Description
Instructions
References must be no order than 4 years
Asssignment 3 Recruitment and Staffing Proposal
Worth up to 18 points or 18 % of total grade in the course.
Objective of the assignment: The objective of this assignment is to allow you to demonstrate your knowledge of the steps required to recruit and staff for an important segment of the workplace and to demonstrate your strategic skills to the CEO. You will share some of the essential strategic and administrative steps for this important function of Human Resources and will include metrics for which to evaluate the recruitment and selection approach that will be implemented.
The situation: Suppose that you are the new HR Director at HSS (the case study presented in our Course Resources under modules) and you have already made a presentation to the CEO and the Board of Directors on the need for HR planning and and enhanced strategic role that HR must play in the organization. After that presentation, and having read the research on managing human resources strategically that you have presented (assignment 2 literature review), the CEO confides that she has been thinking about how the senior staff in the organization are recruited and selected. As a result, she has asked you to propose new recruitment and selection methods for the senior level employees.
Deliverable:
The CEO’s directive to you is to prepare a short (approximately five-page double spaced) proposal that includes at the least:
1. A cover memo to the CEO providing an overview of the task assigned and a summary of your proposal
2. A description of at least three recruitment approaches that could be considered
3. A description of at least three selection approaches that could be considered
4. A cost/benefit analysis and comparison of the approaches of both the recruitment and selection approached
5. Metrics the organization could use to evaluate the effectiveness of the on-going recruitment and selection of senior level employees. Propose at least three metrics for the evaluation (include the time frame for your evaluation period such as six months after entry into the position).
6. Your recommended approach and your arguments/justification to defend your choices.
7. A conclusion section that includes a summary of the approaches recommended, the benefits and any other aspects to the proposal you want to highlight.
Notes: Use topic headings to organization your presentation, include in-text citations for statements of fact, and provide a reference page if in text citations are used in the proposal, use professional level language and writing.
Module 1: Linking Human Resources Management to the Strategic Plan
The case below is to be used throughout HRMN 400 Human Resources Management: Analysis and Problems. This case will give you an opportunity to expand your HRM skills by responding to the situations presented. Your instructor may ask you to respond to the scenarios following each case either individually or in groups. The scenarios are designed to help you develop the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the objectives for each module. If your instructor does not ask you to respond to these case scenarios, you can still respond on your own to help you study for the course.
Human Solutions Software, Inc.
You have just received exciting news. You have been appointed to be the new human resources manager for Human Solutions Software, Inc. (HSS).
Located in Maryland, HSS is a fairly new firm that started two years ago when several software developers and business people got together to develop simplified software for organizations to keep track of their human resource functions. Initially there were five part-time employee/owners, but HSS soon secured several government contracts that had a cumulative worth of over $10 million, and a number of corporate contracts also are pending. By the end of the first year HSS had 35 employees and in the next year added another 30, plus several individuals they contract with to do specific tasks during high-demand periods.
During these first two years, the human resource functions have been handled primarily by one of the original founders, who has a degree in accounting and management. He has consulted at times about human resource functions with a general-practice attorney whom the company keeps on retainer to answer legal questions. Almost all of the company’s founders agree that the company needs a human resource professional to manage their human resource functions.
About half of the company’s employees are computer professionals and about half are clerical, management, and marketing people. The organization is run by the five founders and is incorporated with those five comprising the board of directors. Although there is an officially designated president, management decisions are usually made by consensus of the five founders.
HSS has been projected to grow quickly in the next few years, with a total of 100 employees in the next year and more than 200 employees in five years. These figures are not backed up by anything concrete, however; they are merely guesses. Most of the founders are beginning to realize that they need a strategic plan and a more formal decision-making structure. Hiring you as the human resources manager is one of the first steps to a more formally organized company.
Module 2: Surveying the Human Resources Management Legal Environment
The following case and scenarios are an extension of the case that was started in module 1. To have a more complete understanding of the situations covered here, reread the previous section of this case in module 1.
In your role as the new human resources manager for Human Solutions Software (HSS), you have been talking informally to many of the employees at HSS. There are several issues that have come up in your discussions.
When HSS first started more than two years ago, the hiring practices were haphazard. The main method of recruiting new employees was to ask current HSS employees if they knew anyone who had the qualifications that HSS needed. It was common practice to hire family members and friends of established employees. Those practices are still being used today and have been institutionalized by providing bonuses to employees who refer people to apply for positions at the organization, who are eventually hired. In some cases, jobs appear to have been created to fit with the qualifications of people whom some of the founders wanted to hire.
You have also been struck by the demographic characteristics of the employees. There are roughly an equal number of men and women working for HSS, but men fill most of the higher-level positions. Two of the founders are women, but there is a great deal of tension between these two women and the other three founders. This tension seems to be based on the two women wanting to set up a corporate structure that the men see as taking power from the founders. It seems that the new HR department is one of the changes that is in contention.
There is also a lack of minority employees. The two African American and three Hispanic employees are working in lower-level positions.
Module 3: Evaluating Staffing Policies, Procedures, and Practices
The first part of the case below is a repeat of the case for module 2. Many of the situations set out in this part of the HSS case apply to HR planning, recruitment, and selection. You may also want to refer to the beginning of the case in module 1 for a complete background on the situation in the case.
In your role as the new human resources manager for Human Solutions Software (HSS), you have been informally talking to many of the employees at HSS. There are several issues that have come up in your discussions.
When HSS first started more than two years ago, the hiring practices were haphazard. The main method of recruiting new employees was to ask current HSS employees if they knew anyone who had the qualifications that HSS needed. It was common practice to hire family members and friends of established employees. Those practices are still being used today and have been institutionalized by providing bonuses to employees who refer people to apply for positions at the organization, who are eventually hired. In some cases, jobs appear to have been created to fit with the qualifications of people whom some of the founders wanted to hire.
You have also been struck by the demographic characteristics of the employees. There are roughly an equal number of men and women working for HSS, but men fill most of the higher-level positions. Two of the founders are women, but there is a great deal of tension between these two women and the other three founders. This tension seems to be based on the two women wanting to set up a corporate structure that the men see as taking power from the founders. It seems that the new HR department is one of the changes that is in contention.
There is also a lack of minority employees. The two African American and three Hispanic employees are working in lower-level positions.
Module 4: Evaluating, Training, and Development Policies, Procedures, and Practices
Case for Module 4
The following case is an extension of the cases presented in modules 1, 2, and 3. To have a more complete understanding of the situations covered here, be familiar with the previous sections of this case presented in the previous modules.
You have been the human resources manager for Human Solutions Software for six months. These first six months have been difficult at times, with you needing to develop your credibility with the people who work for HSS.
There have been some major changes at HSS since you became the human resources manager. A West Coast branch office, which has 25 new employees, has been set up for HSS in Portland, Oregon; and the former chief of operations has moved to Portland to head that new office. HSS has also received a major contract with a German firm. That contract is being managed from the main office in Maryland now, but a European branch office will be opened in the next few months. The German contract has led to the hiring of an additional six employees at HSS headquarters, with four of those employees planning to move to Europe when the branch office opens there.
HSS has also received several new contracts, mostly with private firms, that have led to an additional expansion of 18 more employees at the HSS headquarters. This means that HSS has expanded from 65 employees, when you first started as the human resources manager, to 114 employees now.
As human resources manager you have hired a consultant who has conducted job analyses for all the present positions at HSS. The founders at HSS have finally begun work on a strategic plan for the organization and see you as one of the lead people in developing that plan. You have also set up standardized recruiting and staffing procedures that have been used to hire many of the new employees at HSS.
The hardest part of your job has been convincing several of the founders that these changes were needed. The demands of the organizations that HSS contracts with, and several threatened lawsuits by potential or former employees, have helped you to get these changes approved by the board.
You have accomplished all of this with only one clerical person to help you. Recently you have been putting pressure on the board to hire two human resources generalists to help you in your tasks. You have justified this expense by the money that the organization can save by avoiding lawsuits, by doing more training internally, and by being more efficient in recruiting and staffing positions.
Two months ago you submitted a plan for reorganizing HSS based on the job analyses. This structure included a traditional board of directors (made up of the five founders), a president/CEO, five vice presidents (finance, operations, marketing, technical services, and human resources). This morning you found out that, with a few minor revisions, your plan has been accepted. You will be the new vice president of human resources with the two human resource generalist positions being approved also. The founders have also given you the responsibility to supervise the five personnel who administer and provide quality control for contracts that HSS has.
While you are excited about your new position and the success of HSS, you are aware of all the work that is ahead of you now. You see HSS as an organization that must be led into being a more mature organization, with more established employee policies. One of the first things that you plan to have your new HR generalists do is to work on organizing all of the employee policies at HSS into an employee handbook. You also feel a need to update and review the benefits policies for employees.
Module 5: Review and Evaluation of Employee Compensation Systems
Case for Module 5
The following case is an extension of the cases presented in modules 1, 2, 3, and 4. To have a more complete understanding of the situations covered here, be familiar with the previous sections of this case presented in the previous modules.
Fairness and equity are on your mind today. As the vice president of human resources for Human Solutions Software (HSS), you have seen fast growth take place since you started working for HSS 10 months ago.
You now have two new human resource generalists working for you. Over the last couple of months it has taken a great deal of your time to train them, but they are now getting to the point where they can take care of many of the day-to-day details that used to keep you busy. This has given you time to think about some major projects you have wanted to undertake before but did not have the time to work on until now.
The first of these projects is to establish a compensation plan. There are some significant inequities in compensation among HSS employees, and you have worried that this could cause dissatisfaction. Many new employees are offered considerably higher compensation than those who have worked for the company longer, especially when HSS needs a new employee’s skills and credentials to secure a new contract.
The other project you want to undertake is to put all of the piecemeal employer/employee policies into an employee handbook and add more policies that you feel are legally necessary. This handbook will be important from a legal standpoint to show that employees have been informed about the various policies, and it will also define the processes employees must follow if they have a grievance.
To date your tenure at HSS has largely been spent dealing with crises and educating the founders about the possibilities for and responsibilities of human resources at HSS. You now feel that you have gained enough of the founders’ confidence to be more proactive in eliminating problems and areas of dissatisfaction for the employees at HSS. Your goal is to help make the policies at HSS fairer and more equitable.
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Data Collection Methods and Procedures
