The Westpark Store Case
1. How does McCain view her role as human resource manager?
McCain current role is to develop an organizational structure of human resource functions within Westbrook. McCain views her role as human resource manager more as a supervisor of the human resource department, hiring and disciplinary specialist. She self-identified her strengths as the selection, hiring and training functions, but she admittedly falls short with employee evaluation, development retention and turnover.
It appears that she wishes to centralize HR functions and operations within the human resource department. She created systems to increase the consistency in the evaluation and disciplinary processed within the organization. She has
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Employees begin employment with the company earning minimum wage. Opportunities for a wage increase do not set in until an evaluation is conducted. Additionally, an individual incentive plan is offered to employees, which is commission based on individual sales. McCain shares the frustration with loss of employees as a result of competitors offering higher wages.
3. What is the structure and staffing of the human resources department?
The human resource department has four employees. The hierarchy includes, McCain who supervises two HR assistants, a trainer and a payroll clerk. Given the new structure, McCain has created an autocratic leadership structure within her department and in cases of disciplinary action within the organization. The human resource manager remains hands-on with the daily operations and with several HR functions. She screens, hires, manages disciplinary actions and terminates employees. 5. Given the organization’s size and strategic goals, evaluate the development of the human resource function at Harrison Brothers. What problems do you see? How could its major human resource functions be improved?
The Human Resource department is not meeting the needs of Harrison Brothers in this dynamic product development phase and organization growth. She is consumed with not only managing her department, but also the tasks of the sales managers and their departments. This has led to
The HR department officials in most organizations perform as they should. In most cases, they also focus on achieving the right things. Human Resource departments focus organizing, controlling, and hiring employees in organizations. When organizations apply HR practices, the results are great client satisfaction, a good net margin, and reduced sickness absence (Richard and Johnson, 2001). Vermeeren et al. (2014) posit that there is a great relationship between performance and HRM. Most organizations use the human resource department to ensure that operations run smoothly.
Human resource departments today have a more distinct, calculated position within organizations, and human resource strategy influences the bottom line. “One of the challenges for HR leaders is convincing executive leadership teams that human capital is one of the most important resources in which the company can invest” (Mayhew, 2014, p.). Subsequently, “this return on investment is an essential part of the argument for including HR as part of an overall business strategy” (Mayhew, 2014, p.). Human resource departments utilize the information given to them from company executives and leaders, coupled with their respective expertise on all things personnel, and they plan and implement staffing concerns for the betterment of the organization. From preparing job analysis, to comparing inventory and forecasting, it is the responsibility of human resources to consider the objectives of an organization and fulfill those goals while operating the specific planning relative to HR.
I, Marion Forbes the recently appointed senior human resources manager at Hallington Utilities Services (HUS), am facing with a dilemma; work out HR strategies with the Organizations mission and handle employee’s issues and concerns. HUS has made changes due external and internal factors encountered in the market as well as the new regulations happening within the sector. All are very complicated and my main issues are privatizing, downsizing, unionization, motivation, training and compensation. With the information collected, I need to figure out
| Explain how different organisational structures and management roles can impact on the HR Function (AC: 1.3)
Question-1: Discuss the relationship between corporate human resources structure and operations at the plant level. What impact, if any, did that relationship have on the situation described by Newcombe?
3. You have been asked to advise a growing organisation which employs 75 people in office-based roles but which has no specialist, dedicated HR function. Managers are particularly keen to know how they can best evaluate the effectiveness of their HR activities and initiatives. Despite limited funds being available the organisation manages to provide some form of formal training and development opportunities for everyone each year, gives everyone an annual performance appraisal and seeks to involve staff through a consultative forum which all attend at least once a year. What advice would you give? Justify your answer.
Manages human resources operations by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining staff; planning, monitoring, appraising, and reviewing
The proposed Human Resource department structure is set up for success from the ground up by using the HR business partner model. The division structure is based on a total of 272 stores. The stores are broken into three states, 124 within Ohio, 78 are from Pennsylvania, and 70 are in Illinois. The estimated staff average per store is 30 employees, 4 full time and 26 part-time computed on 19 hours
Helping to gain buy-in to the new HR model, through developing the roles and responsibilities for the important new HR groups and further advocating the case for the changes. Leading on the development and implementation of the People Plan which has provided the framework for guiding and managing the transition (downsizing, restructuring and reskilling) of the HR function – and aspects of the related changes required of managers and individuals as a result
The role of the human resources (HR) department can play a significant role in the success and achievements of an organization. The department, which has evolved from the
Brenda McCain, Human Resource Manager at the Westpark store, views her position as the primary contact for all human resource related topics and issues. She has developed policies and procedures as a guideline for the hiring process and spends a lot of time managing the human resource staff. Brenda’s primary responsibilities are interviewing and hiring applicants, assisting the trainer with the new employee training classes, and administering the performance evaluation and career planning processes. She is also the sole person responsible for all disciplinary actions, which include gathering the initial
Whether an organization consists of five or 25,000 employees, human resources management is vital to the success of the organization. HR is important to all managers because it provides managers with the resources – the employees – necessary to produce the work for the managers and the organization. Beyond this role, HR is capable of becoming a strong strategic partner when it comes to “establishing the overall direction and objectives of key areas of human resource management in order to ensure that they not only are consistent with but also support the achievement of business goals.” (Massey, 1994, p. 27)
The objective of the Human Resource Department is to design management systems to ensure human talent is maximized to effectively and efficiently achieve organizational goals. HR has seven functions that are intertwined. These functions are global, environmental, cultural geographic, political, social, legal, economic, and technological. Human resource management has the potential to drastically impact the success and effectiveness of an organization. Human Resources has heavily focused on recordkeeping and paperwork. It has often been considered a clerical and low-level administrative department. In most organizations, Human Resources is looked upon as the employee mediator in the organization. They tend to be the voice of the employee, building company morale and putting out fires involving crisis management. The problems they deal with are both employee work-related and not work-related. HR strives to ensure fair treatment for all employees. They work with varying departments throughout the organization in order to create and implement necessary programs and policies. HR works with equal employment opportunity and other laws, to ensure compliance. They work to fill current job openings by processing applications, interviewing, and training. They answer questions regarding benefits and wages and address safety issues. The expansion of technology and outsourcing have drastically transformed the
During this portion of the case study I will try to define the current connection between organizational strategy and HR activities at The King Company. The current relationship between the King Company and Staff departments lacks structure, trustworthiness, and leadership. This is evident by reviewing the e-mails, lack of professionalism, and unfortunate management. Throughout module one we have learned strategically planning and ensuring human resources is a part of the plan from the beginning to execution phase. Old school drill meant leaders making the plan and making it happen without any involvement from human resources. Human resources primary function was to hire new employees, process paperwork, and oversee finance operations. With modern
Resolving the tension between a traditional administrative and a new strategic role. Human resource management , 36(1), 49-58.