, and most importantly, the critically essential responsibilities of hiring and firing employees. Throwback Brewery’s top management, Annette, and Nicole, achieved a significant milestone, comparing their company’s statistics on several operational and strategic ratings in the business fraternity in the entire New Hampshire. Interestingly, the two leaders, Annette and Nicole, can lead operations and provide stability and a sense of satisfaction to their employees, which is a significant step in managing human resources (Salas‐Vallina et al., 2021). The turnover rate in this company is significantly low, at 5% or less, such that they can retain their 42 employees for quite a long time, compared to a high 75% turnover rate reported to exist in New Hampshire. The case study holds that the two partners believed that they could retain their employees at such a rate more than other businesses did by working hard and concentrating on employees’ development, including hiring the right individuals for the job. This exceptional performance in managing their human resources resulted in a significant positive performance and stability at Throwback Brewery.
Aspects to Improve in Throwback Brewery’s Human Resource Management
It is undeniably true that the human resource management in Throwback Brewery, a New Hampshire-based company, has achieved remarkable success in managing its people and attaining a significant performance. However, this success should not blind everyone concerning the company’s management to Throwback Brewery’s human resources system’s shortcomings that require a revision to increase its achievements. Notably, the two top leaders, Annette and Nicole, representing the director and the president, respectively, do not seem to have explicitly defined separate functions. This observation is based on the fact that the leaders’ functions, as per the case study, are combined, including hiring and firing, compensation, and conflict resolution. It is not possible to point out what exactly the director does and also what the roles of the president are, which makes it difficult not only to understand how they share the responsibilities but also who could be held into account if an unpleasant occasion emerged concerning the relationship among the hierarchies (Salas‐Vallina et al., 2021).
Additionally, the company Throwback Brewery also requires to rethink its leadership in the transactional and operational context of managing its human resources, given the fact that it needs a solid general manager. The company’s role of the General Manager momentarily lies in the hands of Annette, the Director, who is mostly occupied by other essential tasks. She is a major player in the overall management with the assistance of her partner Nicole and the President. The case study points out that the Lead Server is circumstantially forced to take over the role of the General Manager delegated to them by Annette when she gets extremely busy, which she is most of the time. Therefore, Throwback Brewery should reconsider denying its management an essential player who could act efficiently and independently with much focus and dedication to manage the human resources in place of the two top leaders when necessities arise. An independent and defined General Manager would be essential to the performance of the brewery, which would ultimately increase its human resources productivity and probably close the gap in financial well-being that Annette worries so much about, the reason she decided to delay hiring one (Salas‐Vallina, et al., 2021).
A New Performance Management and Appraisal System for Throwback Brewery
Managing people in an organization is a serious task that organizations should be concerned about since employees make up the major stakeholders and are the greatest assets; therefore, their performance matters.Performance management and appraisal systems are essential tools for assessing and improving employees’ performance for the organization’s ultimate good. For Throwback Brewery, a transformation of the systems used for managing performances and appraisals of employees is necessary to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, Throwback should consider identifying their objectives and what goals they are trying to achieve in the long run. For example, it is clear from the case study that the company would wish to increase its wages for its employees, who are said to be struggling to meet their ends and pushed to the limits to consider taking two jobs. Additionally, the company seems to do well with an overwhelming majority of female employees, 100% owned by women. Therefore they should also consider achieving more diversity with female employees as another objective (Amayah & Gedro, 2014).
After recognizing the main objectives that the company wishes to achieve, as noted above, Throwback should consider using the best tool and method for rating their employees’ performance and appraisal. For this particular case, the best method to employ for Throwback is 360-degree feedback to assess and understand what their employees are and how they view one another in the workplace setting. The 360 degrees, although it can sometimes bring about some negative attitudes to some employees, proves to be the best option in this case because it will provide feedback from multiple sources, thanks to its multi-rater nature. Applying this method for assessing performance and appraisal in Throwback, the management will have an opportunity to access a rich set of complete assessments, not just from a single source that may be overly biased (Pindek et al., 2007). The managers will be able to view all the perspectives, from which they could deduce the best information from the feedback which will be used to rectify where problems may have been unnoticeable. The 360-degree feedback method should be adopted by Throwback Brewery notably because the feedback that reaches the higher management offices is always anonymous. Therefore, there would be no threat to teamwork, as it is not easy for animosity to develop among the employees (Collins, 2021).
Additionally, the new performance management and appraisal system at Throwback Brewery must be inclusive of employees for the most part; the company must be in a position to understand that they are the main stakeholders it has. Having the new system typically incorporating the 360-degree feedback model enhances employees’ involvement, and they would feel safer operating honestly during the feedback provision, understanding that the management has made it an employee affair (Collins, 2021). This kind of performance management and appraisal system for Throwback will make it much easier for human resource management activities. There will be increased transparency with feedback, whereby reviewing the effectiveness of the employee’s performance also becomes more accurate. Throwback Brewery’s management could now have the ability to discuss the strategies for improving by discussing accurate issues concerning employees, and come up with an action plan to address them.
Conclusively, managing human resources, as seen from the Throwback Brewery case, is among the most challenging tasks in a business organization, which requires remarkable and unique leadership skills. Against all the odds, Throwback Brewery, through the prowess of its all-women owners, Annette and Nicole, who are also the organization’s top managers, was able to outdo all the other businesses in New Hampshire by achieving remarkable success in various measures. For example, it is commendable that the company can maintain the lowest rate of turnover of 5% and less compared to the general statistics in New Hampshire of 75% turnover, which increases its level of competitiveness. The transactional, operational and strategic levels of managing human resources for the company also seem to have been working efficiently for the most part, notably due to good coordination among the various hierarchies existing. This is an essential point to note, that Throwback’s exceptional management of human resources puts the company at a competitive advantage in the entire New Hampshire. However, the company needs to improve, especially regarding job specifications at the top management. The two founding partners and owners do not seem to have clearly defined roles, which might create obscurity during operations and lead to confusion. The general manager’s role also requires a stable and defined individual, compared to the current activity of delegating its functions to Team Leads, and it could be more effective at the hands of Annette, who is busy most of the time. Throwback must rethink its performance management and appraisal system. It is recommended that the company consider recognizing its long-term goals and objectives and, therefore, design a workable system that could deliver exactly that. The 360-degree feedback system seems to be the best approach for Throwback, given its level of interconnectedness of employees, which would feel considered when their views and perceptions become a key company concern.
References
Amayah, A. T., & Gedro, J. (2014). Understanding generational diversity: Strategic human resource management and development across the generational “divide.” New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 26(2), 36-48.
Anwar, G., & Abdullah, N. N. (2021). The impact of Human resource management practice on Organizational performance. International Journal of Engineering, Business and Management (IJEBM), 5.
Collins, C. J. (2021). Expanding the resource-based view model of strategic human resource management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(2), 331–358.
Pindek, S., Kessler, S. R., & Spector, P. E. (2017). A quantitative and qualitative review of what meta-analyses have contributed to our understanding of human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 27(1), 26-38.
Salas‐Vallina, A., Alegre, J., & López‐Cabrales, Á. (2021). The challenge of increasing employees’ well‐being and performance: How human resource management practices and engaging leadership work together toward reaching this goal. Human Resource Management, 60(3), 333-347.
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