ETHICAL SCENARIO Consultancy: 'Fast Cars' rental facility There are 30 staff working for Fast Cars, as well as a CEO, an HR manager and an accountant. Staff turnover is at 15 per cent every month and many of the employees have recorded numerous motor vehicle offences and some even boast criminal records. According to the HR manager the majority of staff are in the age range 20-30 years. There are 28 male employees and two females on staff. The HR manager said, Tt is difficult to find staff... most people who walk in the front door will be given a job ... even if it's only for a week. The HR manager appeared to be almost resigned to the idea that there was no solution to the turnover problems or the standard of staff employed. continued 202 Part 2 Building human resource management systems continued A very ad hoc and casual level of training is provided for new employees. Basically, new employees are assigned to an employee who has worked in the organisation for longer than 1 week. Therefore, a new employee could possibly be trained by someone who has not understood the procedures and potentially could be training the new staff member in ways contrary to normal practice. This also raises the issue of workplace health and safety training. The HR manager explained her rationale for not providing orientation and ongoing training: When you have the level of turnover we have here you stop trying to provide the right training... we just get them in and keep them as long as possible'. An issue for any existing employee who might remain in the organisation for any length of time is that they generally have their requests for training and development denied. One reason is that there are always several staff members away on sick leave or a number who just fail to turn up for work. After observing the staff, many daily practices were identified as being inappropriate, unethical and in some cases dangerous. For example, at the reception desk there were two girls, and each had inappropriate photographs, with discriminatory captions, pinned to noticeboards at their work stations and computer screensavers that were clearly offensive. In the car park six attendants were responsible for cleaning and parking recently returned cars. Within a 1-hour period it was observed that two of the attendants reversed the cars at such a high speed they caused damage to the vehicles. The attendants stepped out of the vehicles, showed no concern and found their actions humorous. Staff then recorded the damage on the previous driver's paperwork. Clearly clients would be unsuspecting until they received notices in the mail and debits on their credit cards. The CEO and the HR manager cited turnover as the rationale behind why they turned a blind eye to these practices. The quality of employees; their recruitment, training and development; and appropriate and ethical practice are paramount in this case scenario. CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS 1 What kind of advice would you give to the HR manager of these employees? 2 What do the employees and their managers need to learn about appropriate (without discrimination) and ethical practice?