Question:
Case Study
Best Pearls Pty Ltd: Leading Providers of best quality pearls and designer pearl jewellery.
Location: South Australia – Adelaide & NSW – Sydney
Market Position: The focus is on high quality designer jewellery made from fresh water pearls. They compete in a higher-quality, higher-price market.
BEST Pearls has been steadily growing for the last 12 months, and a decision has been made to begin hiring additional staff to fill four (4) newly created entry level positions in the organisation paying $35K Packages to each. There is a need for an Executive Assistant to the CEO ($70K Package) and a Business Development Manager in Sales ($55K Package + Bonuses and incentives). 95% of the staff at BEST Pearls are women and the other 5% are the Managing CEO and Manufacturing Manager. BEST Pearls have four (2) key staff who are pregnant at the moment and are concerned about what will happen when they take maternity leave.
Historically, in the last 15 years of business, BEST Pearls has maintained a fairly consistent number of employees with a low turnover rate and filled vacancies via internal recruiting, and active sourcing of known external candidates (some head-hunting). BEST Pearls also have a clearly defined and ongoing focus on the internal training of staff but at the moment staff are too busy to take time out for training. Internal training has previously allowed for new recruits to either begin their new role with an existing level of corporate knowledge, allowing a fast transition, or they are given high levels of attention when they first arrive.
BEST Pearls has identified and linked the performance factors of employees with strategic initiatives and projects designed to develop and enhance activities. Annually, the management team collaboratively create short-term operational goals designed to meet the strategic plan. Once this is accomplished every unit in BEST Pearls works together to achieve the success of the organisation.
Every employee needs to be more aware of what BEST Pearls strategy is, their role and the importance of their job in achieving the strategic plan. Existing staff have been interviewed in the past month and none of them were able to express the Mission Statement, Vision Statement or general values of BEST Pearls. Management set the staff monthly targets of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which are centrally focused around achieving strategic plans, however, the staff are unaware of the link between their KPIs and the organisational strategy.
For your general information, it is important that you understand BEST Pearls has recently cut off a business relationship with one of their main suppliers because the quality of product was not market-competitive and BEST Pearls is not willing to compromise on the quality of their product.
Additional Information:
Organisational Vision
“Be the world’s top designers of Pearl Jewellery for individuals; supported through customer service, the quality of our designs, and our relationships. We aim to add to life’s creativity.”
Mission Statement
“To give unlimited opportunity to explore creativity through designer pearl jewellery”
Strategy and Business Goals
“To become Australia’s first choice provider of designer Pearl jewellery” [To expand business across Australia and overseas]
We now understand from the background of BEST Pearls Pty Ltd, that there are many strategic business movements taking place within the organisation. They are aiming to expand their operations of Manufacturing in NSW but also their presence in the rest of Australia and are opening new corporate offices in NSW – Sydney.
This situation calls for a concrete plan for the strategic management of resources. Thus a fully developed recruitment, selection and induction process has to be put in place. This is to ensure BEST Pearls keeps its high standards of quality in its product and designs of jewellery. It’s vital to have the best talent from the industry join their team. They are trying to achieve best practices across Human Resources, office management and manufacturing plants.
Task 1
Assume that you were recently hired as the BEST Pearls Human Resources Manager (HRM). Write a report for BEST Pearls, including a detailed analysis of your businesses Human Resources (HR) needs. (This analysis report will also be used for Assessment 2).
Within this analysis report, ensure that you include:
a. A review of the external business environment and likely impact(s) it will have on BEST Pearls’ human resources requirements;
b. At least five (5) key roles and responsibilities of the four (04) additional staff that will be hired at BEST Pearls;
c. Identification and justification of training support required within the BEST Pearls team after the new employees are employed by the company.
d. Analysis of the strategic and operational intent of BEST Pearls and a summary of at least four (4) human resources requirements that you as a HR manager should focus on initially, including diversity in the workforce.
e. What may be five (5) essential Policy and Procedures (P&P) that BEST Pearls already have in place.
f. Identify three areas of (3) legislation that BEST Pearls HR Team are compliant with and one (1) that they need to improve upon with reasoning.
g. Finally, the creation of an initial 12-month HR Action Plan for how you would like to see BEST Pearls HR development take place.
Task 2 – Refer to the sample in the information section of your online materials
1. Human Resource professionals are expected to supervise business ethics in human resources practices across the entire company. Establish a set of at least 15 requirements for a “Code of Conduct” and include the ethical behaviour and confidentiality expected of staff within BEST Pearl Pty Ltd.
2. In addition, include any actions that would be taken by the Human Resources department in case of unethical behaviours within the organisation by an employee.
This report deals with the policies and rules of BEST Pearls and its HR procedures. Focus is given on the skills of the HR department in maintaining the codes of conduct of the employees. The codes of conduct along with 12 month action plans are also discussed for the HR department to develop more effectively.
The HR department is responsible for selection, recruitment and induction process of the new employees (Flamholtz and Randle, 2011). They are also focused on analyzing the strategic and operational activities of the organization along with maintenance of policy and procedures.
a) Impact of external business environment on BEST Pearls’ human resources requirements
The impact of economic conditions, Government regulations and workforce demographics impacts on the HR requirements of BEST Pearls. This is because; the economic condition of the company helps in determining the hiring of new customers in BEST Pearls. The Government regulations also affect the HR requirements of BEST Pearls that includes laws on hiring, training, termination and compensation (Muller, 2009). Moreover, women employees are more, so due to their maternity leave, new employees need to be hired that affects the HR requirements of BEST Pearls.
The 2 key staff members of BEST Pearls will be taking maternity leaves. The 5 key roles of the newly employed staff members will be an executive assistant to the CEO who will be assisting the CEO in taking important decisions. The business development manager will be concerned about the sales and revenues of the company (Knight, 2013). The assistant manufacturing manager will help in manufacturing the pearls for providing high quality designer jewellery. The logistics management officer will be concerned about the supply of the jewellery in appropriate places and the architect will be responsible for designing the modern jewellery (Pekruhl et al. 2014).
BEST Pearls never compromises with the quality of its pearls and tries to provide the best quality pearls to its customers. The training is essential for the new employees for making them accustomed with the working culture, quality maintenance and maintenance of ethics within the organization (Oude Mulders et al. 2013). Moreover, to enhance the skills and brush up the knowledge of the employees, training is essential.
On the basis of analysis of strategic and operational intent, the HR manger needs to focus on the motivation level of the employees in giving best quality designer products and occasional training need to be the employees for upgrading their skills (Mudor and Tooksoon, 2011). Moreover, the compensation and appraisals need to be focused to keep up the spirits of the employees working in BEST Pearls. Since, 95% of the employees are females so, maternity leaves and payment on their leaves need to be given.
BEST pearls are consistent in providing best quality products and never compromises with the quality of the products. BEST Pearls maintain consistency in decision making and other operational procedures. Moreover BESR Pearls also clarifies the responsibilities and functions of all the staff members clearly so no problem arises in the workforce distribution (Brenton and Driskill, 2010). The company also complies with the associate legislation and other laws of employment. In addition to this, the company also sets monthly targets to the employees and has Key Performance Indicators. So employees performing well are given good reward and appraisals for their work.
The HR department is compliant with-
Effort is given for protecting the customers against fraud and misinterpretation.
The employment laws and protecting the interest of the employees as well as giving them equal rights (Glarino, 2013).
The suppliers need to provide genuine products as the company never compromises with the quality.
Area of improvement-
The company should work more on the confidentiality of important data and information of the organization.
|
Month |
Action |
|
January- February |
Defining the actions and projects to the staff |
|
March- April |
Training given to the new and old staff members |
|
May- July |
Constant in vigilance of the performance of the work and codes of conduct |
|
August- September |
Analysis of the performance |
|
October-December |
Feedback to the employees and necessary arrangement of training to the employees. |
1) 15 requirements for the Code of Conduct that includes ethical behavior and confidentiality of staff members
1. The staff members need to behave ethically and provide good quality products to the customers.
2. The prices of the products need to be reasonable and well balanced according to current market trends.
3. The staff members should have respect for others.
4. The staff members need to be abided by the rules of the company and has to honest towards the work (McGuire, 2013).
5. The family policies such as maternity leaves, parental, dependence leave also need to be followed.
6. The employees need to maintain the rules of absentees.
7. The annual leaves that include the public holidays and carry forward holidays need to be maintained.
8. The staff members need to be maintaining the confidentiality of data and other important information within as well as outside the organization (Nolan, 2008).
9. The staff members need to abstain from adoption of any unethical practices such as theft, providing faulty products to the consumers and making false statements and promises.
10. The employees have to abstain themselves from making any kind of misleading and false statements.
11. The employees need to provide correct guarantees, warranties and other information to the customers regarding the jewellery and pearls.
12. The employees also need to handle the complaints of the customers efficiently and effectively (Patil and Kant, 2012).
13. The employees also provide correct information about themselves regarding their personal bio-data.
14. The dignity at workplace should be maintained and the female employees need to be respected without harassments.
15. No acceptance of gifts and other bribery from the customers or suppliers can be taken by the employees.
For the unethical behavior of any employees and the magnitude of unethical behavior, the HR department will be taking severe steps against it. Initially, warning will be given to the employees regarding the misconduct which will be followed by termination of the employees (Fellenz and Martin, 2010). Moreover, if the employee has done something that is severely unethical, then legal steps can also be taken against the employee.
Conclusion
This can be concluded that BEST Pearls maintain a good code of conduct and The HR department is also efficient enough to carry out their activities.
Reference List
Fellenz, M. and Martin, J. (2010) Organizational Behaviour & Management, 3rd ed. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf
Flamholtz, E. and Randle, Y. (2011) Corporate Culture: The Ultimate Strategic Asset, 3rd ed. New York: Harper Collins
Brenton, A. L. and Driskill, G. W. (2010) Organizational Culture in Action: A Cultural Analysis Workbook, 4th ed. London: McGra-Hill Higher Education
Pekruhl, U., Spaar, R. and Zölch, M. (2014) “Jahrbuch Human Resource Management, Zürich: WEKA Zürich
Muller, M. (2009) “The manager’s guide to HR”, New York: AMACOM
Glarino, G. G. (2013) “Strategic Human Resource Management: Influences on Perceived Organizational Support and Job Attitudes”, International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(12), pp. 6-15
Mudor, H., and Tooksoon, P. (2011) “Conceptual framework on the relationship between human resource management practices, job satisfaction, and turnover”, Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 2(2), pp. 41-49
Knight, E. M. J. (2013) “Strategic Human Resources Management practice: are we there yet”? A study of the Incorporation of a Strategic Plan”, International Journal of Arts and Commerce, 2(2), pp. 194-208
McGuire, F. (2013) “Exploring line manager relationships with trade unions and the HR function”, Strategic HR Review, 12(6), pp. 45-97
Nolan, S. (2008) “Realizing efficiencies through HR policies and practices”, Strategic HR Review, 7(2), pp. 34-76
Oude Mulders, J., Henkens, K. and Schippers, J. (2013) “Organizations’ Ways of Employing Early Retirees: The Role of Age-Based HR Policies”, The Gerontologist, 5(7), pp.76-98
Patil, S. and Kant, R. (2012) “Organizational culture a HR strategy for successful knowledge management”, Strategic HR Review, 11(6), pp.322-328
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