You are expected to cite at least ten (10) academic journal articles in your ess

Question

You are expected to cite at least ten (10) academic journal articles in your essay to demonstrate the range of sources from which you derived your knowledge.

The assessment will require students to read the case and answer the question below.

The case:

Zenith Systems Ltd provides hardware and software services customized to clients’ requirements. It is a subsidiary of a US company. The UK company is based in Slough and has four major departments: information systems, services, specialized support staff and marketing. The company has grown very rapidly since it was established three years ago, initially with the close guidance and support of the parent firm. There are about 650 employees, most of them recruited during the last two years. Labour turnover so far is fairly low (8 per cent). Extensive use is made of various forms of numerical flexibility. Around 150 employees are on short-term contracts, mainly of between two and three years’

duration; another 100 or so work part-time. In addition, the firm has sub-contracting arrangements with suppliers to fulfil the client demands that its own project teams are unable to achieve. Overtime and flexible working hours are an accepted feature of the work. The nature of the business means that employees have to be technically adept and highly flexible in response to specifications of what their clients want. They work in project teams that can vary in membership, forming and disbanding as projects require.

The strategic goals of the business are to achieve sustained growth by the development and marketing of innovative systems and the provision of ever-improving levels of service to clients. The nature of the business clearly indicates that competitive success can only be achieved and sustained by developing and maintaining a human capital advantage. A high-performance work system (HPWS) based largely on practice in the parent company is being introduced, priority being given to the introduction of rigorous recruitment and selection procedures, extensive and relevant learning and development activities, incentive pay systems and performance management processes.

A comprehensive human resource information system (HRIS) had been installed. The US Chief Executive has overruled the HR Director’s recommendation that an employee attitude survey should take place on the grounds that it was too soon – there were more pressing priorities. The HR Director was unhappy about this but intended to raise the matter again, making a more powerful business case than in his first attempt.

Three months later the HR Director sat down to think again about how to proceed. He had spent some time researching the concept of human capital management (HCM) in order to consider its relevance to Zenith Systems and, if it were relevant, how it could usefully be applied, what sort of business case could be made for it and how it might be developed, assuming the business case was made and accepted. He examined the data already available from the HRIS, including:

          headcount and diversity information;

          a qualification and skills inventory;

          labour turnover and absence figures (but not costed);

          pay data in the form of average pay and compa-ratios;

          training statistics (number of days, costs);

          costs of recruitment.

The HRIS software also incorporated a data warehousing facility that enabled the user to assemble their own data and relate them

to benchmarking data and financial information, customer information and other critical business data.

This seemed to provide a good basis for developing an HCM approach. The financial performance data in terms of sales, net profits, return on capital employed and added value were obviously available and the HR Director knew that regular surveys were taking place to measure client satisfaction.

He then spent some time with his colleagues gaining an understanding of the business drivers of the organization. He established that these were: innovation and product development, client acquisition and retention, achieving high levels of service to customers and meeting the performance expectations of the owners. He also confirmed the list of the key performance indicators (KPIs) used by Zenith, which included financial measures such as added value, income generated, profitability, productivity measures such as added value per employee, operational measures such as successful completion of projects, customers acquired and retained, new products launched successfully and customer service measures such as levels of satisfaction and service levels. He established that the information required to monitor achievements in relation to the KPIs was available and used by management.

He also decided that the while HCM was mainly concerned with measuring business and people performance and using the metrics as a guide to future action, it was also about measuring the performance of the HR function.

He decided therefore that he was in a position at least to start the process of HCM, bearing in mind what could be involved and setting out what metrics might be used, covering both business/people performance and the evaluation of HR. He needed to consider how they would be used and to plan its future development. He would have to produce a persuasive business case for the programme he envisaged.

The task:

Prepare recommendations on how human capital management could be introduced and developed in Zenith Systems and make out the business case for doing so.

Explanation / Answer

Zenith Systems Ltd is a technology based company and high quality talented manpower is the major input required to ensure success and growth of the company. Zenith Systems Ltd needs to understand this and has build an environment within the organization which is entirely focussed on recruitment, retention, and satisfaction of the human resource within the organization by application of all management principles and and an extremely effective strategy for optimizing output and performance. It needs to use diversity in the workforce which when implemented in the right way and utilised for its core value of existence of differences within the workforce, can prove to be highly beneficial for any organization. The organization needs to understand that a diverse workforce will provide it the required variation, talent, ability, achievement and innovation within the organization to achieve it's goals of producing a unique incomparable product.Zenith needs to epitomise human resource management by futuristic and dynamic strategies aimed at attracting and retaining young innovators and encouraging personal growth through provision of training, motivation and encouragement to think out of the box and achieve excellence in performance. It needs to signify through unity in diversity its global outlook and approach and maximize utilization of a multicultural team bringing their unique skill sets to the organization thereby creating exceptional value for the organization. Productivity as well as profitability is substantially enhanced creating a model of Excellence leads to exceptional gains for all concerned. The company should exemplify employee retention and satisfaction through promotion of continuous learning and growth of all employees associated with the company, resulting in excellent performances and low attrition rate. This makes the expansion and growth plans of the company easier to implement as recruitment of workforce is never a problem due to the reputation of the company within the market, among the available workforce. The company should encourage competition and motivation through rewarding performance by implementation of economic value added measures of performance, and offering the best compensation and perks in the segment.

Zenith needs to compete for talented manpower by providing an attractive option to potential employees projecting an image of being an employee focused organisation. It has to master the strategy of hiring exceptional and quality talent from across the globe, by developing a reputation of offering a unique work atmosphere that encourages personal growth and innovation by providing Independence within the work as well as, absolute support by provision of training on the job and for improvement of skills. The company should understand importance of flexibility in the workplace, which is a major requirement for innovation. the company has to implement stringent procedures within the recruitment process to ensure that it hires only the right candidate suitable for the organisation to achieve its goals, and having ample enthusiasm and motivation to grow along with the organisation. It implements all required principles of Human Resource Management by extensive analysis of every candidate on the basis of personal behaviour, problem solving skills as well as aptitude and knowledge through collection and analysis of personal data as well as extensive interviewing on a one to one basis.

By having an able and perfectly managed Human Resource Department with adequate staffing to be able to plan and manage all recruitment and retention activities of the organisation ensures that the organisation is able to hire and retain the best quality manpower within the industry. Constant interaction and feedback through facilitation of easy and regular flow of communication between employees and management results in complete cognizance of employee dissatisfaction, if any, and implementation of immediate control measures. Atmosphere within the organisation should be conducive to encouraging positive action which enhances creativity and productivity within all employees through Emphasis on teamwork as well as motivation for individual accomplishments to ensure all round growth and success of every individual, singly as well as in a group. Encouragement the organisation provides for taking time off within the work hours to develop projects and ideas of personal interest to an individual has paid rich dividend in the form of employees having created innovative products which could well put Zenith ahead of competition. Zenith has to ensure that It stays on top of every process involved in management of Human Resource namely attracting the best available talent, recruiting suitable employees and retaining to the maximum all employees once recruited, through exemplary planning and strategic management of its human resource.

The HR department is crucial for management and creation of a positive and motivating environment which exists within an organisation as they are responsible for recruiting employees and other first contact of an employee with the organisation, thereby representing the organisation for the employee. There is a tendency to imitate and inculcate the attitude and behaviour depicted by these representatives. Besides this Human Resource Department is responsible for ensuring optimal performance and output from a diverse workforce through motivation, training and employee satisfaction. This is the team responsible for extracting stellar performances or below power output. An efficient HR department with clear strategies on management of this important resource for the organisation is a major factor for excellent performance of most successful organisations. Motivation of the HR department leads to subsequent motivation of the entire department as we all have a tendency to reflect our attitudes and behaviours, this leads to a cascading effect within the organisation. They serve a role which is of a leader even when not in the leadership position, by motivating all to achieve excellence in performance, through provision of clear guidance in the form of the road map for achievement of goals of the organisation, leading to success and growth of the organisation along with the employees.

For any employee to be motivated it is essential that they have self worth and self belief which is only provided through confidence generated by a feeling of importance. therefore, it is essential inclusive management be practiced with delegation of duties simultaneous with accountability for the results. With inclusive management and decision making power an individual feels empowered to achieve more than they are capable of as they desire greater power and responsibility. Inclusive management also facilitates excellent flow of communication in every direction vertically, both top and down, and horizontally which promotes cooperation and coordination within the department and with all external departments. This in turn improves information management system with all information being received and processed in an efficient manner. It also leads to entire department and Organisation working as one whole team moving forward together in a single direction on the road towards success in achievement of goals both organisational and personal.

The department being an important tool for management of the largest resource of the organisation, it needs to be provided adequate training for optimisation of performance. Training programs of global standards with inbuilt tools for performance review and feedback, need to be introduced to maximize performance of the entire department with relation to the skill set as well as entire rules and procedures of the organisation. Humanresource team select candidates The Vision and Mission along with the ethical stance of the organisation should be clearly understood as candidates selected for the organisation should have similar vision and ethics along with ability to adapt and function optimally within the environment of the organisation. All required skills for the job including technical ability, cross cultural intelligence initiative and sales motivation along with an innovative approach and perseverance of personal goals with experience in the industry without any negative incidents in the history of the candidate, need to be tested through implementation suitable test for analysis of the range of competencies and skills from basic language skills to high order thinking skills which may be required for the job. accurate analysis and selection of employees on the basis of a predefined criteria ensures low attrition rates along with long-term retention of employees and subsequent employee satisfaction which leads to stability for the organisation. HR department is responsible for performing this duty efficiently to ensure minimization of attrition rate which can become a huge cost to an organisation. That is why it is important that HR department be extremely efficient as their inefficiency can prove to be very costly for an organisation, through unsuitable hiring. Every employee needs to understand the importance of following all required rules and procedures within the organisation and be well acquainted with all the statutory regulations to be implemented to minimise legal repercussions. The importance of accommodating diversity and supporting its existence with affirmative action needs to be stressed as diversity can provide a leading edge to organisations through a more innovative and diverse approach to every process. Affirmative action goes a long way in conflict management within the organisation along with improving the image of the organisation as being truly global and compassionate. Teaching all employees to respect and value each other, even while computing facilitates a clear code of conduct to be implemented along with open communication lines leading to cooperation and coordination.

With most organisations being dynamic and transformational due to extensive globalisation it is essential that the department develop adequate flexibility in approach towards management of human resource while ensuring equal opportunity to all along with absolute comfort and harmony within the workplace. Therefore, through motivation and inclusive management of the Human Resource Department productivity as well as profitability can be optimised creating a model of Excellence which can be imitated across all units of the Organisation.

With globalisation of the economic environment employee retention and attraction of the best available talent within any industry is a major factor greatly impacting the performance and success of an organisation given the fact that human resource is a major input for most organisations. The quality of Manpower recruited by an organisation greatly decides the subsequent quality of output delivered. Since most organisations are aware of the extensive impact of hiring and retaining the best available talent, they indulge in constantly evolving strategies and tools to achieve this goal in a greatly competitive economic environment. Most strategies formulated with the aim of achieving this goal focus on compensation policies which need to be implemented along with all benefits and perks which need to be offered to ensure retention along with job satisfaction and motivation for the employees. Employment of a diverse workforce largely made possible by great advancement in technology leading to recruitment process crossing all national and international borders and going global. This has resulted in a diverse workforce necessitating affirmative action within the organization. Recruitment and employee performance are the two of the most important HR activities.

With recruitment being the most important human resource function which significant cost implications for an organisation it is essential that the process be strategically planned. An important part of recruitment is the screening of candidates to analyse the skills as well as, the suitability to the job as well as their compatibility with the organisation as a whole. When an organisation undertakes employment of workforce from diverse cultures and backgrounds, it becomes mandatory that ability of that workforce to adapt to their environment within the organisation b accurately verified along with putting in place various rules and procedures within the organisation which support a diverse culture which is essential to control the attrition rate. The Human Resource Department needs to ensure that all legal and federal rules and regulations are adhered to with discrimination being absolutely ruled out. It should verify every individual on the basis of the selection criteria. Due to the number of immigrants reducing and more people of colour being employed affirmative action would become more important with cultural intelligence and adaptability not being a major Focal Point.

The selection criteria would consist of Technical ability, cross cultural Intelligence and adaptability, initiative and self motivation directed that an innovative approach and perseverance of personal goals, experience in the industry and a suitable personality with no history of any negative incidents. Implementation of suitable tests for analysis of range of competencies and skills from basic language skills to high order thinking skills which may be required for the job. Please show whether the candidate is likely to blend within the existing organisational structure and environment without having to undergo stress for adaptation. To ensure that every candidate is adequately acquainted with the Vision and Mission statement of the organisation along with the ethics required to be followed and the candidates themselves share similar vision and ethics. Candidates exhibiting flexibility with a wide range of talent and abilities able to operate within cross functional teams and are multi functional individuals are appreciated. The emotional intelligence and communication skills along with interpersonal skills is another important factor which governs the basic attitude of the person and behaviour at work. Quick thinking and ability to process information and arrive at quick and accurate decisions exhibit ability to handle stressful and crisis situations with quick and effective response and action through implementation of remedial measures. This skill can be a major advantage for any organisation facing crisis situation and is applaudable in every employee. Accurate analysis and selection of employees on a predefined criteria ensures low attrition rates along with long-term retention of employees and subsequent employee satisfaction, as well as, stability for the organisation.

Competition and motivation need to be encouraged through adequate utilisation of value based compensation packages. Utilisation of strategy seems to be all pervasive in the economic environment today, therefore compensation management is not untouched by strategizing resulting in all compensations of employees of an organisation becoming dynamic, and therefore, vulnerable to constant control and monitoring. Compensation is a major input cost for any organisation, therefore, adopting a viable strategy for ensuring that output delivered is commensurate to input required, should be a part of company policy. Management of compensation should be based on very specific guidelines, on the range of pay for every job profile, the factors for deciding compensation for each profile, the system to be adopted for merit and competitive achievements, exceptional performance and quality output. Besides this external factors of commercial environment also impacts compensation management.Keeping this in mind while deciding on the strategy for designing the perfect compensation plan for the organisation would help decide on crucial matters such as linking of increments to team or individual performance and formulating the merit increase grid. It is important to identify the decisions which are necessarily strategic within the compensation management, by understanding the impact a decision a policy may have on the behaviour of workforce and as a motivational tool along with its ease of implementation.

Flow of communication through constant interaction ensures optimisation of output in a ny organization and provides advantages in the form of in-house consultation between departments resulting in exceptional solutions and simultaneous exploitation of successful initiatives across all departments and locations effectively. The company needs to encourage regular meetings to promote interaction and exchange of ideas as also encourage competition. Managers of departments need to be most effective in maintaining focus on the objective to be achieved by the department and ensuring the required output is achieved in the most efficient manner. Sales targets need to be met or exceeded, marketing strategy framed through adequate market research and analysis, technical developments should be innovative and superior to the products existing in the market. Therefore, each manager and leader needs to be effective, in achieving the respective goals, as well as, assure effectiveness of all below them.

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