AF210: FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING

SEMESTER 2,2020

GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Student Name: Student ID:

Avishchal Shivneel Chand S11171687
Victoria Venoa S91558300
Akeneta Luba S11148236
Table of Contents
1.0 Main Reason Why Employees Are Valuable Assets and Why Organization Should Treat Them
Well.......................................................................................................................................................3
2.0 What Employees Expect from The Organization and Why.............................................................5

3.0 How the Pandemic Affects the Organization and Employees’ Perspectives....................................7

4.0 Suggestions on How to Help Employees.......................................................................................10

5.0 Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11
1.0 Main Reason Why Employees Are Valuable Assets and Why
Organization Should Treat Them Well

In today’s dynamic and continuously changing business world, the key to success in any
business relies on customer satisfaction. As a result, organization need employees in
servicing customers which leads to the major contributors to profits. “Any company trying to
compete with competitors should figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee”
(Jack Welch). However, if an organization is unsuccessful to satisfy its employees than it
may leads to failure for the need of the customers and so on. In organization employees falls
under the intangible assets in the balance sheet or book of account of an organization but it
has no monetary values as employees’ skills and knowledge are irreplaceable or invaluable in
monetary terms that is the reason why employees are not listed in the balance sheet but
employees are given salaries and wages for their work done which is listed under expenses in
revenue/income statement. There are many reasons why employees are valuable for an
organization and there are some discuss below.

The hundreds or thousands of the employees that are used to make up the workforce of the
organization which are the most essential contributors of the organization’s profit. So, the
major priority for an organization is to improve the employee performance and efficiency. By
using their skills and knowledge an organization can increase the productivity level to create
stocks/inventories which are later sells to the customers by an employee and employees are
the one who is needed to safeguard the same stocks in the organization. That not all
employees are the one who take care of finances, maintain the records of the transactions for
the decision making, and also to promote the business by advertising and so on.

The success of the business are the results of the continuous smart and hard works placed in
by satisfied happy employees which makes the business ongoing in future and to competes
with its business competitors. But if the organization are not able to satisfy their employees
can result in the decline in the profits as employees will not give their hundred percent to the
business such as lack of motivation will lead to unsatisfactory of the performance. And also,
unhappy employees will spread the bad words about the organization which can make
negative influence on customers and investors etc to not to use their time and money on their
products. More onto it, motivated employees make huge efforts to achieve the business’s
objectives by reaching new targets, developing new ground-breaking products, and to meet
the demand and need of the customers.

Lastly to it, the employees’ skillset, knowledge, experience in a specific field, commitment,
and dedication are all of this factors that makes an organization earn profits, have regular
happy and satisfied customers, in excellent reviews from the external users such as
customers, investors, suppliers, government agencies and so on. So, with all of the things
discussed above it can be said that without employees an organization cannot operate its
business for even a single day.
2.0 What Employees Expect from The Organization and Why

Peter Drucker, a management guru stated that “employees are regarded as an organization’s
most valuable asset of the 21st century, whether a production or service organization”
(Assets, 2020) The skills, knowledge, talent, experience and productivity are some of the
many qualities of what makes an employee valuable. If an employee is lost, they can easily
be replaced physically, however, the special qualities of the lost employee cannot be fully
replaced. Employees are dependent on the organization just as the organization is dependent
towards employees, therefore, employees have certain expectations from the organization to
keep the interrelationship healthy. This is why organizations prioritize meeting the
expectations of employees.

The first expectation that was identified, is the need for employers to provide training
feedback and mentoring. To have employees become more skillful and productive, they must
undergo necessary trainings that should be made available to them by the organization. Not
only does this expectation provide employees with more skills but also with exposure to more
job opportunities, as well as increases their self-esteem and morale. With more training
organizations benefit also, because they will experience an increase in productivity which
will mean higher profits and with employees who are multi-skilled, managers are able to
practice job rotations when short staffed in a certain department. Moreover, with mentoring
and constant feedbacks employees are able to improve on their performance and provide the
same outcomes as when undergoing training exercises.

Employees also expect the organization to provide a safe working environment as well as
consistent and effective communication. A safe working environment is mandatory to avoid
injuries and illnesses. For a worker that is injured or becomes ill on the job, he or she faces
many issues like; pain and suffering, possible loss of job, loss of income and so forth. From
an employer’s perspective, when an employee suffers injuries or illnesses, the organization
loses productivity and increases its costs in terms of paying wages for work not performed,
compensation, hiring and training of new employees, etc. These are reasons as to why it is
necessary to have a safe working environment. Furthermore, consistent and effective
communication is necessary not only to create greater relationships and productivity but to
also increase employee’s morale and commitment towards the organization. With proper and
open communications, a trust is created between employees and employers, and employees
become loyal to the organization. Employees develop high morale giving then more
confidence to complete tasks to the best of their abilities. These factors not only benefit the
employees but the organization as well.

Organizations are also expected to provide full descriptions of company policies, procedures
and job responsibilities. Employees need policies in order to be aware of the organization’s
objectives, this enables them to make sure that the tasks they carry out are working directly
towards achieving those objectives. Procedures are to be stated as clearly and simply as can
be so that employees know the necessary plan of actions to be taken when handling issues or
implementing a policy, are able to avoid mistakes, time wastage and misunderstanding.
Finally, clearly stating job responsibilities helps employees recognize the duties appointed to
them and the expectations of the job that must be met, helping them identify the basic
framework of the jobs given and prioritize tasks in order of importance to meet the job
objectives, as well as the companies.

These above-mentioned expectations are a few of the many things’ employees need from its
organization to maintain strong relationships and be as efficient and effective as they can be
towards the organization. Fulfilling these expectations not only benefit the employees but the
organization as well, because of the interdependent relationship they share. Thus,
organizations must prioritize meeting employee needs if they wish to be as productive and
profitable as possible.
3.0 How the Pandemic Affects the Organization and Employees’
Perspectives

There are massive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe today. These
impacts contribute disadvantages to communities, government bodies, stakeholders, health
sectors, private sectors, economical, organizations and employees domestically (within a
country) and internationally (other neighbouring countries). Some of the massive impacts
are; airlines closed due to border restrictions so no tourists are travelling from country to
country which means that no income in the tourism sector, people are suffering (patients
admitted and get well) and dying (people who lost their lives) and organizations loosing
workers and employees lost their jobs with no income earn for survival. For the purpose of
this discussion, the selected impacts to analyze is basically on the organizations and
employees.

Most organizations had gone through unstable situations during the pandemic in various
different ways. Some organizations encounter loosing employees working in the firm due to
financial problems like Fiji airways when no flights or closure of borders, no passengers
boarding planes so income for Fiji airlines so as a result, certain flight attendants or pilots
have to lay off (employees who finish from work), half time or work on shift basis
(employees who still remain in the firm), workers totally not working because no flights (full
time workers when everything is normal then go to back to work). Fiji airways have to
perform this to reduce cost because not enough funds to pay all the employees. For instance,
one of the statements from Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said that they are
expected about one million tourists this year but since the border closures, it declines the flow
of tourists who bring in revenue to the country (fijivillage, 2020). As a result, decrease
income in the tourism sector and the country as a whole.

Furthermore, the ministries in the government sector also go through economic challenges of
the pandemic. The Ministry of Finance in the Solomon Islands although receive income from
Pay as You Earn Tax (PAYE) from employees in the public sector or private sector, the
major revenue from Customers Division received from paying customers duty from goods
from shipments or air cargoes or tourists or citizens travelling from plans decline because no
ships or planes go through the Solomon Islands since the pandemic and borders closed down.

Moreover, due to the impacts of COVID-19 most organizations have taken further initiatives
cater for such occurrence like the pandemic in a planned state of emergency like this now and
in the near future. Some step forward plans taken by major organizations such as the Fiji
National Provident Fund (FNPF) in Fiji had allowed members to withdraw their
contributions. The number of members withdrawn was about 3,264 and were paid $3.61
million for the second phase for the COVID-19 withdrawals (fijivillage, 2020).

The Central Bank of the Solomon Islands also offers two policy consideration in response to
the COVID-19 and for any future one-off-shocks. Firstly, the fiscal policy which the Bank
propose for restoring resilience cushions through rainy-day funding or sovereign wealth fund.
This is to cater for absorbing upcoming shocks or financial budget constraints and this
includes employees in the organizations (SPCCB, 2020). Secondly is the reservation of the
certain debt ratios above the assigned debt threshold for disaster policy responses in order to
avoid delay of large infrastructure projects.

However, apart from the organizations go through experiences of the pandemic, employees
suffer loss of employment from not working in the organization. Most employees earn
income to support their family’s wellbeing or livelihood in urban areas. Organizations won’t
exist in the absent of the employees since employees are the working mechanisms of the firm.
Employees work to achieve organizational objectives. Some of the selected needs of
employees in times of the pandemic or unexpected shocks are employees need assistance
from the organization such as retirement payment for those who are dismissed from their
jobs, payment of numeration package or assistance from the Government.

Employers should pay the layoff workers to support them do other means of work at their
own homes. For example, employee may use the small amount of money to buy seeds or
vegetables from the market and make their own vegetable garden or food garden. While
waiting for their gardens for harvest they can sell snacks or coconut fruits along the road for
their survival.

The Government sector or other private sectors to support the employees because after all
these employees have their own family members, spouse and the children who rely to their
working father or mother especially in the urban or living in the cities. For example, in Fiji
employees withdraw their NPF contributions and this really helps members who lost their
jobs or those who are still working to make other options to make small activities to earn
money to support their families (fijivillage, 2020).
4.0 Suggestions on How to Help Employees

To sum up, the suggestions my team and I have discussed are based on how to help
employees in Fiji go through the difficult time that are government should provide them with
the various subsidies, reducing the tax liability, reducing the rate of interest of credit in
financial institutions, reduction in the employee and employer contribution funds and so on.

The government subsidies support employees financially to ensure that they are continue to
receive an income, and stay connected to their employer even if they are unable to work with
their normal hours due to the covid-19.

The ways to reduce the tax liability is to reducing the amount of your gross income that is
subject to taxes by putting pre-tax amount into a retirement plan is one of the easy ways to
reduce the taxable income for the year. Due to covid-19, many businesses and their stock
level have been declining can leads to loss on investment on the stock which can be offset
with other related income gain to pay less on the taxes and so on.

The rate of interest of credit in financial institution can be reduce by employees to look for
the cheaper interest rate rather than the higher interest rate which will help in to save money
on interest rate and it will also increase in borrowing due to the lower interest rate. Insurance
company can decline in the insurance payment for the time being of situation that the world is
going through. And also, banks can ignore the interest rate or charges on the minimum
balance in the customer’s account in the current situation of covid-19.

Reduction in employee and employer contribution funds can let the workers to have more of
the net income as it will help in to purchase the goods and services which is necessarily in the
current covid-19 situation such as hand sanitizer, hand gloves, face mask and so on.

Word Count: 2249

5.0 Bibliography

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Importance of Good Communication at the Workplace | InCorp Global. (2020). Retrieved 7

October 2020, from https://www.incorp.asia/blog/hr/importance-of-good-communication-at-
workplace/

Are Your Policies and Procedures a Barrier To Growing Your Company?. (2020). Retrieved
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South Pacific Centre Central Banks (SPCCB) [@Pacific Forum]. (2020, October 1). The
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nearly half of global workforce at risk of losing livelihoods.
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Turaga, S. (2020, September 2). FNPF pay 3,284 members for the second round of phase
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