Questions:
1. As a human resource manager, how might you go about convincing top management that you should be heavily involved in the company's strategic planning process? Stress the potential for bottom-line improvement brought about with the help of HRM in the various areas.
2. Read the incident 6.1 (Inside or Outside Recruiting?) and answer the questions:
Inside or Outside Recruiting?
Powermat, inc., has encountered difficulty over the last few years in filling its middle manage-ment positions, The company, which manufactures and sells complex machinery, is organized into six semiautonomous manufacturing departments. Top management believes it is neces-sary for the managers of these departments to make many complex and technical decisions, Therefore, the company originally recruited strictly from within. However, it soon found that employees elevated to middle management often lacked the skills necessary to discharge their new duties.
A decision was then made to recruit from outside, particularly from colleges with good in-dustrial management programs. Through the services of a professional recruiter, the company developed a pool of well-qualified industrial management graduates. Several were hired and placed in lower management positions as preparation for the middle management jobs. Within two years, all these people had left the company.
Management reverted to its former policy of promoting from within and experienced basi-cally the same results as before. Faced with the imminent retirement of employees in several key middle management positions, the company decided to call in a consultant for solutions.
Questions
- Is recruiting the problem in this company?
- If you were the consultant, what would you recommend?
3.Read the incident 14.1 (Rewarding Good Performance at a Bank), and explain your answer in details.
Incident 14.1
Rewarding Good Performance at a Bank
The performance of a bank branch manager is often difficult to measure. Evaluation can in-clude such variables as loan quality, deposit growth, employee turnover, complaint levels, or audit results. However, many other factors that influence performance, such as the rate struc-ture, changes in the market area served by the branch, and loan policy as set by senior manage-ment, are beyond the branch manager's control. The appraisal system presently used by First Trust Bank is based on points. Points are factored in for a manager's potential productivity and for the actual quality and quantity of work. In this system, the vast majority of raises are between 4 and 10 percent of base salary.
Sales growth is a major responsibility of a branch manager. Although many salespeople are paid a salary plus bonuses and commissions, no commissions are paid on business brought in by a branch manager. Therefore, one problem for the bank has been adequately rewarding those branch managers who excel at sales.
In May 2009, First Trust Bank opened a new branch on Northside Parkway, located in a high-income area. Three competing banks had been in the neighborhood for some 15 years. Jim Bryan, who had grown up in the Northside Parkway area, v,ras selected as branch manager. In addition to Jim, the branch was staffed with five qualified people. Senior executives of the bank had disagreed about the feasibility of opening this branch, However, it was Jim's responsibility to get the bank a share of the market, which at that time consisted of approximately $56 million in deposits.
After one year of operation, this branch had the fastest growth of any ever opened by First Trust Bank. In 12 months, deposits grew to $18 million, commercial loans to $9 million, and installment loans to $2.5 million. As measured by Federal Reserve reports, the new branch captured 50 percent of the market growth in deposits over the 12 months. The customer ser-vice provided was extremely good, and branch goals for profit were reached ahead of sched-ule. Aware of the success, Jim looked forward to his next raise.
The raise amounted to 10 percent of his salary. His boss said he would have liked to have given Jim more, but the system wouldn't allow it.
Questions
- Should Jim have been satisfied with his raise since this was the maximum raise the systemal lowed?
- Do you think the bank currently offers adequate sales incentives to its branch managers? if not, what would you recommend?
Answer:
1.
As a human resource manager, I will try to convince my top management that I should be heavily involve in the company’s strategic planning process. As I can leave a favorable and positive impact on company’s bottom line. From conducting recruitment to employee development, training and retention strategies HRM plays a vital role in providing data-driven solution and contribution in achieving overall business goal of an organization (Entrepreneur, 2015). The potential of bottom line improvement can be brought up with the help of me in various areas as apart from finding an appropriate, suitable and competent employee I can perform several functions like performance assessment, succession planning, career pathing and identifying talent acquisition software that can make a company successful (Fastcompany, 2015). I can suggest ways, which gives top management reason to involve me in strategic planning process of company. Here are the reasons:
- The survival of the company is dependent on the knowledge, skills, ability, capacity, capability, specialization and information its employee have and no one can understand this better than I can as the recruitment process is undertaken by me (Bohlander & Snell, 2010).
- I can maintain a healthy and friendly work culture and provide comfort to the employees by resolving any kind of dispute taking place among employees. In addition, helps in eliminating stress and anxiety among employees by creating a positive environment (SumHR, 2018). This will help in smooth, uninterrupted, and regular functioning of the company.
- I can help the company in handling and avoiding lawsuits and in addition handling disputes that occur between employee and employer and can also set benchmarks for employees and review to which extent they have become successful. (Smallbusiness, 2018).
- I can design and arrange various professional training and development programme that helps in ensuring corporate culture development (Cleverism, 2014).
- I have in-depth knowledge of the company and can provide the company with the necessary and potential human resource who can positively contribute towards achievement of company’s goal.
- I can provide the company with the healthy workforce by monitoring the wellness and health of employees and implementing strict safety policies so that any kind of disruption may not occur or takes place in company’s routine working (Liebowitz, 2010).
By keeping the above points, I can try to convince my top-level management to involve me in the company’s strategic planning process. This will be beneficial for the progress and growth of the company.
2.
Based on incident 6.1
1. No recruiting is not a problem in Powermat, Inc. The decision of making recruitment is the main problem because they are not satisfied with their internally recruited employees and those employees who are externally recruited and well qualified opt to quit the organization after some time. As after a thorough reading of incident 6.1 a conclusion can be derived that earlier the process of recruitment of the company was internal from among the middle- level management employees but it was experienced that they were not able to discharge their duties effectively due to lack of necessary skills. Later on, the company opts for external recruitment and hired some persons for their lower level management positions to prepare them for middle level positions. However, within two months all the externally recruited employees left their job (Billsberry, 2008). The problem of recruitment decision is because when the organization is opting for internal recruitment then it is not satisfied with its employees because they lacks in the required skills and if company goes for external recruitment process then the employees they are employing are not loyal towards organization and leaves the job after a certain period of time.
2. As a consultant I would strongly recommend that in case if the company is recruiting the internal employees and feel that they lack skills and qualities, which are needed to discharge their duties the company should first identify and examine the skills and abilities in which their employee is lacking. After a proper examination being done they should give focus on improving the skills and abilities in which their employee is lacking or lagging behind. Proper and professional training, developmental programme, coaching, mentoring, cross-departmental training, and positive motivation should be given to them so that they can provide their best to the company. In addition, they should be making aware about changes taking place in an organization, make sure their employees are not overloaded with work as this can also adversely affect their skills and provide them thoughtful and meaningful feedback about their work on regular basis. A positive feedback about their work will help to motivate employees to work more efficiently than before and negative feedback will compel them to improve their quality of work. In case if the company were interested in external recruiting process then being a consultant I would recommend that, they should give lucrative and attractive offer, generate a sense of job satisfaction, security and effective training and guidance by professional to the newly recruited employees so that they can gain skills and may not opt to change their job because frequent resignation by employees from job may lead to instability in the working of the organization (Gary, 2010).
3.
Based On Incident 14.1
1. Jim must be satisfied with his current raise, as majority of raises lies between 4% to 10% and 10% of the base salary is the maximum raise allowed in the appraisal system and he has earned maximum of it. He has earned the maximum percentage raise i.e. 10% just because of his potential, ability, productivity, quality, and quantity of work done by him. This maximum raise has given him internal satisfaction and positive motivation to perform in a best way to earn maximum raise that is prevailing and allowed in the system. If Jim does not give his best or has not given his full efforts towards his banking sector organization then he may not have received the highest percentage raise. As there may be many managers who must be lying between the bracket of 4% to 9% of the base salary. However, he is the one out of them who got 10 % of the base salary. He must be satisfied with his raise and efforts used by him.
2. No banks are currently not offering adequate sales incentive to its branch managers. However, it is essential to offer adequate and reasonable sales incentive in order to motivate branch managers. The incentive that a bank must offer to its branch manager should be according to their potential, productivity, ability, and contribution to sales done by them. They should be provided with the best incentive that they deserve to be as appropriate sales incentive helps to motivate branch managers. It is important to revise sales incentive policy to lure its branch managers. In case if the appraisal system does not allow them to do so or they are not under position to give monetary sales incentive beyond a certain limit then branch managers should be given non-monetary sales incentive. Non-monetary sales incentives includes flexibility in working hours, on the spot recognition, privilege such as giving free lunch in office, pick and drop facility, accommodation provided by office, meal passes, health insurance policy, and many more. These kinds of non-monetary benefits will also lure and help a branch manager to be loyal with the organization and motivate them to increase sales of the organization (Fisher, 2015). It is important for an organization to reward good performance of their branch managers. If they do not so do then the respective branch manager may feel demotivated and will not show his full efforts and energy towards achieving sales goal.
References
Billsberry, J. (2008). Experiencing recruitment and selection. England: John Wiley & Sons.
Bohlander, G.W., & Snell, S. (2010). Managing human resources. Canada: Cengage Learning.
Cleverism. (2014). How to design and implement an HR strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.cleverism.com/design-implement-hr-strategy/
Entrepreneur. (2015). 3 reasons HR need to be involved in planning a business’s strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249586
Fastcompany. (2015). 4 reasons to invite HR to your strategic planning meetings. Retrieved from: https://www.fastcompany.com/3041098/4-reasons-to-invite-hr-to-your-strategic-planning-meetings
Fisher, J.G. (2015). Strategic rewards and recognition: Improving employees performance through non-monetary benefits. Great Britain: Kogan Page Publishers.
Gary, D. (2010). Fundamentals of human resource management: content, competencies, and application. India: Pearson Education.
Liebowitz, J. (2010). The role of HR in achieving a sustainability culture. Journal of sustainable development, 3(4), pp. 50-56.
Smallbusiness. (2018). Role of HR in achieving business goals. Retrieved from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-hr-achieving-business-goals-1767.html
SumHR. (2018). Roles and Responsibilities of HR managers in Growing Organizations. Retrieved from: https://www.sumhr.com/hr-manager-role/
