Saving Employee Engagement: Emergent Strategies in Response to Externally Mandated Change

This study discusses critical strategic factors associated with concerns over implementation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandate of December 2016. Emergent Human Resources (HR) strategies developed by human resource managers were investigated, as well as how these managers influenced issues directly linked with employee engagement, communication, employee status, and organizational responses. Interviews were facilitated less than four months prior to the mandate’s implementation. Investigators found the FLSA mandate created concerns for human resource managers based on current organizational practices, compensation, and bonus structures, as well as employee morale challenges. Specific findings included a desire for organizational communication concerning changes due to the mandate, but a universal lack of strategic planning or implementation of a process to preserve employee engagement. Further, HR management concerns regarding employee morale and consequent action were investigated, as a change in status from exempt to non-exempt would be perceived as a demotion by most employees. This research finds that the ability to communicate changes with constituents, help manage implementation for HR employees, care for morale and cultural repercussions, and demonstrate fairness in compensation are critical factors to consider for a large-scale change and implementation in HR policy due to sweeping regulatory changes. Method: This study employed semi-structured interviews with eight full-time senior human resource directors from a cross-section of large national organizations, including international healthcare companies, an international hotel chain, international technology companies, national chain restaurants, and an international non-profit organization. Semi-structured interviews selected due to the fluctuation in language used within different industries. Convenience sampling was utilized via contacts through the authors’ connections via the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The research was approved by the university’s institutional review board. The authors are not affiliated with any of the organizations from which data was collected, and the human resource directors who provided the sample for interviewing were not privy to the questions before the interview. Results:Thematic Analysis- In the semi-structured interview method, a series of initial open-ended questions are presented, accompanied by probing queries for more detailed information, are asked of each respondent. Following McCraken’s process of analysis, each interview transcript was reviewed twice: once for content understanding and a second time for noting interesting observations. Observations are developed into preliminary descriptive and interpretive categories. This coding process provides the brief description of what is present in the interview. This provided the basis for examining meaningful groups. Patterns of themes are then pulled from the categories and prominent themes are identified. Conclution: “This paper explored the primary concerns of human resource departments in several industries as they pertained to the proposed FLSA mandate. Literature-based HR strategies for managing employee engagement during mandated change were identified and informed through the interview data collected. This research indicates that additional strategies for managing imposed changes can complement those currently proposed in the discipline. Specifically, reevaluation of current employee classification structures or models for evaluative process arose from the analysis. In addition, a strategic push to use this mandated change as an opportunity for beneficial change was discovered.