Human Resources Management

ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS
WHICH ARE BASED ON THE CASELET PROVIDED

Staff retention and staying power: Nissan builds onloyalty at Sunderland plan
Some of carmaker’s earliest recruits are now among its most seniorexecutives.
Since the first Bluebird rolled off the production line in July1986, the Nissan plant in Sunderland has grown from a £50m assemblyoperation into the UK’s biggest car production site.
Now a £3.7bn investment employing 6,800 people, it is alsonorth-east England’s biggest private sector employer, offeringrelatively good pay and secure work in an area with the UK’shighest regional unemployment.
For these reasons, employees tend to stick around. Turnover ofproduction staff is 3.66 per cent a year, against the UK average of13.6 [per cent], according to the CIPD, the professionalassociation for HR and some of the earliest recruits, identifiableby their low employee number, are among the most seniorexecutives.
Keith Watson, a 55-year-old production supervisor on trim andchassis line 2, joined in 1985 as employee number 179. ‘In theearly days we were building four cars a day’, he says. News thatNissan wanted more did not go down well. ‘We were panicking, sayingwe will never get six a day. Now it’s 2,000 a day’
As it has expanded, some of the biggest changes in the plant havefocused on ergonomics and technology to reduce strain on workersand accelerate the pace of production.
Each of the plant’s 300 supervisors, responsible for more than4,000 production staff, is trained in ergonomic assessment.
Innovations include seat shuttles, developed by the in- housekaizen, or continuous improvement team, to allow operators to sitand be transported as they work on cars on the line, rather thanhaving to duck and twist.
On the line where the Qashqai and electric leaf are made, aheight-adjustable skillet, resembling the middle section of anaccordion, raises and lowers the vehicle to the height at which theoperator needs to work. Robotics have played a part too, with thebody shop moving from high levels of manual welding to 93 per centautomation. The new welding facility for the Infiniti, the luxurybrand that Sunderland has just begun producing, is completelyautomated with 141 robots. However, work on the production lineremains intense and tiring; stamina is vital.
‘It’s still a hard job’, says Mr Watson. ‘Some operators are sofluent it’s unbelievable; it’s like second nature to them. They’reathletes in a way’. Mr Watson’s contemporaries in 1985 includedteam leader Trevor Mann (number 127), now Nissan’s chiefperformance officer and most senior European executive, based inYokohama.
Mr Mann says the early intake was a tight knit team with a desire‘to be as good as the Japanese’. Colin Lawther (number 120), achemist who joined in 1985, is senior vice-president responsiblefor manufacturing, supply chain management and purchasing inEurope.
‘We came from a fairly deprived area. we had this tremendousfighting spirit’, he says. Kevin Fitzpatrick, a paint shopsupervisor back in 1985 (number 63), is the site’s most senioremployee as Nissan motor manufacturing’s UK Vice-President. He saysa culture of encouraging people to learn and try new things hashelped keep him there. ‘In my previous company your only chance toprogress was if somebody retired’, he says. of 4,305 productionstaff, more than a third are over 40 and late 50s is the site’smost common
retirement age. But this is not always the end of the story. BarryLoneragan (employee 102) joined as a team leader in 1985 andretired as technical services manager eight years ago. Now, aged67, he returns regularly, employed by an outside agency, to doplant tours. So do two other pensioners.
Mr Loneragan is proud of what the early intake achieved. ‘We had togo out and prove ourselves. It was that togetherness; the will tosucceed. The legacy lives on’, he says.

QUESTION 1
What are the benefits of Nissan’s approach to employee retention?What factors should other
organisations wanting to adopt a similar approach need toconsider?

QUESTION 2
In the context of the caselet, do you think Nissan should focus oncareer development and career
management? Shed light on the changes in the nature and forms ofcareer.

QUESTION 3
Critically analyse what effects the current economic climate has onrewards, and how this
environment is affecting rewards in your organization.

QUESTION 4
“HR management must support the organisation’s strategy, whichflows from its vision, mission and
strategic goals”. Critically analyse the statement with specialreference to distinctive features of
Strategic Human Resource Management in light of the abovecaselet.