Human Resources Plan as an Essential Element for the Success of the Company - Case Study Example

? My HR Plan Skypack Ltd is one of the largest manufacturers of audio sets in USA. HR plan presented in this project is essential for the success of the company. This project deals with the HR plan that an HR manger of the company has prepared for maintaining a healthy employee relation. Developing a suitable plan requires forecasting the future labor demand and supply in the market. Manpower must be well distributed as well as motivated so that the performance of the employees is not hampered. In this project an appropriate recruitment plan has been prepared which would be beneficial for the company. The compensation package of the company is fit to motivate the employees. The training program of the company is appropriate for training the new employees. The new employees of the company will be provided training so that they can understand the job requirements correct and act accordingly. Table of Contents Overview 4 Recruitment and Selection 8 Compensation and Benefits 9 Performance Management 10 Training Program 10 Ways of Training 11 12 Overview An HR plan is a systematic process of matching the interest of the employees with their talents and skills so that the long term goals of the organization can be met. An HR plan is critical for setting up a strategic plan of an organization as it will help to determine whether the organization will be able to achieve the goals in the future. This HR plan is a comprehensive plan which would help the organization to achieve its goals. The leadership of an organization must be able to successfully guide the employees in achieving the goals. The HR manager must prepare an appropriate plan which would help the organization to achieve its goal (Asdorian, 1992). Therefore before setting up the HR plan the company needs to decide on type of plan it wants. There are three different types of plan, company level plan, developmental level plan and job level plan. The plan can be on national level, sartorial level and industrial level. These plans deal with the responsibilities of the human resource department in the respect of manpower planning are:- a) Assist the operating mangers to set objectives so that they can direct the employees properly. b) Collect the manpower data and then summarize it for preparation of a long term HR plan. c) Monitor the performance of the employees and see whether it is according to the HR plan. d) Provide research information for effective manpower planning. The basic objective of an HR manager is to ensure that the employees are able to maintain their lifestyles. The elements that should be kept in mind while preparing the HR policy must include appropriate monetary allowance, housing allowance, education costs of the dependent and transportation allowance. Now in the context of the company Skypack Ltd which is an audio set manufacturing company based in USA has been chosen. The company is presently headquartered at New York. The company was established in the year 2000 by J. K. Packman. The company is indulged in the manufacturing and marketing of audio devices. However there are a many variants for the product. It mainly offers 4 categories 2.1 channels, 4.1 channel, 5.1 channel and large boxes of 10000 watt sound systems. Presently the company operates only within the US market and owns 35 exclusive retail outlets. However the company also proposes to expand into the international arena. The major competitors of the company are Altec lancing, Boss, Creative, Alesis, JBL and other local palyers. Within 10 years of its incorporation the company has been able to achieve a respectable position in the market. Currently the company holds 22% of the market share in context with audio devices. The company has also developed a core competency for itself in the form of wireless devices. All the audio sets of the company are wireless. Also the qualities of the products are according to the international standards. The reason behind such innovations is to remain with the current trends. In the context of work culture, the company has a diversified workforce. It includes employees even from Japan and India. Therefore it can be concluded that the company works as one single unit where the employees are behind a certain objective. The selling activity of the company is mainly carried out though retailing. The company has distributors appointed at various locations who distribute the music systems to the retailers and also to large electronic retail chains. Apart from that the company also owns few exclusive outlets in parts of US. Moreover the company also has sales personnel to look after the selling activities. The company spends heavily in the promotional aspects. The company mostly uses television advertising and newspaper advertising to promote its products. Sometime it also offers discounted products or free gift items. Recently the company signed a deal with a famous singer as their brand ambassador. The company feels that such activities will help them to increase the sales and market share. Therefore the major reasons for people to work in this organization are as follows:- Good work culture. High end training and development programs. Good compensation package and other benefits like paid leave, insurance, and medical. High budget allocation for marketing activities to ease the selling process. The company has a number of upper level manager’s and about 1000 regular employees. The organizational structure of the company consists of a president, VP marketing along with two marketing managers, VP production along with three production managers and VP sales along with two sales managers. Appointment of employees as per the requirements will help the company in achieving its goal. The company maintains an informal work culture in which the directors and managers are directed by their names. This has helped in developing an appropriate work environment within the office. Information can be directly communicated to the highest level of the company. The managers directly speak with the salesmen to their view on the marketing policy. Necessities for an HR plan: - An appropriate HR plan of Skypack Ltd will help the HR manager to find right people for the job. Skypack Ltd is an audio set manufacturer. An HR plan will help the company to take decisions on the areas where additional employees are required. The process of setting an HR plan starts with assessing and reviewing the operations of the organization. In the next step the job description must be developed, and then recruiting the workers who are fit for the job. The HR manager must at first review the operations of the company over the last few years. He must take a note of the number of people hired in the past few years (Stringer & Cheloha, 2003). The senior manager should play an active role in developing the master plan. The HR plan should cover human resource activities of the company. The plan must be developed keeping these points in mind:- 1) Forecasting the future requirements of manpower: Here forecasting is done by using mathematical projections in order to determine the future requirements. The HR of Skypack Ltd first needs to analyze the future manpower requirements with the help of various mathematical projections, keeping in mind the economic trends as well as the future industrial development expected. 2) Making an inventory of the manpower resources of the company and assessing the extent to which these resources are employed in the company: - Appointing competent personnel generally requires positive effort in order to develop a variety of sources of recruitment. These sources must be selected keeping in mind the conditions and nature of the labor market and also the availability of qualified personnel who are capable to fill the vacancies. The plan must be prepared in such a way so that proper opportunity is provided to the employees for internal promotions and transfers. 3) Anticipating the manpower problems- The HR plan must address the future manpower problems that may arise in future. Preparing the forecasts about the future manpower problems and comparing that forecast with the qualitative and quantitative adequacy of labor. The resources required in future must be matched with the availability of labor. 3) Planning HR programs like analyzing the requirement, selection, development, training, utilization, promotion, transfer, motivation as well as compensation plans in order to ensure that the future manpower requirements are met. Recruitment and Selection Recruitment is defined as identifying and hiring the best candidates for a job vacancy, in a most cost effective and timely manner. The various methods that Skypack Ltd can use for the purpose of recruitment and selection of candidates are newspaper ads, word of mouth as well as employment agencies. An agency will recruit an appropriate employee for the company against a fee. The job description for the post of marketing assistant would include:- Job purpose:-supporting marketing operations of the company. Job Skills: - 1) Strong product as well as consumer awareness. 2) Good planning and organizational skills. 3) Ability to work on various projects at one time. 4) Ability to work under pressure. 5) Ability to meet deadlines. 6) Good knowledge of various marketing techniques. 7) Ability to be a team player. The applicants have to go through interview secessions and after being selected they undergo training. The smartness and presence of mind of the candidates is judged in these interviews. They are asked a lot of critical questions in order to find whether they would be able to perform the job. The level of confidence of the applicants is judged by the HR. Candidates are selected after they pass all the three stages of interview. Compensation and Benefits Compensation refers to a combination of wages, benefits and salaries that an employee must receive in exchange of the work. A compensation plan must include wages, benefits and salaries for the employees. These act as a great motivational tool for the company. The company has set up various compensations as well as benefits for its employees. The company has fixed the hours for motivating the employees. Manager to be given travelling allowance and house rent allowance. The marketing assistants are to be provided travelling allowance. The top executives need to be provided compensation packages that are lucrative in nature. The level of compensation provided must be included in the proxy statements. The concern regarding compensation package is to set up a balanced competitive package that would motivate the managers as well as the employees of the company. The employees stick to the same company if they are satisfied with the compensation packages of the company. Thus HR manager must keep this in mind. Providing proper compensation and benefits is a crucial part of HR plan. Employees leaving the organization in regular intervals in not a good sign for the investors so the HR plan must vividly explain the various compensation and benefits provided. Performance Management Critical incident method is used by the company for the purpose of performance appraisal. It involves identifying as well as describing certain events or incidents where an employee performed really well or where an employee needs improvement. It is a technique which is specifically based on the performance of the employee. The company analyses the performance of various employees in order to find which employee has performed well and which employee needs improvement. After analyzing these things the company provides proper training to those whose performance has not been up to the standard. Generally it is important to record incidents as and when they occur so that the company can take corrective action in order to get rid of the problem. The data collected for the purpose of analysis is directly for the respondents. It is a flexible method so the organization has taken up this method. Identifying the rare events will help to analyze the problem areas. Some managers even encourage the employee to record their own critical incidents. This helps the HR manager to understand the problems faced by the employees. They can then accordingly set plans to eliminate the problem. Skypack Ltd has set up critical incident method for performance appraisal as it would help the company to address the problems of the employees properly. Training Program Training and development program is an important tool for enhancing the effectiveness of organization (Wang & Wilcox, 2006). Therefore deciding a training program in a manufacturing industry is very essential. Training is crucial for the growth and development of an organization. Training helps to train new candidates training helps to formalize the new employees with the mission, vision, rules and regulations of the organization. It proves fruitful to both the employees and employers. However to measure the effectiveness of training relationship between those agendas and its effect on the company must be investigated (Tung-Chun, 2001). Training helps to improve the morale of the employees. Proper training reduces the amount of supervision upon the employees (Plant & Ryan, 1992). Accidents occur if the technicians are provided proper training. The employees’ productivity increases if the proper training is provided to them. In case of a manufacturing company on site job training is very crucial. Skypack Ltd has set up various programs to train its employees. Training of employees is to enhance their skills, knowledge and capabilities. Every organization follows some kind of a training program in order to train the employees as per the requirements of the organization. Ways of Training Training is generally provided in two ways: On-the-job. This is a method by which employees can be trained while remaining in the place of work. It is a cost effective and simple method. The employees are trained in actual working scenario. Both unskilled and semi-skilled employees can be trained through this method. The motto of this kind of training is learning while doing. Instant coaching of the employees is done in order to train them. The instances of on job training are coaching, temporary promotions, job rotation, etc. Off-the-job. This is a method which involves training employees while they are away from the actual working conditions. This method is generally used to train new employees. Proper training is provided for specified time duration and then employees are inducted into the workforce. Off the job training is expensive and effective only when a large number of employees can be trained in a short period of time. In case of off-the-job training, recruits are trained in a separate area like the entrance, hall, or reception, where the actual working conditions are replicated. The examples of off-the-job training are seminars, conferences, workshops, etc. Reference Asdorian, M. (1992). An HR Overview of International Start-Ups. Personnel Journal. 71(8), 1-72. Plant, R. A., & Ryan, R. J. (1992). Training evaluation: A procedure for validating an organization's investment in training. Journal of European Industrial Training. 16(10), 1-22. Stringer, R. A., & Cheloha, R. S. (2003). The Power of a Development Plan. HR. Human Resource Planning. 26(4), 10-17. Tung-Chun, Huang. (2001). The relation of training practices and organizational performance in small and medium size enterprises. Emerald Group Publishing, Limited. 43(8/9), 437-444. Wang, G. G., & Wilcox, D. (2006). Advances in Developing Human Resources. Sage Publications, Inc. 8(4), 528-539. Appendix The organizational chart of Skypack Ltd Sample questions to be asked in the interview of Skypack Ltd. Self introduction. Why have chosen sales? How can you justify your profile with the job? What is a cold calling? Are you comfortable doing cold calls? What are your long term goals? What are your strengths as well as weaknesses? What is most rewarding about being in the marketing sector? What are the things that motivate you? What do you know about this company? What according to you is most important-customer service or quality products? What are the features of a good sales person? If you are offered a double compensation from another company within 1 month of your joining with us. Will you leave this? Benefits & Compensation package of Skypack Ltd 1) Hours of work are fixed at 40 weeks and an overtime rate is about $19 higher than the normal wage rate. 2) The specific set of rules is set for the promotion and increment of the employees in accordance with rules of the federal government. 3) Employees generally designate 5% of their salary or wages as retirement saving and the company provides 2.5% of the employees gross salary. 4) Increments are provided after analyzing the performance of the employees. The bonus is provided annually at 8%, calculated on the amount of salary per month. 5) Various health care benefits are also provided by the company, which include dental coverage, vision care coverage and short term as well as long term disability insurance is provided for the workers by the company. Performance management of Skypack Ltd The company follows critical incident method for the purpose of performance appraisal. A critical incident method of performance appraisal is followed in the company. In the critical incidents are been recorded by the appraiser at first, and then obtain records from the department regarding the incident. The company then gathers the facts regarding the incident by questioning the employees. After collection of these facts the company then analyses and interprets it so that a solution can be obtained of that problem. Training program of Skypack Ltd Target group training program in which groups are made according to the training required so that exact training which those employees require are provided to them. The company needs to follow a back up training program for providing technical training for a specified period as per the government standards. The company also can arrange seminars for the employees in one functional area from various regional offices for training employees. The company has set up problem oriented training in which the employees are trained in those specific areas where they are lagging. Seminar of a particular department is arranged at one time so that the problems regarding to that department can be addressed. The company needs to set up onsite and offsite job training for its employees. Read More