Learninmotion.com: Who Do We Have to Hire - Case Study Example

LEARNINMOTION.COM: WHO DO WE HAVE TO HIRE (case study of HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT) Executive Summary This report analyses the case of Learninmotion.com, a small company doing internet-based business in Ottawa’s High-tech Region, and gives expert suggestions in their human resources acquisition strategy. The company requires hiring up to seven employees in the beginning including one web designer, one programmer, two or three sales persons, one customer relation executive and one accountant. An overview of the total jobs in the company is given and a method for the division of labor is proposed. A detailed job description and specification of every employee is given and an outline of how the work-flow goes within the company is provided. Emphasis is given on reducing the operational and wages costs. Out of the two principal owners, one will be taking care of the administration side and timely generation of monthly reports to the venture capital firm while the other will co-ordinate the total marketing activity. By doing this, company is expected to get a stable and consistent growth during the initial stages of its operation and also benefit in bottom line. Introduction: The HRM processes have evolved in a big way. We are living in an era of boundary-free organizations which allows free flow of information, ideas, decisions, talent, rewards, etc across all kinds of boundaries including functional, national, etc. The complexity of HRM activities like recruiting, selecting, training, and rewarding employees varies from organization to organization. The case of Learninmotion.com explains how these processes are relevant even in such a small business dot-com company where the Director/manager may not have HR staff to rely on. This report analyses the case of Learninmotion.com, a small company doing internet-based business in Ottawa’s High-tech Region, and gives expert suggestions in their Human resources acquisition strategy A Brief History of LearnInMotion.com: The basic concept of this Website is to list a number of E-document based, Web-based, or CD-ROM-based, continuing education-type materials for people who are already employed and want to take a course from the comfort of their homes. The idea is that users could come to the Website to see what kind of materials are available and take a course according to their requirement and convenience. It can be done in one of many ways. Some courses are available in CD-ROMs which can be delivered via some courier upon request. Some courses can be completed interactively on the Website; others are in a form that can be downloaded directly to the users computer; the company’s business mission states like “to provide work-related learning when, where, and how you need it.” (Running case 2008). The principal owners of the company hired some Loft space in Kanata High tech region for starting the business. They started with manpower of 3 - an independent programmer for building an application program for the website, a Web designer to create the graphics for the site), and a content manager whose job was to enter information onto the site as it came in from content providers. They upgraded their business plan into a presentable form and sent to some venture capitalists. And they waited. They did not get reply for a long period of time. In this time they were calling customers to get people to place ads on their site, and also to get content providers to list their available courses. Later on they got about 300 content providers offering courses and content through Learninmotion.com. Finally they got an enquiry from a venture capital firm. They made negotiations and closed the deal getting just over $1 million in venture funding. From this amount they paid some for clearing the legal side between the venture capital firm and learninmotion.com. They prepared Memorandum of Understanding after finalizing the terms. The remaining amount was, as per their MOU and business plan, “to go toward accomplishing five main goals: redesigning and expanding the Website; hiring about seven more employees; moving to larger office space; designing and implementing a personal information manager (PIM)/calendar (users and content providers could use the calendar to interactively keep track of their personal and business schedules); and, last but not least, driving up sales.” (Running case 2008). Who Do We Have To Hire? Now, let us come to our topic. As discussed in the previous session the learninmotion.com has 5 major targets to achieve by using the venture capital fund. Out of this, hiring of the right manpower was more important than the remaining four goals, because the quality of the total business processes and hence the productivity largely depends on the quality of the people hired. "What kind of people do we want to hire?" can be a question before the owners of the company when they began to think of hiring people. Obviously this question is an outcome of HR planning. Since the firm is running in a tight budget, and they were legally liable to produce reports every month about the advancements, to the venture capital company, the planning is very important. As told by Geister, “HR planning is the process –including forecasting, developing and controlling – by which a firm ensures that it has the right number of people and the right kind of people at the right places at the right time doing work for which they are economically most useful.” (Geister 1967). In the case of learninmotion.com, the major objective of HR planning will be the controlling and optimizing of the salary and wage costs. Generally speaking the company may require sales people, a programmer, a web designer, and of course some content management people to transform the course material to content for the website. But it will not be enough to describe it in general terms, but require a detailed and realistic study using the necessary HR tools. While developing the plan company will have to keep the following things in mind: The Company’s overall objectives must be thoroughly understood before going for an HR plan. As stated previously learninmotion.com has a business mission as “to provide work-related learning when, where, and how you need it”. The objectives of the company must be in line with the corporate mission. The standards for working conditions, human relationships etc must be taken into account while developing the plan. An up-to-date skills inventory should be maintained in the database which may show the previous job details, present job description, qualifications(Educational, Training etc), skills and knowledge specific to the current job description, prior work performance, compensations, factors related to mobility and willingness to work in shifts etc. At present, due to the tight budget, company will have to limit the resources they need to procure. But proper forecasting of the future demands in skills may be advisable for the company while preparing the HR pan. Initially we can have a look into the kinds of jobs to be performed in the company. The various activities in the business processes are charted and follow after this session. Job of each of the professionals has to be analyzed and designed and also documented in a meaningful way. Designing the website (What should a web designer do?): To process and prepare necessary graphics for the website, the company needs a skilled web designer. According to American Department of Labor “web designers as responsible for day-to-day site design and creation, while webmasters are responsible for all technical aspects of a Web site, including performance issues such as speed of access, and for approving the content of the site.” (Stein 2007). To retain a feel of fresh look of the website there require updating the theme and content of the website frequently. The designer will have to interact proactively with the programmers and content managers while designing. Developing the Software for administration & installing the PERSONAL INFORMATION MANAGER (What should a Programmer do?) As the official web site of World Wide Web states, “The Web is becoming complex distributed information system. To address the current market demand, we need to deploy security mechanism, caching, style sheets, distributed indexing, and other technologies. And on the horizon we see mobile agents, real time interaction, and virtual reality” (Modern Web Programming n.d.). Customers need to interact with the website. For this purpose we need to develop user interaction areas in the website and the data entered must go to a database, using which content managers of the company can prepare and give EIS to the owners of the company. Also software named Personal Information Manager has to be installed for giving adequate information to various stake holders of the company including owners, customers and suppliers. This software keeps track of the details of various accounts, materials delivered, etc. This part of the website may be taken care of by the Programmer. Preparing and Administering contents (What should a content Manager do?): Learninmotion.com wants to cater updated and user-specific content or information for its target audience. “Content Management is effectively the management of the content, by combining rules, process and/or workflows in such a way that its electronic storage is deemed to be managed rather than un-managed” (CMS Definitions, Enterprise content management) New courses, suppliers, materials, customers etc will be coming into the business scenario of learninmotion.com everyday. Therefore, a Website content management system that enables frequent web content updates is required which will optimize the Websites audience outreach. An application as developed by the programmer helps for this and the content managers of the company will take care of the process. Marketing (What should a Sales Person do?) Learninmotion.com needs a good marketing team to be built within the company which helps achieving the bottom-line benefits. Direct marketing in the local area will be a good option. “Direct marketing is any unsolicited contact your business makes with existing or potential customers in order to generate sales or raise awareness.” (Direct Marketing: The basics). Also Online/internet marketing or Telemarketing can be tried. Internet Marketing may be defined as “Using the interactive technologies available via the Internet to further create a dialog with potential customers by connecting with them with good educational content about your companys products or service offerings”. (Definition of terms, How do u define internet marketing)For online marketing company can employ people who are willing to work from home. There will be an interface in the website for sales persons to view the enquiries received. Also there may be enquiries over the web and phone, and proper attention and follow-up must be given for this also. Company may keep both telemarketing and direct marketing executives for this purpose. Accounting (What should an accountant do?): Accountant will be preparing and auditing all the accounts of the company. Proper books will be kept for recording transactions between suppliers, customers, logistic agents etc. Planning and decision making will be worthless for the owners/directors of the company without having proper financial reports and statements in hands. Also accountant can advise on Tax laws and investment opportunities. CRM (What a customer support Executive should do?): Company cannot exist without sales. But it is equally important to provide customer support as well. “More and more companies are realizing that a good customer support is vital to build trust with their current and future buyers. On the Internet, trust is the most valuable commodity. Without it, they lose...” (Customer service Job descriptions) It may help the company in attracting more customers for the website. Without proper feedback from the customers, company can never improve its services. Also it helps the company equip with the knowledge on how the market goes. It helps the company aligning the marketing strategy in the right direction. The following figure shows how the work flow goes from one employee to other. Fig.1 Based on the study, and as shown in Fig.1, it is advisable to deploy the following Human Resources in leearninmotion.com initially. 1. Web Designer 2. Programmer 3. Content Managers 4. Sales/Marketing Executives (Direct/Tele/Internet) 5. Accountant 6. CRM Executive In addition to these employees the principal owners/directors of the company (they are TWO in numbers) also need to decide and divide their duties for a certain period of time till the business gets into a track. It is advisable that one of the directors may take control of the administration of the company while the other may concentrate on heading the marketing team. Duties of the Director – Administration & Finance: All the team members except those in Sales Department and CRM should report to this director. He should monitor the updates in contents and software and provide necessary advices. He should prepare and provide financial reports to the venture capital firm require. Duties of the Director - Marketing: “The marketing directors responsibilities involve supervision, marketing, profitability and sales, reporting, purchasing, resale pricing, inventory, service, maintenance, and other duties as requested by management.” (Roles and responsibilities of Marketing Director) All the sales people including Direct Marketing, Tele/Internet Marketing must report to this director. He should overview the leads generated and followed up by the sales people He should conduct market analysis, campaigns, etc We have seen in the previous sessions how we have divided and shared the jobs to each of the employees and the directors/owners of the company and discussed how we can manage the work flow from person to person. It is not enough to divide the jobs, but the right alignments of the tasks are also important. Maximum efforts must be put to reduce the employee alienation and dissatisfaction. So it is advised to try various HR practices like job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation, job simplification etc while designing the jobs. While designing the job all the inherent requirements specific to that job to me mentioned. Questions: We are posed to three questions at the end of case study. Question 1: Draft a job description for the Web designer and salesperson Job Description is a “Broad, general, and written statement of a specific job, based on the findings of a job analysis. It generally includes duties, purpose, responsibilities, scope, and working conditions of a job along with the jobs title, and the name or designation of the person to whom the employee reports. Job description usually forms the basis of job specification.” (Job Description: Definition 2009). Job description for the Web Designer: Position: Web and Graphic Designer Department: Creative Division Reporting to: Director - Administration Overview of Position: Create design prototypes, and graphic design, site navigation, and layout of content. Ensure that the layout of the content is logical as well as accessible. Easy navigation of the website to be ensured by the candidate. Also posses the ability to create visual concepts that matches the content and the adequate image requested by the suppliers. Candidate must be able to build universally accessible and higher end technology enabled websites. This position of the company should have both project related as well as career path related competencies. Project Related Competencies: 1. The right ability to develop the solution and right time delivery, 2. Expert in both technical and functional design, 3. Capacity to assist the programmer in database design in both physical and logical, 4. Ability to test the technical solutions made using the appropriate technology, 5. Capacity to lead a team of designers, meeting deadlines etc. Career path related Competencies: 1. Must be a pro-active listener 2. Must have leadership qualities 3. Must be knowing advanced RDBMS Concepts 4. Capacity in physical and Logical Database Design. Job description for the sales person: Position: E-Business Sales Specialist Department: E-Business Division Reporting to: Director - Marketing Overview of Position: The sales person must have the capacity of successful completion of all phases of sales process including, conduct need-based analysis, develop and implement promotional plans and campaigns and thereby achieve successful bottom-line benefits. Candidates must have the willingness to travel extensively. Candidates should have the flexibility in doing their jobs as Direct/Tele/Internet Marketing personnel. The candidate must be knowledgeable toward customer accounts, and need to maintain complete records of the customers he is following up. The sales person must have enough working experience in the territory he is working in. Question 2: Prepare job specification for these two jobs, Web designer and salesperson, which may include things such as desirable skills, work habits, education, and experience. Job specification, as described by webdictionary.com is “a statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job function.” (Job specification: Definition 2009). Job Specification for Web designer: The ideal candidate will be passionate enough in building websites and creating advanced user interfaces. Commercial hands with experience in designing interactive websites are absolutely necessary. Experience with particular tools and technologies are essential, also the ability to be adaptable with new changes in technologies preferred. He will have to work closely with the development and product management team including the Programmer, Content Writers etc. Key Responsibilities: Designing and updating of the company’s e-commerce portal. Designing and coding of the user interaction areas in website. Crafting the documentation of the processes for the future references using the tools namely, flow charts or diagrams, information architectures, and functional prototypes etc. Making sure of the product functionality and search for continuous improvements. Key Skills: Expert in web site and user interface design Experience in web application development, including HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. Quick in gaining new skills and experience. Able to meet targets declared time to time Team player. Written and verbal communication skills. A pro-active listener. Qualification: Degree Level education in relevant disciplines. Certificate course in Web technology preferred. Job specification for the sales person An ideal sales person for this company should have both direct marketing and Internet/Tele marketing skills. Previous experience in similar field is advisable. Key Responsibilities: Conduct all marketing activities including lead generation, attending calls, follow-up and closing of sales. Keep an awareness of all promotions and advertisements. Communicate customer requests to management. Work closely with the core marketing team headed by the Director-marketing. Assist in marketing campaigns and other promotional activities. Key Skills: Strong Communication skills (Written and verbal) Must be tactful while dealing with customers. Ability to operate website/portal and access database of customers/enquiries which is necessary to perform the job. Qualification: Any Degree or above in the management discipline. Certificate or Diploma course in E-commerce will be an added advantage. Quostion3: keeping in mind that this company is on a tight budget, how should it accomplish the other activities it requires, such as answering the phones, compiling sales leads, producing monthly reports, and purchasing supplies? Since company is on a tight budget and requires reducing the cost of wages, proper optimization strategies are to be adopted in deciding the number of employees to be appointed. As we discussed before, the whole marketing activities including internet/tele/direct marketing, closing of sales etc can be entrusted to the sales persons only. Initially 2-3 numbers of sales people may be sufficient for performing all these jobs. Again in the case of compiling sales leads, it can be entrusted either to the sales people or outsourced to some external agencies. Answering the phone can be entrusted to some call centers. No separate personnel may be appointed for producing reports for the venture capital company. It can be either done by the accountant or the Director himself who is taking care of the over all administration. Conclusion and Recommendations: We conclude that the strategy we developed in acquiring human resources for learninmotion.com will surely benefit the company in terms of their low budget concerns. The duties and responsibilities of each of the job positions are enhanced to its maximum extend to reduce the number of employees to be hired. Company can think of outsourcing some processes like short listing the prospects and sending personalized E-mailing etc to some agencies. To get maximum benefit out of this report we recommend the following things to be in corporate in the HR planning. Directors should have active participation in each of the process to ensure the effective utilization of resources. The number of tasks associated with each job may be increased, while on job design, to reduce monotony. This will obviously increase the workforce flexibility as well. In additions to all stated above, the maximum attention to be given for getting the right mix of Qualification, Experience, and skills for each of the profiles, while on hiring, to get maximum output out of them. Bibliography CMS Definitions, Enterprise content management. n.d. http://www.contentmanager.eu.com/cms.htm (accessed January 26, 2009). Customer service Job descriptions. n.d. Customer viewpoint.com. http://www.customerservicepoint.com/customer-service-job-descriptions.html (accessed January 26, 2009). Definition of terms, How do you define internet marketing. n.d. http://www.internetperformancemarketing.com/educate/articles/define-marketing.html (accessed January 26, 2009). Direct marketing: The basis. n.d. Business Link. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1073861169&topicId=1073902327&r.lc=en&r.l2=1073858842&r.s=tl (accessed January 26, 2009). Geister, E. B. 1967. Man power planning: An Emerging staff function. New York: American Management Association. 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Degree Source. http://www.degreesource.com/articles/89/1/Web-Designer-Job-Description/1.html (accessed January 26, 2009). Read More