Assignment Task: Fred McRae's Quality Foods Fred's Quality Foods is a leading retailer of fine foods to local restaurants and catering businesses. The company is very focused on providing the right products to restaurants and caterers. Fred's Quality Foods will formally merge in December 2023 with an American company, McRae's, which is bringing international expertise into the business with the aim of entering the high-quality market and gaining a large share. The goal of the merger is for the new company to lead the market in the provision of fine products. A number of HR functions need to be put into practice to facilitate the merger. Firstly, a job analysis needs to be undertaken with employees being involved. Accurate job descriptions and job specifications will then emerge. These will define what the merged business is looking for in its staff. Fred McRae's Quality Foods is looking for its job descriptions to allow for flexibility to encourage innovative job practices that motivate talented workers to be more productive and give the new company an edge in the market. The new workers will have some control over the work they do. The new senior executive wants to ensure that the merger works well. An essential part of a successful merger is ensuring that forecasting demand for products is as accurate as possible as well as putting in place talented staff with the required skills. Fred McRae's Quality Foods sales forecast indicates that the new product range will attract additional sales at the quality end of the market. Higher-skilled staff will need to be found, with new technologies reducing the need for 50% of the lower-skilled staff. However, the management wishes to retain lower-skilled staff where practical. Some long-term members of staff are concerned they will lose their jobs. Many of them will need to be kept on, to continue the lower-end food production activities. The performance management system has identified some employees who have abilities which could make them eligible for future promotion. The management advises HR that they should get the planning, recruitment, selection and training right to minimise labour turnover. You have been hired as the HR director and asked to provide answers to the questions below.
Based on the case study above, please answer the question from this section. Outline and discuss the communication strategies that can be put in practice to ensure that employees have the right support in the merger transition. Please elaborate on how these practices can be implemented in practical aspects.
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