The Human Resource Function of Harrison Brothers’ Corporation The below case review by analysis question was prepared by Team 4 in response to the Harrison Brothers’ Corporation case from the course text, Human Resource Management Applications: Cases, Exercises, Incidents, and Skill Builders, located on page 13. The Role of the HR Manager Brenda McCain views her responsibilities as challenging given that multiple areas of the corporation’s operation need improvement in order to better align with the updated store business strategy. She clearly expresses several areas of need that fall within some functions of HR Management; however, after careful review and discussion of the case, the team collectively agreed that some of the …show more content…
She also mentions her collaboration with managers to review and resolve employees’ reports to take the necessary disciplinary actions, as needed, and goes as far as speaking a bit negative of the managers for being more focused on the quantity and quality of work and missing the employees’ professional assessments.
All her views for improvement certainly fall within many of the required functions of HR Management but it seems that she may be spread too thin to actually notice that she is micromanaging these improvements rather than leading them. Instead, she should delegate more responsibilities…trust but verify. She will likely see better and faster results by partnering with the “experts” in those areas needing improvement.
The HR Management functions that she focuses on are:
• Strategy and Planning
• Talent Management
• Employee and Labor Relations
• Talent Management
• Staffing
• Rewards
Harrison Brothers’ Business Strategy
Harrison Brothers’ had a unique business strategy that one could say included multiple approaches. Overall, the main objective was to increase the company’s revenue by lowering costs and investing wisely in more profitable solutions. With this in mind, changes made to positively impact every aspect of the company; changes to the employees, the inventory, and the investments, were all made to cut costs in an efficient manner while also maintaining the company’s positive reputation. The
In the Case Study "Maple Leaf Shoes, Recruiting," Clark president of the shoe company has to devise a plan within a month to strategically integrate automation in his business to meet the union's demands. He is also concerned with the loss of major stakeholders from foreign competitors and the emerging Indian Shoe Company that produces higher, superior, and unique quality and brand compared to his. Not to mention, Clark has legal issues with the Human Rights Commision pertaining discriminatory practices toward females in the workplace; in which they require him to review and alter job requirement for the supervisory position. With the gravity of the situation, Clark resolved to hire a new Human resource manager, considering his previous one resigned, and his other two employees who handled human resource functions were unavailable. He used the same template when hiring the former manager and made minor changes, and put the new ad on a newspaper without thorough planning. After that, Clark hired Joy to search because he recalls that she runs a temporary help agency. Clark also has a consultant that is writing up a job description but dismissed that idea because it was unnecessary to him.
Chern’s also has a history of promoting from within, thus viewing employees as long term investments. With the autonomous nature of each store, the company must put a certain amount of stock in the acceptance of other ideas and best practices. Knowing this, and wanting to maintain the culture that has built their success thus far, the staffing strategy starts to come into a clearer objective and focus. The HR Strategy and challenge to acquire, develop, and retain an employee base that has long term career goal and is diverse based upon the demographics of each of the markets that the corporations has stores located. The Staffing Strategy to recruit and hire based upon the model of looking for employees that will be invested with the company on a long term basis and diverse based upon the various market demographics, will require at minimum some form of centralized HR administration to oversee the corporate objective, legal compliance, retention of top performers and mentoring at all levels within the organization. All of this to be done naturally while holding a high ethical standard and treatment of its employees on a fair and consistent basis.
The initial investment and the yearly administrative cost are needed before even the new company is starting to generate revenues. Harrison had average net sales for the last 4 years of $ 34,097,000. Harrison has a loyal customer base built in its 80 years of existents. It will be very hard to enter the market because the new company doesn’t have a customer base yet. We estimate the new company can generate approximately $ 5,000,000 in net sales for the first year.
The report provides the analysis of the Harrison Company. The company financial conditions reveal that the company profitability has declined in the last three years making the company to face challenges in settling its short-term obligation. For example, Harrison Company has not been able to settle suppliers' payment on time as being stipulated in the contract agreement. The company deteriorating financial conditions has also made the company todecline the costs of marketing campaign in the last three years. With the implementation of various strategies to improve the company financial conditions, the report forecasts that the company will generate sales totaled $295 Million in the next five years compared to the company sales of $48 Million in the last year.
The company that I have chosen for this assignment and project is Lowe 's Companies, Inc. Lowes strongly focuses on the mission statement “helping the customers to improve their homes”. The company started in 1921 as a small store in North Carolina. Great success and high demand of Lowe’s products led to an increase in the number of stores. By 1955, there were five more functional stores. Rapid growth took place around 1960s. Carl Buchan was one of the founders of Lowe’s, who died in year 1960. Exactly a year later in 1961, the company went public. This was the time when Lowe’s was given its name. Initially it was called North Wilkesboro Hardware Company. By 1979, Lowe’s established more than 50 stores in the United
| Explain how different organisational structures and management roles can impact on the HR Function (AC: 1.3)
I have been asked to provide a report that supports the retention of the HR function within our organisation. In this report I will explain how Human Resource activities support the organisations strategy and how HR professionals support line managers and their staff.
The current function of HR can be defined as supporting “the delivery of the organisation’s strategy and objectives through the effective management of people and performance” (Taylor & Woodhams, 2012; 22). This definition is furthered by a CIPD survey (2007; 2-3), which indicated that the key functions of HR are: recruiting and retaining staff, progressing performance management to maximise the value of employees and increasing employee engagement.
J.D.B.T.’s overall business strategy was competitive benchmarking on factors such as price, brands, and advertising. After noticing a decline in our profits and market demand, we added a competitive twist to our business strategy. We expanded our sales channels,
CVS Caremark established 1963, has been expanding every year since their inception. With over 7,000 retail locations they face many human resources challenges. It essential for CVS to understand what HR challenges they face to make informed decisions; beneficial to the company stakeholders and employees. Hr decisions affect not only the employee’s but the company’s social opt squat. These resolutions include recruitment of highly skilled workers, company policies, labor relations, training and diversity, management of multiple locations, global business environments, employee compensation and benefits,
Please prepare an analysis of this case. Your write-up should be 4 to 7 pages. Each of the following questions should be addressed individually:
The O.M Scott & Sons Company has had continued success in the grass seed and lawn care industry. The company started in 1868 as a local company in central Ohio, focused on selling grass seed only. The company saw great opportunity in the lawn care industry, so it decided tot take action. O.M Scott & Sons grew into a national company that distributed its products by mail, and eventually sold to retail stores nationwide in 1959. The company was able to grow expanding the company’s field sales force. This increase in sales force led to a continued increase in sales and profits, which allowed the company to invest in R&D more heavily. This increase in R&D led to better products, which further increased sales and profits. The objective was to service the various retailers across the U.S with adequate inventories, especially in the high seasonal peaks. This was difficult for most of the smaller sized dealers the company was selling to, so Scott had to fund the dealer inventory buildup by itself.
Also, McCain might want to consider transferring the old HR department’s organization to a new one in order to meet the challenges in the dramatically changing business environment. For example, one of many other forms of HR structure is made up of three main departments: HRBP (human resource business partner), COE (center of excellence/expertise), and SSC (shared service center). This type of organizational structure allows the HR unit to respond to the market rapidly. Surely there are many other forms, and regardless of which particular one it is, Harrison Brothers needs tofind one type of structure that meets the needs of their own strategy and allows the HR unit a crucial role to play.
Another employee who requires significant insight and oversight from human resource management would be Carla Goodman. A first step with Ms. Goodman must include an investigation into the sexual harassment complaint. Issues of this nature are time sensitive and there is a legal obligation to address them immediately (Woska, 2013). A claim of sexual harassment would fall within the guidelines of compliance. Furthermore, Ms. Goodman’s poor performance and high compensation also need to be addressed through human resources and Ms. Roberts. Greg Williams is an employee who would benefit from some good leadership and direction, along with ongoing training and personal development. Finally, Kathy Lewis is an employee who has been recognized as a high performer, high potential employee who they would like to retain, but are at risk of losing. For high performing individuals it is important to keep them engaged and challenged (Kotlyar, 2013). Management should look for opportunities to adjust Ms. Lewis’s job responsibilities, expand
The Herman Miller Company operated as the Star Furniture Company in Michigan in 1905. It was named the Michigan Start Furniture Company in 1909. In 1919, Dirk Jan Du Pree became its president. In 1923, his father-in-law Herman Miller bought the majority shares in the company and it was renamed to the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Since then, under the leadership of Du Pree, the company has continuously adopted innovative management practices and design philosophies making it one of the most respected companies in the industry. In 1930, the company found a design philosophy based on simplicity and functionality through the designer Gilbert Rhode. In 1942, the first office furniture was produced. Since then the company continued to bring out successful design innovations through its creative design team. In 1950, a management breakthrough in the form of the Scanlon Plan was implemented, which set the foundation for the company's inclusive corporate culture and employer-employee relationships. In the 1950s, the company began exporting its products to Europe and a network of international dealerships had been established in the 1960s. New designs were continuously introduced during the two decades. The Eames chair was introduced in the 1950s and the Action Office System in the 1960s. In 1976, it launched the Ergon chair, the Equa chair in 1984, and the Aeron chair in 1994. Later on, designs were