RESEARCH INTO AN ORGANISATION
This is an Individual reportLearning Outcomes:
1. Identify and plan for the human resource needs of a department, taking into account labour market analysis.
2. Manage your own career development, including labour market analysis, skills of being interviewed and managing one’s online presence.
Assessment task:
The purpose of this assignment is to gain an understanding of the recruitment process from an employer’s perspective. Employers are interested in candidates who are able to demonstrate clearly how they will fit into the organisation and meet the organisation’s needs. By taking on the role of an employer, you will be able to reflect on the implications of this assignment for preparing effective job applications. The ability to research an organisation in the manner set out in this assignment will also help you to be aware of wider issues in the labour market, which is an important part of career management.
You are a member of the Human Resource Department of an organisation that shares a number of features with the organisation in ONE of the three scenarios that follows. Your task is to:
i. Choose ONE scenario and identify a real world organisation that bears some similarities with the one based in the scenario.
ii. Identify and research the sector your organisation is located in.
iii. Analyse the cause(s) of labour problem, primarily the skills gap outlined in your chosen scenario. This will contribute to the rationale for producing a new role.
iv. Propose an additional role with the aim of solving the problem based on your understanding of the skills gap outlined in your chosen scenario.
v. Articulate the human resource solution by creating an appropriate job profile/person specification followed by details of your recruitment initiative.
Choose one from A, B,C !!!!
Labour Problem Scenarios: A, B and C
Scenario A
Company A is an innovative recycling machines and solutions company that was established 5 years ago. The Sales team are passionate high-achievers who both feel strongly about the green industry as well as successfully meeting sales target year on year.
Recently, an equally passionate Sales Director joined the team and has done a review and analysis of the sales performance. A few important findings are identified:
• The Sales Director struggled to find a consolidated tracker or database that shows all customer and sales records.
• In the process of collating all sales records, it was discovered that some orders made were based on email correspondence without proper contracts being signed, even though standard contracts with standard terms and conditions are readily available.
• It was also established that not all outstanding instalment payments by customers are being followed up. While most major payments are duly made, smaller payments such as those for annual warranties are sometimes ignored.
• The analysis shows that the team have consistently excelled at reaching out to new customers but seriously underperformed regarding repeat business with existing customers.
• The analysis shows that the team have succeeded in selling equipment but underperformed in respect of selling support and maintenance services to existing customers.
A new headcount has been made available to the Sales Department. The Sales Director has invited a Human Resources colleague to look into the findings established. If you were the HR colleague, what role would you create for the Sales team to address the problems identified and help improve the sales performance?
Scenario B
Company B is a well-established market research company. The company has had a Top 10 market share in the UK. It specialises in TV media research helping TV executives make programming and marketing decisions by collating market data, conducting focus group and providing analysis and recommendations.
A Board member of the Company has recently been invited to a conference on artificial intelligence (AI). The Board member was most inspired after attending the conference. Yet, she has also become very anxious about how complacent, and perhaps backwards, Company B is in the deployment of AI. The Board member has had a discussion with fellow Board members and decided to put aside some budget to look into the following:
• Uses of social media data.
• Uses of Big Data analysis.
• Application of automation.
• Development potential from TV media to other media.
• Development potential from advising on programming and marketing decisions to communication strategies.
• Strategies related to the above to move the Company forward.
The Board member has invited a Human Resources colleague to look into the objectives set out and how to make use of the budget set aside. If you were the HR colleague, what role would you create for the Board to achieve the above objectives?
Scenario C
Company C is a loosely formed ‘company’. While it is an officially registered company with designated premises for training, it is in essence a team of 5 eSports players and a coach. The team has been playing in professional tournaments for just over a year with much success. The coach has been covering not only coaching but managing all commercial and logistic matters. With the recent success and increasing public interest in the team, they find that they are encountering the following problems:
• The coach is constantly being distracted to deal with logistics, coordination and commercial issues, and cannot focus on training the players.
• The games have become increasingly competitive and the demand on the coach is mounting.
• With the recent success of the team, multiple sponsors have approached the team to offer support. Yet, the team is apprehensive about negotiating commercial deals with these major sponsors.
• With the recent success of the team, few high-profile tournament organisers from Asia, notably in Korea and China, have invited the team to join their games. Due to the lack of time and communication skills among the team members, they have already missed one opportunity to join a major game in Hong Kong.
• The Twitter accounts of the team players are experiencing a spike yet the players cannot spare enough time to respond to all fans’ tweets.
Company C has saved up some prize monies over the year. They have also considered the prospect of securing sponsorship in the near future. They have therefore decided to create an additional role to solve the problems above. Company C does not have a HR department. However, if you are the HR expert friend of Company C, what kind of role could you help Company C create to address the problems they have encountered and help them develop their career?
How to approach the assessment task:
This is a formal report and should be written in the 3rd person. You will need to include headings and/or subheadings. A suggested structure is as follows:
Executive Summary (excluded from word count)
A concise overview of all parts of the report and the conclusions reached.
1. Introduction (Suggested word count: 200)
You could explain the choice of organisation and sector.
2. Organisational background (Suggested word count: 600)
(i) Identify the organisation’s market position in the sector.
(ii) What are the trends affecting the sector? At what stage of the development cycle is the sector in? You could briefly examine the future prospects of the sector.
(iii) What are the skills requirement for the sector and organisation?
3. Rationale (Suggested word count: 600)
Analyse the problem(s) in your chosen scenario and define how this new role solves the problem in the scenario.
4. Approach to Recruitment (Suggested word count: 400)
How to recruit for this new role. The description of the approach should include:
a. On what platforms are you going to place the advertisement and why? (Consider what makes some advertising platforms stand out more than others)
b. Effectiveness of using such advertising platforms in recruiting the right candidate
5. Conclusion (Suggested word count 200)
6. References (excluded from word count)
7. Appendices (excluded from word count)
Attach the Job Description/Person Specification here.
Develop a Job Description/Person Specification for the additional role required by the chosen scenario. Suggested layout:
a. Job Title
b. Organisation Information
c. Job Description
d. Essential Skills and Experience – a see sample: Table 4.1, p. 107, Banfield and Kay (2012)
e. Reporting Line
f. Nature of Contract
