Employees: stakeholders of Asda and Kellog's

Employees as Stakeholders in relation to; Asda and Kellogg’s

What is meant by an employee?

Employees are people that work for a business as they are providing their customer service skills to the public.

They are the people who have been selected to work for a company by the managers, this is done by a recruitment process, where the potential employees undergo several tasks to prove their ability to work in a specific department within a business.

E.g. – A person working inside the Asda store or Kellogg’s factory, working in tills or packaging products.

Asda employs around 143,126, whereas, Kellogg’s employ 30,600 as of 2010.

Internal or External?

Employees are internal stakeholders for both businesses as they have a huge influence on the activity which occurs within the business and they are also affected by what goes on in the business. For example, the employee’s rate of work will help the business to run efficiently, increasing profits meaning they will receive wages each month. Also, they work inside of Asda and Kellogg’s whether it is in store or factories, also they are under the managers supervision and they receive wages from the company.

What is involved in being an employee at Asda?

A quote from an actual colleague who works for Asda said, “Most of the time, you’ll find friends through work aswell. In the past I guess I’ve only every worked with really small teams, here its always working with other people. That’s big teams, lots of people you’ve got to know and get along with. Everyday is different at Asda, so every day I might be spotting things out of place, putting things back on the shelf, looking after colleagues, looking after customers, tidying the tills, cleaning up mess and organising colleague breaks.”

As you can see from the quote above an employee is not restricted to just one job, they may be asked, over time, to vary their responsibility across the store.

What is involved in being an employee at Kellogg’s?

What do employee’s hope to gain from Asda and Kellogg’s?

A purpose – They want to know that the jobs that they complete each day have a purpose or reason behind it as it will help them to put more effort into what they do.

For example, if an employee at Asda was to organise an event for children, they would have to know the purpose behind their event as it will motivate them to make the it best they possibly can and it also allows them to know they aren’t wasting their time doing unnecessary work.

Experience/ opportunity – Experience is essential for developing further into other careers in an individuals life. Having a job can create opportunity for people as it could help them develop their knowledge further in specific areas, such as customer service or finance.

For example, If an employee at Kellogg’s wanted to work up to becoming a factory worker, then they could start their career by working in a Kellogg’s factory doing basic jobs which would help them to progress and develop the required skills that they need to become a higher level factory worker.

Also, experience in factories could lead them to having additional employment for other businesses, which will help to widen their career path. This will benefit Kellogg’s as other companies will recognise their high standard of employee’s.

Wages/ pay – This may not be the first thing that comes into an employees mind, however, it is essential to know that they will be receiving pay for the work that they do in order to lead a healthy life and to earn a living in order for them to survive in the real world. I.e. – pay bills.

A Successful business – Employee’s want to be a part or help to develop a successful business as it will determinate them to maintain their standard of work or will help to push their skills further as they feel they want to reach the level of standard that the company has, this could also increase the chance of promotion for the employee. They also want a successful business as it will provide them with wages each month.

If Kellogg’s or Asda weren’t successful businesses, then their employees performance levels would drop due to the fact that the companies profits aren’t well which means that their wages will be affected, this will increase the chance of employee’s losing interest in their work which will have a repetitive effect on the business.

Below are approximate profits for both Kellogg’s and Asda.

KELLOGG’S                                                   ASDA

Secure job – Employee’s want a secure job as it will determine their level of work within the business, a person with a secure job is more likely to perform better as they know they will be a part of the business for a long time and they do not want to let the business down, whereas, a person with an unsecure job is more likely to have a lower standard of performance as they know they will not be a part of the business for much longer.

For example, if an employee, who worked for Kellogg’s, was told that they were going to be made redundant in 3 months time, then their rate of work may drop as they may feel less valued by the company, losing motivation or they know that they will not be a part of the company much longer so they feel as though they do not have to maintain their standard of work.

Employee’s want to know whether their job is secure as it could be their only way of earning money which is needed to help them live a healthy life.

Responsibility – Employee’s want responsibility within a company as it shows that they are trusted by their managers to complete certain jobs. It will also motivate them to work alot harder as having responsibility relies on the individual only, and if they weren’t to fulfil their responsibility then it could increase the chances of losing their job.

For example, If an employee, who worked for Asda, was told that they have to manage the deli department for a temporary time of 3 weeks, it could motivate them to work harder as they have been given the trust to carry out such an important role.

All of the above factors will help an employee work harder, which will benefit the company as their levels of work will affect the businesses profits.

  

How do employees influence the aims of Asda?

Employee’s have a huge impact on influencing the aims of Asda. One of the main aims of asda is to recycle as much waste as possible.

The employee’s can help work towards Asda’s aims by creating events, this is up to the events co ordinator to organise events for the community to participate in.

In the past an event has been carried out in one of the Asda stores in Hampshire. This event consisted of joining forces with Jamies Computer company in order to maximise the rate of recycling old, unused computer machines. The local community had the opportunity to give in their old computers to be recycled.

The whole purpose of the event was because Jamie’s Computers is the computer recycling social enterprise arm of The Society of St James; Southampton’s largest homeless charity, providing housing, care and support to homeless and vulnerable people.

It also gave the local community a chance to receive computer training to develop their knowledge of technology even further.

Below is an article which explains all the details of the event.

http://www.jamies.org.uk/blog/free-computer-recycling-event-set-for-july-23-at-asda-in-chandlers-ford/

This is one of many events that employees have put together to help increase the chances of the businesses aims being achieved.

There is also another recycling event which has been completed in one of the Asda stores in the UK. There is a video below which shows what went on:

How do employees influence the aims of Kellogg’s?

As mentioned previously, Employee’s have a huge impact on influencing the aims of Kellogg’s. One of the main aims of Kellogg’s is to increase physical activity for children as much as possible.

The employee’s can help work towards Kellogg’s aims by creating events, this is up to the events co ordinator to organise events for the community to participate in. For Kellogg’s this may be up to the office based employees to create events.

Below is an article which shows an example of a swimming event created by the Kellogg’s employees.  

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/advertisement_feature/feature01/4317831/WIN-a-swimming-session-with-one-of-Britains-top-stars.html

Basically, the local children were asked to participate in a competition which the winner and 9 of its friends would be able to meet a celebrity swimming champion and have a swimming session with her at their local swimming pool.

This event would contribute towards one of Kellogg’s aims as they would be increasing the levels of fitness within children by encouraging them to swim better.

How may the employees interests conflict with other stakeholders of Asda and Kellogg's?

Example 1 – (Employees and Owners conflicting with Government)

This issue revolves around tax, this is where the government takes around 40% of Asda’s profits and Asda’s employees have to pay 20% of their wages as tax too. The owners and employees do not want to give cuts of their profit or wages away as tax.

However, the government have a different perspective as the money goes towards ‘better causes’ such as people who need financial help, i.e. poorer countries.

Example 2 – (Employees conflicting with owners)

This is where employees may want a pay rise as they feel as though they are working harder more than they should yet they are still receiving a basic wage, however, owners of Asda are focusing on reducing the prices of products to keep customers happy, they cannot increase wages and decrease prices of products as they cannot afford to do this. However, a way of resolving this is offering occasional bonuses or overtime to employees at seasonal times such as Christmas.

Example 3 - (Employees conflicting with owners)
This is related to Kellogg's factory workers more than Asda employees. If a factory was to have poor working conditions, such as dim light, this could cause disruption or danger within the workplace for employees as their work will be affected. An employee may demand for better lighting but it could be the only affordable lighting for the owners to have as they are also concentrating on reducing costs of their goods.