Part A: Communication

The organizational culture is comprised of expectations, values, and practices that inform and guide the actions of all team members within an organization. In Dyson, culture play an important role as this will help in enhancing innovation and helps in attaining the goals of the company. The culture within an organization informs employees about how they should act, think and perceive things in the social environment. Through it employees remain engaged and committed to the goals and will help in creating a positive culture, becoming aligned with the culture and goals of the organization consequently organizations are required to focus on these aspects.

Source: (Kodama, 2017)

The presentation slide pack highlights the key HR challenges that my client Dyson currently faces and with that evaluation of one important area is done.  I am going to highlight the company’s background and the key HR challenges for the next five years. My presentation then turns to the important Area Of Organizational Culture and how that is influencing the company currently works.  Later, a conclusion is formed and recommendations are given so that client can improve its culture.

• Dyson was established in the UK by James Dyson in 1991. Dyson offers a wide range of products and operates in the home appliances industry and manufacturer and sell vacuum cleaner, lights, fans, and hand dryers. Dyson invested a huge amount in the expansion of the company and expanded its operations across the US, UK, and Singapore (Dyson, 2022). The company is inculcating strategies for future growth and to be competitive in the global market. James Dyson and his team are constantly working toward creating the best products to meet the demands of the public by undergoing strategic research and development.

Source: (Statista, 2022)

• The above figure shows the expected growth of the vacuum cleaner market and indicates more opportunities for Dyson to expand at the global level. Dyson is amongst the major players in the vacuum cleaner market at a global level and accounts for half of the share in the UK market. However, the main demand for vacuum cleaners is from Asian countries such as India and China (Dyson, 2022). The above chart clearly shows the key players in the market giving the company stiff competition, depicting a range of product segments, regional analysis, and representing the market size (Statista, 2022). The strategic growth will help the company to grow its operations beyond normal expectations.

This illustrates the key HR challenges that the company could face in the next five years including;

Workforce shortage: Dyson as a manufacturer, focus on its workforce as an important asset. Any shortage of employees would directly impact the production capability of the firm.

Talent Retention: As an innovative culture is important for Dyson it has to focus on talent retention. Retaining talent is a contemporary issue as most companies are facing an issue of higher turnover.

Workforce planning: As most of the manufacturing work is automated it depends on robotics and artificial intelligence. This reduces the amount and frequency of workplace relations and can lead to high employee resistance.

Dyson promotes an innovative culture and to do that seeks to ensure that employees contribute more and create an environment in which problem-solving is encouraged. Benefits of this type of organizational culture include; maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage, engaged employees, innovation in the range of products, and high levels of staff retention. This helps to better use the talent of employees and assists in retaining the talent within the organization. This also helps the company to ensure that they have a high-quality human asset in the form of employees who by streamlining individual goals help the company to achieve its strategic objectives.

Theme A Challenge: Organizational Culture

There is considerable research concerning the manufacturing industry. In Dyson’s case, job insecurity among employees appears to be an issue. This may be because the focus of the company is more on creativity and innovation than it is on developing security amongst employees about their job roles and responsibilities. Furthermore, the career growth of employees is an issue because all the decisions and actions taken in this area by Dyson are taken by reference to innovation and performance criteria. These criteria should perhaps be altered to ensure that employees can also feel like they belong, and can feel safe within the organization’s culture. Employees should be constantly motivated so that they can work effectively and thereby enhance the performance of the company.

Employees in Dyson appear to experience discrimination as some feel that they are not treated based on the contribution that they give if it does not meet the key criteria. Discrimination based on employees’ performance against these limited criteria is an issue as no such steps are taken in Dyson to improve their performance if it is not focused on these employees face discrimination in Dyson because the company appears primarily focused on innovation and creativity ((Reuters, 2021). This is one of the significant problems, as it may not be appropriate to focus only on this kind of behavior. Growth is necessary, but employees need to feel value irrespective of this.  

For Dyson, I recommend the following actions:

• The focus should be on workforce retention and retaining talent by providing employees with career development opportunities, proper working conditions, and higher flexibility.
• Other, human resource strategies need to be implemented such as training and development and recruitment of employees.
• Feedback needs to be given on a monthly basis to employees so that workers can contribute more and support the unique culture of the company. 

Dyson can be successful in the market by widening the features of the culture and also by adopting different practices that help in developing the organizational culture of the company. For example, it could encourage a culture where trust and job security become core values. By adopting this recommendation the company can strengthen its culture and ensure the retention of employees (Bennett, Saundry & Fisher, 2020). This will help the company to motivate employees to achieve the organizational objectives and further sustain performance within the organization, ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in its operations. 

Organizations are transferring from rigidly fixed locations to remote embracing flexible work arrangements. There are different flexible work arrangement settings described by CIPD (2019). This supports the hand of the employees regarding the hours of work, where to work, and when to work.  Flexible working may need to be adopted by current organizations in order to help them to retain the workforce and attract talented employees.  In the case of Dyson, the issues in the company are such that the focus is on innovation when employees are facing issues related to flexibility. They have to perform in a culture where performance is measured primarily on the basis of their innovation and contribution to the success of the organization. Dyson is an organization that looks for stability and full-time work and the culture and values of the company are such that they require employees with stable and more standardized roles. According to De Menezes & Kelliher, (2011) organizations are still using older industrial working practices in this new information age work patterns.  In this information age, organizations are facing changes in the way that operations take place. It becomes an important element for organizations like Dyson to accommodate flexible working for employees. There are various benefits of flexible working for organizations as well as for employees. Such as organizations may find it easier to attract talented employees that work from different locations which can lead to diversity in the organization. With a diverse workforce, the company can also look to boost innovation in the organization. On the other side, employees will remain satisfied and enjoy flexible working arrangements. Austin-Egole, Iheriohanma, & Nwokorie, (2020) highlighted the link between motivation and productivity as when employees are satisfied they contribute more and perform well and to the best of their ability. The contemporary working environment is changing continuously with a mobile, diverse, and technologically enabled workforce. All of these are influence the performance of workers and overall organizational productivity.

Communication Overview

Over the past few years, flexible working has become highly effective as nearly 83% of employers agree that the shift to remote work and allowing flexible working has been a success for their organization. The dimension of flexibility that workers most look for is the freedom to determine when to work. In 2019, nearly 80% of employees turn down a job because the organization was not giving flexible working schedules. De Menezes & Kelliher (2011) in support of this stated that the rigid structure of 9 to 5 jobs and five days in a week is breaking as employees are more concerned now about the flexibility in their working. The flexible working pattern is mainly attractive to the emergent workforce who are mainly millennials and post-millennials who consider it a key priority. In the UK, there are a number of types of flexible working open to employees such as job sharing, working from home, compressed hours, part-time, annualized hours, and flexitime. With that, employees are often eligible for flexible working when they have worked for employers for the preceding 26 weeks (De Menezes & Kelliher, 2011). In the manufacturing unit, these arrangements are necessary as through that employees can get access to the rights that they have related to flexible working arrangements. In the case of Dyson, as the organization is working in a competitive environment it is important if it is to retain its workers to recognize these emerging trends related to allowing flexibility in working patterns. Even in a manufacturing unit like Dyson, the company can treat workers individually by offering them flexibility in their working hours and location to improve the convenience of work for their employees. Adopting this company can remain operating in accordance with the emerging trends and situation and can continue to attract a large number of human resources bringing more innovation to the organization. In the below sections, recommendations are provided to Dyson as to how it can improve its worker flexibility and at the same time preserve its workforce reward and engagement.

The flexibility in Dyson can be improved through the following interventions:

• Establish which flexible working arrangement practices can ensure an improvement in the performance of the employees. This can be done by conducting a meta-analysis of the market related to manufacturing units. Sometimes it is difficult to implement flexible working in manufacturing firms that are more focused on innovation so in that case, there is a need to develop a culture first where remote work is appreciated and promoted. Thus need to be done by April 2022.
• Following this, actions can be taken to implement flexible working practices: such as checking out worker and management participation and improving aspects such as job descriptions, training, and development, reconsidering benefits and perks. All these need to be done by the end of July 2022 so that flexible working practices are implemented and results can be monitored in a timely basis.
• Moreover, Dyson should develop a reward and benefits strategy in which employees who can work from remote areas can select what benefits they are looking for. This can create a transparent employer and employee contract regarding flexible working arrangements.

All these interventions will help Dyson to ensure innovation in its manufacturing of vacuum cleaners and in developing a culture where innovation and continuous improvement will be the core area but which embraces flexible working arrangements.

The automation in the manufacturing unit can lead to many challenges. Manufacturing units are employing robots to meet the demand of customers as they can efficiently and quickly complete tasks to remain competitive and productive. With these benefits, more manufacturing organizations are introducing increasing levels of automation to the assembly line.  In 2017, nearly 32 percent of robots were used by companies which indicated a dependence of companies on technology (Card & Nelson 2019). The challenge this presents is how the human workforce will adapt to these changes and accepts technological advancements in a positive way.  In the case of Dyson, the company produces and offers innovative and quality products to its customers and the strategy that is used by the company is to pursue product differentiation.  Through automation, the company can give effect to this strategy. Robots can compete with blue-collar jobs in this respect as they can perform these processes increasingly more accurately than humans (Manyika, Lund, & Sanghvi, 2017). This means the technology can optimize production but the main concern is that people can make a difference. Jobs in the manufacturing industry require human qualities such as creativity, intuition, and care.  Automation is done mainly for processes and tasks that are time-consuming, repetitive, and straining for human resources to perform. With increased digitalization and automation in the workplace, human resources can be moved to roles that require more soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and problem-solving.

Client Background

Artificial intelligence and machine learning in manufacturing can result in an increase in efficiencies and help in creating new business opportunities. With the help of machine learning, one of the manufacturing issues that can be solved is the reduction in waste by thoroughly identifying faulty components and tracing manufacturing defects in the production process. Machine learning in the case of Dyson helps in predicting equipment failures before they happen with the resulting unnecessary downtime being reduced.  Machine learning algorithms can predict equipment failure with an accuracy of 92% and this allows organizations to plan their schedule more effectively, and improve product quality and asset reliability (Manyika, Lund, & Sanghvi, 2017). Moreover, the use of machine learning in a manufacturing unit ensures quality in the delivery of services and products.  ML-based computer vision algorithms differentiate between faulty products and good products and lead to automating the supervision and inspection process by learning from historical data. These algorithms only need good training sets and samples to help in identifying defects. Hence, machine learning offers the opportunity for significant savings over visual quality control in manufacturing. Additionally, improvements can be seen in logistic and inventory management, product development and cyber security, and robotics.  Efficiency in the manufacturing industry often reflects logistic capabilities so in this respect, workforce automation can help out in reducing costs and boosting efficiencies. It is estimated that time-consuming tasks such as paperwork and logistics cost businesses nearly $171,340 (Bughin, Hazan, & Subramaniam, 2018). For Dyson, product development is also of major concern, and machine learning can help in improving and designing existing products.  For that, data is collected and processed so that products can be developed as per the demand of customers.  Some of the issues connected with machine learning solutions are that due to such technology the organization relies on their technology platforms both on the cloud and on their premises to function effectively. Moreover, modern manufacturing relies more on a human workforce but in order to control rising costs, it is important to use robots and machine learning.

Manufacturing firms like Dyson facilitate their operations with the resulting HRM implications; In this respect, people analytics has emerged as a significant source of HR data on which organizations can make decisions related to HR practices. HR analytics is defined for these purposes as the application of multiple analytical methods that address the diversity of big data whether unstructured or structured to provide estimative results and yield predictive, actionable, and prescriptive skills. In the case of Dyson, the company has estimative results upon which predictions of the operations of the company using the business model to drive the HR culture. In generating data analysis it can access large amounts of data captured through the digital HRM platforms. Dyson has so much data to filter and use this for determining necessary HR practices and strategies. It already uses machine learning for tracking faults in products. According to Bughin, Hazan, & Subramaniam, (2018) real-time information on actions, sentiments, employee engagement, location, productivity, and aspirations is useful in retaining the talent in the organization is now captured in ways that earlier were difficult to get.

Key HR Challenges

 The interventions that can be done by Dyson are:

• Identifying those who are resistant to change and who are facing issues because of automation. This data can be used for determining HR issues that can be having an impact on the performance of employees. This can be done by the end of April 2022.
• Moreover, machine learning can impact the perceptions of employees regarding the safety and security of their job. As automation leads to the loss of jobs there is a need to develop focus groups where workers can present their views.
• Dyson can create an audit to identify automated work systems and machine learning platforms the categories of HR big data that are currently assimilated and specify how these can be utilized to benefit the organizational and individual expectations from engaging and developing a productive workplace.

Dyson’s strategic aspirations for its continued growth in its transnational markets will be enhanced by the recommendations that have been made in this portfolio specifically;

Worker participation and engagement: To enhance the organizational culture and facilitate worker participation a culture investigation will identify the current traits of organizational practice. This will boosts workers’ morale and ensure that they contribute more to the organization. This discussion will help the company to develop a culture where along with innovation, diversity and inclusion and workers engagement can be attained.

Recognizing the efforts of employees: The performance of employees can be enhanced when they feel recognized for their efforts. The worker’s flexibility can help employees at Dyson to think beyond innovation and work for both personal and professional goals. When employees get that flexibility they will contribute more and remain connected and retained in the organization for a longer run.

Optimizing people analytics:   People analytics can be used to determine emerging HR practices in manufacturing units. An organizational audit of its automated work systems will identify the categories of HR big data that the organization currently specifies and collects how this data can be utilized to optimize workplace HR practice. When assimilated, these will enhance manager and worker expectations for a productive and equitable work environment.  

References

Austin-Egole, I. S., Iheriohanma, E. B. J., & Nwokorie, C. (2020). Flexible working arrangements and organizational performance: An overview. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 25(5), 50-59.

Bennett, T., Saundry, R., & Fisher, V. (2020). Managing Employment Relations. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bughin, J., Hazan, E., & Subramaniam, A. (2018). Skill shift: Automation and the future of the workforce. McKinsey Global Institute, 1, 3-84.

Card, D., & Nelson, C. (2019). How automation and digital disruption are shaping the workforce of the future. Strategic HR Review.

De Menezes, L. M., & Kelliher, C. (2011). Flexible working and performance: A systematic review of the evidence for a business case. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13(4), 452-474.

Dyson, (2022). About us. Retrieved From: https://www.dyson.co.uk/en

Kim, D., & Kim, J. (2021). Is innovation design-or technology-driven? Citation as a measure of innovation pollination. World Patent Information, 64, 102010.

Kodama, M. (2017). Unique New Product Innovation Based on Holistic Leadership: A Case Study of Dyson. In Developing Holistic Leadership. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Manyika, J., Lund, S., & Sanghvi, S. (2017). Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation. McKinsey Global Institute, 150.

McKinsey, (2022). Business Functions. Retrieved From: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/organizing-for-the-future-nine-keys-to-bec 

Reuters, (2021). Dyson unlawful overtime. Retrieved From: https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/dyson-supplier-ata-confirms-instances-of-unlawful-overtime-hours/88155771oming-a-future-ready-company

Statista, (2022). Vacuum cleaner market. Retrieved From: https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/household-appliances/small-appliances/vacuum-cleaners/worldwide#key-market-indicators

Wheatley, D. (2017). Employee satisfaction and use of flexible working arrangements. Work, employment and society, 31(4), 567-585.